Do-it-yourself smokehouse from a gas cylinder: hot, cold smoking, how to make

Content

1 Advantages of manufacturing
2 Types of structures
- 2.1 Schemes and models of hot smokehouses
- 2.2 Layout options for cold smoking devices
3 Selection and preparation of the cylinder
- 3.1 What to do if you can’t remove the valve
4 How to make a smokehouse from a gas cylinder with your own hands
5 Finishing and painting
6 Operating rules
7 Photo ideas for DIY cylinder smokehouses
8 Conclusion

Creating a cold and hot smoking apparatus does not require any outstanding knowledge or skills. All you need to do is make a reliable housing and a smoke generator. It is with the body that the main problems arise. Therefore, they use ready-made containers made of metal, it turns out quickly and reliably, for example, a smokehouse from a gas cylinder can be made with your own hands in a day, while building a device from scratch will take at least 3-4 days.

A universal model of a high-performance cylinder smokehouse

Advantages of manufacturing

In theory, a smokehouse can be built from any metal cylinder of suitable size, but it is gas containers that are in greatest demand among home-made workers. There are only two reasons for such sympathies and preferences in favor of gas models:

A suitable cylinder volume is usually 27-50 liters, this is more than enough for a household home smokehouse;
Increased wall thickness. On average, the walls of a gas container for propane are made 4-5 mm thick, while for oxygen cylinders the thickness reaches 9 mm.

At first glance, what difference does it make? For any container, even if you take a cylinder from a boiler or a hydraulic accumulator, the metal of the body will withstand the thermal load under cold or hot smoking conditions.

But this is only at first glance; in practice, when making a smokehouse with your own hands, cold smoking or hot smoking, it does not matter whether you will need to cut out a window of sufficiently large dimensions in the side wall or at the end. Otherwise, placing food inside will be very inconvenient.

Models of smokehouses with bottom loading, despite the simplicity of their design, are not popular

Important! For propane and oxygen cylinders, the wall thickness is large enough to provide the necessary rigidity of the smokehouse even with a cut sector in the wall or bottom.

All other containers of a similar device, the same boiler or hydraulic accumulator, aluminum cylinders for air filters, after cutting, lose stability and can be crushed even with a slight mechanical load. In theory, you can make a smokehouse from a hydraulic accumulator, but working with it will be extremely inconvenient.

Types of structures

The range of homemade smokehouses from cylinders can be divided into four large groups:

Double-hull design with a horizontal wood-fired hot-smoking chamber;
Cold smoked smokehouse with two bodies and a vertical chamber;
Single-body vertical wood-fired hot-smoked smokehouses;
Electric smokehouses.

The design and layout of a smokehouse of the same type may differ, although it is based on the same principle of processing products with a mixture of air, steam and smoke produced in a separate device - a smoke generator. Therefore, to make a cold smoked smokehouse from a cylinder yourself, you will need three containers. For hot smoking devices, you can get by with two or even one large-capacity cylinder, for example, oxygen.

Schemes and models of hot smokehouses

The most common option consists of two cylinders or a pair of steel containers connected to each other through a control valve or a metal elbow.

A good hot smoked smokehouse always consists of three blocks:

Container or small cylinder of a smoke generator;
Chimney with damper;
Horizontal block made from a large propane tank.

Important! There is a grate inside, but, unlike barbecue ovens, the fire with coals in the central block is not lit, otherwise the products may acquire a charcoal smell during the smoking process.

Three-cylinder smokehouse

Moreover, often the inner surface of the cylinder is cleaned to a shine or lined with stainless steel sheets. The metal is easy to clean, so it is possible to avoid the smell of old burnt fat released inside the smokehouse during the processing of lard or fish with hot smoke.

The central cylinder must be equipped with a smoke diffuser

Another sign of a good smokehouse is the use of a pipe - a smoke flow divider. This is an ordinary stainless steel pipe, plugged on one side and perforated with a large number of holes. It is laid at the bottom of the middle section from the smoke generator to the chimney. Thanks to the divider, all products are smoked in the smokehouse with smoke of the same temperature.

You can make a vertical smokehouse from a gas cylinder with your own hands. In terms of their design, such devices are considered more advanced, since all the filling, including the smoke generator, are collected inside one cylinder.

The vertical model is easier to build and has higher productivity

The shape and design of such a device turns out to be more laconic; making such a hot smoked smokehouse from a gas cylinder makes sense, if only because it takes up less space and is easier to operate and transport.

Layout options for cold smoking devices

Apparatuses for processing products with cold smoke are usually built from three cylinders. The smallest, 10-25 liters, is used to generate smoke. The middle section is used as a cooler, and the last one, made from the largest cylinder, essentially functions as a smoking cabinet.

Scheme for cold smoking

In this case, the central section is not loaded, or in rare cases a container with flavored water is placed.

There are also designs with a vertical cylinder arrangement; in this case, the smoke is cooled to the required temperature by supplying cold air through an additional pipe.

In a homemade version, cooling of the smoke can also be carried out using a water bath.

Apartment version of the smokehouse

Selection and preparation of the cylinder

For the manufacture of the device, Soviet-made gas containers of 50 liters and 27 liters are best suited. The metal on the walls of such cylinders is thicker, and the quality of the welds is noticeably higher than that of modern models. A hot smoked smokehouse made from such a gas cylinder, photo, will be much more durable and reliable.

