Making smoke/saw dust out of pellets for cold smoking

[Hoggy]

So here was my problem:

After ordering my ProQ Cold Smoke Generator, Cure #1, wireless thermometer, etc etc, I thought it was time to get some more smoke dust, as with the ProQ only one smoke of 10 - 12 hours is included.

I live in the French side of Québec, and oh my.....that was not easy to get good saw dust over here.....But I am used to buy most of my " stuff " over the Internet, so what was the problem...?

Well...the ones who offered for reasonable price didn't want to ship to Canada, OR ship only via UPS, who will charge me, next to the shipping cost, 30.00 $ broker fee for importing a box of saw dust made in the U.S.A.

There was SmokinLicious who offers 5-6 cups for 10.90 $ shipping included, to make it more clear to you.....6 cups is 86 cubic inch, just a few hands full......what's the fun ? but is was my best option for now.

At that time, I regret a little bit buying the ProQ Cold Smoke Generator, but as a guy who lives from his ideas, I decided not to give up, and I did a big search on the Internet, always my no #1 inspiration for getting ideas. I found out that pellets were also used in stables of horses...they sprinkle 1 inch of wood pellets....spray some water over them, and the PELLETS CHANGE INTO SAWDUST AGAIN and INCREASE 5 TIMES THEIR VOLUME....now, wasn't that interesting...? I also found something similar in the mushroom culture.

So I decided to do some testing in my own stable

[wheels]

Very interesting. That's a lot coarser than the ProQ dust.

I'm sure that my ProQ holds nothing like 5 - 6 cups of dust, I would say it's between 1 and 2.

HTH

Phil

[Hoggy]

wheels wrote:

I'm sure that my ProQ holds nothing like 5 - 6 cups of dust, I would say it's between 1 and 2

I probably got mixed up with all my searches on the Internet, sorry.

The blend is much finer as the pictures above suggest, there is a good amount of smaller dust in it, perhaps the picture below shows that better.



Not having the ProQ yet is a bit of a handicap, so I decided to do a small test just to see if it will continue to smoke



On the picture above, you can clearly see the smaller particules that went trough the sieve.

Result of the test: it went VERY well, everything was " burned up ". It is hard to conclude something on speed, as I just squeezed the sieve to 3/4" and filled only that small channel with dust. What you see took 25 minutes, but is only 3/4" wide and a little bit more than 2" long, and it is all surrounded by air....

I think this is very promising.

[wheels]

If it works OK in the ProQ, it'll be a great saving.

Phil

[Hoggy]

Actually, there is much more to it than just saving money.

* you can now at low cost try other flavors without having to buy a big volume.
* if you see a deal, you can just buy it and stock it wherever you want, as these bags are air-tight sealed.
* keeping some stock will take only 25% space compared to dust

Hoggy

[wheels]

Good point.

Phil

[saucisson]

Good work there Hoggy. If it doesn't work as it is try putting it in a blender to reduce the particle size

The ProQ needs only 100g dust for a 10 hours smoke so you have enough for 4 or 5 smokes there from that one bag, assuming it is of the right density now. Try weighing out 4oz and if it fits in the smoker (when it arrives) it's about right


I think you must have been working from the external dimensions Hoggy. The space available to contain the dust is much smaller than that as you need to account for the raised floor and internal wall structure. So the good news is 100g of dust is only 340ml which is 20 cubic inches ie less than 1 1/2 cups

[Hoggy]

Hi Dave, it's been a long time....too long...

Yes, with my math I took what I read on the forum somewhere, it must have been the outside dimensions, but it's OK.

Went to pick up my Little Chief Smoker this morning, and when I got there ( 120 km drive up & down ), it was gone, they sold it behind my back. So a lot of stuff is coming in, but no smoker....

Driving back in my car, I decided for the time being to concentrate on cold smoking only, and see for the rest further on the road when I will have another house.
I picked up some materials on the road, and I am going to make a COLD SMOKER that I can use INSIDE my house ( its 2 PM now and -19 Celcius outside......)
I will make a new topic of that when it will be ready. ( prob. tomorrow )

Hoggy

[saucisson]

Looking forward to it

[Hoggy]

This is an update about the use of the smoke dust generated from flavoured pellets as described earlier in this post.
Just received the ProQ smoke generator and doing a first test right now, without any fish or meat, the main goal is to see if this dust can be used in the ProQ.
I took the advice of Dave and took the weight of the dust used to fill up the ProQ, see picture below. The net weight of the dust in this pictures is 92 grams, think this is not bad, as Dave told me that a fill-up with the original dust is 100 grams.... Looking back at the picture now, I think I possibly " under-filled " it a bit as well.



I have done a small test with the dust with the setup as below. The dust smokes very well, I have the feeling it burns bit faster as with the finer dust. It took 1 hour to come at the red bar.



Question: does anyone have experience with tampering the dust a bit, and what the result would be ? The dust is placed very loose now, I was wondering if I could slow down the burning with tapering the dust. Eventually I will try it with my next test, but any advise is always welcome.

[Hoggy]

I have done a new test on the dust. I have grinded the dust I used in the above test with my coffee/spice grinder, the result you see below, the grinded dust is on the right.



I have done a new smoke trial, and the result is only a fraction better, in 1 hour the ProQ smoked until the yellow bar in the picture below.



The dust smokes VERY well, my estimate is, that I probably can do a 8 hours run with a full load, but we will see when I really will smoke for the first time.
I am not really unhappy with the result, 8 hours is not 10 hours, but this dust I can get cheap around the corner, in every flavor, that is not bad also I guess.

Hoggy

[saucisson]

Awesome and great news Hoggy...

Dave

[wheels]

Superb Hoggy, maybe if you tamp it down you'll get even longer - but 8 hours is a good result.

Phil

[Gill]

I'm following this thread with interest. As a woodworker, I can make chippings and sawdust to whatever size I wish .

Have you thought of sieving your dust through various gauges of mesh to see which smokes best?

[Hoggy]

wheels wrote:

maybe if you tamp it down you'll get even longer

I have tried that wheels....I did a test in between this one and the first one, and it had exactly the same burning time as the first time. Didn't mention it, as it had no added value....
Gill wrote:

Have you thought of sieving your dust through various gauges of mesh to see which smokes best?

Yes I did, I even tried a sample, but I am not in it any more to " be busy ", I prefer to rest my case ( 8 hours is not bad ), have no mess, can buy every flavor that I want withing 2 km's and focus on salmon and bacon in every size and flavor I wish.....

Thank you all for your comments.
Hoggy