My modified Bradley Smoker

[muebe]

Here are the mods I have done to my Bradley Smoker.

The cabinet it is located in. Just a cheap garden cabinet from Wal-Mart I believe...



Doors open to reveal what is inside...



The bottom compartment where the smoke generator is located...



The spent pucks drop down the y-pipe into a tray...



Inside the pipe where the smoke generator heating element is gets very hot in that enclosed space so copper heat sinks were attached(pipe clamps) and a pipe above feeds air from a thermostatically controlled blower down onto the heatsinks to remove the heat...



Here is the fan mounted(bathroom exhaust fan)...



And here is the thermostat that is attached to the smoke pipe. When the pipe gets warm it will trigger the fan to come on...



Now to the second floor. This is where the smoke pipe(dryer vent hose) comes into the Bradley cabinet...



And here is a view of it coming into the cabinet...



And here is the 900W finned heating element upgrade. The stock one is 500W and underpowered IMHO...



And here is the dual probe PID that controls the smoker...



Factory front panel was removed due to it cracking. I made a new metal front panel and removed the sliding temp control(not needed due to having a PID) and added a on/off switch for the heating element. This switch allows me to leave the PID on to monitor the temps and not worry about the heating element coming on while cold smoking...



And a metal reinforcement of the bottom of the door due to the plastic cracking and the door almost falling off. The bottom hinge is now attached to the metal panel and is rock solid...



And here is the convection fan installed in the upper left hand corner of the cabinet. This fan circulates plenty of air inside the cabinet for convection smoking and dehydration...



View of the outside of the fan. It has fins that cool the motor when it is on...



And lastly a vent pipe to carry the smoke up and away from the patio deck...

[Pappymn]

Me thinks Muebe has a lot of free time

[squirtthecat]

FrankenBradley!

[drholly]

Me thinks Muebe has a lot of free time

X2 

[mikecorn.1]

Dayum!

[LostArrow]

Is your father R. Goldburg

[Admin2]

Definition of RUBE GOLDBERG

: accomplishing by complex means what seemingly could be done simply <a kind of Rube Goldberg contraption … with five hundred moving parts — L. T. Grant>; also : characterized by such complex means
 See Rube Goldberg defined for English-language learners »

I keep forgetting that some of us do not remember Rube Goldberg. If you ever played with the kid's toy called Mouse Trap - it was a working example of a Rub Goldberg machine.

[teesquare]

Ahhhhh....

Uncle Rube - a fine member of the tribe! Quite inventive too!
T

[UWFSAE]

Why do I suspect that Muebe never missed an episode ...

[pz]

I remember as a kid seeing Rube Goldberg machines in toy shops - they were quite popular in my neck of the woods

[Sam3]

I did some mods to my Bradley as well. 900 watt element and circ fan. The difference is night and day.

[mikecorn.1]

I did some mods to my Bradley as well. 900 watt element and circ fan. The difference is night and day.

Ditto! I have dual 500w elements and a fan. Controlled by a dual probe PID.


Mike
Sent from my iPhone 5 using Tapatalk

[sliding_billy]

Well done.

[pz]

What I like best about this build is how the smoke generator is connected to the ducting, with a "Y" tube serving to discard the used pucks.  The length of the ducting, the heat sink copper, and the thermostat controlled fan to cook the heat sinks all make perfect sense.

I'm sure many of you have read stories about Bradleys catching fire, and while I presume that at least some instances are user error, it occurred to me that if one is not vigilant, a fire could be started in the water pan at the bottom.  For instance, lets say that a fatty meat is being smoked for a bit too long, and the water has all evaporated, yet the fat has accumulated in the water pan.  A casual observation might lead one to think that the water pan still contains water, when in reality it is a pool of liquid fat just waiting for the next red hot puck discard to fuel a fire.

Of course, I do not have any idea if this is the cause of some of the Bradley fires, but it might be a possibility if one is a novice smoker that is not paying attention - muebe's design takes that potential danger out of the equation.

[Sailor1]

muebe, I remember when you posted your cold smoke mod on the Bradley site.  I had drawings all done up so I could copy what you did then I found out about the AMAZN smoker and been using that for all of my smokes.  I smoked cheese last weekend with the outside temp at 80 and had to use my PID to get the cabinet temp up to 90.  Last year I tried to use the smoke generator and it would not advance a puck (mico switch is my guess) so no big loss as I don't need the SG or pucks anymore anyway.  Thing that I love about the AMAZN is it took me over 1 year to burn up 20 lb of hickory pellets and that is smoking every Sat and Sun.  With the money that I save in pucks it keeps my beer fridge stocked.