Put "THIS" in your pipe and smoke it

[John@PC]

This was one of my dear Dad's favorite aphorisms and it fits here.  Background:  I have an Amazin 6x6 smoker pan that does great during the colder months but I can't use it during the warm ones.  I would love to have a "Smoking Gun" but wondered if I could cobble up something similar with what I had laying around.  Thus the "Smoking Pipe ::)"   Can't see it in the pictures but I'm using a small aquarium pump to push enough air to the pipe.  Updates to come.

[Al Lewis]

John don't bother with the smoke pistol.  I have one and they do work as advertised however I've found that this works better and can be used with any container if you just run some aluminum flex tube between it and the container.  It's an attachment for electric smokers but will work great with anything.  $70.00 and it burns pellets and chips.  About 18" tall.  It provide great cold smoke for 6-9 hours on one load of fuel.  Check one out at Walmart .com.

[John@PC]

$70.00 and it burns pellets and chips.

Thanks Al but that's $70 more than I wanted to spend :).  My goal is to have something I can use indoors (or in the garage) and uses minimal wood (I would think 1 to 2g would satisfy that goal).  I also thought my full size polycarb pan would work good because I can feed the pump tubing through the drain fitting and keep everything "tight".  And I didn't want to spend $100 for the pistol.

As for an update, I found out that (1) you do not want to use freezer paks; you want the smoke to be warmer than surround air so it will stratify, and (2) once the wood is used up you need to cut the air pump off so it doesn't displace the smoke.  I also made a little mesh "chimney" in pic 1 to help get air to the wood.

Still a work in progress.

[jmason]

It looks like a galvanized pipe elbow.  Might black pipe be a better idea?  It reminds me of some of the contraptions we came up with as teenagers, but as memory serves I don't think it was wood we were burning.

John

[Al Lewis]

Looks like your current setup is working just fine. ;D

[John@PC]

It reminds me of some of the contraptions we came up with as teenagers, but as memory serves I don't think it was wood we were burning.

Good one John.  This is more like an "inverse pipe" with the airflow blowing into the "pipe".  Makes it a little more difficult to maintain burning embers but the new set up is better. 

Picture of finished cheeses is attached.  About 2 1/2 hr. and two "loads" of the pipe.  The cheese was quite yellow on top (like it had annato in it) but not on bottom so I should have flipped between smokes (or reverse-tokes if you're of that mindset >:D).  Cheese surface stayed below 85F which was quite good considering ambient was about 80F and the pipe was pumping a little bit of BTU into the vessel.

Seriously I think it's worth working on further.  There aren't many smokers you can use in your house, and with the right control you could "load" the chamber then cut everything off for awhile and repeat.  It didn't stink up my garage that much at all - not quite as good as a fine cigar but close :).

[Kern]

It would be interesting to cut one of the cheeses and see how far the yellow penetrated - hint, hint.   ;)

[awakephd]

I like the idea, but echo the concern with using what looks like a galvanized pipe. Zinc fumes can cause "fume fever" (a condition most associated with welding); not sure what if any danger it poses to cheese, or even if the zinc will fume at the temperatures involved, but ...

[qdog1955]

Does that blow ashes on your cheese?  Did you try it with pellets?  And doesn't the government have enough things to regulate? >:D
Qdog

[Al Lewis]

I like the idea, but echo the concern with using what looks like a galvanized pipe. Zinc fumes can cause "fume fever" (a condition most associated with welding); not sure what if any danger it poses to cheese, or even if the zinc will fume at the temperatures involved, but ...

I knew cadium could transfer under heat and cause cadium poisoning but wasn't aware of the zinc.  Good info to have.