Building a Bigger Hardibacker Smoker Options

[cuskit]

Lit her up, she's currently burning in at 400 degrees...
So far so good, gonna do a couple of Cornish Hens tonight in it...

Bluesin

Oh. I thought sure I'd see pizza for the virgin cook.

Looks sooooo good!!

Mike

[Tony M]

Most excellent work Bluesin!

[stolen bean]

Nice Job. Thanks for the post. I'm building a vertical smoker for my new competition rig and will incorporate some of the same practices. The overall dimensions of mine will be 3'x3'x6'. Can't wait to get going on it.

[bluesin]

Nice Job. Thanks for the post. I'm building a vertical smoker for my new competition rig and will incorporate some of the same practices. The overall dimensions of mine will be 3'x3'x6'. Can't wait to get going on it.

Wow, that's a big unit, do the competitions you cook in require you to cook that much food?

Post some pics of your build, we'd love to see them...

Bluesin

[bluesin]

Well after a couple of months of haggling with EZ-Que, who apparently is going out of business I finally managed to get the rotisseries installed. I originally ordered them from EZ-Que and when i did they informed me that they did not have any motors in stock and it would be three weeks, no problem I said, not in any hurry. Then three weeks passed and they still did not have them, another 0 days they said, then another 10 days, etc. I checked around and found them at Amazon, I called EZ-Que and told them that Amazon had them and I could just get them from there and EZ-Que could just send me the cradles t a price minus the motors. They said they woulkd check with Amazon to see if they could get the motors and get back with me and I waited and never heard from them again. I went ahead and purchased the motors from Amazon and called EZ-Que/Sent emails to tell them that I had the motors and to just send me the cradles, no reply to either the phone call or the email. So I went back to Amazon and just bought some EZ- Que cradles from them that pretty much fit what I needed, they are replacement spits for a Weber rotisserie, but they were the size I wanted.

Only problem I had is apparently the Weber rotisserie spins counter-clockwise and the motors I bought spin clockwise, luckily for me they are DC motors so its just a matter of reversing the batteries to make the motor spin in the other direction...

Picture of the mounts, I just made the brackets from some 8 gage steel...




And here is a pic of them inside the smoker.




Going to throw a butt in there today and see how they work. So far I am absoutely loving this new smoker, it really is the pinnacle of outdoor cooking as far as I'm concerned, now that it has the rotisseries in it I really can't imagine wanting for anything as far as cooking devices goes...

I issued a dispute to EZ-Que through American Express so hopefully I won't lose that lump of cashola. And I do hope they can get things worked out as the products are top notch for sure...

Bluesin

[cuskit]

Well after a couple of months of haggling with EZ-Que, who apparently is going out of business I finally managed to get the rotisseries installed. I originally ordered them from EZ-Que and when i did they informed me that they did not have any motors in stock and it would be three weeks, no problem I said, not in any hurry. Then three weeks passed and they still did not have them, another 0 days they said, then another 10 days, etc. I checked around and found them at Amazon, I called EZ-Que and told them that Amazon had them and I could just get them from there and EZ-Que could just send me the cradles t a price minus the motors. They said they woulkd check with Amazon to see if they could get the motors and get back with me and I waited and never heard from them again. I went ahead and purchased the motors from Amazon and called EZ-Que/Sent emails to tell them that I had the motors and to just send me the cradles, no reply to either the phone call or the email. So I went back to Amazon and just bought some EZ- Que cradles from them that pretty much fit what I needed, they are replacement spits for a Weber rotisserie, but they were the size I wanted.

Only problem I had is apparently the Weber rotisserie spins counter-clockwise and the motors I bought spin clockwise, luckily for me they are DC motors so its just a matter of reversing the batteries to make the motor spin in the other direction...

Picture of the mounts, I just made the brackets from some 8 gage steel...




And here is a pic of them inside the smoker.




Going to throw a butt in there today and see how they work. So far I am absoutely loving this new smoker, it really is the pinnacle of outdoor cooking as far as I'm concerned, now that it has the rotisseries in it I really can't imagine wanting for anything as far as cooking devices goes...

I issued a dispute to EZ-Que through American Express so hopefully I won't lose that lump of cashola. And I do hope they can get things worked out as the products are top notch for sure...

Bluesin

Dave,

Sorry to hear of the headaches with EZ-Que. I can't imagine them holding back you dinero!

Your smoker reminds me (on a smaller scale) of the chicken rotisserie inside Costco! To bad you couldn't put them on a chain track drive, so as they spin, they also move rotate from bottom to top for more even cooking! I'm sure that's your next mod!

Looking good - post your first roto cooks.

Mike

[bluesin]

Dave,

Sorry to hear of the headaches with EZ-Que. I can't imagine them holding back you dinero!

Your smoker reminds me (on a smaller scale) of the chicken rotisserie inside Costco! To bad you couldn't put them on a chain track drive, so as they spin, they also move rotate from bottom to top for more even cooking! I'm sure that's your next mod!

Looking good - post your first roto cooks.

Mike

In my dispute I specifically said I still wanted the merchandise, the problem is aparently they cannot get stuff because they relied totally on foreign manufactured goods and because of the supply side shutdown in trade with America they can't get goods. The only companies that are allowed to get any goods currently is the bigger companies, this is one reason people are having such a hard time getting replacement parts for grills and such.

As to the top to bottom, not sure how much that would help really as this smoker is wood fired and has a strong convection flow, just having the meat turn will help a lot. The smoker really has very little variance in temps from the top to the bottom once you settle into a cook and everything heats up.

