Wooden Smokehouse

[wittdog]

Wittdog

Hard to explain in words, but you could cut a metal plate with a hole that your smoking pan fits in, thus sealing the top, smoke area, and creating a separate gas burner area. You could then vent the bottom section adequately without affecting the smoke chamber.
You could even split the door if you wanted.

(gor blimey guv, here's an English idiot with 1/1000th of the knowledge of a USA smoking genius trying to tell him what to do )

Just a thought for what it's worth.

Phil

That is one option...thanks for the input....I know a little about smoke but not much about building a safe smoker.

[wittdog]

We might be able to use this to heat the smokehouse as well�..A buddy is going to rig up a thermostat kind of thing to regulate the temps�..I just hope this will throw off enough heat to heat up the area�.
http://www.brinkmann.net/Shop/Detail.as ... 4-C&id=355
And I wont have to mess around with 220...

If I was to stick with gas this could be the way to go

http://www.alliedkenco.com/catalog/prod ... cts_id/753

In a perfect world I would like to use electric�.easier to maintain the temps and I don�t� have to worry about running out of GAS or Blowing myself up�..

I did a test run with a cheap hot plate that was 750w and it got the smokehouse up to 120* but wouldn�t get any higher�.

The turkey fryer with that burner was going to be way to hot�I could look for a low pressure burner�

[DarrinG]

Hey Wittdog,

Great smoke house. To say that I am jealous is an understatement. You don't happen to have a material list done up. I would have to convince my wife that its "worth" it.

As for your concern about the explosion factor. Wal-mart sells unit I currently use this and I've had the flame go out with no problems. Its pretty much the same thing but yours is a lot nicer.

If your still concerned you could add a fan, more ventilation or maybe even some type of ignition system that could run on a timer.

Great job!

Darrin

[wittdog]

Darrin I can try to get a lumber list...my buddy built this out fo 1x10x8 rough cut pine..

[DarrinG]

For your measurements did you just use the same basics as the original document just scaled up?

DarrinG

[wittdog]

My buddy did all that...I'll ask him if he can recreate it.

[lemonD]

Wittdog,
What temps do you want to achieve with electric heating?
My wooden smoke house is 2x2x4 ,its inside the garage, it's insulated and has a 1600w element, during the winter with temps of 34F/1C inside the garage the max temp in the smoke house was 250F/120C.

LD

[wittdog]

I want to get to 165*F at most.

[DarrinG]

I've been browsing the pics and I was looking at the inside. Are you going to cement the seams?

Also what was used for the door stop?

Anyway what do you plan on cooking in it first?

DarrinG

[wittdog]

I've been browsing the pics and I was looking at the inside. Are you going to cement the seams?

Also what was used for the door stop?

Anyway what do you plan on cooking in it first?

DarrinG

I got some high heat food safe silicone from my friends at The Sauasgemaker for the seams�I used caulk because I was told there would be a lot of expanding when the heat was on in the smokehouse�I left a gap between the boards to allow for that and the silicone will flex better that concrete.

I think my buddy used Alluminim for the door stop covering�be used a break to get all the angles rightand the stop is covered on the inside by left over concrete board�

Right now I am working on figuring out how to heat this�I would like to go with electric but it looks like I might need to run a 220 line out there�.I might be able to get away with a 1500W heater�.

Right now I am experimenting with my old turkey fryer�the new one was a high pressure job that was putting out way to much heat�the old one is low pressure and seems to be working�I�m in the middle of trials and will let you know�.If this works the first thing I do could be jerky�

[wittdog]

Ok I did some more experimenting today�..It was driving me crazy that this bad boy wasn�t working like I wanted it to�I still plan on exploring the electrical elements and would prefer to go in that direction�but I needed to know that if I wanted this thing to work I could get it to work with the Fryer�I will continue to explore the electrical elements�my wife is supposed to pick up at 1000w element today�..I will try that tomorrow�.so I can get an idea of what size element I need�
Today I switched out the new turkey fryer burner (high pressure) with the old turkey fryer burner I have (low pressure)�.This worked out good because the Ahole (air hole) or JB hole fit snugly on the venturi��So I have enough clean air for combustion�.Combustion wasn�t an issue the flame burned clean�.If I end up going with the burner I will place a piece of copper pipe in the side of the smokehouse and use it as a peep hole to make sure the flame is still burning ( I know its not the ideal safety check but it�s a start)�.
Any way I was able to get and maintain the temps I need for smoking all day long�With product in the house it wont be an issue to maintain those temps�.I placed the cast iron skillet over the burner and started with wood chips and first then added some chucks of cherry�I got good smoke out of the smokestack and it didn�t affect the combustion of the burner�If I go with the burner I will probably do some sheet metal work to enclose the burner and separate it from the rest of the smokehouse just to be on the safe side�

But I am still exploring the electrical options at this time and would prefer to go in that direction�I have one of the great minds in the HVAC bidness working on the electrical component�Its also been suggested that as well as that is insulated I might be able to get it up to temp with some charcoal and then let the element just maintain the temps�.I still have a lot of experimenting to do but at least I can get some sleep knowing that I have a smokehouse and not an undersized shed�..Once again thanks to everyone for there contributions and support to this project�.Its been fun to build and be able to tap into resources from all over the world�.(And I thought the net was just good for porn and football scores)

Rolling Smoke

The cast iron skillet on the burner with chips and chunks�

The flame was blue on the bottom and right on the burner�then it went up to the orange color on the top..(It burned the same way outside of the smokehouse)

[saucisson]

Have you thought of using halogen floodlights to heat? you can get bulbs from 150-1500W so just keep adding them until you get the heat output you need.
eg
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/ ... 1AoduCJCGA

Dave

[wittdog]

I hadn't thought of that...and I know those bad boys throw off some heat

[saucisson]

The 300W ones on that site are �4.80 each in bulk and I'm sure you could get them for less over there. So just keep adding them until you get the heat output you need. Then you can vary the heat easily by turning one or more on and off, no expensive thermostats required.


Dave

[saucisson]

Oh, and buy a welder's mask in case you need to open the door while they are on

Dave