I finally finished the project. It took longer than expected but got it done before rifle season. I ran my first load at 25 lbs. and figure I can do 4 times that easily. The Auber PID alarm outputs control the smoke generator and the convection fan seperatly. I will set the drying temp of 120 deg. with the convection fan on for 2 hours while ramping to 145, then turn the S.G. on for however long its needed. After the holding temp of 165 is reached the program will turn the SG back off (both burner and motor) and the fan will come on for 1 minute out of every 10 minutes just to keep the box temps constant. Because the size of the box and distance from elements I never had to flip or rotate the load and the controller kept temps within 5 deg. for the entire cook. I can fit 28 of the Bradley shelves, or hang 16 dowels that will hold 64 1LB summer sausages. With 4200 watts even if I open both doors to load, the heat climbs back up within minutes. I put lights on the electric box to indicate from a distance (usually my bedroom cuz I smoke stuff overnight) if the SG is on/off and when the fan is on/off, and I have a heat switch that turns the red light on and a siren if the box temp hits 290 deg. due to an SSR failure that closes the circuit.
Thanks to all who answered my questions on this forum, there are a lot of good thinkers here! ;)
(http://i423.photobucket.com/albums/pp312/patience476/PB080007.jpg) (http://i423.photobucket.com/albums/pp312/patience476/PB080027.jpg) (http://i423.photobucket.com/albums/pp312/patience476/PB080028.jpg)
Very nice indeed! well done to you (http://smileys.on-my-web.com/repository/Respect/respect-023.gif) (http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s62/Gitster59/eusa_clap.gif)
Wow!
Quite a while back we tried to figure out if you could smoke a whole hog in the bradley. Gizmo or WCK pulled it off with a small carcass. I think you could smoke hogzilla.
Nice job.
paitence
WAy to go.. looks like a great smoker and should provide a lot of years of smoking
Wow that is awesome...I can't wait to finish mine...
Real nice work.
Congrats Patience!
It turned out fantastic! ;)
Mike
Well done.
nepas
Nice look unit...congrats!
Great job !!! That is one great looking smoker.
Man, that is on humdinger of a smoking machine --------- I want one!
Shakespeare
That is one great looking smoker. You are a lucky man. There aint no way in he!! my wife would let me put a smoker in the bedroom!!!
Quote:
I put lights on the electric box to indicate from a distance (usually my bedroom cuz I smoke stuff overnight)
Great job. Thanks for sharing.
Well done, beautiful piece of equipment. :)
I'm jealous. Would like to see some pictures with that baby loaded up!
Nice looking unit, Patience! Just wondering if there is a vent on top or where does the smoke exit the smoker?
Thanks!
SD
Sweet! Now fill it and photograph it in all it's glory!
Patience,
I have been checking out this site for a few weeks now. I am impressed by what all you guys have accomplished. I am very interested in building a unit similar to yours. I am trying to decide whether I should just buy a Bradley smoker, or make my own.(but not quite the size of yours) Do you mind me asking about how much $$$ you have invested? Or what would be a reasonable amount to expect to pay for most of the parts.
Thanks
Hi Austin and welcome to the forum.
It's a difficult question on if you should build or buy. It probably has a lot to do with what you plan to smoke and how much of it a s well. Here is a link to the single door unit I built. I have it installed in my heated garage right beside my Bradley. I use both on a regular basis but the larger home built unit is mainly used for large loads and especially large sausage loads. My total investment in the home built unit is around $600 to $700. I think a lot of the cost depends on what you can get a cabinet for, in addition to what parts you can scrounge vs buying new.
http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=7616.msg82164#msg82164
I'm sure Patience will along to comment on his unit.
Mike
Quote from: Austin on January 22, 2009, 12:49:46 PM
Patience,
I have been checking out this site for a few weeks now. I am impressed by what all you guys have accomplished. I am very interested in building a unit similar to yours. I am trying to decide whether I should just buy a Bradley smoker, or make my own.(but not quite the size of yours) Do you mind me asking about how much $$$ you have invested? Or what would be a reasonable amount to expect to pay for most of the parts.
Thanks
Hey Patience, I am currently building a unit that is very similar to Mr. Walleye's. I did some looking around for a proofer warmer and actually found one around me in excellent shape (non insulated) for $50, and then a couple of months later I just bumped into a (insulated) unit slightly bigger for free. Both are in excellent shape. I am not sure how much it is going to cost me but I am trying to do it for as little as possible, and might end up building two units. What can I say I love building and tinkering. Also this site it great for information if you are going to build one.
Welcome to the forum.
Hello Austin,
The cost of my unit will remain a mystery for several reasons. My wife has her Masters in Accounting, I went through great lengths and hardship to "keep two sets of books" during my project in order to keep it under her radar. She let me buy the OBS a few years ago and when I told her I wanted to build its big brother, she hesitated...why and how much? I don't know you people well enough to tell you how I managed to fund my project, you may take offense to my methods, and I may be banished from the site.
