Newbie

[tayhot]

Hello everyone,

I am new to this site and also to smoking in general. I want to get into smoking because with the amount of game meat, beef, and pork sitting in my freezer, I need to do something with it.

Here is my dilema. I want to start smoking but dont know rather to buy an electric one (Bradley) or to make my own. I like the thought of making my own and using real wood to create smoke. Problem is, how viable of an option is it for me? Can i make my own smoker that will work well? Should I just buy an electric smoker and let it take out a lot of the guess work? I'm stumpped and dont know what to do. In your opinion, what would you do? If it helps any, I have access to welding equip and I am pretty handy.

If building my own is the way to go, do you have any blueprints/plans or pictures I could use?

Thanks

[Bassman]

Welcome to the Smoked-Meat forum. There are lots of electric smoker users here, so someone will be by soon to help you out.

[Capt Dan]

Save your money and make an " upright drum smoker". They are called UDS's here. They can be made for less than $100, and work very well. Look around on here and see how they are made. Many of us have them, including myself.

welcome to the site.

[Cajunsmoke13]

Welcome. I have a WSM and a custom made smoker. Love them both.

[Meat Hunter]

Save your money and make an " upright drum smoker". They are called UDS's here. They can be made for less than $100, and work very well. Look around on here and see how they are made. Many of us have them, including myself.

welcome to the site.

What he said. A great smoker that will bring you many years of happy smokes. Plenty of people on here have built them, with great instructions on doing so.

[Slanted88]

Real nice to have ya here!...Get on that UDS gig! It works!

[Texas-Hunter]

Welcome to Smoked-Meat... Glad to have you here.. So many smokers to pick from so little time.. I guess first things first.. IMO a charcoal smoker is the way to go.. To me they produce a much better flavor in the meat.. Electric is great too.. Kinda set it and forget it... You can invest around 40 bones for a El' Cheap'o Brinkmann (ECB) great smokers for newbies.. They make both and electric and coal style.. Now for an slmost set it and forget it charcoal burner... You cannot beat a UDS..

Feel free to ask more questions.. We would love to help..

[aczeller]

dunno where you are, but if you are close enough, you can have my dad's old WSM-style smoker. after building my own fridge smoker, i have absolutely no use for it, other than scrap. you just gotta come pick it up. lol

if this is your first try at smoking (which is sounds like it is), why not try converting your grill into a smoker to start? the first time I ever tried smoking meat, i did a 10 lb +/- brisket over my charcoal grill with a diffuser plate to give me some semi-indirect heat. worked great, got me started in smoking, and i still use it from time to time as a smoker for smaller batches of anything. the best part? it was free. i already had the grill and the piece of 16 gauge steel was scrap, laying in my garage. bent it as required, and voila! a smoker is born. lol

every once in a while, you will even hear of someone using a gas grill, some wood chips, and a couple layers of alum. foil to create enough smoke to please the pallet. in short, what grills do you have? what is your budget? what size are you looking for? a fridge smoker is pretty big for an occasional smoker, and takes up a lot of room as it is a stationary unit. however, a little WSM would never feed as many people as I usually do during the summer, so i can justify the size.

give us some more info and we will be more than happy to help out. bottom line, i would stray away from the store-bought electrics if possible until you know that you will keep with it. INHO, they are too much money to justify the purchase, especially for a "possible hobby". lol

Later,
Andy

[WaysideRanch]

Welcome. The art of smoking is a fun ride. Enjoy!!!!

[massive meat pipe]

I was completely green when I started out here about a year ago. Had never smoked anything in my life. I built mine frome scratch, everyone here helped me out in some way or another, and from experience, and being where you are once, I would definately build your own. Took me a while to get the basics down, now it's prolly my number one hobby. Starting work on my 250 gal trailor mount soon. If you look through the custom build forum, you can get tons of idea's, and see how costum smokers were built piece by piece all the way through. Mine is the Massive Meat Pipe as an example, pretty simple, works freakin' amazing, and seems to work better in cold and rainy weather. They are all different, but all work great. Take a look, and ask lots of questions, the people on this site are really great when it comes to getting you set up. Good luck, and happy smoking!!

[massive meat pipe]

Here's the link to my double barrel, has some good pics.
http://www.smoked-meat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4412

[aczeller]

The other major benefit is that you know exactly what you have to work with when you are done. You know where the insulation is (if you have any), you know how your smoke will flow, where your control points are, etc.

The best part is tthat you can make it to suit your own needs. If you want to place it in a certain spot on the patio, you can do so, and set it up so it will be easy to load, control, etc.

It very well may be cheaper too. If you go look at my fridge smoker thread, I had about $250 into my build by the time all was done. I could have easily spent more or less on it, but its what I wanted, so that's what I built. A commercial smoker with the same capacities could easily be $600+. It may be prettier. But not nearly as cool. Lol

Later,
Andy

[bb53chevpro]

Welcome to the forum. Perfect place to learn.
I personally use a propane smoker for hot smoking and have a wood burning smoke house. Love them both.

[northern greenhorn]

to S-M, you'll find this site to extremely helpful