Cheepo smoker......

[Oddley]

Hi Vernon, I don't claim to be an expert at anything. But I do like to learn something new each day.

I'd love to see more images of the pig's etc, and if it's not too personal the story of how you ended up, out in the Solomon Islands.

[Vernon Smith]

Hi Paul,
Thanks for your reply. I don't know what happened to my pic. It did not appear when I first posted it that's why I went back into edit and added the footnote. Strange it has now appeared though I am pleased you can all now see what a handsome young man I am. Is there some kind of delay between posting and the picture appearing? I'm totally new to Image Shack so I haven't a clue. You seem an old hand that's why I'm picking your brains (again) chum. OK? Thanks! You ask the order in which [img]&[/img] appeared. As far as I can remember [img]opens%20the%20link%20and[/img] closes it. Is that correct?

Whilst typing this post I am just stuffing my face with some nice traditional bread sausages and some of the bacon I illustrated earlier. Very nice too with fresh tomatoes and plain boiled pana. Oh yes, pana is a white potato-like root crop that we get here. I don't suppose anyone in the UK has seen them but Tristar might in Indonesia or Parson Snows in Bankok. Nearest thing I guess would be yam, which I have seen occasionally in London greengrocers that cater to the Caribbean community.

BTW now I have posted pics of the smoker and the bacon so I will finish up my triptych with a pic. of my piggery so you can see where it all starts.
I hope ImageShack works properly this time. Might be interesting to members from colder climes to note the bananas, lemons and papayas (pawpaws) growing behind the sty. The railings are local timber that I cut myself and the roof is a local thatch of leaves from the sago palm. The leaf roof keeps the sty cool. It is the middle of the southern winter but only 5 deg south of the equator the temperature doesn't vary with the seasons. It's still a regular 30 deg daytime and about 24 deg at night. My daughter emailed me to say the Home Counties have had similar temperatures recently. Wow! How do stand the heat?
Anyway, here's the pic (I hope).



I just remembered, Paul, do I have to go through the same procedure with ImageShack if I want to use the smilies? It will take me ages if I have to notepad them one at a time. Please let me know.
Regards,
Vernon

PS. Sorry Oddley, I only just noticed your posting. I will post more pics under livestock and a precis of how I finished up here (nothing personal at all). I wish there was something illegal or immoral in the story it might be a bit more exciting.

[Paul Kribs]

Vernon

If you want to use smilies in your posts, you need to go into your forum membership profile and enable the 'smilies' option.. they are integral to the forum so you don't have to use imageshack.
If you want to use a small picture or small animated gif for an avatar or within your signature, then you would have to use imageshack and also direct the avatar/signature options in your membership profile to the appropriate images.

Regards, Paul Kribs

[tristar]

Hi Vernon,

That piece of bacon looks really good, I can nearly taste it and I don't eat pork!

How does your smoker work, do you have an integral fire/smokebox in it? If so how are you managing to keep the temperature down to cold smoke? I am planning on making something similar, but needing to maintain the temperature below 37 degrees C is quite difficult! I have similar ambient conditions as you with about the same temperature range, and keeping the heat from the smoker will require some work on my part with either a very small fire (along the lines of a smouldering spiral of sawdust or wood chips or some form of cooling of the smoke prior to the smoker (possibly an icebox!). I would be interested to learn how you have acheived this seemingly difficult task in the tropics.

Well done any way, it looks great.

Regards,
Richard

[saucisson]

PS. Sorry Oddley, I only just noticed your posting. I will post more pics under livestock and a precis of how I finished up here (nothing personal at all). I wish there was something illegal or immoral in the story it might be a bit more exciting.

Hi Vernon,
I just read your story in livestock, you seem to have done an enormous amount in your life, thanks for sharing it.

Edit: Hands up anyone else who has had their mill and plantations destroyed by not one but three volcanoes? Sounded quite exciting to me

Dave

[Vernon Smith]

Richard,
I've tried to contact you via Yahoo but it is a pain. I've put together a diagram using Office Visio, I'm sure you have this programme.
Let me have your email address and I'll send it to you. The fire box is underground 10ft distant from the smokehouse and the smoke is ducted subsurface until it does a vertical 90 deg and emerges into the smokehouse. I used preformed concrete slabs for the fire box and lid and 300mm square hollow moulded concrete blocks placed end to end to make the ducting. If you look carefully at my pic you can see the hollow cement block emerging through the shelf that all freezers have to accommodate the compressor and other equipment that must be removed first. There are a couple of quirks that you must know about before making your smoker otherwise you won't have any smoke travelling down the ducting in to the smokehouse. You will just have a subterranean fire and a smokeless smoker. Is that an oxymoron? I think it is. You can use anything heatproof for the firebox and ducting. I have plentiful cement so I used it. I know someone that used air-con ducting but it didn't last long with warm moist smoke travelling through it. Ceramic or cement will last perhaps not forever but for many years. Oh yes, I cut a 200mm x 50mm hole in the top of the smokehouse to let the smoke out. Use an electrical jig saw with a hacksaw blade for the purpose. Likewise the hole for the smoke ducting. When everything was installed to my satisfaction I set the smokehouse permanently in cement and cemented around the ducting to prevent back-draught. Hope this helps.
Vernon