A Rusty Recycled Relic

Hell Fire Grill · Posted: Jun 18 2009 Post subject: A Rusty Recycled Relic

Not really a cooker because it dont cook anything butt it seems appropriate to put it in the cooker forum anyways. I try to use mostly recycled items to build most things so please excuse all the extra rust and paint inbetween the weld spatter. This is my cold smoker. It burns wood chips that I chip up with my chipper/shreder, a 5hp gas fired unit you can find at just about any junkyard or scrap pile. The generator is gravity fed and will smoke for about 18-20 hours before it needs to be refueled, with the hopper being 4" diameter and 30" long.

The inside. The main body of the smoker is a water presure tank that you can find on most wells. With weber grates for shelves. It is set up to hold 9 shelves right now.

I used a satellite dish on the top to keep the rain out and help controll the air flow through the smoker. Its hinged and I have a wedge I use to open and close it.

The bottom with more air vents to help controll air flow. You dont want stale smoke in there so lots of air flow is necessary. Cold smoke wont move very fast by itself so you have to encourage it to get it to flow. The smoke generator was made out of a old chevy roll bar and a pole from a portable basketball hoop that got ran over by some drunk guy in my driveway. On the opposite side from the cold smoke generator is a place for a hot smoke generator, that needs to be insulated and tinkered with to work out the bugs. The hot smoke side is a gravity feed charcoal burner, but its not very photogenic so I wont bring it up right now.

Inside the cold smoke generator. Down inside there is a "fire grate" that is just vertical cuts made with a grinder. Some of the gaps are 1/8" and some are 1/4". When they were all 1/8" gaps it would get cloged with creasote after about 12 hours and stop smoking. It works great with it the way it is.

On the bottom I have two pieces of expanded metal layed down perpendicular to each other. This is acctually where the fire is started and kept. The ashes fall into a bucket I keep under the generator.

Some cold smoke.

With this relic the cold smoke generator does not increase the temprature, so whaever is smoked will be smoked at the same temp as the outdoors. I have smoked alot of cheese with it, a few sausages, a little salmon, and I smoked some butter once too but thats a whole nother subject.

k.a.m. · Posted: Jun 18 2009 Post subject:

American West, thats freakin awesome Very Happy

Thanks for sharing Smile

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morick · Posted: Jun 18 2009 Post subject:

American West, awesome cold smoker you have there. Like yourself i built an offset and a upright smoker still in progress from recycled material. Yes i could have built a new material smoker but Ths is all i need and i dont have to spend anyspecial time taking care of it. Thanks for sharing great job on your build.

Brinnie · Posted: Jun 18 2009 Post subject:

How interesting is That Cool

- I luv it Very Happy

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BBQMAN · Posted: Jun 18 2009 Post subject:

Very cool (err, I mean cold) smoker! Cool

Great idea!

If I built a "cold smoker" I would have to provide AC in the summer to keep it cold. Confused

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Hell Fire Grill · Posted: Jun 18 2009 Post subject:

Thanks for the complements guys.

CrazyChef · Posted: Jun 18 2009 Post subject:

daddywoofdawg · Posted: Jun 18 2009 Post subject:

I have been thinking of a design about like your for a couple of years chickened out and build an off set but I'm now thinking of going ahead and building another like yours but a hot smoker GF have any pics of the hot smoker part?I really like the gf idea.
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Jimbob · Posted: Jun 18 2009 Post subject:

That is kewl, and I can now see a lot of potential to make a "hot" smoker with the half-dozen pump tanks lying around on my farm. If I can find one that is not totally rusted out. Shocked

Thanks for the ideas!
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Hell Fire Grill · Posted: Jun 19 2009 Post subject:

Hell Fire Grill · Posted: Jun 19 2009 Post subject:

nes_matt · BBQ Fan Joined: 04 Jun 2008 Posts: 266

Hey,
That's pretty neat!

Can you describe the operation of the smoke generator?

Do you need to keep the propane torch going to keep the smoke running or does it burn on its own?

And do you fill the stack (with the white lid) with chips?

How long will it run un-attended?

What is the purpose of the two other pipes coming off opposite the smoke generator? Are they for cold air flow? Is that how you adjust temp in the chamber?

This looks like a add-on that could be included on a hot smoker to enable easy cold smoking... another idea for my first build...

Thanks,
Matt

Hell Fire Grill · Posted: Jun 19 2009 Post subject:

nes_matt · BBQ Fan Joined: 04 Jun 2008 Posts: 266

Hell Fire Grill · Posted: Dec 11 2009 Post subject:

I cold smoked some salt, cheese and butter. I don't usually use that much smoke but it wasent flowing very well with the temprature around 20* yesterday.

I made some plasic shelves recently and wanted to test them out. When I seen Smokehound's smoked salt thread I thought I'd fire up the cold smoker.

BluzQue · Posted: Dec 12 2009 Post subject:

Hell Fire Grill You're The (cold smoke) Man!
Great design brother Wink

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