Friction Smoker

[johngaltsmotor]

Ok, I saw a food show last night where the host visited a sausage company that uses a friction smoker. I had never heard of such a thing and searching online I see there are only a few companies that make them.

Has anybody ever experimented with something like this on a hobby scale?
Seems pretty easy, connect a (toothed) drum to a motor, and press a piece of wood against it. Vary the speed and intervals of rotation and non-rotation, stack weight on it (or springs) to adjust friction for size of wood. So in essence you could set it up to give you smoke for say 3 hours every 12 hours and run for an extended period without maintenance.
Granted, it is more difficult than a simple sawdust CSG, but not impossible...