A-MAZ-N Smoker's Users. Make your own dust.

[Beaver Camp Sausage Company]

The only reason I could think our fire not using kiln dried is maybe it would burn a little hotter and faster then green wood.

[crusty ol salt]

first let me say thanks for the great idea

but not having a pellet popper i just dont keep these critters in stock so i'll also weigh in on this conversation...

I'm curious why, there's not much difference in the price per pound? At least not here, but then I can't buy either locally.

Here is my reason why. A 40 pound bag of BBQr's Delight costs me $21 including shipping or about 52 cents a pound. A-MAZ-N Smoker dust costs me $4.49 a pound. That's almost 4 dollars a pound more for the dust.

Your price per pound is somewhat misleading then. Not everyone is going to buy 400 pounds at a time. Plus you forgot to add the cost of running the fan for a couple of hours and the oven for four hours to your cost of production.

Sorry. It's the accountant in me. (Yes I did do cost accounting before I switched to IT.)

I assumed most people reading this would realized that pennies would have to be added for the fan and the oven. BTW the oven nor the fan is required and a 20 lb bag is $16. I am sure the accountant in you can still see a cost savings here not including the enjoyment of making ones own. lol

Just to throw this wrench into the mixer, where is the labor cost? if i actually spend 2 hours labor on the project, using my billable hourly rate (the same rate that my company uses for me to be on a job site, not my hourly wage mind you) and it was a 5# batch... that would be $52.80 per pound. shoot... i'll just buy a pound of dust every now and again

[L20A]

I went to that site for the pellets and I didn't see prices even close to $26. for 40 pounds. Maybe I missed something?

[Savannahsmoker]

first let me say thanks for the great idea

but not having a pellet popper i just dont keep these critters in stock so i'll also weigh in on this conversation...









Just to throw this wrench into the mixer, where is the labor cost? if i actually spend 2 hours labor on the project, using my billable hourly rate (the same rate that my company uses for me to be on a job site, not my hourly wage mind you) and it was a 5# batch... that would be $52.80 per pound. shoot... i'll just buy a pound of dust every now and again

Fine with me as I never said this was for everybody and I assumed you do not grill or BBQ because at your labor rate it is cheaper to eat out.

Sorry to bother y'all with this idea.

[DDave]

I am sure the accountant in you can still see a cost savings here not including the enjoyment of making ones own. lol

Relax. I was just messing with ya.

Dave

[curious aardvark]

Hmm, given that pellets would cost me about 10x what I buy sawdust for.

I'll pass.

And doesn't the amze-n smoker use pellets as well ?

So what's the advantage of changing pellets to dust given that you can use both anyway ?

I can see the fun fiddle factor involved. Just not sure if there's any practical advantage to be gained.

[Bearcarver]

[QUOTE=DDave;289935]


As a former dry kiln operator, I'd be interested in knowing his reasoning behind this. It's just heat and air movement that dries the wood. And temps are kept relatively low. We were drying softwoods and the temp topped out at 165°. Some softwood is dried at higher temps but hardwoods are generally dried at temps below 180° and some lower than that.

It may not be as aromatic as air dried wood but I can't think of any reason that kiln dried wood would hurt anything to cook with.



I agree with you DDave.
I know a little about kilning woods too because I used to have my own Cabinet Shop, but I'm sure not as much as an actual kiln operator. I know I often disagree with Alton Brown too, but in this case I'm wondering if maybe he was talking about kiln dried wood flaring up too easily???
I know the place I got my cabinet hardwoods from always kiln dried my hardwoods down to 6%, and then steamed it back up to 8% to close the pours back up. Maybe he was talking about wood at 6% or 8% moisture content flaring up to easily, as opposed to air dried wood at 18% or more???
That is the only thing I could see that he could find iffy about smoking with kiln dried wood, but you never know what AB is talking about, as sometimes it seems he doesn't either.

Just thought I'd run that by you to see what you think.

Bear

[L20A]

Hmm, given that pellets would cost me about 10x what I buy sawdust for.

I'll pass.

And doesn't the amze-n smoker use pellets as well ?

So what's the advantage of changing pellets to dust given that you can use both anyway ?

I can see the fun fiddle factor involved. Just not sure if there's any practical advantage to be gained.

CA, the sawdust will smoke at a lower temp than the pellets so it is better for cold smoking cheeses, etc. That is the only difference that I can see.

[crusty ol salt]

Fine with me as I never said this was for everybody and I assumed you do not grill or BBQ because at your labor rate it is cheaper to eat out.

