Homemade smoker/stove/rocket stove

[TNThomas]

Hi folks, as much as I enjoy pre-packaged food, nothing beats a warm meal or a hot drink. Last year I realized that if the power went out, I really didn't have a great setup for cooking/preparing food. I have the typical small backpacking stoves, which are great, but they all use fuel, which I dont keep a terribly large supply of, abd they cant prep large quantities of food. With this in mind I spent quite a bit of time thinking, and researching on what type of mini wood stove to build. I wanted something that was muli-purpose, made of steel, sturdy, small-ish (portable), and wood fired. What I made is essentially a very small offset smoker/rocket stove. The 4" square tubing coming off of the firebox doubles as a hot cooking surface. I spaced it so an 8" cast iron sits perfectly in the middle. On the smoke stack, I made a 9-port rocket stove. I still need to make a small removeable grate for the top. The logic for this is that I essentially have multiple different cooking methods all running off of wood, all attached to the same thing. The smoker realistically tops out between 200-250 deg F at full bore, but I have done 20 lbs of pork butt on it. The "hot plate" between the firebox and smoke chamber works great, and is hotter since its closer to the flame. The multi port rocket stove will throw flames about 2 feet out the top if all 9 ports are loaded with wood. Essentially you drop lit tinder/paper the stove pipe, then lift the steel flaps, and load kindling/twigs into each yellow opening. Flame rises vertically lighting the wood as it moves up. Oxygen is pulled in from the bottom where it connects to the smoke chamber. There is an ash cleanout door at the bottom, its painted blue. All fuel does take a little maintenance since its small, but it works, and is super fuel efficient. I use about 1/6th as much wood to smoke compared to a full size smoker. I still need to put small legs on it, paint it, and weld on a 2" male reciver for a standard truck hitch (so it can be bolted to a bumper). Fire box is an old mini Oxygen tank. Smoke chamber is 2-20lb propane tanks welded together, and yellow steel is from an old engine stand.

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[Joe13]

Dang! That's a lot.


I just keep a few 5 gal bottles of propane topped off for my Colman stove and heaters…

I guess I'm lazy.

Someday I may add a wood stove in my garage and I would be able to cook on top of that.

 

[Kyrsen]

I make Asian style street grills with coffee cans. They're powered with charcoal or wood and can be assembled with a can opener and a drill or hammer and nails. Only the upper half of the can has coals and the lower half is empty. Separated by the perforated former bottom of the can. The whole thing sits in an old cookie tin to catch ash.

 

[Mikej]

Hi folks, as much as I enjoy pre-packaged food, nothing beats a warm meal or a hot drink. Last year I realized that if the power went out, I really didn't have a great setup for cooking/preparing food. I have the typical small backpacking stoves, which are great, but they all use fuel, which I dont keep a terribly large supply of, abd they cant prep large quantities of food. With this in mind I spent quite a bit of time thinking, and researching on what type of mini wood stove to build. I wanted something that was muli-purpose, made of steel, sturdy, small-ish (portable), and wood fired. What I made is essentially a very small offset smoker/rocket stove. The 4" square tubing coming off of the firebox doubles as a hot cooking surface. I spaced it so an 8" cast iron sits perfectly in the middle. On the smoke stack, I made a 9-port rocket stove. I still need to make a small removeable grate for the top. The logic for this is that I essentially have multiple different cooking methods all running off of wood, all attached to the same thing. The smoker realistically tops out between 200-250 deg F at full bore, but I have done 20 lbs of pork butt on it. The "hot plate" between the firebox and smoke chamber works great, and is hotter since its closer to the flame. The multi port rocket stove will throw flames about 2 feet out the top if all 9 ports are loaded with wood. Essentially you drop lit tinder/paper the stove pipe, then lift the steel flaps, and load kindling/twigs into each yellow opening. Flame rises vertically lighting the wood as it moves up. Oxygen is pulled in from the bottom where it connects to the smoke chamber. There is an ash cleanout door at the bottom, its painted blue. All fuel does take a little maintenance since its small, but it works, and is super fuel efficient. I use about 1/6th as much wood to smoke compared to a full size smoker. I still need to put small legs on it, paint it, and weld on a 2" male reciver for a standard truck hitch (so it can be bolted to a bumper). Fire box is an old mini Oxygen tank. Smoke chamber is 2-20lb propane tanks welded together, and yellow steel is from an old engine stand.

View attachment 1288284 View attachment 1288285 View attachment 1288286 View attachment 1288287 View attachment 1288288

That is so cool. I wish I would have learned to weld.

 

[Stomper]

Dang! That's a lot.


I just keep a few 5 gal bottles of propane topped off for my Colman stove and heaters…

I guess I'm lazy.

Someday I may add a wood stove in my garage and I would be able to cook on top of that.

I'd just use some woodchips and firewood in my Weber Kettle if I couldn't get charcoal…..

 

[TNThomas]

Dang! That's a lot.


I just keep a few 5 gal bottles of propane topped off for my Colman stove and heaters…

I guess I'm lazy.

Someday I may add a wood stove in my garage and I would be able to cook on top of that.

Its nice to just light and go with propane, so I hear you! Also, great trade value too. Ive been debating the wood stove idea in tbe garage too, makes alot of sense.

 

[TNThomas]

I make Asian style street grills with coffee cans. They're powered with charcoal or wood and can be assembled with a can opener and a drill or hammer and nails. Only the upper half of the can has coals and the lower half is empty. Separated by the perforated former bottom of the can. The whole thing sits in an old cookie tin to catch ash.

