Photos of new homemade smoker

DTom · May 13, 2005, 12:08:33 AM

Here's a couple shots of the incomplete outdoor kitchen. All the Durock will be covered with a stucco like material called Artcrete. Still need to finish some tile (which finally came in today). Also will have a canopy over it when done.

The big hole will be for the grille. It's one of these. Sitting on my garage floor right now. Weighs a ton.
http://outdoor.kitchenaid.com/bultgrill.asp
It has a little 'smoker' drawer built into it with a dedicated burner to add extra smoke flavor to whatever your grilling.

The smoker vents out the back of the island. You can see that in one of the shots.

Stopped by Lowes and picked up a Lutron variable fan control. Thinking I'm going to add that to the box the temp controller is in. I think with that and the baffle I should have all the control over that fan that I need.

Anyway, here's the pix...

Phone Guy · May 13, 2005, 12:12:41 AM

Thats great. That should be one heck of a place to spend quality time.
I gotta get one.

DTom · May 13, 2005, 02:33:55 AM

Went ahead and added that baffle this evening. Will try to give it a shot this weekend.

DTom · May 22, 2005, 03:09:37 AM

Just and update on the smoker performance. Smoked a pork butt and the modifications worked fine. Between the added baffle, a fan speed control, and a chinamans cap on the smoke vent not having anymore problems with smoke back through the generator. Was also having 15-25 mph winds today.

Habanero Smoker · May 22, 2005, 11:31:04 AM

I'm glad every thing was successful, and thanks for sharing your information. Did you monitor the temperature in more then one area of the smoker, during the cooking time? If so where did you place the temperature gauges, and was there any significant difference in those readings?

Looks like you may have solved a problem many of us were looking for answers to.

gotbbq · May 22, 2005, 11:58:58 AM

DTom-

Thats a mighty fine smoker. How long did the whole process take?

Rich

gotbbq

DTom · May 24, 2005, 02:13:29 AM

HS, no I didn't do that yet. I think I'll try some tests like that when I get some time. We have a regular convection oven in our house with one of those fans. Seems to cook very evenly.

The smoker only took maybe 10 hrs spread out over a couple weeks. This dang cooking area seem like a career project though. I starting making the framework in my garage in January. The end is near. Started grouting tile tonight. Not much daylight to work outside of (real) work.

Phone Guy · June 01, 2005, 10:56:13 PM

DTom,
I am going to build an outdoor kitchen and saw what you've done and I am impressed. Did you have plans for the Island? I have a huge stainless grill http://www.thegrillingweb.com/images/virco/grand%20classic/grand%20classic3_sm.jpg and want to build around it. I will be putting in a sink (cold water),a small refrigerator and maybe a pizza oven. I also want to have a spot for the Bradley Smoker. Probably its own counter space with storage for "smokin stuff". I have been looking for ideas. Wondering where you got the info and how you started. Any advice would be great.

DTom · June 03, 2005, 12:51:21 AM

Mike,
I mainly just drew the plans up based around what I wanted to put in the island. If you have Autocad, I'd be happy to E-mail the file. I got alot of ideas though from a Sunset book called "Building Barbecues & Outdoor Kitchens". I'd recommend picking up that book.

Here's some more pixs starting from early on to the latest last week when I finished the tile and installed the grille. The frame is 20 Ga steel stud construction. Used 20 Ga because I wanted to MIG together instead of screw. Durock is liquid nailed and screwed to the frame. Counters are on 3/4" plywood covered with Durock and then Ditra decoupling mat.

Plan on doing the stucco finish Saturday, then it's just down to misc stuff (faucet, umbrellas, install SS doors, etc.)

BigSmoker · June 03, 2005, 01:10:50 AM

Damn Dude[8D].

Jeff

Some say BBQ is in your blood, if thats true my blood must be BBQ sauce.

Habanero Smoker · June 03, 2005, 06:39:32 AM

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by DTom
 Mike,
I mainly just drew the plans up based around what I wanted to put in the island. If you have Autocad, I'd be happy to E-mail the file. I got alot of ideas though from a Sunset book called "Building Barbecues & Outdoor Kitchens". I'd recommend picking up that book.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
DTom;
I would like a copy of your Autocad file, it looks like a great project to get into some time down the road. I have CorelDraw, and it can import DXF and DWG files formats. I believe I can convert that into a PDF file for you, if you would like. If it is in a PDF format, you would be able to share it with those that don't have a graphics program to view it.

Oldman · June 03, 2005, 02:10:24 PM

DTom

Great looking work you do. I'm sure you posted them so that all of the members may enjoy them and wipe the drool from their chins. [:D]

However as an average, 1/2 of the folks who would like to see them will give up waiting on this second page to download. The total KB of the pictures posted on this second page is about 760 or about 3/4th of a meg. In other words a dial up will have to wait (depending upon their connection) from 4 to 6 minutes for all of those pictures to download.

For those of us who have broadband we never have that problem. Especially if you have a pipe like I have. (I up now at 1 meg and down at 6 megs per second.) If it was not for a friend pointing this out to me a year back I would be posting more KB than you have. What I've learned to do is thumbnail to enlarge a picture. This is easy to do.

You take your original photo and upload it like you normally would. Next you take a copy of it and with any paint program you reduce its size. Below is a chart of the code you will need to do this--it will show you how to code for thumbnails.

Before we get to that take a look at this example. You will see that I cropped some of the original photo. Next besides reducing the size I also reduced its quaility from 100% to 50%. (Most paint programs will not do this.) This allows me to have an image large enough that it gives dial up folks an option. They can get a good idea of your project without having to enlarge, or if they elect then can click on the image to see the full detail. (This image will download under 1 second for dialups.)

Click To Enlarge

<hr noshade size="1"><hr noshade size="1"><hr noshade size="1">

If you don't have a program that will allow your to reduce the quality of an image then get this free one. It is excellent! IrfanView

When you go to save a jpg image with it after you hit the save button an option pops up and it is there you can increase or decrease the quality. Don't get this confused with picture size. This option does not change the footprint size of your image.

InfanView does a lot more like you can create panorama views!

Enjoy!

Olds

Phone Guy · June 03, 2005, 05:47:21 PM

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Habanero Smoker
 <blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by DTom
 Mike,
I mainly just drew the plans up based around what I wanted to put in the island. If you have Autocad, I'd be happy to E-mail the file. I got alot of ideas though from a Sunset book called "Building Barbecues & Outdoor Kitchens". I'd recommend picking up that book.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
DTom;
I would like a copy of your Autocad file, it looks like a great project to get into some time down the road. I have CorelDraw, and it can import DXF and DWG files formats. I believe I can convert that into a PDF file for you, if you would like. If it is in a PDF format, you would be able to share it with those that don't have a graphics program to view it.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

DTom,
I would love to get that file. I don't have Autocad but others here do. I can get it printed from them.

Hab,
If you can convert to PDF I would like to get that file from you. I can work with PDF.

Mike

DTom · June 03, 2005, 05:52:00 PM

Let me clean the CAD file up this weekend and I'll figure out how to get it to you. (Don't get to excited because I typically only draw enough for ME to figure it out.)
D. Tom

Habanero Smoker · June 03, 2005, 09:48:38 PM

Don't worry, I often go by rough sketches and modify them to fit a particular situation.