No, in all seriousness, have you seen the cost of the 100LB units from Sausage Maker!?!?!?! By building your own, you can build a smoker better than what they sell for 3 or 4 grand for a lot less. Like Walleye said, its the cabinet that might set you back some. Aluminum and stainless are the most popular, and even wood units have worked. I wanted specific options (overkill of watts for fast heating, automation, size) and of course the most simple option of the Bradley smoke gen. I have about $1000 all together for a 100LB (plus) smoker that is darn near totally automated and if ANYTHING goes wrong, I can fix it.
My justification for such a large unit was to smoke venison sausage and jerky for family and friends so their not paying so much at the local processors. It takes the SAME amount of time to clean the grinder,mixer, stuffer and knives whether you do 5lbs of sausage or 105lbs. you might as well opt a bigger load.
Good luck!
I have the automation part of mine done already. Its a PLC with a 2 channel thermocouple cassette and a 6" touch screen (HMI). ;D ;D ;D
Thanks for the replies. I am currently looking for a non working proofer to get started. A couple of questions about what you guys smoke. I am big into smoking ribs, briskets, turkeys and pretty much any piece of pork. I live in East Tennessee and have plenty of deer hunting friends who would love to have a place to make their jerky. I am also looking into making my own sausages and bacon. Do you guys pretty much smoke all of the above? And are you able to be very preicse with the temp at anywhere from 100 - 250?
Austin
I mainly us mine for sausage because I usually do fairly large amounts. Most other things like butts, ribs, etc. I use the Bradley. This is mainly because I don't need the capacity. There is no reason you can't use the big unit for them as well. With the PID controlling the home built unit it really has no problem maintaining a set temp. I know Patience is running a lot more power in his heaters than I am and I would think for an example if he was doing a large load of ribs he would get up to temp quicker than I would. Having said that I have no problems doing 60 to 80 lb loads of sausage.
Mike
Austin, yes to all of the above. I am probably at the limit in size to where a second smoke gen. would be necessary. My last load of butts I used 6 hours worth of pucks. In the Bradley, 6 hours would be wasting in most peoples opinion. I'm trying to get the same smoke flavor from a bigger box so I needed the extra hours. They came out ok though.
As for jerky, if you are doing big loads, you need the space for proper drying. When I first looked at smokers, I thought, wow, a 20 LB unit, thats plenty of jerky. Yea right. In the Bradley I will rarely make more than 5 LBS raw with a 2½LB yield. Some guys stack racks and do much more, but whenever I do, I have to shuffle the meat and some gets done "differently" than others, I'm assuming due to the moisture hitting the higher racks on its way out the vent?!?!? Anyhow, my self proclaimed 100LB unit is true for turkeys/hams/butts but jerky, I'll lonly oad up to 20LBS for a 10-12LB yield. I'm picky about my jerky and I get the best results with a very conservative load.
Finally, one downside of a homebrew is hauling the thing out. Mr.Walleye has it made in the shade! His boys are like the volunteer firedapartment, you need 'em and their ready to go. I envy his set up being selfcontained, safe, and the fact is READY TO GO and out of the natures wrath. In the winter I have to shovel the patio and roll the cabinet outside. Plus, it takes up more room in the garage than the wifes SUV. I should have looked ahead farther than I did. Thats the only regret thus far.
PID will keep your temp within a few degrees, even in a big cabinet. Just run the auto-tuning feature and let the PID figure the rest out. I run an autotune about 3 times a year, I pick the average Michigan day of spring, summer and winter use the results for the rest of that season. Seems to have worked so far, I cannot complain about the lack of temp swings. Good luck in your build!
Walleye,
In a couple of your pics, there is some sort of probe hanging with a yellow wire. Is that a meat temp probe or an internal box temp probe?
Thanks,
Houston
Houston
The yellow wire is the TC wire for my MTC Mini Handheld Thermocouple. It's made by Thermapen. They are an extremely accurate and fast reading thermometer for reading the internal temps of meat. The TC is replaceable and I use the Miniature Needle Probe with 39" wire. That way when I'm checking temps on sausage I just leave the MTC where it is in the picture and prob the sausages. Here is a link to their web site.
http://www.thermoworks.com/products/handheld/mtc.html
Mike
Mike
so, do i understand correctly?
you leave that MTC with that 39" mini needle probe hanging to see the internal appliance temp THEN if you want to check internal meat temps you just stick it in em?
thanks,
Todd
and, PATIENCE...WOW what an AWESOME smoker!!! well done indeed.
Quote from: Wattles on February 18, 2009, 11:52:53 AM
Mike
so, do i understand correctly?
you leave that MTC with that 39" mini needle probe hanging to see the internal appliance temp THEN if you want to check internal meat temps you just stick it in em?
thanks,
Todd
You could use it that way but I don't. I strictly use it for monitoring the IT temp of the meat your smoking. Where it really shines is doing sausage because of the extremely small size of the needle type probe and also at the speed at which it reads. I will typically stick the probe in one of the sausages, then close up the smoker that way I don't have to open the door to check how they are doing. Once that sausage is at the correct IT I will open the door and start probing all of them to see which ones are ready to come out and which ones are going to stay in a bit longer.
Mike
Fantastic, nice job on the smoker.