View attachment 1288339

Pretty cool! I like it, simple, and works.

 

[TNThomas]

That is so cool. I wish I would have learned to weld.

Its actually not too hard to learn, I have been teaching myself as I have always wanted to know. Im not an expert, just willing to learn. I highly suggest the "Flux 125" from Harbor Freight. Wait till a sale and you can get it for under $200. Plugs into a standard wall outlet, and the "flux" wire already has the noble gas embeded in the wire so there is no need for an external tank. You get a feel for it. The hardest part is actually the metal prep. Cutting, measuring, etc. But if you are halfway good at carpentry, all of those measuring/cutting skills carry over. And honestly, you can do most of your prep we work with an angle grinder with cutting discs, grinder disc, a flat-wheel, a vice, and a few magnets. Some welding is actually easier than wood working. You can add material if needed, or cut your piece off, and start over if you mess up. And being able to use magnets is super handy. But really, most of the work just revolves around metal prep. When actually welding, I usually run a little "hot" with my voltage. If I notice I am starting to blow holes in my steel I just "pull back" and run a longer length of wire between the gun and work piece. The voltage is then spread over the longer length if wire, and the actual temps at the contact point are then lower. Essentially this gives you a little on-the-fly variance depending on how your metal is liquifying in your weld puddle at that exact moment. I had a pro welder tell me this and its been very helpful.

While we often complain about living in/near urban areas for crime, a pro of being a welder here is that you are likely very close to a great metal supply store (get unique thickness/shape/length), and you can pickup in person to skip shipping fees. Here an example for my Go-to spot: https://www.onlinemetals.com/

My main current project is the 6 wheel dune buggy....

 

[frank linkh]

That is awesome. Is it portable how much does it weigh

 

[arakboss]

Hi folks, as much as I enjoy pre-packaged food, nothing beats a warm meal or a hot drink. Last year I realized that if the power went out, I really didn't have a great setup for cooking/preparing food. I have the typical small backpacking stoves, which are great, but they all use fuel, which I dont keep a terribly large supply of, abd they cant prep large quantities of food. With this in mind I spent quite a bit of time thinking, and researching on what type of mini wood stove to build. I wanted something that was muli-purpose, made of steel, sturdy, small-ish (portable), and wood fired. What I made is essentially a very small offset smoker/rocket stove. The 4" square tubing coming off of the firebox doubles as a hot cooking surface. I spaced it so an 8" cast iron sits perfectly in the middle. On the smoke stack, I made a 9-port rocket stove. I still need to make a small removeable grate for the top. The logic for this is that I essentially have multiple different cooking methods all running off of wood, all attached to the same thing. The smoker realistically tops out between 200-250 deg F at full bore, but I have done 20 lbs of pork butt on it. The "hot plate" between the firebox and smoke chamber works great, and is hotter since its closer to the flame. The multi port rocket stove will throw flames about 2 feet out the top if all 9 ports are loaded with wood. Essentially you drop lit tinder/paper the stove pipe, then lift the steel flaps, and load kindling/twigs into each yellow opening. Flame rises vertically lighting the wood as it moves up. Oxygen is pulled in from the bottom where it connects to the smoke chamber. There is an ash cleanout door at the bottom, its painted blue. All fuel does take a little maintenance since its small, but it works, and is super fuel efficient. I use about 1/6th as much wood to smoke compared to a full size smoker. I still need to put small legs on it, paint it, and weld on a 2" male reciver for a standard truck hitch (so it can be bolted to a bumper). Fire box is an old mini Oxygen tank. Smoke chamber is 2-20lb propane tanks welded together, and yellow steel is from an old engine stand.

View attachment 1288284 View attachment 1288285 View attachment 1288286 View attachment 1288287 View attachment 1288288

very cool

 

[Mikej]

Its actually not too hard to learn, I have been teaching myself as I have always wanted to know. Im not an expert, just willing to learn. I highly suggest the "Flux 125" from Harbor Freight. Wait till a sale and you can get it for under $200. Plugs into a standard wall outlet, and the "flux" wire already has the noble gas embeded in the wire so there is no need for an external tank. You get a feel for it. The hardest part is actually the metal prep. Cutting, measuring, etc. But if you are halfway good at carpentry, all of those measuring/cutting skills carry over. And honestly, you can do most of your prep we work with an angle grinder with cutting discs, grinder disc, a flat-wheel, a vice, and a few magnets. Some welding is actually easier than wood working.

LOL. I was never good at wood working. When battery operated drills and all sizes of screws came out is where I started to "Work Wood". LOL Only welding I ever did was a little oxy/acetylene when I was wrenching at a Honda motorcycle shop. It wasn't pretty then, but served the purpose.

 

[oremike]

I'd love to have a shop big enough and with all the tools to do whatever projects I want.

 

[albin25]

There are lots of videos on YouTube on how to make what appear to be very effective "rocket stoves" from dry-stacking a couple of cinderblocks and/or a few bricks.
Also, using those metal chimney type charcoal igniters to cook with.

 

[frank linkh]

Like a Miller wire feed and a drill press and a table saw and a air compressor and all the other things to make everything you want

 

[TNThomas]

There are lots of videos on YouTube on how to make what appear to be very effective "rocket stoves" from dry-stacking a couple of cinderblocks and/or a few bricks.
Also, using those metal chimney type charcoal igniters to cook with.

View attachment 1288927

Thats pretty cool, I bet it works great too.