Content
A smokehouse from a washing machine can be made with your own hands in a couple of hours. The household appliance has an almost ready-made body for a new homemade product. It just needs to be modified a little. This smokehouse works by burning wood in the usual way or using an electric coil.
Advantages and disadvantages
Before you start making a smokehouse, you need to find out all the pros and cons of homemade products. This will give you a clear idea of whether such a design is needed at home.
There are no serious shortcomings in a homemade smokehouse that would prevent you from making it
Advantages:
- If you have a discarded washing machine lying around at home, it will make a completely free smokehouse. You will have to pay a decent amount for a store-bought equivalent.
- For the smokehouse, you can use the body of a washing machine or a stainless drum. These are ready-made containers that will need to be altered a little.
- When the smokehouse becomes unnecessary, you don’t mind throwing it away, turning it into scrap metal, or using a grinder to cut it into sheets of tin.
- The drum and body of the washing machine are thin-walled. They will make a light smokehouse that can even be taken outdoors.
If we talk about shortcomings, it is almost impossible to find them here. Sometimes in reviews there are opinions that the stainless steel of the drum or tank is not food grade and is undesirable to use. However, the product does not come into contact with the metal in any way. In addition, the body of the smokehouse does not heat up from the smoke to such a temperature that it could release any harmful substances.
Operating principle
In general terms, a smokehouse is a container in which products are suspended inside. Smoking occurs due to enveloping them in smoke. According to the principle of operation, smokehouses are divided into two types:
- If a smokehouse is provided from a cold-smoked washing machine, then smoke is supplied to its body from the hearth (smoke generator) through a special channel. This removal allows you to reduce the temperature inside the working chamber. The product is smoked longer, but it is not subjected to heat treatment and acquires a golden shell.
To obtain cold smoking, the smoke generator is located separately from the smokehouse, and smoke is fed into the working chamber through a channel
- It is easy to make a hot smoked smokehouse from a washing machine with your own hands, where there is no need to separately create a fireplace and lay a channel from it. Smoke is generated directly under the working chamber. The product in the smokehouse is subjected to heat treatment, it cooks faster, but it turns out slightly cooked.
During hot smoking, sawdust smolders inside the working chamber of the smokehouse from an electric coil or a fire built under the bottom of the container
For any type of smokehouse, sawdust is burned. This is done in two ways: natural or using an electric spiral. Sawdust does not burn, but constantly smolders, emitting thick smoke.
To get any type of smokehouse, use a tin body or a stainless steel tank from a washing machine. If it is an automatic machine, then a drum for loading laundry is suitable. Some old models of Soviet-made washing machines were produced with an aluminum tank. It is better not to use it if hot smoking is intended. High temperatures cause aluminum to deform and melt.
Photos, diagrams, drawings
The design of the smoking apparatus is so simple that it is easy to understand even by looking at photos. There is no point in drawing your own drawings of a smokehouse from a washing machine, since they use a ready-made tank. A simple diagram is enough to quickly understand the device.
In general terms, the smokehouse consists of the following elements:
- working chamber where food is smoked;
- mesh or lattice;
- cover with smoke outlet.
It is easier for a novice master to assemble a smokehouse according to the simplest scheme from a washing machine, which provides hot smoking
More complex smokehouses are complemented with other elements. For example, you can install a grease tray and several nets inside the chamber, but on the lower tier the temperature is higher. The product will cook faster.If this is an electric smokehouse, the layout provides for the location of a spiral heater.
How to make a smokehouse from a washing machine with your own hands
Before starting assembly, the first thing to decide is the smoking method: cold or hot. This determines whether it is necessary to make an additional smoke generator for the smokehouse. However, the design of such a unit is complex. It is optimal for the first time to assemble a hot smoked smokehouse from a washing machine, which consists of one working chamber.
Tools and materials
Since the design of the smokehouse is simple, all you need is a screwdriver, pliers and a hammer. They are most useful for disassembling the washing machine itself. If additional accessories are provided, you need a welding machine, an electric drill and a grinder.
A welding machine will be needed to weld the stand or legs of the smokehouse
The washing machine itself needs materials. The stand or legs are made of tubes, corners, profiles. It is difficult to find a grill of the right size. To make it you will need stainless steel rods.
Preparation of the main part
Preparatory work begins with disassembling the old washing machine. In addition to electrical equipment, all fasteners are removed. They leave the tank bare. There will be a hole on the bottom in the area where the impeller is located. It can be welded, but an inexperienced welder cannot cope with thin metal. It is easier to close the hole with a plug made of two metal washers secured with a bolt.
