Thread: Building your own BBQ/SMOKER

Here is damn near exactly how I did it a number of times over the last years and it works fine.

Build Your Own Outdoor Smoker - MSN Lifestyle: Men

Build Your Own Outdoor Smoker


Barbecue, the traditional American style of cooking, is not to be confused with grilling, although the terms have become almost interchangeable in millions of American backyards. Steaks, burgers and hot dogs are grilled. True BBQ is a different art form altogether.

BBQ-style cooking developed largely in the American Southeast. People who couldn't afford the better cuts of meat were forced to consume tougher, fattier cuts like pork butt and beef brisket. The secret is to cook these cuts very slowly, over a duration of 4 to 6 hours or longer at temperatures near the boiling point of water. Two marvelous things happen when you slow-cook at low temperatures: The tough meat becomes flavorful and succulent, and the fat is rendered out, in sort of a self-basting. A fringe benefit is that the low, smoky fire leaves the aroma of smoke permeating the meat. I burn mostly oak, but my favorite is apple, when I can get it. Any fruit or citrus wood is good. Hickory makes everything taste like bacon, so I use it sparingly. Never use pine, any softwood or any finished lumber (like old furniture).

Don't confuse this low-temperature smoke cooking, which is the essence of BBQ, with cold smoking. Meat that's meant to be preserved by curing with salt or honey and low moisture is also smoked, but in that case the temperatures don't go above 100 F or so, and the smoking period is measured in days, not hours. A properly cured ham can hang at room temperature for months without spoiling--BBQ is meant to be enjoyed immediately.




Key to illustration above:

[1] Lump-style charcoal
[2] Firebox damper door
[3] Firebox with tight-fitting door
[4] Smoke chamber with chimney
[5] Stainless steel grill
[6] Seasoned oak and apple wood
[7] Dinner—in about 4 hours.

Traditional BBQ smoking is done in a brick pit, but there are all manner of commercial smokers on the market, ranging from very inexpensive sheetmetal water smokers to giant commercial-quality stainless steel contraptions the size of a small car (and costing almost as much).
A good cook can make good BBQ in anything. I'm not even going to touch on the dry-rub-versus-mop debate, the ketchup-versus-vinegar-based BBQ sauce controversy, or whether to baste. I decided after years of working with a small water smoker--and recently acquiring a vacation house--to build one of my own. This project involves a lot of welding, which might seem daunting. Maybe, maybe not--I'm a certified welder, so it was easy for me. Several wire-feed welders are sold at The Home Depot and Sears, and you can learn to do simple welding with only an hour or two of practice. Salvaged materials will be fine for your smoker's frame. You can use old water pipe, rebar or even electrical conduit.

I constructed my smoker out of 10-ga. sheet steel on a frame of 1-in. thinwall square tubing. One caution about barrels--unless you can acquire a genuine food-grade barrel, make your own. Any barrel that used to contain noxious industrial chemicals is not a good option, unless you want to grow another eye on your elbow. I used heavy-gauge steel (just under 1/8 in. thick) to ensure a long service life and to add thermal mass for all-day, slow fires. The round cross section I made isn't necessary--a square or rectangular one will cook just as well, although it will be a little tougher to clean.

Our smoke chamber is 36 in. long x 18 in. in diameter. I made the firebox 12 in. long, which adds up to exactly the width of a standard 4 x 10-ft. sheet of steel, minimizing waste. Conveniently, these are exactly the dimensions that allowed me to use some stainless steel racks meant as a replacement part for a Weber grill. You'll need simple hand tools, a welder, a 4-in. angle grinder and a sabre saw. I lined the bottom of the firebox with a layer of fire-brick to keep the box from burning out too quickly and to conserve heat. I made the smoker so that it can be conveniently broken down into three parts: the firebox, the main smoke chamber and the frame. Collectively, they weigh nearly a hundred pounds, but handles on the smoke chamber make it easy for two people to tote around. Clever use of wingnuts means no tools are needed for assembly. Be prepared to be invited--with your smoker--to lots of outdoor parties.

Despite all the doors being well-sealed, the nature of liquid smoke is to dribble out of every crack and off the bottom of the smoke chamber. This will permanently stain your deck even if the wood has just been sealed. I suggest making a large tray out of sheetmetal, with a raised lip, to go underneath. I installed a drain petcock in the smoke chamber to aid in cleanup.
We'll clean up after we finish dinner, thank you.




Welding
You can now buy a 115-volt wire-feed welder for a very modest price. All of the welding we did on this project was done with 0.035-in. flux-cored wire, although you can gas weld if the metal you choose is thinner. Alternatively, if you have an arc (stick) welder, 10 ga. is about as thin as you can weld successfully.




