Could I please pick your minds
Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2013 03:12
For some time I've been wanting to build a larger smoker that can cold and hot smoke. I have an abundance of oak and pecan so most of my smokers are wood fired so I wanted to continue taking advantage of this wood supply. However, where I live its flat so my build had to work around flat topography but I found a design in Marianski's book that looked like it would do the trick so I built one based on these concepts.
Here it is.
As you can see, the firebox sits to the side and the smoke is piped downward then up through the floor of the smokehouse.
Here is the first wisp of smoke coming through the floor.
I was a bit miffed when first starting the fire because it didn't want to draw properly. Then I came to the conclusion that the house itself was too cold inside so I set a propane burner inside for about 10 minutes and it began drawing well. I turned the flame off and like a ciphon the smoke is rolling pretty good now. Here is what it looks like inside.
As for smoke this looks like its doing the job and will definitely lay some smoke on something but what concerns me is the temperature - even if I bump up the fire - will only get to 71F in the lowest part of the smoker and 92F in the upper reaches of the smoker near the vents. I suspect the area where the meat is about 80F.
I guess all this is fine but I really want to be able to turn up the heat to around 140 - 170F so I can also cook smoked sausages in the house. This is what I was truly hoping for cause I need the ability to smoke a fair amount of sausages. I now have the room but just not the heat.
Now that I've bored you with the details, I'd like to pick your brains if you don't mind and toss some ideas out.
First idea I had was to take a length of tubing or pipe and run it directly out from where the tubing first elbows near the fire box and run this directly into the smokehouse. I could install a baffle in this so if I was cold smoking I could open this long enough for the house to come to heat to make it draw then turn it off and only allow cold smoke in the house from the floor system. Also, in hot smoking the baffle should allow me to control the temperature inside the house and once set it should coast along at the desired temperature.
Second idea is to put either a gas or an electric heater inside the house and use this to bring the house up to a higher temperature.
Third idea, is not something I care to do but it would involve shortening the tubing and not going so far down into the ground. I don't know the physics of all this but I'm amazed at how cool the smoke gets in only 8 feet of distance so if shortened it should rise exponentially I would think. But this would be an aweful lot of work and I still may come up short on the temp.
Any ideas or thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I'm scratching my head on this one and maybe that's what mamma meant when she said I can't have my cake and eat it too but I still think I can.
Thanks in advance.
Here it is.
As you can see, the firebox sits to the side and the smoke is piped downward then up through the floor of the smokehouse.
Here is the first wisp of smoke coming through the floor.
I was a bit miffed when first starting the fire because it didn't want to draw properly. Then I came to the conclusion that the house itself was too cold inside so I set a propane burner inside for about 10 minutes and it began drawing well. I turned the flame off and like a ciphon the smoke is rolling pretty good now. Here is what it looks like inside.
As for smoke this looks like its doing the job and will definitely lay some smoke on something but what concerns me is the temperature - even if I bump up the fire - will only get to 71F in the lowest part of the smoker and 92F in the upper reaches of the smoker near the vents. I suspect the area where the meat is about 80F.
I guess all this is fine but I really want to be able to turn up the heat to around 140 - 170F so I can also cook smoked sausages in the house. This is what I was truly hoping for cause I need the ability to smoke a fair amount of sausages. I now have the room but just not the heat.
Now that I've bored you with the details, I'd like to pick your brains if you don't mind and toss some ideas out.
First idea I had was to take a length of tubing or pipe and run it directly out from where the tubing first elbows near the fire box and run this directly into the smokehouse. I could install a baffle in this so if I was cold smoking I could open this long enough for the house to come to heat to make it draw then turn it off and only allow cold smoke in the house from the floor system. Also, in hot smoking the baffle should allow me to control the temperature inside the house and once set it should coast along at the desired temperature.
Second idea is to put either a gas or an electric heater inside the house and use this to bring the house up to a higher temperature.
Third idea, is not something I care to do but it would involve shortening the tubing and not going so far down into the ground. I don't know the physics of all this but I'm amazed at how cool the smoke gets in only 8 feet of distance so if shortened it should rise exponentially I would think. But this would be an aweful lot of work and I still may come up short on the temp.
Any ideas or thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I'm scratching my head on this one and maybe that's what mamma meant when she said I can't have my cake and eat it too but I still think I can.
Thanks in advance.