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I built a pellet smoker!


JL Sargent

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Well, actually I converted an old shop made stainless steel gas grill to a pellet smoker. About ten years ago I bought this shop made grill at a yard sale. The owner had retired from a fab shop that had done a lot of stainless work and this grill was his retirement gift. When I saw it I just had to have it. The grill has a very generous cooking area having a grate that is 24" x 42" . We have cooked on it for years using charcoal on lower grate having given up on the propane a long time ago. So when I started this conversion project this is what I had:

 

 

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Looks good have you tried it yet ? I like the drip tray, it will probably help keep the heat spread out a little also.

 

So you can buy the mechanical part to add to your own build or did that come off of something else ?

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Looks good have you tried it yet ? I like the drip tray, it will probably help keep the heat spread out a little also.

 

So you can buy the mechanical part to add to your own build or did that come off of something else ?

I've got it going right now. I put a slab on to give it a go and the controller is keeping the whole cooker at 250F  all across the top. Really tickled with how even the temp is.

 

And this is the hopper assembly.

 

http://www.smokedaddyinc.com/pellet-hoppers

Edited by JL Sargent
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Watched the video and will go look them up next but one question first. I never seen a pellet smoker while it is working, does it produce smoke like a regular smoker or is it just more the smoke flavor without as much smoke ?

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On the smoke: When I first start it up there is a good bit of smoke. Not a crazy amount but it is plenty visible. After 5 or 10 minutes and the smoker gets hot you dont really notice the smoke that much at the temperatures I normally cook which is 250 F +. I imagine if you cold smoked something, say 180F or so, it would smoke like a train. Does that help? I would say that 95% of the cooking time involved there is just not too much smoke to see.

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Ironic, exactly! I fill the hopper with pellets, set the controller to the temp I want the smoker at and forget about it for 5 or 6 hours and my ribs are awesome every time (so far anyway). Best of all, you're cooking with wood which is the best fuel known to man for flavor.

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Just wondering, that has got to be really convenient, you could even get up during the night, set it to run and go back to sleep.

 

The big problem with regular smokers is keeping the fire and temp right and unless you stay up at night it would be impossible to have a long cook be ready during the day. 

 

Looks perfect for that old grill and should work great with a good bit of space, and it's SS so it will last a long time.

 

Edit; went back to look at your pic's.......cool looking yard, beats the #@$^ out of neighbors every 20'.   :emotion-21:

Edited by dtel
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The big problem with regular smokers is keeping the fire and temp right and unless you stay up at night it would be impossible to have a long cook be ready during the day. 

 

I have stayed up until 3 am drinking beer doing  this, on numerous occasions.  It makes for a very long tired day the next day.

Best of all, you're cooking with wood which is the best fuel known to man for flavor

 

I take it that is what the pellets are made of.  I recently been trying a electric smoker which seems to work great as a oven.  However between that and my charcoal grill, things are old enough to be replaced.  I am picking up a like new gas grill from my grandmother, which will be used for my daily grilling, so I am on the hunt for a new smoker of some sort, I may even consider an ugly drum smoker.   I like the idea of a gas/wood hybrid, sorry for the rambling.  

 

Very nice work, I bet it works wonderful. 

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So the hopper on this thing is 18 lbs. Estimated pellet consumption is 1 lb per hour at 300 F. so cooking all night is not a problem as that is approx 18 hrs worth of pellets. The other evening I put two 10 lb Boston Botts on at 6 pm. The next morning at approx 6 am I checked them and they were at 190 F internal meat temp. (I usually like to go to 200 F internal meat temp).

 

I use two variants of the pellets. One is 100% hickory wood and the other is 75% oak/ 25% hickory. Both are 100% hardwood fuel.

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There is more work to it than I thought. I made this stuff to make it happen:

 

42"x24" 304 stainless grate 1/4" rod,

Made and installed stainless heat diffuser (sits over firepot)

stainless piano hinge for top (old one was rusty)

stainless pan, tray and tube assembly for drippings.

welded over all old air vents (not needed for this type smoker)

cut out smoker and installed hopper assembly and temp probe.

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Where do you acquire the pellets?

I bought the last batch online from www.bbqrsdelight.com. Three of us got together and ordered 480 lbs. So that was 160 lbs each and we paid approx $100 each delivered for the pellets. I believe they are a good bit cheaper than Kingsford.

 

http://bbqrsdelight.com/

Edited by JL Sargent
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