Building the Smoker

That's the first bit done, the masonry. There have been some changes to the design since the 3D model. The fire box at the bottom now has a smaller door to make it easier to make a door for and reduce excessive air intake. The fire chamber will now be lined with fire bricks from an old storage heater to stop the brickwork from falling apart in the heat. Stainless steel lugs have also been added to hold the rack rails inside the smoking chamber and hold the grill at two different levels for cooking instead of the sideways bricks you see in the model. Fire bricks will also be on top of the big slab to stop it smashing under the hot coals.



Here is the bottom half built with the pin kerbs that separate the two chambers. That is the first course of normal bricks you see on the top. All those beneath are engineering bricks that are hopefully less likely to crack.

And here it is all finished except one brick. We ran out.

You might just be able to see the holes at the bottom for the air intake and the holes at the top for the chimney. We've decided to go for a smaller bore of pipe because four or six inch pipe would rip air through at quite a rate so I'm now after some small bore flue liner, possibly from a caravan.

We might have issues with the pin kerbs cracking if it gets too hot. Hopefully we'll have good control over the temperature with dampers fitted to the air intakes and outlets. But it's looking good! Can't wait to get the metal work done.