Sorry to bother y'all with this idea.

Relax. I was just messing with ya.

Dave

like i said it is a good idea, i think i even gave you a , so i give ya for puttin up with my mess.

i just dont have a pellet popper, if i did i would be figurin out how to do things like this too. for me it is just as easy to order a bag of saw dust...

[PitRow]

I've heard about doing this before, but I've yet to try it. Mostly because I don't have a pellet smoker, so no pellets, plus I still have about 5 pounds of dust sitting around.

However if there ever comes a day that I need some dust and don't have any, I will be trying this.

My question is though... has anybody tried the AMNS with the Luhr Jensen style smoking chips? They're not quite as fine as the dust, but seem pretty similar pellets I'd think. Seems like every store around here carries them for cheap, so I wonder if you could use those instead.

[BBQ Engineer]

Savannah,

That is the type of ingenuity that I love to see. I will tuck this little morsel of info away and it will come bubbling to the surface only to amaze and thrill those that watch me in full on BBQ and Smoking action.

I also have a tray on my Gasser that I have often wondered how a load of dust would work. Since Mrs. Engineer picked up some pellets at Costco for experimentation purposes, gonna give this a go and see what happens!

[Bearcarver]

I've heard about doing this before, but I've yet to try it. Mostly because I don't have a pellet smoker, so no pellets, plus I still have about 5 pounds of dust sitting around.

However if there ever comes a day that I need some dust and don't have any, I will be trying this.

My question is though... has anybody tried the AMNS with the Luhr Jensen style smoking chips? They're not quite as fine as the dust, but seem pretty similar pellets I'd think. Seems like every store around here carries them for cheap, so I wonder if you could use those instead.

That looks pretty much like shavings, or pieces too big for the AMNS, looking through the bag from here.

I tried a lot of different kinds of stuff, and if you have to make your own, I have found the best results with dust that comes from Crosscutting, like from a Radial Saw, Miter (chop) Saw, or a Table Saw, set up for crosscutting, or Dadoing.
Dust from Ripping or Plowing on the Table Saw can work, but not as good as from crosscutting.

Shavings & chips from a Shaper, Planer, Jointer, Drill Press, Boring Machine, etc don't seem to work to good.

Also Dust from Wide Belt Sanders, Drum, Edge or Spindle Sanders, or portable Belt sanders is much too fine.


These are just my findings, and this would only be good if you have some control over what woods are being used to produce these particulates.

My 2¢

Bear

[erain]

Fine with me as I never said this was for everybody and I assumed you do not grill or BBQ because at your labor rate it is cheaper to eat out.

Sorry to bother y'all with this idea.

nobody busting your chops SavSmkr... all i see is good discusion with many your way...

the only thing i will add is this... if you were buying wood, and being choosy about what wood goes into his machine that produces these chips the guy is allowed to make a buck too...

i will buy from Todd because of convenience foremost, variety also comes into play.

i wonder about these pellets sometimes too, where does the wood come from? what else is in there besides high quality heartwood? more than likely we would be surprised.

all i know is Todd oversees what he sells and is not trying to gouge anyone on prices and makes sure a good product in both dust and pellets is what is being sold.

[mulepackin]

I've heard about doing this before, but I've yet to try it. Mostly because I don't have a pellet smoker, so no pellets, plus I still have about 5 pounds of dust sitting around.

However if there ever comes a day that I need some dust and don't have any, I will be trying this.

My question is though... has anybody tried the AMNS with the Luhr Jensen style smoking chips? They're not quite as fine as the dust, but seem pretty similar pellets I'd think. Seems like every store around here carries them for cheap, so I wonder if you could use those instead.

I've tried both the Luhr Jensen chips as well as the Frantz "sawdust" (which is actually more like planer or jointer chips). Neither one would stay lit for me. Todds mix seems to work as expected. I think Bear is dead on, in that Todds mix is mostly pretty fine "dust" and a little bit of chips as he described.
Most of my side line wood work now is with cottonwood and you definitely don't want to use it for smoking. But occasionally I'll use oak, alder, hickory, or cherry, and I'll save up the dust and chips for smoking. All kiln dried lumber, and have never had an issue. Remember Alton smokes with a cardboard box or flower pots.

[Richtee]

I have had some success by using the small lump hunks mixed with chipped pecan. Needs to be about 50/50. I save the stuff that falls thru my charcoal chimney for this. lay the charcoal on the bottom and chips on top.