I sort of started with the brick barbeque concept and got sucked into the whole wood fired kitchen. Once I found the forum I knew I had to build a pizza oven.
I have a bbq fanatic for a friend who bbqs at least 330 days a year. I started taking lessons with him because, contrary to popular opinion, bbq skills are not aquired through genetic transfer. He really hooked me on the great flavors you can only get through smoking.
Here is my basic idea. I originally was going to try to combine the bbq and smoker or the pizza oven and smoker. Having read through all the temperatures and technical data, combining these is more trouble than it is worth. Keeping the seperate seems to be the way to go.
Smokers seem to be the easiest of the three cooking item to make. There are plans on the web to build a smoker using an trashcan and a electric hot plate.
I am going to build a verical smoker with common brick beside the oven. Basically a tower with a interior space about 4 ft tall, and 15 inches square. It will have removable racks at 8 inch intervals. At the bottom I plan to use a tray for wood chips heated by a small propane stove. Since I do not want to mess with wiring or piping I am planning to incorporate a 5 gal propane bottle into the base, connected with a hose easily found at any RV place.
The BBQ is a little more complicated. I am planing to use brick and movable shelves for the coals. However, I want to construct some kind of hood to draw the smoke up and away from the house if I can figure out how to do it. The only plans I have seen come from a 1960s Sunset book and they are pretty basic. If anyone has ideas on this I could use some other input
Being a 1 income family with a wife, kids and dogs to support I am trying to economize where every possible. I am starting to collect materials now and hope my wife will not be too upset with the piles acculating in the backyard. I already have about 600 red bricks ( wall bricks with holes) for some of the decorative work and wall construction. Currently I am collecting all of the cinderblocks that get discarded in my area.