Smoker came yesterday, a day early. Just perfect.
I will say, the smoker box sounded like something was loose, and indeed, the nuts and bolts holding on the air vent had come undone and one of them fell out when I opened it.
15 minutes? Um, no. It took me more time to find the bolt that fell out. With all the mods that I did and taking the requisite beer breaks required during any construction like this, it took me about an hour and a half.
Put the lava lock around the fire box and the smoke box. Sealed tightly, but the smoker box wouldn't shut real well. I took off the spring clip, and the handle fit. I'd rather have a tight door and a sloppy handle than the other way around.
I used the Permatex red high temp gasket goo everywhere.
I added a piece of stainless that I picked up at Lowe's for a baffle. 18" piece was perfect.
I also spent a couple of other bucks for the cover.
Let things set overnight to cure. This morning, I sprayed the entire inside with Pam Grilling spray. I lit a box of charcoal using the minion method, with no wood, to run it dry.
Temperature raced up as others had. I put in a 12 ⅝" x 10 ¼" foil oval baker filled with water after an hour, and she came right down to a good 225-250 degrees.
Found a couple of places that need fixed. Where the handle goes into the smoker box, that whole thing leaked so I'm going to put the Permatex on the inside of it. The back right corner of the fire box inexplicably leaked, so I'm going to take a look at that.
With no wood, only briquettes, she held the temperature for about 2 hours and 30 minutes.
Wasn't happy that the lava lock came off the of the firebox when I opened it to check on the charcoal. That will take a little bit of a redo and rethink.
Can't smoke anything today or tomorrow, looking forward to smoking a couple of hams on Saturday and something for the family on Sunday.
Thanks again to all who have posted on this thread.