Greetings,
     I took my smoker apart as much as I could recently.  I use white pine
needles as fuel, and they build up a lot of tar and soot.  I took the
bellows off, cleaned it up, and cleaned out the blower hole.  I then took
the grate out of the bottom, scraped out the tube from the bellows and
scraped out as much "gunk" as I could.  I lightly sanded the top edge and
the top, so it opened and closed easier.  I then rinsed it all out with
water and reassembled it.  When I fired it up, it worked better than new.
It worked so well in fact that it actually set the creosote inside on fire,
and burned much like a flue fire!  Thinking back, I am lucky it didn't burn
through!  I have come to believe that the smoker should be cleaned like that
several times a year to keep it in good working order.
Thanks!
Scott
Visit the Jefferson County Beekeepers Association web site at:
http://JeffersonCoBeekeepers.homestead.com/