British BBQ Society Forums

Hi all,
I have been planning on sorting out a small smoker for a while now. I have a smokey joe so I was planning on making a mini wsm from it using a large pot but I have not found a suitable one at the right price.
My father in law has a few old propane tanks hanging around which he can't return or scrap so I thought I might turn one of those into a larger vertical type with a hinged door on the front.

I have seen a lot turned into horizontal ones with a separate fire box but I like the fact that this would have a small footprint and be nice and simple. Any thoughts on this? Has anyone seen anything similar? Does this type work ok is is the temp a lot harder to control? Thanks in advance.

Here are the two options (upside down ones)

I've seen them used in controlled environments, a guy at Cleveden market had one he allegedly smoked his chillies in, but it seems a tad small for commercial use. So they exist but for an explanaition on how to create one, you'd best wait till someone who didn't throw their meccano away in a tantrum

Hehe thanks Keith, I imagine it would be a good size for small batches of chillies. I am currently growing some as it happens.

A lot of the pictures I have seen from the states use huge propane tanks but I just want something I can tuck away in a corner. I guess the internal setup would be something like this but with a front opening door and possibly a chimney on top which can be opened and closed.

Hi all,
Thought I would just go ahead with this and see how it goes! Here is what I have done so far (not much!)

If the temp ends up being too hard to control I will build a separate fire box.

Hi Thomasz
Looking good so far!
With the vertical smoker set up you might find it hard to remove your cooking racks due to the internal diamiter of the tank, most verticak smokers have removable lids to ease this process, you will have to fabricate custom racks for this design and that will cut down on your actual cooking area.
Turning the tank horizontal and just having one large rack will give you a larger cooking area, plus making it easier to get to the meat.
Using this design you could do away with side firebox and just use it to cook indirectly by setting your coals at one and of the tank, and meat at the other, air intake at the fire side and an exhaust at the other, this way you can have a dual purpose smoker and grill.
Si

Thanks for the input Si.
That is a good idea actually. I was going to cut the door really wide so I could put the racks in at an angle but I had not considered a horizontal set up with internal fire. Could probably mod it into a chicken rotisserie too! I might revise my plans, it makes no difference at the stage I am at. The only difference is that it takes up more room but I can leave the foot on it to store it vertically when not in use.

Any idea about how large the exhaust chimney and intake vent/valve should be? I was thinking of a ball valve(s) for the intake.

On a set up that size I would reccomend a large ball valve, not sure how large they go upto.
On most fires the rule of thumb is same size intake to outake to get a proper flow of smoke.
Look at the smokerbuilders forum on the net, I'm sure Frank Cox and some of the boys could help you out.
Cheers
Si

That's interesting.
I just did this visualisation but it looks like I have made the exhaust much too big!
I will check out the smoker builders forum. What do you think of the idea of having the fire separated by metal shield to even out the heat in the smoking chamber a little?

Hi Mate
That looks GOOD!!!!
Try drilling holes in the heatshield and it should work a good un
Also set the exhaust lower in the and of the tank, you will get more heat and smoke that way.
Si

Cheers Si,

Hopefully I can make some progress on it this weekend!