Homemade smokehouse
 

Has anyone ever made a homemade smoke house before? I’m thinking about making one about 3’x3’x6’ tall. I have a question about hot smoking within a wooden smokehouse, at the 230 degree stage does the wood on the inside start to burn? Or would a guy have to line the inside with some sheet aluminum. I’m already planning of putting some sort of brick along the bottom first 12 inches or so around the burner.

Please use no wood at all,use metal 2x4 and metal sides and top the wood will carbonized over time and start a slow fire ,,, learned the hard way

find a nice big fridge and gutted :bad_boys_20:.

I repurposed a defunct stainless steel dishwasher, kept the heating element to be able to hot smoke. It is controlled by a cheapo oven thermostat from ebay.

I built one 35 years ago out of wood. 3x3x7 with 10 slide out trays inside. It is fueled by a propane burner, (made a stand and used burner from old hot water tank) Trays are wood framed galvanized 1/4 inch mesh, I use it at least 4 or 5 times a year , getting temps to 200 degrees. Blackened a bit inside but nothing serious. I have made jerky, smoked fish, hams, turkey, and every other thing I could experiment with. It works like a charm, and cheap to build.

Years ago I made one out of wood. Used it pretty steady and then one day it caught fire.

When you heat wood time after time, there is a carmellization happening. It will eventually catch fire.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I've made a few from expired beverage coolers. Stainless with shelves alreadyin a glass door to keep an eye on things.

they usually have the compressor on top. remove it and but a vent grid on to control air flow. Add a heat source [hot plate] and add a pan of chips. a through the wall thermometer and load her up.


Box is insulated and sealed

Takes less than two hours from start to smoke.

Genius. Time to start scoping out the dump

I have one ready to pick up. Made of old Coke vending machine. I do not make big batches so Bradley at home and propane at my cabin are enough. Needs 240 V to run.

I don't know about the dump. They don't allow you to remove stuff from the dumps around here. It has forced me to rethink Christmas gifts for the inlaws. I don't like them so I struggle this time of 'good will to men'. Coyote jerky never seems to be enough and the dump often produced some interesting personal gifts. Alas it is no more.

Anyway These coolers are available from commercial refrigeration places. I got my last one from the local booze store. It died and he thought it was worth a 40 of Forty for me to haul it away for him. Win/Win/win :sHa_shakeshout:

Growing up, we had a smoke house, made out of cinder blocks, likely 4 x 7 and maybe 8 high. People from the "old country" were serious about their smoke. We did loads of sausage, smoked purcuitto (ham) and back bacon. Having the extra capacity to smoke all of your moose/pork sausage and allowing it to cure in the cool air between multiple smokes really brings out the very best flavours.

You could build it any size you want, but it always seems you wish you had just a few more racks.

The best results came from an air draw in low (near ground) on one side of the smoke house with the exhaust on the opposite side up near the roof (but not all the way on top).

We used a stainless 5 gal pail of sawdust/wood chips and lit it from a slot in the bottom with an electrical element. Once it gets going, pull the element out (unplug it of course) and let the smoke do it's work.

I'll keep my eyes open then. Sounds like a good deal to me haha

Made mine out of a old blanket warmer from a hospital, found it at a auction.

Instructions on how to do this would be great Atex.

😂
I can visualize you saying that. Total deadpan. You made me laugh out loud

It sounds like cold smoking, so could you please ask your folks, how did they manage to avoid the sawdust/chips from catching on fire?! Please!!

X2. Lots of videos on YouTube on how and what to do.
I lucked out and found one on kijiji for cheap that was already done and done well.

Now at the risk of dating myself we built a new house on the farm in 1963 and had no more use for the old out house, moved it over beside the garage, gutted it out and converted it into the smoke house, worked just great, was still in use when the folks moved off the farm in 1995.

Can't say how many pounds of sausage, bacon, hams and fish were smoked in there but I have 4 brothers and 4 sisters so it was a lot, all wood fire on the ground under an old modified tub, never had any fancy meat probes like now a days but got it just hot enough that the sausage would start to drip, then hit the fire with wet wood that had been soaking in a bucket of water. Best darn smoker every.

Lotsa DIY builds on you tube

Two years later.......... still haven't burnt it up, 37 years ttl.. KNOW your smoking temp, use a good heat gauge , and it will last a life time. You are not cooking in the darn thing.... your smoking and drying. Have used it a bunch in the past two years too.... :)

Built many smokers over the years
a barrel smoker with a propane camp stove,
an old deep freeze stood upright with a stove burner on 120 volt a SS pot for chips with an analog control.
A frame of 2x2's covered in corrugated metal and insulation, propane camp stove.
I never do 50-100 lbs. batch's anymore moved on to store bought rigs half the fun of smoking was building a new smoker.

All you need a is a burn proof box, controlled heat source and some imagination.

The original question of using wood structure for smoking up to 230F.

Most likely to eventually burn down at that temperature.

And 230F is even a bit on low side temperature for doing brisket, ribs, pork shoulder.

Wood structure should likely be okay for quite a while If you keep temperature down below 170F which where you want to do sausage, bacon & jerky.

Lots of very good idea in this thread about what can be used for a structure. Lots more can be found smoker builds On the internet.

Building your own is a great learning experience.

I have made a few and owned a few store bought. While I Really like what I have now, as it suits my needs, and is quite reliable, can think of changes to make for next build.

Cinderblocks seem to make the most sense, and they’re easy to lay.

Pack the sawdust down (fairly tight) in a 5 gal steel bucket ( 1/3 full of sawdust and 2/3 air above it) and seal the lid tight (not quite airtight actually but we snapped the lid on tight). There was a small "slot" cut into the bottom of the bucket maybe an inch up and we placed a plug in element in there to get the saw dust going (like a hot cherry on a cigar) then pulled the element out.

The smoke would smolder out the cracks around the lid and draw in what little air it could get from where the element went in.

I think it just couldn't get enough air to ignite I'm thinking.

You would get hours of smoke from this.

I don't ever recall it going up in flames.

Keep in mind our set up was a 4x7 cinder block room. If your structure or smoker was smaller, maybe a paint tin is big enough.

Saw one somewhere that was made from an old 4 drawer filing cabinet. cut the bottom out of the drawers and replace with metal mesh or rods. use the bottom drawer to put your coals or whatever heat source in.

I bought a stainless prison food tray cart. Fully insulated with hinges doors. Can do a whole deer in it. Just had to put a element, vent, and recirculating fan

A buddy of mine has one. Works great!

Thanks a bunch EZM!

My grandmother, God keep her in peace, was the one looking after the smoke house when growing up. We had, just like the other household, a outhouse size smoke house in which the miracles took place. Many other people used the attics for curing and smoking the meats, by opening a flue in the chimney. Wood heated homes, mind you.

I built a couple of years ago a 4x4x 5 tall cedar smoke house, and for the life of me I couldn’t keep the sawdust or chips from catching on fire. Never set the lid on the container though!! I was running the smoke in the smokehouse from the fire pit, about 8 feet away, through a 4” tin pipe. Then I switched to using the
A-maze-N smoke products tube, which gives me 8 hours of smoke, but I have to use wood pellets. Working, in my job, with all kinds of kiln dried species of wood, I would really like to use what I already have though.

Can’t wait to try your suggestions. Thanks again!

I have a commercial double door, fridge, no cooling unit with it, has a square hole in to roof, perfect for a smoker, come and get it if you wish, camrose area.