The Smoke Monster 1000 - upright smoker

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Robotodd

Assistant Cook
Joined
Sep 2, 2011
Messages
3
Location
Ypsilanti, MI
Hello bbq/smoking folks,

I'm an avid griller and budding smoker and I've just joined this forum so I thought I'd share my first attempt at building a smoker with you all.

I'm a metal artist in Michigan and was given a 50 g. air compressor a few years back. It didn't work so I stripped it down and then it sat in storage for 3 years without a purpose. Finally, after trying a simple terracotta pot smoker, its purpose became clear.

I fabricated the door, hinges, latch, chimney, and baffle. The zig-zag in the chiney is really just for fun. Access to a plasma-cutting table was pretty key to cutting the name in the door. The flames were something I had already had as well. The grills and exterior rack where mostly made of old grill racks. I used high-heat engine paint for the red and high-heat Rustoleum for the black parts. I left the wheels, front feet, and handle untouched from when it was an air compressor.

I'm using a hacked electric hot plate as my heat source. I put a pan of water-soaked wood chunks in a pan directly on the burner. Every hour or so I tossed in a few fresh chunks. It maintained an almost perfectly steady 210 degrees and my first pork butt came out beautifully albeit a bit tough to shred after 10 hours.

Because I already had every single part and piece of metal I needed, I have no idea what this would cost to build from scratch.

I didn't document the steps to building it but here are some photos of the burnout and it's final appearance.

Constructive criticism appreciated! Please let me know if I did anything wrong too.
 
Wow thats cute. You like to skerred me to death when you showed the purty paint job in frame one and burning it off in frame two. Kindly bear in mind that impaired folks like to read this stuff too:) Welcome.
 
Thats pretty cool. Welcome aboard. Your tough to shred part sounds like it wasn't done. How much did the bad boy weigh before cooking?
 
Thinking that artistic exhaust pipe might present some issues. Sharp twists, turns and angles are great spots for greasy smoke to collect, condense and dribble back downward. That is why ventahoods over the house stove and other flue pipe arrangements mostly try to take a straight line route up and out of the house. Now have had some heating stoves which take a 90 degree angle to get out through the wall but not sure about the procedure on cooking gizmos. Might keep and eye on it and see what happens. Shouldnt take much for an artiste type to straighten it out if it dont work right.
 
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