New Smoker - nice Welding Project

[magnethead]

Picked up a MIG welder a few months ago and was waiting for a bit of time to make a smoker......I did it purely to learn welding but now I guess I'll have to get into smoking some food ;p Some good recipes in this part of the forum......I'll see if I can fit a live pig in this yoke.

Yes, that is a Wheelie bin axle holding everything up.....They're very strong 

[Eoin]

Nice one, one thing I'd consider, it would take some modding however, would be to make it into a cold smoker as well.

You can do this by detaching the smoke box and attaching it via extendable tubing so it can be up close to the main body or extended out to allow the smoke to cool and cold smoke.

You can use ducting such as that on the bottom of the page on the website below.

http://www.getupandgrow.ie/shop/Fans___Filters.html

It's cool as it is by the way, just throwing an idea at you that will make the thing more versatile and would not entail too much modding from where you are at now.

[lordstilton]

Nice job

[magnethead]

Fairplay, I guess you could cold smoke cheese too that way...but sure , would a really small fire, 3 or four coals in the firebox not do the job, given that the Smoke chamber is 300 Litres in size?

[Eoin]

Fairplay, I guess you could cold smoke cheese too that way...but sure , would a really small fire, 3 or four coals in the firebox not do the job, given that the Smoke chamber is 300 Litres in size?

Yeah, I suppose play about with it.

Not only for cheeses by the way, the option would be there for your own smoked salmon etc with cold smoking.

I'm only going on looking at yours which reminds me of similar professional smokers (complement by the way) and seeing that you could do the same and kill two birds with one stone, play about with it anyway, who knows, that might work fine. The only thing I suspect is that it would not produce enough smoke because of the small fuel source.

Good luck with it and show us picrtures of the first pork shoulder that you do.

[magnethead]

I see what you mean, Thanks......I'll post up some Pics when it's Done, Still haven't put the high temp silicone gasket aruond the door to seal it. Also I'm going to paint the whole thing black with some high temp paint....

That was a good tip about the cold smoking, I don't mind moding (any excuse for more welding) the thing to get that working too.....Maybe a seperate port from the side...I was very happy with the butterfly valve in the smoke stack......a longer stack creates more draw so I needed to control that.

Anyway, probably back in  a couple of weeks with the Finished article

[Garry]

I don't know anything about smokers but I know a thing or two about welding. You're doing it right 

For your next challenge you could convert the S2000 to a coupe 

[magnethead]

S2000 belongs to the brother  :

I was thinking some kinda deck warmer out of a Calor Gas bottle for the next project 

Only when I've mastered it will I start welding my Brewery together...Stainless torpedos into a nice stainless pot....if that can be MIG'd.....probably a TIG job.

[Garry]

Only when I've mastered it will I start welding my Brewery together...Stainless torpedos into a nice stainless pot....if that can be MIG'd.....probably a TIG job.

Stainless steel can be MIG welded. You'll need to get some stainless steel wire and use argon gas. Try it on a few pieces of scrap first before burning a hole in your pot 

TIG would be better though but that's more expense? It's very clean and much easier to weld light materials.

[lordstilton]

Quick question..how are you going to control the temp...I don't see any adjustable vents

[alealex]

I was thinking some kinda deck warmer out of a Calor Gas bottle for the next project 

Solid heavy smoker! can't wait to see it finished.
For your patio heater project: Rocket Stove looks handy and very useful, clean smoke and fuel eficient 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBq0L126mmM

[magnethead]

Quick question..how are you going to control the temp...I don't see any adjustable vents

I'm glad you asked Lordstilton ;p .....If you look at the second pic above, you'll notice a little handle on the smoke stack (Chimney)

but here's some close ups.....





I'll post some intake pics when I finsihed the firebox door, but basically I'll control the air going in with a vent on the Firebox and the smoke leaving with this butterfly valve


Gary, I have some stainless wire and Argon, so I'll go with your "testing" idea first ....I picked up some scrap stainless from O'Reillys in Blanch.

[Will_D]

You can MIG stainless with CO2 - it just gives a blackened look to the bead.

Argon Mix is best for SS. Pure Argon is for TIG but may be better than CO2 for SS

[magnethead]

Thanks Will, I'm no welding expert but apparantly, mixing Co2 and Stainless is gauranteed to give you rust....I've actually seen Stainless with rusty weld beeds and was wondering what that was about. Maybe they used mild steel filler wire 

The problem is with the higher concentration of CO2. Carbon on stainless is bad. Even carbon steel rubbing against stainless will cause corrosion. In fact, cutting stainless with a high carbon steel drill bit will cause rust! Right around 5% CO2 is the maximum you want with short circuit, solid wire.

from
http://weldingweb.com/archive/index.php/t-49261.html


Here are some finished pictures of the Smoker, She runs just lovely, finshd reading some big chunky books on smoking meat, so shuold be getting into it fairly soon

[DEMPSEY]

On the last picture you have a valve with a nipple,Cad é seo