The hole on the bottom of the tank from the machine must be plugged so that flames from the fire do not enter the chamber through it and sawdust does not fall out
Installing the stand
The next step is to make a stand on which the smokehouse will stand. If you have a barbecue at home, this process can be avoided. You can start a fire in it, and put a smokehouse on top with sawdust sprinkled on the bottom.
A stand under the smokehouse is needed to build a fire under its bottom.
If there is no grill, you will have to make a stand. A simple option is to lay several rows of dry red brick without mortar or use a couple of cinder blocks. A more complex, but better way is to weld a stand from a pipe, profile or corner. There are 4 legs for stability. It is advisable to make them in two parts with bolts so that they can be adjusted in height. This will make it possible to raise the smokehouse higher from the fire to reduce the intensity of sawdust smoldering.
Making a tray and grate
During hot smoking, fat from the product drips onto the smoldering sawdust. They may flare up. To prevent this from happening, a pallet is provided. It is cut out of sheet steel or stainless steel. In the lower part of the working chamber of the smokehouse, holders are attached to the walls, on which the pallet is placed.
The grate should follow the shape of the tank, have a small distance between the rods so that food does not fall through
To allow for more product loading at a time, two grates are provided. They are welded from stainless steel rods.The grate of the first tier is placed on pre-fixed holders located at least 40 cm from the bottom of the working chamber. The second-level grille is placed 25 cm higher from the previous element.
In addition to the grates and tray, a cover is provided for the working chamber. You can use it from your washing machine. You just need to make a hole to remove the smoke.
Varieties and manufacturing options
Washing machines come in different configurations: round and square, regular and automatic. The design of the smoking device depends on the design features of the equipment.
From an old washing machine
Soviet-style household appliances were most often produced in the form of a barrel. It consists of a tin body and a stainless steel tank. To assemble a smokehouse from an old washing machine with your own hands, you first need to disassemble it. There are few details there. The motor, impeller, clock mechanism and several fasteners are dismantled.
The tin body of the machine will serve as a stand
For the efficiency of the smokehouse, it is optimal to find another stainless steel tank of a similar size. The bottom is cut off with a grinder. The resulting ring is used to build up the first tank. They can be welded or bolted together.
The tin body of the machine on which the tank is mounted will serve as a stand. Rectangular windows are cut out opposite each other in the side wall using a grinder. Firewood is loaded through them to make a fire. Inside the working chamber, sawdust is poured on the bottom, a tray and grates are hung. Cover everything on top with a lid.
Electric smokehouse
The advantage of an electric smoker is that there is no need to constantly keep the fire burning. The sawdust smolders due to the heating of the spiral or heating element. However, there is also a minus. A self-assembled smokehouse from a washing machine tank consumes a lot of electricity, since a heater needs a power of at least 1 kW.
The heating element is mounted in the bottom of the tank, where sawdust will be poured
It is not necessary to make a high stand for an electric smoker. Enough small legs for better stability and lifting the bottom off the ground. A closed-type air heating element or a spiral from an electric stove is suitable as a heater. In the second option, the open element is fixed to a dielectric non-combustible material.
The heater contacts are led out through holes in the bottom outside the working chamber. Here, too, dielectric inserts are provided to prevent the formation of a short circuit. Further actions are aimed at the internal arrangement of the smokehouse: tray, grates, lid.
From the drum
A modern machine gun has a completely different design. To assemble a smokehouse from a washing machine drum with your own hands, you need to remove it from there. If the household appliance was designed for side loading, no preparatory steps need to be taken. The drum is placed on a welded stand with the loading window up, after which the internal arrangement begins.
The drum from an automatic machine with side loading does not require modification
The drum design of a top-loading machine is slightly different. It has a loading door on the side, and the ends on both sides are blank.One of the blind sides of such a drum is cut off with a grinder, and the other is used as the bottom of the smokehouse. The loading door is useful for adding sawdust.
Smoking rules
After the alteration, you can smoke meat, lard, fish, vegetables and other products in the washing machine. The essence of the process is that sawdust is poured onto the bottom. They are brought to smoldering by burning a fire or a working electric heater. Products are laid out on racks. A small gap is left between them so that they are well enveloped in smoke.
By opening the loading door you can regulate the temperature inside the chamber
Smoking rules depend on the selected recipe and product. For each option, the recommended temperature is maintained inside the chamber. You can reduce it by opening the lid or loading door.
Cold smoking is always long-lasting. For example, meat or homemade sausages, according to some recipes, must arrive in smoke for several days. Hot smoking is always fast. Sometimes 2-3 hours are enough for complete readiness. Vegetables smoke even faster.
Conclusion
A smokehouse from a washing machine can be assembled at home with your own hands. The design will be economical and functional. It is in no way inferior to its store-bought counterpart.
