{"id":426,"date":"2009-09-10T07:55:11","date_gmt":"2009-09-10T11:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brettbeauregard.com\/blog\/?p=426"},"modified":"2011-04-20T06:59:50","modified_gmt":"2011-04-20T10:59:50","slug":"diy-barbecure-smoke-generator-first-attempt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/brettbeauregard.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/diy-barbecure-smoke-generator-first-attempt\/","title":{"rendered":"DIY Barbecure Smoke Generator &#8211; First Attempt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"Smoking by br3ttb, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/38917611@N08\/3904563343\/sizes\/o\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3540\/3904563343_be4aaa8748.jpg\" alt=\"Smoking\" width=\"450\" height=\"350\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Some serious progress has been made.  We have smoke!  It&#8217;s nowhere near done, but the results are encouraging.  Here&#8217;s what&#8217;s been done since the <a href=\"\/blog\/2009\/09\/diy-barbecue-smoke-generator-project-kickoff\/\">last post<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Toaster Tear-down<\/h2>\n<p><a title=\"Toaster by br3ttb, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/38917611@N08\/3904556057\/sizes\/l\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3520\/3904556057_e57ddb7203.jpg\" alt=\"Toaster\" width=\"450\" height=\"337\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The toaster I used cost me $10 at the thrift store. The first order of business was to take everything apart.  20 minutes with a screwdriver and some wire cutters, and I was left with the components I needed:<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Stripped down by br3ttb, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/38917611@N08\/3904556377\/sizes\/l\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2613\/3904556377_e08196a52c.jpg\" alt=\"Stripped down\" width=\"450\" height=\"337\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A heat-resistant box<\/li>\n<li>2 heating elements<\/li>\n<li>A thermostat<\/li>\n<li>An extra piece of sheet metal for the ramp (formerly the toaster&#8217;s outer shell)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a title=\"Electronics by br3ttb, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/38917611@N08\/3904556167\/sizes\/l\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2650\/3904556167_dc48cfa9aa.jpg\" alt=\"Electronics\" width=\"450\" height=\"337\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>All that stuff is in every toaster, and it&#8217;s all I really needed.  This was a high-end model apparently, so there was a bunch of extra electronic components in there too.  Lots of goodies for future projects. I won&#8217;t bother listing them all, but take a look at this picture.  Not a bad haul for $10!<\/p>\n<h2>Heating Element Relocation<\/h2>\n<p><a title=\"Relocated Heaters by br3ttb, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/38917611@N08\/3904556699\/sizes\/l\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3508\/3904556699_9d55c0bfab.jpg\" alt=\"Relocated Heaters\" width=\"450\" height=\"337\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>With everything apart, I could start construction. Per <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/38917611@N08\/3900117479\/sizes\/l\/\">the design<\/a>, the heating elements were relocated to the bottom corner of the chamber.  I needed new holes, and as you can see from the picture, I did a terrible job.  I should&#8217;ve used a sheet-metal drill.  Instead I used tin-snips.  Oh well.  The holes are in the right place, and the heating elements fit.<\/p>\n<h2>Ramp Construction<\/h2>\n<p><a title=\"Fabbed Ramp by br3ttb, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/38917611@N08\/3905339198\/sizes\/l\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3448\/3905339198_6a1f1b34e8.jpg\" alt=\"Fabbed Ramp\" width=\"225\" height=\"169\" \/><\/a><a title=\"Ramp Inserted by br3ttb, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/38917611@N08\/3904556579\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3535\/3904556579_d6160d3218.jpg\" alt=\"Ramp Inserted\" width=\"225\" height=\"169\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The sheet metal that used to form the oven&#8217;s outer shell was cut and bent to form the wood-feed ramp.  The inner walls of the box are contoured, so it took several tries to get something that fit nicely.<\/p>\n<h2>Thermostat Relocation<\/h2>\n<p><a title=\"Relocated Thermostat by br3ttb, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/38917611@N08\/3905371356\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2673\/3905371356_870ab64391.jpg\" alt=\"Relocated Thermostat\" width=\"450\" height=\"337\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The last thing to do was move the thermostat.  Since all the heat was going to be localized in a new place, I figured the thermostat should be nearer to it. I made a new hole in the center of the back, and mounted it there.<\/p>\n<h2>Time to Test!<\/h2>\n<p><a title=\"Wood by br3ttb, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/38917611@N08\/3904556823\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2463\/3904556823_b79d30858a.jpg\" alt=\"Wood\" width=\"450\" height=\"337\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Other than worrying about electrocution and burns, the testing phase was pretty straight forward:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> I put 3 pieces of apple wood on the ramp so they were touching the heater.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Most of the holes in the hot boxwere then sealed with aluminum foil.  I left holes for air intake and exhaust.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>After plugging it in, it took maybe 10 minutes to find the right thermostat setting.  I slowly upped the temperature until there was a constant flow of smoke.<\/li>\n<li> Beyond that it was just sitting around and basking  in the smokey aroma.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Results<\/h2>\n<p><a title=\"Smoking by br3ttb, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/38917611@N08\/3904563343\/sizes\/o\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3540\/3904563343_be4aaa8748.jpg\" alt=\"Smoking\" width=\"450\" height=\"350\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Of course there&#8217;s lots of work still to be done, but I&#8217;m really happy with this first attempt.<\/p>\n<p>The Positive:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Those 3 pieces of applewood gave me 5 hours of smoke. I only had to intervene twice; shaking the box  a little to get the wood to the heaters.  Other than that it was continuous, automatic smoke!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Room for improvement:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> The smoke density wasn&#8217;t constant at all.\u00c2\u00a0 When the heaters were on there was a lot more smoke formation (Heat + increased convective airflow.) When they we off the smoke tapered off.<\/li>\n<li>Needing to manually shake the ramp violates one of the main design criteria I&#8217;m shooting for.  This thing should &#8220;operate unattended.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Currently the thermostat is out in the open, making it susceptible to ambient temperature changes.<\/li>\n<li>It&#8217;s a little dangerous.\u00c2\u00a0 There&#8217;s exposed 120VAC all over the place.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some serious progress has been made. We have smoke! It&#8217;s nowhere near done, but the results are encouraging. Here&#8217;s what&#8217;s been done since the last post. Toaster Tear-down The toaster I used cost me $10 at the thrift store. The &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/brettbeauregard.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/diy-barbecure-smoke-generator-first-attempt\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mechanical","tag-smoke-generator"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/brettbeauregard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/brettbeauregard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/brettbeauregard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/brettbeauregard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/brettbeauregard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426"}],"version-history":[{"count":69,"href":"http:\/\/brettbeauregard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1395,"href":"http:\/\/brettbeauregard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426\/revisions\/1395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/brettbeauregard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/brettbeauregard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/brettbeauregard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}