Homemade Smoker - South Louisiana

I built one out of wood about 4 years ago and it's still going great.

I can hot or cold smoke in it and that's what I was looking for. The actual smoker box is 4 ft. tall by 2 ft. wide by about 20 inches deep. I have 3 wire shelves set up in it to put product.

To cold smoke I have a smaller box built that I put a single coil hot plate in it and use a small stainless steel pan to put my wood pellets in that to smoke. From the top of the small box I have a gutter downspout starter screwed to the top of the box right over the pan of wood pellets. To that, I hook an elbow and a 5 ft. piece of 3 x 4 inch downspout and run it to a rectangular hole cut in the side of my box smoker near the bottom.

I can keep the temperature under 90 degrees when cold smoking using that rig.

When hot smoking I have a rectangular metal pan that I snake coals in and add my wood chunks to it and can keep the temperature inside the smoker around 160 up to 250 depending on what I'm smoking.


Forgot to mention----I'm in New Orleans and have had no issues with mold or mildew. Once that smoker is blacked up with smoke, I don't think anything like that will take hold.

Thanks everyone!