Gun Safe Smoker

[RiverRat78]

A friend gave me an old safe that won't lock anymore and I've been trying to figure it what to do with it. A while back I realized a smoker would be nice and then I couldn't decide electric or gas. Within the last week or so decided electric would be easier to finish my project so I found a nice hot plate at Goodwill today to finish my project.

At the moment I don't know if I'll add a chimney or not cause I want to make sure it will fill up with smoke and also heat up. I had it running for around an hour and 15 minutes and it only got to 150°.

Pretty excited and hope it turns out good!

[10_point_buck]

In the summer, that is not getting up to temperature very fast. You may need to see about a different hotplate if you are going to stay electric, or look at something that was made to get hotter, like an element out of an oven.

With that being said, you need something with a bit more gusto. I'd go gas and see how that works. A burner off of an outdoor fish fryer works great and with the regulator, you can adjust your flame. I'd put some kind of venting holes in the top, enough to draw air up. How sealed is your safe? If you generate enough heat, you will have no problem generating smoke. Getting up to temperature should be your goal. We usually smoke at about 200 F to 210 F when we do meat in our walk-in smoker. We are using gas for our heat.

Good luck and keep us updated.

[perchhunter]

For your safety, I would remove all paint from inside, could put out some noxious fumes into whatever you are smoking.

[10_point_buck]

^-------+1 ! Did not even notice that

[cougarw]

I tried that once, in the winter the hot plate will not get hot enough, not even two hot plates. I switched to gas. Gas puts off condensation and water drops will form on the ceiling and drip on the top row of meat and will not dry out. I then added a flew on the top to let out moisture. You will have to rotate the bottom and top racks every hr or so because "fire" will over dry whatever is closest to it. You can put 30 lbs of jerky in it if you have enough racks, do what I just told you and babysit it all day and you will make some very good jerky.

[RiverRat78]

Lol completely forgot about this thread. I ended up using gas for this smoker however I ended up getting a Cabela's smoker for Xmas last year and have been using it. I still plan on trying to finish this smoker but I'm glad someone said something about the paint. I'll get that stuff removed. I am going to have to make a bigger vent for the bottom and the top because the vents I have now ended up snuffing my flame out on my burner.

Thanks for input guys.