Post Pics of your Smokers!!

JerBear · Post by **JerBear** » Sun Dec 25, 2011 22:20

I think it Tasted more like the really burned part of an over grilled hotdog. Problem #2 was that I got a mixture of hardwoods from a woodworker friend of mine. In addition of the change in the fire box will be a trip to my local BBQ supply store for some specific hardwood such as hickory or apple ( something along those lines).

Gringo Loco · Post by **Gringo Loco** » Wed Dec 28, 2011 13:24

Here it goes I hope it works! This is my first picture upload..

My Freeze converted smoker.

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 00:10

The upload worked fine and it looks like the smoker works overtime. Now we get to see some of your other work?

Gringo Loco · Post by **Gringo Loco** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 02:15

I am wanting to make some smoked pepperoni next week and I will try to take some pictures. I am just getting into the smoking part of sausage making so I will probebly be asking all you wise men and women for some info.
I really appreicate all the info you people put on this forum to help beginners like my self.
Thanks again everyone.

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 03:59

Gringo The very few times I have tried smoking sausage the heat has gotten away from me and the sausage turn out rather dry. Defatted dry not low moisture dry. I think that working to the cool side is a good precautionary approach.

Gringo Loco · Post by **Gringo Loco** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 04:23

Thanks for the advice Ross,
I do have a controller on my smoker and have found out that the tempature reads about 10 degree's cooler no matter where I mount the probes. I now keep the cabinet temp around 158 which is actually around 170. It must be the mounting devices because I changed locations and changed thermometers and same results. I am lookin to upgrade to a digital controller.
I bring the IT of the meat up to 135 and put in a pan of hot water on the burner and steam them to IT temp of 152.
So far so good.

Chuckwagon · Post by **Chuckwagon** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 08:05

Gringo Loco,
Hey, hey Gringo,
Here's that link you asked for. http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.php?p=3445#3445
Cultures are about 16 bucks or thereabouts, but they will do a couple of hundred pounds of sausage. Once you make dry-cured or semi dry-cured "fermented" sausages using cultures, you'll never go back to the old method. Directions are on the package. Yell if you need any help in understanding them.

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

Bubba · Post by **Bubba** » Thu Dec 29, 2011 10:49

Hi Gringo Loco,
That is a very good looking smoker!
I may have some suggestions for you relative to the temperature differences you measure because I modified my smoker similar to yours (in concept) excepting mine is a lot smaller. (I only have 1 hot plate)

Would you mind describing where (at what points) you measure the temperatures, then I'd like to offer possibly some easy modification suggestions.

Gringo Loco · Post by **Gringo Loco** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 01:15

Hello Bubba,
Thanks for offering some help.
My temp probes for the smoker are located in the upper left side around 4" from the top. I have put other themometers beside them, in the middle, on the lower rack, on the top rack, and I still get the 10 degree different reading. I have moved the controller probe and thermometers on to the back wall and down toward the middle, like it shows it the 100# smoker of the Sausagemaker. I am not to sure what to do now.
Thanks for any suggestions.
GL

Bubba · Post by **Bubba** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 02:46

Hi Gringo Loco,

Thank you, I can see the probe in the upper left corner.

Over this weekend I will calculate the internal volume of my smoker, because as said I have 1 hot plate in there and it handles that volume just right.
I will post that separately tomorrow night.

Then I noticed the good job that either you or someone did on welding the expanded metal racks for you. One problem I see there is the mesh appears to be very small and there is no gap (or hardly any gap) between the back wall and the front. The heat needs some space to work it`s way to the top (heat rises), and with there being very little gap between your bottom tray (looks like galvanized metal) back wall and front wall, the heat will take ages to heat the upper portion.
What I found is the hot plates have their own thermostat, so as the pressed metal housing of the hot plate heats up, the thermostat in the hot plate thinks it`s hot, but it is retaining the heat in that bottom "cavity" (Below the galvanized tray). That cavity heats up and the rest of the Smoker is not to temperature yet because the 2 hot plates "think" they are hot enough but they are not heating enough.
My gap is about 2 inches, for your large smoker I would make the gap between 3 and 4 inches.
Then shift one hot plate to the back, and the other more to the front. Let the heat rise up. When you load your smoker, just ensure no meat or sausage is closer than 4 inches from the back and font so it will not drip on the hot plate. (just use 4 fingers as a gauge)

Now, if you have wired the 2 hot plates to your temperature controller, they will burn out very soon, because they will overheat in that bottom "cavity".

I was also looking at the galvanized drip tray and notice there is a set of unused brackets just above that (on the side of the smoker walls). Is that for a second drip tray?
Reason I`m asking is I had a drip tray just above my hot plate, and the drip tray got so hot, it converted the drippings from the meat or sausage being smoking into smoke and it left a slight bitter taste on the meat nearest to the bottom. So I converted again to have a air gap between 2 trays, the upper one then did not get so hot.
Also, please be careful with galvanized plate so near to your heat source, galvanizing has some unwanted fumes that it dissipates when heated up.

You did a neat job on wiring the smoker up, but please check that the temperature probes do not touch any of the sides. This will give a false reading. I have not progressed to the stage of having a temperature controller like yours, I monitor my heat with a clip on probe from a remote temperature monitor. (I bought the Maverik ET 73 for smokers, it has a probe for your internal smoker temperature and a second probe for the meat) I found this to work very well. I place the smoker temperature probe in the middle of the smoker (it comes with a clamp to shift it around)

Also keep in mind, if you overload your smoker (i.e. not enough gaps between your meat or sausage) the meat or sausage acts as a cooling effect on the heat rising. Another member here, Crusty044, used iced water bottles to cool his smoke chamber down because he was cold smoking. Too much meat will have a similar effect and will take a long time to heat up.