Anyway, the butt is in and here it is!



Dave

[GeorgeH]

I take it the hardibacker material that you are using is 7/16 inches thick?

The sides, having 2 identical pieces glued together, would be 14/16 inches thick or 7/8 inches.

Do you always use double hardibacker walls on all your builds?

Do you recommend Sumo Glue (that I saw used on another post) or Gorilla glue?

I'm thinking about building an electric smoker based on your design.

George

[Super]

It must be fun hanging out at your house in the summer? I especially like the refractory brick job, real cool!

[bluesin]

Thanks Super!

GeorgeH, sorry for the late reply, I'm working two jobs now trying to get ready to open up a new retail store.

I take it the hardibacker material that you are using is 7/16 inches thick?

The sides, having 2 identical pieces glued together, would be 14/16 inches thick or 7/8 inches.

Do you always use double hardibacker walls on all your builds?

Yep, Its much stronger and much much more insulated, hardibacker simply does not conduct heat nor does it radiate very well so once its heated I can pretty much keep the unit at smoking temps with one or two pieces of charcoal burning at a time. I do have a single wall portable one that I use which I would suggest that you do if your going to go with electric, which you can see the design and build for in this thread. It takes a good startup fire in my unit to heat it up so I don't think that if you use an electric heat source you'll be able to heat it up as the hardibacker will absorb a lot of heat energy until the temps even out between it and the air inside so the single wall unit will probably be better...

Dave

[Tubby's Smok...]

I take it the hardibacker material that you are using is 7/16 inches thick?

The sides, having 2 identical pieces glued together, would be 14/16 inches thick or 7/8 inches.

Do you always use double hardibacker walls on all your builds?

Do you recommend Sumo Glue (that I saw used on another post) or Gorilla glue?

I'm thinking about building an electric smoker based on your design.

George

I would use something like dura rock or a cement based board as my liner then maybe some hardie around that it will hold heat like it was brick then


jim

[bluesin]

Jim, Hardibacker is a cement based board, what you do not use is Fiberrock, which I used on the first one that pretty much disintegrated...

Dave

[cuskit]

I would use something like dura rock or a cement based board as my liner then maybe some hardie around that it will hold heat like it was brick then


jim

I had started mine a couple of years ago, then shelved it (for many reasons unrelated to the build itself), and hopefully will finish it someday.. Along with my custom pizza oven - another pile of cut up ss sheets..

But I used double wall hardibacker (laminated together), lining the inside (upper "smoking" compartment with 304 stainless sheets (16 gauge) and anodized aluminum sheets (22 gauge) on the outside (with 1-1/4" x 1-1/4" angle aluminum corners). My reasoning: stainless inside would be much easier to keep clean. The aluminum outside would look good with little maintenance and stay cooler to the touch.

The lower compartment (fire section) is lined with fire brick, with a 15" square flue opening into the smoking compartment above it. I have two swiveling cap openings on the lower (front left and right rear) sides of the fire compartment to control air input.

Any thoughts good or bad on this approach? I got as far as cutting all the material, and used my sheet metal brake to hem all the edges of the interior stainless sheets for "seamed" inside corners. The aluminum does not require hemming as it is held tightly with the angle aluminum corners. All corners will be sealed with fireproof caulking and bolted together with ss bolts/washers/nuts.

The doors are two sheets of laminated hardie wrapped with ss inside and out. I'm using ss handles, and boring a hole in each door for thermometers, one on the lower "fire compartment" door, and another one on the "smoking" upper compartment door. Plus one more centered on the top of the smoker, with a ss 3" vent stack on the back edge of the top (with a moveable baffle to control the opening size of the stack).

I'm hooking up a NG burner to the fire compartment just below a wire grid that will hold wood chunks/split logs (the NG is mostly just to start the wood burning, but also to subsidize a long smoke (such as butts and briskets) which just need wood smoke the first couple of hours, then a low gas flame after (I'm assuming the first couple of hours will give sufficient smoke ring/flavor) that I won't need to tend to a wood fire for 12+ hours for those longer cooks.

I've got 4 ss strips with holes bored for shelf clips that will hold the adjustable shelves (ss cooking grates). These are removable for easy cleaning. Plus 6 ss hanging clips for the intent of well, hanging pieces of meat!

The entire box is 24" x 24" x 44" high, and sit on 4 swiveling (locking) castors.

Any thoughts/comments on this design? My primary goal was to have an efficient, well working smoker that needed minimal "watching" for long smokes, easy cleanup, no permanent maintenance to keep it looking clean, and an attractive exterior.

For now - just a pile of components that never got secured together.. mikey the procrastinator

[Tubby's Smok...]

Jim, Hardibacker is a cement based board, what you do not use is Fiberrock, which I used on the first one that pretty much disintegrated...

Dave

Thats good to know Dave...................the interior hardie backer is 90% cement and sand but has a thermal resistance. I would think something more pourus would hold more heat and act like brick or block, dura rock can take some heat and hold it as it is poured in sheets......... fiberrock consists of fine fibres spun from rocks melted at a high temperature and bonded with a thermosetting resin I can see where that would fall apart on you..

jim

[Tubby's Smok...]

Any thoughts good or bad on this approach?

Thats like my cookshack smoker Mike interior stainless with insulated walls so the built up heat doesn't dissipate, the hardie should work fine for an exterior, my approach would be instead of laminating for thickness insulating for heat retention just like an oven is built although with a gas or electric heat supply it might not even matter


I just like the idea of making your own.............. Dave's Idea is sweet


jim