I'm starting the process of building a small smoke house. It will be a 4'×4'×7' .I'm kind of doing this by the seat of my pants so advice is appreciated. I'm only wanting to smoke a couple hams and slabs of bacon at a time. Should I build a small fire in the smoke house on do I need to pipe the smoke in from down hill ? When you salt the meat initially is it really nessasery to pack it in salt for a couple days prior to smoking.

A small smoke house is on our want list, too. There are some good videos on YouTube about this. All of the house designs I've seen have the fire box outside and below the house. Can't help with the salting. There are several videos from Tim Farmer and KYAfield.

This is a pretty good YouTube clip, short and to the point.
https://youtu.be/S6UkXhHUTfM

Just saw one video of a filing cabinet converted to a smoker. It looked like a screen from ghost busters.

[img]https://scontent-dft4-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t...amp;oe=59397946[/img]

I built one from a file cabinet it works awesome. I dont pack anything in salt. For pulled pork I salt it both sides and smoke it. I brine all birds overnight. And bacon / Sausage I use one burner and keep the door cracked so it doesn't get to hot.

We used a 55 gallon barrel with the bottom 12-15 inches filled with sand inside the smokehouse. Built a fire until a good bed if coals were there or brought them from a fire outside. Then put GREEN hickory or oak on the coals.