homemade smoker pics

[bandgod]

This is a fridge I converted into a large smoker. We've smoked our ownd summer sausage, bologna and snack sticks with it. Last year I used only wood for a heat source/smoke. This year I added a gas burner to regulate the heat and still used wood chips.

[Chuck7]

Neat Meat!!!

[Down&OutHunting]

how did you install the gas burner? And what did you use? can you put some pics up of that

[Cleburne]

Thats neat, I have an old fridge lying around might have to try this.

[bandgod]

I'll have to get some pictures up later, but for the gas burner I bought a burner with two venturri's at Farm and Fleet for $18. I had an old gas grill that had the knobs on it for turning on the gas to the burner so I took those off of the grill. I drilled two holes in the back of the fridge and stuck the two venturri through those so I could hook up the control knobs. Inside the fridge I put the burner in the firbox with a stove bolt going through the piece of tin you can see in the picture. For smoke I put some chopped up cherry chunks on top of the piece of tin. I ended up wrapping the fridge with a couple of old blankets this year to hold the warmth in as the outdoor temp was around 5 degrees and dropping. (I kept the top open so the smoke could still get out) The hardest part about this is checking on the meat to make sure the internal temp has reached 150 degrees. I usually let the smoker heat up to 185 degrees and keep it there for about 2 hours for snack sticks and about 4-6 hours for summer sausage.

[Down&OutHunting]

could you have possibly cut or drilled a big enough hole in the door and put a thermometer in it and then maybe siliconed it in?

[bandgod]

I had a thermometer int he door to gauge the temerature of the smokehouse, but not the actual meat itself. You need to check the internal temperature of the sausage and when it reaches 150-160 degrees you know it's done. And you shoudl check several stick to make sure it is all done, not just the one you happened to check.

[jerseyhunter]

you need one of these.

http://www.google.com/products/catal...wBA#ps-sellers

[clarencealvin]

Originally Posted by bandgod

This is a fridge I converted into a large smoker. We've smoked our ownd summer sausage, bologna and snack sticks with it. Last year I used only wood for a heat source/smoke. This year I added a gas burner to regulate the heat and still used wood chips.

Hi
Its surprising ...How did you convert fridge into a large smoker ???

[bandgod]

I just found an old fridge on of my co-workers wanted to get rid of (it didn't work). Took it home, gutted it and took all plastic and insulation off, basically everything came off and I was left with the shell and doors. I tipped the fridge upside down, I rehung the doors with hinges so that the doors closed tighter since there was no seal. I then cut an old piece of tin to put down towards the bottom so that I could have a firebox in the bottom where I put hot coals from my outdoor furnace and some fresh cut maple (for good smoke) Since it wasn't airtight and the firebix wasn't real tight the smoke works it's way up through the meat.