Weber Smoker

Old Mr Weber starts smoking

Step 1: Weber Resigns

After a quarter-century of round-the-year service,

Weber was about to resign due to weak legs.

As my equally old Abu-smoker started leaking

at the same time as Weber lost his legs,

I decided to give Weber a chance to take over,

as his top was intact.

Step 2: Simple Tripod

I found some threaded rods in my workshop, to be mounted along

the perimeter of an old copper cooking pot from a flea-market,

large enough to cover all the holes in the bottom of the grill.

I drilled some undersized holes in a piece of scrap and screwed them into it.

As the pot has a flange some distance from the bottom,

it rests quite stable on the rods and is easily removed to empty the ashes.

Step 3: Making Chips.

From an old apple tree, I removed a dry branch and cut to straight pieces.

Then I screwed a handle to one of them to be able to shred it safely on my jointer.

Step 4: Loading

I filled chips from a quarter of a log in the pot and then etanol in a smaller pot beneath as a burner.

Step 5: Mounting

The old grill was then positioned on the cooking-pot,

and so the grate with the salted salmon I had prepared.

Step 6: Smoking

With the lid in place and the vent open, time to light the burner.

Step 7: Evaluation

Smoking continued long after the burner was empty, and due to the lower temperature

the salmon was much smoother than in the Abu-smoker, and more delicious.

Weber has now earned a permanent position as successor to Abu,

and will not be retired for years.

Step 8: Concrete

As the test was satisfactory, the base was substituted to concrete to last some years.

I'm happy to have a smoker that stays outside.

My old Abu has served me well, but the soot has been a nuisance in the kitchen.

Now that problem is solved with a reclaimed grill.

Step 9: New Build

To expand the functionality into daylong smoking,

I built a simple fireplace from reclaimed bricks and topped it

with an octagonal chimney to receive the Weber top.

This is however too recent to test for a while.

My intention is to cover the front during smoking with a piece

of mineral wool in the beginning, and perhaps make steel doors later.

Step 10: The Real Thing

There is probably some mason who can make it a lot nicer,

but I think it will work fine.

Now I can choose between the chips-pot or the fireplace

depending on the size of meat to be smoked.

And it cost me nothing but labour.