What did you eat today?

[Grey Area]

Too many Doritos.

[Lestat]

Could have shared some I'm still hungry. Even if the plates do have a slight odor of benzaldehyde, and a certain reagent that will not be named, along with a very slight acetic acid odor from the catalyst employed (had to make, and use it as, the acetate salt)

Got an apple on the table beside me ready to be eaten after being freshly taken out of the fridge, fresh as can be, picked the other day off my uncle's apple tree, big, juicy and ripe for eating, not a blemish on it.

Just finished lighting my cigar (took a while, I need to get a new starter for my blowtorch, I had to fire the spark into my spare torch at full gas flow because the torch with the dicky starter wouldn't light. So I fired it directly into the barrel of my other, high-flow torch to ignite the gas from that and use it to light my corona since I couldn't find a lighter or matches.)

Worked with just a couple of zaps from the electric piezo starter. Cigar went out just now, did it again and worked perfectly first time. Wonder if the problem with the fine-pointed flame torch is the barrel at the point of attachment to the torch, as it got...well it was used at maximum intensity for a LONG time, whilst I was fusing the contents of a carbon crucible full of sodium borate to a liquid so I could drive an electric current through it and electrolyze it to produce boron, and it got...well...rather hot to say the very least, and partially melted:P

[Queen Victoria]

Left over Chinese

[DirtDawg]

Oddly, I made a fire in my pit and cooked chicken, steaks and some sausages.

I have plans to expand my pit a bit and build a smoke house, soon.
I want a close firebox, a close by smoke house (smallish -  about the size of a two story doghouse) made of cedar with a knee high concrete block founding.

[DirtDawg]

Honestly, All the info I have found is often contradictory. I would love it if Parts would chime in and offer me some guidance.

I intend to use concrete blocks for the lower structure of both areas, but the inside of the fire box is in question.  SO many people have told me so many things. I intend to build a log fire inside the fire box and move smoky coals to the smoke house. I might use another tack and just vent the smoke to the house for heat.

This is the "style"  I like the most.
It is a tiny miniature version of the one my grandfather ran. His was made of gathered field rocks with a "house"  made of logs and no amount of fire could crack those rocks.

https://www.littlethings.com/diy-backyard-smoke-house/


What do you think, Parts? How do I keep the brick from just cracking every time I get the fire hot and full of coals. There are so many types of so called fire bricks. I have some and when the fire is really going they crack up as well. Any input?

I have not used concrete blocks, other than landscaping blocks, which seem OK. Are the standard concrete blocks more stable at high temps? Fire place bricks are pretty much made for indoor use, but I need something I can really get a fire going in.

[DirtDawg]

Here is a pic of the finished product of what I aspire to build this coming spring.

Firebox is off to the right side, nice little "lean to" place to keep wood dry-ish and the actual cedar smoke house on the left.

Only issue I have is that the fire box is lined with the same bricks used for inside fireplaces. I have used these in my own out door fire pit and had them crack from heat when making a roaring fire for a good coal bed.

[Lestat]

Venting the smoke inside the house would not be a good idea. Partial combustion of carbonaceous fuel encourages the formation of carbon monoxide. And longterm, the small particulates from E.g coal fires are less than healthy. For venting the smoke, it ought to be done to the external atmosphere where it can disperse and avoid contamination of anybody's dwelling.

CO is an insidious poison, a sneaky little bastard. Odorless, colorless, highly toxic and prone to simply causing people to feel tired, maybe headachey, before knocking them unconscious and killing the victim. Electronic CO detectors are available,  but still, piping smoke INTO one's house is quite the reverse of what people have done throughout history.

The detectors aren't much, and you could seek them through firefighter services. Thats where I got mine from. They came once to overlook the lab, and provide things like smoke alarms, fireblankets (already got fire-extinguishers), and a CO-alarm for the boiler (the house gas boiler that is, but they were more than happy to give me an extra CO detector, all at no charge, they at first wanted to affix the one I asked them for for the lab in place, but acceded to my explanation that if I am to make use of CO for some purpose then it is better I be able to judge the most appropriate placing, and for it to remain mobile as such (since I will do nothing that involves carbon monoxide indoors, it is more useful as a scanner, as a result, and to be where the first exit of CO is possible. Not something I would generate often, for obvious reasons, but it is not without use, as long as the proper protective measures are in place, and detection..

[DirtDawg]

So, you are going to try to tell me that throughout my entire life I have been poisoning myself with carbon monoxide from the smoked meats I eat and prefer.

CO is actually a highly reactive gas (one of the reasons it is so toxic to animals), but once it comes into contact with another highly reactive compound, it changes and is no longer CO.

I eat a lot of smoked meats, always have. Ain't skeered!

I am going to build a smokehouse.

[Lestat]

No, I mean, it sounded like you were planning to pipe the smoke from the smokehouse into your own house. The one you live in.

And I'm well aware of the nature of CO. (although it does depend WHAT it comes into contact with. Not that you'd be making it, but they use it for refining nickel, in the Mond process, producing nickel carbonyl, a volatile liquid that has sod all warning properties [if you've smelled it, your already buggered] and the charming nickname of 'liquid death'

Although the toxicity is way in excess of the CO the complex delivers at a threshold lethal dose.

Eating smoked meat of course poses no CO risk, it was the way you sounded as if you were going to send the smoke into your own place, sounded weird. And stinky.

[Queen Victoria]

Brown sugar and maple oatmeal (no peanut butter this time.  ran out)

[Lestat]

Peanut butter? new one on me. Do you combine it with the maple syrup? I like throwing in a big chunk of salty butter whilst cooking it, so its thoroughly blended in and then topping it with golden syrup.

[DirtDawg]

No, I mean, it sounded like you were planning to pipe the smoke from the smokehouse into your own house. The one you live in.

And I'm well aware of the nature of CO. (although it does depend WHAT it comes into contact with. Not that you'd be making it, but they use it for refining nickel, in the Mond process, producing nickel carbonyl, a volatile liquid that has sod all warning properties [if you've smelled it, your already buggered] and the charming nickname of 'liquid death'

Although the toxicity is way in excess of the CO the complex delivers at a threshold lethal dose.

Eating smoked meat of course poses no CO risk, it was the way you sounded as if you were going to send the smoke into your own place, sounded weird. And stinky.

Thanks, but I am bot confused about this.
Sorry if I seemed to mislead you.
This will be a free standing outdoor structure, made specifically for preparing meats.

[renaeden]

I had Weet-Bix Bites (wildberry) for breakfast, nothing for lunch at college and ice cream when I got home. I wanted something quick.

[Lestat]

Ate a plateful of cottage pie, had a few pringles, and am busily drinking a few beers.

[Queen Victoria]

Three hard-boiled eggs and an orange.