Lastly, if you do consider modifying your racks, be sure to select a mesh with large openings, mine are wire racks (see photo below).
Would you consider to rather hang your meat from smoke sticks? They are very easy to make yourself, in that way the heat travels more evenly between your meat if you can hang it.
(again see photo below) the use of smoke sticks made a huge improved difference to the temperature distribution inside my smoker.

I know I waffled a lot here, but please let me know and I will post more tomorrow night.

Photo of my racks

Photo of my smoke sticks (they have to be Oak or similar)

Gringo Loco · Post by **Gringo Loco** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 03:55

Hey Bubba,
Thanks for all the insight. Really appreciate it.
The expanded metal is ½" so my snack sticks don`t fall through.

I have a 1" gap around the racks. It seems to cook fairly even. I do have some hot spots and that`s why I started checking temperatures. I have not smoked any sausage since I found out about the temperature differences. Maybe that why I have hot spots?
I made sure the probes are not touching anything but the bracket they are mounted in.
The cabinet thermometer and the controller always reads about 10 degrees cooler than the actual temp of the cabinet. So when I was smoking at 170 it was actually 180.

I want to put on a digital controller next. I am also going to put in a fan as well. Any size recommendations?
I bypassed the thermostats in the hot plates. One is wired to an on/off switch on the side. That is used for my wood chips. As soon as the wood chips are done smoking I shut it off. Later I will put a pan of water on it and finish the sausage with steam. It saves some time. The other is on a thermostat controller. The smoker heats up fast and maintains a good temperature real easy.
I have another rack for the bottom brackets or I can move the drip pan up if I am smoking something with a lot of fat.
I like your set up looks real nice and nice looking sausage as well!

I am going to build some smoke sticks next. What diameter should I use?
Where did you buy your Maverik ET 73? You have a very nice set up.
Thanks for all your help.
GL

Bubba · Post by **Bubba** » Sat Dec 31, 2011 01:46

Hi Gringo Loco,

Thank you, my smoker is a modified Brinkman (used to be propane gas heated) and I removed the propane head because it was way to hot (no lower than 225 F). Now it is only heated by the hot plate.

I read through your posting carefully to make sure I interpret correctly.
The temperature probe that reads 10 F lower, is that an analog type, i.e it has a coil from the probe to the dial or indicator?
The digital type as you want to buy is much better, they react faster and one can calibrate them.
And I`m sorry, but I`m puzzled why the existing cabinet thermometer and controller would always read 10 F lower.
Have you ever tried heating some water in a large pot to some known temperature, and then insert both probes to see what reading you get?
The reason I suggest water (oil would be better but for home use it is too expensive), I designed some large vacuum process ovens for high voltage transformers (they are about 20 ft long and 5 ft diameter), and found that some probes just do not work well in air (or accurately) whereas other do. With those probes I found a variance of up to 20 F between different types (K; J etc) and brands when used in heated air. As soon as I submerged them in liquid they read a lot closer.

For selecting a fan size I do not have a suggestion off hand, but I would not circulate the air too fast. I am lucky because after a few empty runs on my smoker I managed to get the top and bottom damper to just the right setting to eliminate hot spots. Your smoker is much larger so it will be different.

The remote temperature indicator I bought through Amazon, it was about $ 49.00. Just please check that you get the one for smokers, there is another one of the same brand for grills, and I don`t know what the difference between the two is. I assume the one for grills can take higher temperatures.

My smoke sticks are 3/4 inch diameter, but my span is only 14 inches, yours will be more than 14 inches and using a larger diameter then makes the sausage hanging different. When one hangs a pair of sausages over the diameter, they kind of hang in the shape of a horse shoe. (like a Horseshoe that Chuckwagons horse lost

)
The round rods are not expensive, so initially I bought 3/4 and 1 inch, then found the 3/4 to work well. Maybe the 1 inch would also be ok. The 1 inch rods are now a corner ornament in my workshop.
Would it be possible to support your smoke sticks along the middle so you can use the 3/4inch diameter?
If you have a close look at my photo you can see I cut some notches into the bottom with a miter saw to locate them on the side racks.
I bought my Oak sticks at Homedepot, and on the assumption that they have some treating oil in them from the factory I placed them in the empty smoker for 3 hours at 180 F with smoke and water in the drip pan, then scoured them afterwards with water and one of those green scouring pads used for cleaning pots, pans etc.

I hope that helps a bit more, and please criticize me as well, I am also on a learning curve on this forum and appreciate any feedback.

ssorllih · Post by **ssorllih** » Sat Dec 31, 2011 01:56

I have thought about using copper tubes filled with liquid and open to the outside of the smoker and dropping the thermometer into the liquid. It would be very slow to react to short term temperature changes but would accurately reflect the average temperature in the cabinet

nepas · Post by **nepas** » Sat Dec 31, 2011 23:53

My Bradley 6 rack

My smokehouse which i had to leave in PA. Glad we still own the house back North. I sure do miss it. I have a Traeger pellet hopper/burner to the side.

Proofer turned into a smoker.

PR36

My MAK pellet grill with a side sausage box

DLFL · Post by **DLFL** » Sun Jan 01, 2012 00:28

Kool!!!!