Designing and constructing our smoker has become a long 8 year (we think) odyssey that has been a constant joke amongst our families. However, the smoker is now finished and was recently fired up with fabulous results. Below are a series of photos, from construction (we will put up earlier photos) through to its first successful trial. 

	The smoker is partially based on a commercial unit (Smo-King) and a few home-built ones we’ve seen photos of. It is built around a mild steel frame, has stainless-steel sheet on the inside and galvanised sheet on the outside. In between is a layer of high-temperature rock-wool insulation. This photo was taken without the doors on to clearly show the two main sections; the upper (to have one large door) and lower (two small doors).
	The lower section has two heating sources (initially electric as shown but later revised to gas burners) to heat up the wood chips to produce the smoke. It has two small ports on either side for (moderated) air to flow in, and a larger port to allow for future cold smoking. Smoke generated here can pass into the upper section via a perforated stainless steel plate. The upper section contains brackets to support wooden dowels at several heights from which the sausages are hung. Finally, a variable vent at the top allows the smoke to escape.
	The doors are on. A gas bottle feeds 2 small burners inside the lower section. A digital thermometer on top reads the temperature from a thermocouple that dangles half-way into the upper section.
	The sausages are hung on wooden sticks that hang off supporting shelving brackets. The brackets can be placed at different heights for varying lengths of sausage or for two layers.
	Two independently controlled gas burners – one for generating the smoke and the second as an additional heat supply (if necessary). The wood chips are soaked in water for 1 hour, then drained and placed into a cast iron pan.
	It takes a while for them to heat up the chips but after a while a good deal of smoke is generated.
	By controlling the two heaters, it is possible to maintain both a consistent amount of smoke and temperature (between 80-90°C).
	After ~1 hour, the pan of wood chips has expired and a fresh pan load placed on the other burner. Once this pan is producing smoke then the first pan is removed and reloaded. This process is continued until the sausages are smoked. In this case we smoked ½ the batch for 3 hours and the other ½ for 5 hours (double smoked).
	Once smoked, the sausages are pulled out and sprayed with water to quickly cool them to maintain a smooth finish i.e. minimal crinkling of the casing.
	After cooling and drying (from the water), the deep red colour comes through. After tasting we are very happy with the final product (but concur that we could have smoked them for another 2 hours – next time).