ProQ Frontier, sealing gaps.

[Paul C]

I've a ProQ Frontier that I plan to use for cold smoking. I ran a trial burn of oak dust and it was gone in less than two hours, all vents and doors and doors were closed so clearly too much air is getting in.

I have put 3mm fire door rope on the doors and in the joins between the base, two cylindrical sections and lid. I've not run it a second time yet but I also want to seal around the three inlets and the outlet. That'll be tricky I know but if successful it would give me full control over the airflow, I'll also have to drill out the rivets that hold these on and substitute nuts and bolts.

Am I overthinking this? Has anyone else had a similar problem and if so what materials did you use (the 3mm rope is more like 5mm and too thick really).

[markie_q]

That's a very fast burn time, even if the doors and vents were left wide open. 

Which type of cold smoke generator are you using?

[Paul C]

Thanks Markie, it's a ProQ.

Should I be tamping the dust down to make it more dense? Not sure that would slow it down by six hours though?

 

I'm just about to try another burn, will see if my efforts thus far make any difference. Stand by...........................

[markie_q]

That's the same one I used in my frontier. 

I've never tamped down, my suspicion is that the smoulder has jumped over the barrier to the next row rather than followed around the maze. Would be worth making sure the top of the maze is visible and when it's lighting, make sure that on the initial part on the ramp is catching. I have had it before where the flame lit the corner also. 

[Paul C]

I was really careful about that, made sure the metal was showing all the way round but I might have jogged it afterward I suppose. I'll also check the matrix for holes. Well, holes other than those in the mesh, and see if it might have burned through another way.

 

Temperature has just dropped to 14 C here, I may as well put a flitch in with the smoke and see if I can get something out of it. No point wasting smoke!

[markie_q]

It is a curious one, but agree with your theory, if there's smoke, might as well make bacon😁

Maybe leave a probe in there and see if the temp spikes at all?

[Paul C]

Ahaaaa! The thot plickens.

It seems that the smoulder is making its way through the mesh. Either the mesh is too large or the dust too fine (and I lied by the way, I don't have a ProQ maze, no idea why I thought I do). Looks like I need different dust, a different maze or both.

 

Thanks for the help markie.

Edited October 8, 2021 by Paul C
Fat fingers

[markie_q]

Try using an old tooth brush and clear the mesh out, just incase it was bridging at all.

 

Good luck

 

 

 

[Paul C]

I cleaned it out and reloaded. Also ran a strip of foil around the vertical mesh to stop it bridging and an hour or so in it seems to have worked, it's following the coil properly and therefore burning slower. I'll pop it in the fridge tomorrow and go looking for different dust for my next batch.