Smoker Upgrade!

[YooperDog]

Retired157 congrats on your accomplishment. It looks great and I am sure it tastes the same.

[YooperDog]

mfrievalt Impressive smoker, looks like an old warming cart.

[mrobisr]

Retired157 the SS looks wonderful, great job.

[bocephus]

Retired157 I use a mortar mixing tub, they are food grade and come it two sizes. I use the smaller of the two, clean up isn’t too bad as they are smooth and the ends are sloped so not much for corners.

[scottfletcher]

Retired157 Thanks for posting this. I have been looking to build one but was a little intimidated. I have my parts on order. How has it been working for you?

[samspade]

Very nice. Well done!

[Retired157]

scottfletcher

I can’t have been pleased with ‘how’ my smoker upgrade(s) worked! I would strongly encourage anyone thinking about doing something like I did to just… ‘Do It’. I worked through a few issues and learned a lot… I think. I don’t know exactly how this site works but I did include my phone number within my ‘profile’. If you ever want to ‘pick my brain’ for any crumbs that might help you with your upgrade, just call. I promise you this; I too was very ‘intimidated’ with doing this but after diving into it, I found out that ‘with a little help’, it was way easier than I was imagining.

[Retired157]

… I couldn’t have been MORE pleased with how my smoker upgrade(s) worked. That’s what I was trying to ‘write’

[scottfletcher]

I really appreciate the help. Im a retired jarhead myself lol. I hope that didn’t kick any future help off the table. Did you put a convection fan in the smoker or are the fans theee to hrlp control the heat?

[scottfletcher]

Are the fans there to help control the heat ?lol. I told you i am a jarhead

[scottfletcher]

Retired157

[scottfletcher]

Something is up with the thumbs up button. I hit the up and it recorded down. I know Ilike crayons but i do know the difference between up and down. "Most of the time "

[zbigjeff]

scottfletcher Yep!!! I just hit the up arrow on your post and the “up” thumb disappeared and looks like a “down” vote.

[scottfletcher]

I see an up vote on my end. I guess they do that so someone dosen’t get multiple up or down vote from the same person.

[Lance]

zbigjeff said in Smoker Upgrade!:

scottfletcher Yep!!! I just hit the up arrow on your post and the “up” thumb disappeared and looks like a “down” vote.

The thumbs up disappears now when hit and the number shows how many has upvoted the post

[zbigjeff]

Lance Ooooookkkaaay. Thus, it stops you from creating an error message when you try to hit the up thumb twice. I checked with someone else and they can see the up thumb and that I did it. GOT IT.

[scottfletcher]

Thanks Lance

[Retired157]

scottfletcher

Yep, I just positioned one of my bedroom fans about two feet from my ‘stack’ there on the door. Then, as the PID brings my smoker up to temp, I ‘tinker’ with the stack’s open/close lid and the fan’s airspeed until they all begin to work together to/and maintains the temp I want. It takes very little (maybe 5minutes) to get it right and I keep an eye on it to ‘catch’ any fluctuations which might occur. I can tell you that I pretty much can keep my temp within a plus or minus 3 degrees of my desired temp. So, if my cooking schedule calls for 1 hour @125F, I do not start my timer until I have my ‘temp’ at 125…

That fan is a ‘Vernado’… has three speeds and it works just perfect for what I do/needed. Very easy… I’m all about easy!

No fan ‘inside’ the smoker…

I was doing the smoking in my garage, so when I added the 2oz’s of wood, as it was ‘smoking’ out the top vent hole on my smoker, I took the Vernado out of the spare bedroom and positioned it on a step-stool (higher) to direct the smoke out of the garage. Kinda figured that out as I was doing it. Once the wood was ‘done’ and there was no more smoke being generated, I stopped using the second fan and could close the garage door again. It was only about 30 degrees outside when I did this so I didn’t want to spend the WHOLE day outside… the garage was a perfect option.

Hope that explanation helps

Bottomline… I did not find maintaining my desired temperature(s) any problem at all. That PID thing (in spite of me) knew just what to do!

[scottfletcher]

Thats awesome. I’ll take that 3 degree fluxes all day. Way better than the 20 degree swings I fight.

[Retired157]

scottfletcher

Yep! I can’t imagine trying to maintain a constant temperature without the help of a PID. Is it something that you can set and walk away from for hours… no; but I was doing dishes, taking the dog out, drinking a beer or two and ‘watching’… not once did I lose control.

I will tell you that I surprised to see that the ‘dial’ temp gauge I installed in the door was pretty much useless… it was not ‘accurate’ at all when comparing to the PID readings. If I had to do it over, I’d not even put one in. The PID with the temp probe I installed is ALL you need.