Cutting
I welded the ends on first, keeping distortion to a minimum, and then cut the holes for the doors.




A 2-in. holesaw gives nice rounded corners. I had to cut only three-quarters of the way around the openings because I used the unwelded seam for the bottom of the door.




The steel can be cut with a sabre saw, but it's laborious and consumes a lot of blades. I also tried cutoff wheels on the grinder, which was somewhat faster, although it threw a lot more sparks. Next time, I'll beg, borrow or steal a plasma cutter.




Bare Metal
We had a local sheetmetal shop cut the pieces to size and then roll the drum sections for us, which cost about $200. You can use just about anything made of steel--as long as it's not galvanized. If you can find one, try a food-grade steel barrel.




Trim
An inexpensive piano hinge keeps the doors tightly sealed. I used pop rivets, but sheetmetal screws would work.




Wooden handles, which stay cool enough to touch, are held in place by 5/16-in. bolts and brass spacers. The handle was sanded and paste waxed.




Smoke Management
The chimney is 3-in. chimney pipe.




The low-tech firebox damper is the end of a soup can.



The connection between the firebox and smoke chamber is a 2-in. water pipe, with the collars from a pipe union for nuts. The firebox hangs from this connection, which is surprisingly airtight. A bolt and wingnut lower down keep everything solid.
With everything assembled and painted, it's time to build a hot fire in the firebox, and get all the metal hot enough to set the paint and burn off any mill scale and cutting oil lingering inside. After it all cools off, wash everything and paint the inside of the smoke chamber with vegetable oil to prevent rusting.

Sort of defeats us Aussies throwing a shrimp on the barbie and lacks a beer rack

The difference between true BBQ and char broiling is explained in the article,
Those welders will not work here because they are made for 120V 60 hrz AC, and not for 220V makes them not unusable here, I have one in the states.
Those same smokers are sold by Brinkmans Mfg. in the states.

You could get that smoker made up here at a very reasonable cost.

Stainless?

A small 220V welder is cheap enough here.

I just bought one of them empty painted steel barrels to start me off with a smoking chamber.

What do you reckon?

Been there done that. Wait for the rain and then see what happens...

^TIG welder?

The do not have the charcoal like back in the states in Thailand nor mesquite or hickory.

Can still BBQ .

LC, TIG would be fine but just use co2 instead of argon, or 75/25 CO2/Argon, costs less and do as good a job, MIG welders are available here for about 20K baht, but could find no innershield wire, just bare hard wire like is standard for MIG. Tungstens are readily available too.

YT. Charcoal is not really necessary if you can get fruit wood or hard wood, you can use it but just have to control the heat a little better, I have used just wood in mine before and would do so here when I build one. But nothing is as good as apple wood or mesquite wood, For smoking salmon or sturgeon I like apple and cherry woods the best.
In Idaho we used BIRCH wood and some Alder for BBQ wood, works good but you have to be careful as to much smoke makes your meats bitter.
If you can see smoke, you have to much..But BBQ has more heat so you will have smoke from the cooking meat and dripping fat, but for smoking cold, you never want to really see smoke.

Originally Posted by blackgang

Stroll, the welder that they are talking about does not use rods but very small flux core wire that comes in 12 pound coils and with finely controled juice you can weld pop cans together and are made for body shop use to weld car doors and fenders together, no way that you can get that good a weld with stick.

Ah, ok, I am not a welding guy, small-scale soldering and brazing is more my cuppa, I got torch and gas.

Originally Posted by blackgang

LC, TIG would be fine but just use co2 instead of argon, or 75/25 CO2/Argon, costs less and do as good a job, MIG welders are available here for about 20K baht, but could find no innershield wire, just bare hard wire like is standard for MIG. Tungstens are readily available too.

YT. Charcoal is not really necessary if you can get fruit wood or hard wood, you can use it but just have to control the heat a little better, I have used just wood in mine before and would do so here when I build one. But nothing is as good as apple wood or mesquite wood, For smoking salmon or sturgeon I like apple and cherry woods the best.
In Idaho we used BIRCH wood and some Alder for BBQ wood, works good but you have to be careful as to much smoke makes your meats bitter.
If you can see smoke, you have to much..But BBQ has more heat so you will have smoke from the cooking meat and dripping fat, but for smoking cold, you never want to really see smoke.

You seem to know about BBQ mah niggha.

U gonna up a rib shack in Thailand ?

In Pattaya there are only 2 that can do anything that tastes remotely like real smoked BBQ.