Before attempting to take the first steps in making a smokehouse, the cylinder must be washed and freed from any remaining gas-condensate film on the inner walls. To do this, the valve is treated with brake fluid or kerosene, after which it is turned out with a special balloon wrench.

The next stage is washing. Pour water with a small amount of soap inside and let the liquid sit for at least a day. Then everything is drained, the procedure for washing the cylinder can be repeated with hot water.

Advice! At the dacha, before making a smokehouse, you can evaporate the balloon, add a small amount of water, and put it on the fire to boil for at least half an hour.

In this way, containers or cylinders from petroleum products are evaporated in production before welding work is performed.

What to do if you can’t remove the valve

In old cylinders, the tap sticks so much that it can only be turned off after burning off the investment lubricant and the cord on the threads. But this should absolutely not be done until the container has been flushed of residual gas and condensate.

Therefore, you have to drill holes in the bottom and top walls of the cylinder, through which the container is washed.

How to make a smokehouse from a gas cylinder with your own hands

First of all, you need to decide on the design of the smoking apparatus and use the principle of cold or hot smoking.Not only the technology differs, but also the quality of the product and its shelf life in the smokehouse. In addition, you will need to choose the type of device, make it mobile or choose a stationary version of the smokehouse. In the first case, it is advisable to limit yourself to a minimum number of cylinders in order to reduce the dimensions and weight of the structure. In the second case, restrictions are removed, and the appearance and quality of the prepared product comes to the fore.

Do-it-yourself hot smoked smokehouse from a cylinder

Devices built on the principle of hot and cold smoking are not interchangeable. That is, in a hot smokehouse, with fine adjustment of the smoke generator, you can smoke with cold smoke if desired, although the quality of the products will be mediocre. In a cold smokehouse, the cylinder arrangement system will not allow organizing hot processing at the required level of quality, no matter how hard you try. Therefore, most homebuilders prefer to build the hot version, even at higher costs.

Model selection

For the first experience, it is best to choose the simplest option, for example, to assemble a smokehouse from an oxygen cylinder with your own hands. The diagram of such a device is presented below, nothing complicated. All you have to do is cut out the door, weld the awnings and install grills or hangers for fish and meat inside.

Scheme for an oxygen cylinder

Advice! If thick pieces are loaded into the smokehouse, then you will need to make a chimney, otherwise hot smoke will pour out of all the cracks.

Features of the smoking apparatus:

The smoke generator in the smokehouse is a pile of wood chips poured onto the bottom of the cylinder. Heating is carried out with an open flame through a thick metal bottom;
To install the smokehouse, you will need to weld metal supports made of reinforcement to the cylinder;
Metal strips are welded onto the cracks and into the base of the neck to prevent air from leaking inside the smokehouse. Otherwise the smoke may ignite.

Oxygen cylinders are difficult to buy at an affordable price, so hot smoking enthusiasts make their own vertical smokehouses from propane gas containers.

For stationary smokehouses, you can use the classic model with a horizontal arrangement of the main smoking section.

Dimensions and drawings

This design is considered more difficult to manufacture, since it is necessary to ensure high quality welds on the relatively thin metal of the propane cylinder. In addition, even from the drawings it can be seen that a hot smoked smokehouse made from a gas cylinder is too bulky and heavy.

Diagram of a hot smokehouse of the “locomotive” type

Therefore, horizontal hot-smoking devices are often made for the status of the owners rather than for actual smoking and preparing food for the winter. A detailed description of assembling a smokehouse with your own hands from a gas cylinder is shown in the video:

Preparation of tools and materials

Regardless of the chosen scheme, to build the apparatus you will need:

Welding machine, semi-automatic or inverter with automatic current adjustment function for thin metal;
Grinder with a set of cutting discs;
Electric drill with a set of drills and a nozzle with bronze bristles for removing rust and paint;
Metal scissors.

In addition, it will be useful to have a variety of plumbing tools on hand, ranging from a coccyx wrench, pliers, a set of files, and a clamp.During assembly you will have to use steel reinforcement, sheet metal, rods and pipe scraps. In any garage, any DIYer always has enough of this kind of rubbish, so there will be no problems with materials.

Assembly algorithm, assembling the firebox

A vertical smokehouse is assembled from a lower compartment, or firebox, and an upper compartment, the smoking cabinet. First you need to make a firebox from a 27 liter propane cylinder. To do this, cut off the floor of the body and one of the round walls from the container, from which the bottom bottom will be made. We weld the legs to it, and in the remaining part we cut out a window for the door, a smoke outlet and a grate.

Firebox from a 27l cylinder

Additionally, you will need to install a grate and hang the door.

Assembling the upper cabinet of the smokehouse

A standard 50 liter cylinder is used for the smoking compartment. We cut out the door to almost the entire height of the container, and install gratings inside for storing food.

The main problem is how to properly weld the two bodies

We align both bodies level and plumb and weld along the contact line

Align the door position and weld the awnings

All that remains is to weld the pipe, and the smokehouse from a gas cylinder is ready for use.

Cold smoked smokehouse from a gas cylinder

The operation of a cold smoking apparatus requires that the system necessarily have a container or line in which the smoke would be cooled to the required temperature of 40^ABOUTC before it gets into the food container.