Tag: DIY

DIY Smoker!!!

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Here is an Easy DIY project you can do in a weekend.  Not only is it easy, you can get a high quality ceramic smoker without the cost.  Compared to the cost of the Big Green Egg, this is an effective alternative.

DIY Ceramic Smoker
DIY Ceramic Smoker

 
Start with a few washers for each side of the lid.  The lid comes with a hole pre-drilled.  You will need the bigger washer to cover the hole and the washer with the small hole to keep the knob lined up.

  
 With a trip to you local hardware store (Home Depot or Lowe’s) you can get almost everything you need to complete this easy DIY Project for around 50 dollars.

NECESSARY SUPPLY LIST:

18
18″ Ceramic Flower Pot
18
18″ Description
18
18″ Low Bowl Ceramic Pot
18
18″ Low Bowl Description
Fits 22.5
Fits 22.5″ Weber Grill9
Proctor Silex Hot Plate.
Proctor Silex Hot Plate.
OPTIONAL ACCESSORIES (These accessories will require a drill):

Drawer/Cabinet Pull
Drawer/Cabinet Pull

Once you have all of the required items, it is just a matter of putting it together.  The basic version (without accessories) is just a matter of putting the Proctor Silex hot plate in the bottom of the pot with the cord being fed through the existing hole in the bottom center.

Cord feeds through existing hole without alterations.
Cord feeds through existing hole without alterations.

Second, place the grate in the pot.  The grate may needed to be rotated in order to find the right balance but it fits almost perfect.

Burner and Grate in the Ceramic Pot.
Burner and Grate in the Ceramic Pot.
Next, put the 18″ Low Bowl on top and you are almost ready.

  
-Grab a heavy duty metal round pan, fill with wood chips, place it on the burner,  set the temp to High and watch the smoker do its thing.

DIY Outdoor Lantern

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We needed to add some lighting to our covered patio. The obvious choice was to utilize what we already had. So with some zip ties and some white Christmas lights we had instant lighting. Then a free decorative lantern came into the picture so I decided to use the same white Christmas lights and now we have a cool lighting feature to our Instant deck covered in the previous post.

I started with this lantern and used a drill to make a hole in the top. The I took some tin snips to make the hole big enough for the plug. Filled it with the strand of lights, used a couple zip ties to hang it and instant outdoor lighting fixture   
Here is the after.. 

Nighttime picture   

Cool Lighting!  Cost= $0

Covered Patio on a budget

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I was looking for an easy and inexpensive idea to create a covered patio on our deck. We live having a deck but there are times when a little shade would be nice. So we found a decorative Ez-up tent and within 15 minutes we had our patio. We arranged our furniture underneath, added some lighting (diy lantern will be in the next blog post) and we have a covered patio on a budget.

After researching for a decorative canopy, I liked the looks of this one but at $960 dollars, that wasn’t quite the budget number I was thinking.
 So I kept looking and found the same look but without the wicker and the price tag for considerably less.  139 on Amazon.

It is simple to put up. The feet have two holes in them so I just used some wood screws to anchor it to the deck.


One of the important feature is the vent. It allows it to be kept up in windy conditions.

Here is the final product….