Andrew Muir

Stormy Manhattan

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 23:28:00 +0000

Stormy Manhattan

1966 Ford Mustang at the Haynes International Motor Museum.

Sun, 15 May 2011 22:17:04 +0100

1966 Ford Mustang at the Haynes International Motor Museum.

DIY Terracotta food smoker

Sun, 15 May 2011 21:24:00 +0100

Using Dave Naffziger’s blog as reference, I decided to try and build my own food smoker using parts available in the UK.

His terracotta smoker (like most you’ll find on the web) was inspired by a segment of Alton Brown’s (American) Food Network programme (link).

As it turns out, all the parts are pretty easy to get hold of – with the exception of a bowl-shaped pot for the lid of the smoker. Instead, I’ve used a terracotta drainage tray which will be a problem if you want to cook anything particularly tall (whole chickens?!) but for my purposes it’s worked out really well.

To see the build coming together, along with some photos of my first attempt at smoking; click the read more link below.

Part List

15” Terracotta Pot £4.99 Homebase
15” Terracotta drainage tray £4.99 Homebase
3 x Terracotta pot feet £1.99 Homebase
Kampa (brand) 1000W single electric hob £11.50
I managed to purchase a customer return unit from the Kampa eBay outlet saving about £10. http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/kampafactoryshop
12” hinged BBQ grill £5.75 Blackspur
This came as two grills sandwiched together with a handle, I cut off the handle and hinge to get 2 grills for the price of one.
BBQ thermometer £4.68 eBay
IEC Chassis Plug (kettle socket) £1 eBay
3m High-temperature wire (1.5mm) £5.40
eBay seller: http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/cateringparts
Maplin project box £4.29
1m of 10mm diameter heat-shrink cable wrap £2 eBay

The build

It’s important to find an electric hob with a thermostatic control, this can then be mounted externally from the pot allowing you to adjust the temperature so you hit the ideal smoking range (between 110 – 130°c). Most hobs come with a metal or plastic surround that you will need to remove before the ~6” circular element will fit into the bottom of the pot. This is a fairly easy process, but it helps to take a photo of how it’s wired up before you start pulling it to pieces.

Then it’s just a case of extending the wires from the element by using some high temperature rated wire – allowing you to mount the thermostat in a project box some distance away. For ease of storage, I fitted mine with a kettle socket, allowing the mains power to be unplugged from the unit – rather than hard wiring a huge extension lead.

Needless to say, be careful when re-wiring high voltage equipment. I’ve been deliberately vague in my guide as I encourage you to read around the subject a little further before building your own.

The Results

The Food: For my first attempt at smoking I opted for Pulled Pork. All-in-all the process took 7hrs but it tasted amazing! I found this article really useful when deciding on cooking time, seasoning/rub & wood choice (I opted for hickory). Weber sell hickory chips in Homebase, a 3lb bag runs around £6 but you don’t need very much at all if you soak them for ~30mins before using them - they will last the whole smoking period.

Enjoy!

Open air street market in the Wan Chai district of Hong Kong.

Sun, 20 Mar 2011 16:49:00 +0000

Open air street market in the Wan Chai district of Hong Kong.

Photo

Sun, 20 Mar 2011 16:36:00 +0000

Inexpensive external portable power

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Using Systm episode 57 from Revision 3 as inspiration, I wanted to build an inexpensive portable power source for my Canon A590IS. I use this point-and-shoot camera for timelapse projects as it’s one of the many Canon cameras which can run the alternate firmware CHDK. The Canon Hacker Development Kit opens up loads of cheap cameras to a whole new world of possibilities, one of them being timed scripting; check out the CHDK Wiki for more information. The video you can see to the right of this article was taken using the cameras’ only portable power sources which comes in the form of 2 AA batteries. The video is short because (in the cold) the camera only made it to 340 shots before expiring its full charge. I needed something portable, but with a lot more power. USB power was ruled out as my model of camera doesn’t support it, even so, USB battery solutions are often low capacity and comparatively expensive. The final solution is based around a 12V 12Ah lead-acid battery, and while lead-acid is very old (heavy!) technology - it is cheap. Here’s my solution based off the power pack devised by Systm, using parts available in the UK.

12V 12Ah Sealed (Rechargeable) Lead Acid Battery ~£30 from eBay
12V DC Car Power Accessory Outlet £3 from eBay
Universal 3A DC Power Supply £10 from Maplin
Cramp-on quick connects £0 from Dad’s shed

Granted it’s not the prettiest looking external power solution on the market, but it is one the cheapest by capacity. Most small consumer electronics can be powered from a 12V source; the important bit to work out in advance is the Voltage and Amperage your device is expecting. In my case the Canon A590IS needs 3V at ~3A, this prompted me to go with the 3A car converter as it also allows for 1.5, 4.5, 5, 6, 9 & 12V outputs (all at 3A) and came with a load of suitable connectors - one of which fitted my camera. Overall I am very pleased with the end result. I chose to splash out on a Loewpro Apex 110 AW to finish the project as it fits the battery dimensions perfectly and offers rain protection. I’ll report back on overall performance in a post shortly but I expect to get ~6-8k shots using this solution.