Hello from a new hopeful - first smoke with pics and ?s

Thanks for the welcome and reply in the recipes - I may need to get them and te book then.

Also, my name is Spencer, I teach elementary, I have a daughter and a boy coming in July and my avatar is not a pic of me lol

Thanks for the welcome guys. My SMG, thermometer, and Maverick 732 showed up so now just waiting on the pot. I checked a few local stores but the ones they had were brands I didn't recognize from reading about minis. Should the fit of the lid be like it is on the kettle part of the SMG?

Also I found a few friends with Apple trees who said I could have some branches so that is nice. Just gotta cut and let the wood cure a bit. I did find some on the ground but how do I know if it is still good to use?

SJG - dang auto correct on my phone!

I ordered the Imusa from Walmart trying to keep this on the cheap but it won't be here for about another week so thanks for the input in pots. I'll take the lid with me and stop by a few places after work to test it on some different pots.

What kind of fitment should I expect?

Okay, so I built my mini WSM and seasoned it using Kingsford briquettes that I had for dutch ovens. My wife asked if I was gonna make anything but as I looked we only really had some ground turkey so I figured what the heck and filled it with cheese and wrapped it with Jeff's rub and bacon. This was my first at making the rub and smoking on a smoker. Here are some pics.

I was too into the build to take more pics. I used an 11" terra cotta saucer. The Imusa needed a good amount of crimping but got it to fit and look somewhat decent using a bit of leather between the pliers.


Here's the meager fatty


On the grate


Some TBS! I was quite excited about this yet after about 20 minutes the smoke got more quite and more billowy. I had the top open all the way and the bottoms about half. I ended up pulling my chunk of apple and wrapped it in foil with a few holes which seemed to help.


After 2 hours, I put a little sauce on.


Pulled off and cut. I'm really not too sure what I'm looking for. the bark looked nice, the Mexican blend cheese wasn't completely melted and the turkey doesn't have enough fat.


It tasted okay but the smoke taste was a bit pungent. The apple wood came from a friend who cut the branch down a few months ago so maybe not seasoned enough? Did the white smoke give too much creosote (we didn't have numbness) and it wasn't too creosote flavored - just a bit off I guess. 

The experience was quite fun and the little thing went 8 hours easily going from 225-250. I had it at 400 for a bit while it was seasoning too. I am a bit disappointed with the food though, particularly the smoke. Should I get a bag of wood from a local store to try and see how that is?

How can I best control the smoke to not get white stuff? I see a lot of people just throw chunks in their baskets with their charcoal and that seems to do fine.