Home made pellet burner for offset smoker

[Petesmeat]

Hi Everyone,

I have another thread going about the cheap offset smoker mod project im working on. I decided to have a go at making a pellet burner and the results are rather surprising.

I got a few kg of hickory/oak mix pellets from the kind owner of a new but very good local bbq smokehouse (Bluegrass Smokehouse in High Wycombe.) I went there today with a bucket and he filled it up for me, very generous.

The first test burner is a large size food can (used to contain kidney beans, for making bbq beans with). and I screwed it to a bit of wood. I then drilled a hole in the side of the can and stuck a bit of 15mm copper pipe in the hole, then pulled it so it bendt the skin of the can and the tube was entering the can on a tangent. The idea here is it blows the air around the can in a spiral shape.

I then bodged the other end of the copper pipe to some aquariam hose, and then onto the output of a kids inflatable pool toy 12v infaltor pump. The air flow is not that fast but fast enough

I stuck some pellets in and set fire to them with a map gas torch. It took a bit of time for them to catch. Turned the blower on and off it went. A tall, (1ft high at times) column of twisting flame comes out the top of the can! Its very pretty.

I turned the burner off and stuck it in the firebox of my offset smoker, with the hose going through the vent hole. I only put about 100g of pellets in.

Well im rather shocked to say it got the smoker to 300F in about 3mins, and had loads of power. I need to do some work to automatically feed pellets in and run the fan speed. It seems if you have lots of unburnt pellets in there they make a lot of smoke as they smoulder. What you want is a fast flowing spiral of air and a few pellets that burn off quickly, and a rapidly replenishing supply.

Im now thinking I might really go mad on this project and make a really decent pellet burner that I can run overnight. The hardest part will be the pellet dispensing system but im up for a challenge.


Pete.

The pellets
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/1187153_10151816070222570_1862891198_n.jpg

Burner just getting going
https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/1268385_10151816596137570_1343909875_o.jpg

After a few mins
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/1267554_10151816623242570_912136162_o.jpg

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To4jFcJhiLs&feature=c4-overview&list=UU1qSCxrAcVVtSMW9zjlwn8A