adam clyde
TVWBB Pro
ok, this discussion started on the grilling page, because we were originally looking at building this beast primarily for grilling. But... we've changed our minds and want to build a real pit. So... we are in possession of a 250 gallon water tank waiting to be turned into a pig cooker. In looking at the myriad projects online for folks who've done this, we think we have a pretty good design. However, we have a few questions we are hoping you guys might know the answer to. The questions mostly deal with air flow.
First, on an offset, do you need to have a damper of some sort to control the amount of air flowing from the firebox to the smoker? A related question, I've noticed most pits have a valve of sorts on the top of the chimney exhaust as well. On our little WSMs, this isn't an issue, since you leave the top exhaust open all the time. Why would you need to control the exhaust pipe? Does doing so regulate the amount of smoke you are drawing into the cooking chamber? I assume closing it up would cause creosote to build up...?
These questions lead to a bigger issue... there must be some sort of equation or something to keep in mind around the amount of air flowing through the system and how large the exhaust pipe is. And this probably relates to whether you can control the intake from the firebox. Like, based on the size of your cooking chamber, you need an exhaust pipe x inches wide so you can draw enough smoke out of the system... etc.
Man, this gets complicated. I thought all you'd need to do was control the amount of air you are giving the firebox, so you can control the heat.
OK, last question for now. If I wanted to make this a true stick burner (i.e., no charcoal, only fueled by logs), how do you control the amount of smoke you give the meat? or is it impossible? I'd rather build this one to live only off of logs, but not sure you could avert oversmoking your meat otherwise?
Help! I need your advice...
(for what it is worth, we are basing our design loosely on this and this ). But modifying them to come up with a hybrid grill/smoker option to boot. should be pretty cool. I'll definitely share with everyone once we finish the sucker.
First, on an offset, do you need to have a damper of some sort to control the amount of air flowing from the firebox to the smoker? A related question, I've noticed most pits have a valve of sorts on the top of the chimney exhaust as well. On our little WSMs, this isn't an issue, since you leave the top exhaust open all the time. Why would you need to control the exhaust pipe? Does doing so regulate the amount of smoke you are drawing into the cooking chamber? I assume closing it up would cause creosote to build up...?
These questions lead to a bigger issue... there must be some sort of equation or something to keep in mind around the amount of air flowing through the system and how large the exhaust pipe is. And this probably relates to whether you can control the intake from the firebox. Like, based on the size of your cooking chamber, you need an exhaust pipe x inches wide so you can draw enough smoke out of the system... etc.
Man, this gets complicated. I thought all you'd need to do was control the amount of air you are giving the firebox, so you can control the heat.
OK, last question for now. If I wanted to make this a true stick burner (i.e., no charcoal, only fueled by logs), how do you control the amount of smoke you give the meat? or is it impossible? I'd rather build this one to live only off of logs, but not sure you could avert oversmoking your meat otherwise?
Help! I need your advice...
(for what it is worth, we are basing our design loosely on this and this ). But modifying them to come up with a hybrid grill/smoker option to boot. should be pretty cool. I'll definitely share with everyone once we finish the sucker.