Another New Owner

[JustAnOldFella]

New to smoking my own stuff, but grew up in a rural area where old refrigerators with smoke coming out of a hole in the top were a common sight.  I have pear, apple, plum, cherry, oak, maple, birch and alder trees on my property, so thought I'd start using some of the great smoking woods I chip as something other than mulch !

While searching the 'net for info, I lurked here and a couple other smoking forums for a few weeks.  Decided what I wanted was an SI#1, cart and Auber WSD1200-GPH, so pulled the trigger and came here to learn how to set up and use it.

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[swthorpe]

Welcome from Delaware, Terry!   You have found the right place and I know you will love your set up with the #1.    Lots of good advice and recipes can be found on this forum, so enjoy!   Cheers

[kz0m]

Welcome from DFW Texas area!  Sounds like you'll be selling all of us wood!
;-). enjoy the new smoker and this forum, great folks with great experience!

Carl

[Limey]

Hi Terry, and welcome from the Keys. You will find the SI a whole lot better than a fridge and a hot plate! Great forum here with lots of knowledgeable folks.

[DivotMaker]

Welcome to the club, Terry!  If you cut a small limb (2-3" around, maybe a couple feet long) off of each of your variety of trees, you'll have enough smoking wood to last a lifetime!  I'd recommend cutting the limbs, and store them in a dry place until they season to the right moisture content (20-30%).  You can get a moisture meter off of Amazon for $19 that works great.  You never want to smoke with "green" wood.

As far as what you put through the chipper - I'd recommend against it.  Unless you have it nice and clean, you'll get oil residue, leaves and nasty bark in with your chips....maybe not such good quality.  Chunks are great, and you can control what you end up if you chunk it yourself.

Until you have enough properly seasoned wood, I recommend smokinlicious.com for some really good smoking wood.  It's the right moisture content, and is all heart wood (no bark).  Really good stuff!

[TexasSMK]

Welcome Terry--this is a great place to learn and share.

[JustAnOldFella]

Thanks for the tips DivotMaker.

I grew up in the coastal forests of the Pacific Northwest and have been a hobby woodworker for decades, so I'm familiar with cutting and seasoning wood.  My chipper and shredder are only used for making mulch out of all the tree and brush debris from my property.  Any tree trunks and limbs big enough to be made into lumber or turning blanks has been cut and air dried in my shop.  Now I have a better use for all those big limbs I'll get from trimming back my fruit orchard this winter !

[DivotMaker]

Sorry Terry - sounds like you can certainly teach us a thing or two about wood!  Not many folks have your experience!

[drains]

Welcome from Texas! We're glad you're here.

[JustAnOldFella]

Definitely no need to apologize Tony !  While I might have quite a bit of knowledge about wood, I know next to nothing about how to use it to make food taste wonderful.  I'm here to learn that part from all of you.

[DivotMaker]

That's the cool thing about our great group of folks here, Terry!  We all like to learn & share, so it's great for everyone.  You teach us about making great wood, and we'll teach you how to make great food with it!!