[huntergreen]

I had to replace my pressure tank in my house a few months back, and I saved the old one because I have heard of people building smokers out of them. Has anyone had any experience, advice or instructions? I have googled a bunch of stuff on it, and it looks like it could be fairly technical.

Any advice on how to go about building one?

 

[RonM]

I would not cook with anything that was galvanized,,

 

[Wald Jager]

Galvanizing process uses toxic materials. When you heat it or weld it, it gives off toxic smoke.

 

[burninghxcsoul]

Its the zinc that gives you metal fume fever. Bad stuff that can kill you depending on your exposure levels.

 

[huntergreen]

Is that what a pressure tank is made of?

 

[twistedoak]

galvo is a coating
its applied over steel

 

[Wald Jager]

Is that what a pressure tank is made of?

I don't know if tank is made with Galv . You can sand some paint off and if surface has large flake like spots on it in different shades of grey then I would not use for that.

 

[Chief48]

The old ones were galvanized. Newer ones are steel with a bladder inside usually painted blue.

 

[huntergreen]

The old ones were galvanized. Newer ones are steel with a bladder inside usually painted blue.

I believe that is what mine is. It is definitely blue and has a bladder.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

A buddy made one from an old vertacle air compressor tank. About the same process and size. He cut a door out of another piece of steel and bent it to match the curve and mounted it with hinges, then cut a hole slightly smaller than the door. Instead of racks, he installed hooks inside and hung what he wanted to smoke on hooks. he drilled a few air holes on the bottom and top. He made plugs for the upper holes from wood and just plugged a few of the holes if there was too much draft.

I have an currently unused outdoor boiler and thought about trying to convert that into a smoker by stacking some racks on cinder blocks inside the fire box and installing an old fashioned wood stove draft control on the exhaust.