Don't think of it as a smoke chamber. It's a cooking chamber. You're cooking with fire, not smoke. The smoke is a by product of the fire. Try to keep the smoke to a minimum by having a clean burning fire. That will give you the THIN blue smoke. Just mind your temps . Happy cooking.There is a lot of good info on this site. I am trying out my new OK Joe Highlander. It seems with mods on the OK Joe's Highlander most everyone curtails the heat from the FB to SC. When I tried that, it choked the fire and kept the temp too low. I only blocked it half way, with metal angled away like most photos. I took it out and the fire was fine and could be fairly easily controlled from the intake. I'll work on that more. As of now I do not intend to use the whole smoke chamber. Is it necessary? Any insight would be helpful.
The bigger problem to me seems everyone lowering the exhaust vent. I did that and for the first time and it over blackened my ribs, which is a first for me. If there is smoke in the chamber, it seems to me it would then build up and leave bad smoke from the chamber falling on the meat with the exhaust lowered. This would be opposed to smoke simply flowing over the meat and out. Or does lowering the vent supposed to draw smoke away? Or is this just for temp control? I got 2 different answers on another thread. It's super easy either removing or lowering the additional vent. So which way works best is fine by me.
Think of it like learning how to drive a stick instead of an automatic.. :)
Thanks everyone for the information. It was useful. I am now running a clean fire. Like others have clearly pointed out, it just takes a little time to get an idea with slight adjustments with your particular smoker. I think that is called patience.
I always recommend a BBQ guru to guys smoking with an Okie Joe. Mine has a 10 CFM fan and with all my mods, and giving time to come to temp, I can leave it for up to 5 hours without adding fuel or checking the firebox.
Thanks for the advice, I'm going to try a few more cooks with the mods I have now. I still plan on closing up the hole between the fire and cook chamber a little and sealing the top doors. I also like the idea of the baffled charcoal basket I saw somewhere, so I may build one of those.
Im working on getting my Highland set up, can you post of picture of your baffle? How do you like the square smoke stack/box extension?For those with a highland, not the longhorn I found that 18" is too long to use as a heat diffuser. I cut about 2" off an 18"x12" sheet steel and it fits perfect, sits right against the walls of the barrel around 3" below the cooking surface. My sheet was thin enough I could still bend it, so i gave it a little bend on the end near the FB so it sticks just over the top of the opening. It's still a work in progress, it has no holes and it's only 12" long.