Finally graduated to a stick burner, but have lots to learn!

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hokiescott

Newbie
Original poster
Dec 26, 2010
24
10
I've been smoking meat for over a decade now, starting with a firepit and a tripod, moving up to a 30" MES, then a 40" MES before buying a Vision Kamado egg. I've been wanting to get an offset smoker for years now and I finally got an opportunity I couldn't pass up. 

It's a 120 gallon (I believe) smoking tank with a 40 pound fire box (maybe bigger). In doing my research over the years I knew I wanted a round firebox, I wanted the ability to dampen the firebox, I wanted the firebox to be big enough that I could put a rack in there and grill sides or chicken, and lastly I knew I wanted the exhaust stack to be at the same level of the grill grates. I grabbed this bad boy, welded on a shelf, made some additional racks, bought some temp gauges and slapped on a fresh coat of paint! 


I was excited to fire it up but immediately I could tell I needed to order gaskets for it. The smoke came from everywhere. I had about 5' leftover from my recent ceramic cooker project so I got the bad holes sealed up and ordered a new roll off Amazon

I'm really surprised by two things here. One it takes a LOT of wood to feed this beast. I started with half a bag of lump charcoal to get a base going and then must have dumped 8 pieces of oak on over a 6 hour cook. Maybe more. A few times I came back and had to quickly stoke the ashes and dump small chunks on to get it going again.

Two, I need to do something else to the firebox. I'm not sure if it's too big, if I need to raise the coals so air can get beneath or what, but the smoke was often way too thick. I wasn't able to achieve TBS unless I had the door open and the fire was raging instead of just coals. It has sliding vents on either side of the firebox, but it wasn't enough... if I closed the lid, it was smoking like a fiend. I'm thinking of making a quick platform so that the fire is raised about an inch and a half off the tank floor, but I'm also wondering if the exhaust pipe isn't big enough? I think it's just 4". Is it not pulling enough? 

Ok three things surprised me. I couldn't believe how close the chambers were in temp. I was expecting to see 50-75 degrees difference but it was much closer to 10-25 depending on whether the fire was raging or not. 

 
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I'm not a builder, but I can tell you that you need air space under the fire.

Also a smoker that big will use a lot of wood.

Even my small Lang uses a split every 45 minutes or so.

Here is a photo of the grate in my fire box, you can see there is about 3" of air space below the fire.


Hope this helps!

Al
 
Al is spot on with the grate info.
Your going to have to practice a little bit with fire management. It takes a little getting used to. You could also preheat your splits on top the firebox,which will help them take off faster when you add them to the firebox.
Offsets do tend to burn a decent amount of wood.

That's a nice smoker...Enjoy!!
 
Well when I got to thinking about it, I took my phone, turned on the flashlight, got on a ladder and sure enough, it was a classic "thar's yer problem right thar!" There was a bird's nest in the chimney stack completely blocking any chance the exhaust air had for escaping. 

Nevertheless, I went ahead and built a firewood grate for the firebox that puts the coals in a good position for the vents and voila! no more problems. I'm able to achieve much better temps and got me some TBS flowing like it should be! My gaskets get in tomorrow and I'll toss a pork butt in there on Wednesday to test it again. I also ran out today and got a sheet of aluminum and cut it for the shelf. Lot easier to clean up with that on there. I'm going to be building another shelf to cover the bottom soon and I have enough aluminum left over to cover it as well. Thanks for the help, and I'm glad this was a quick and easy one. 



 
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Smoker looks awesome! Going to get a stick burner as well. Can't wait to see some qview from your smoker.
Thank you kindly! I smoked some wings on it last night in the main chamber at 250 and then finished them off in the fire box on a rack I made for it at about 375 to make the skin crispy. They were good! Not as good as I've been making in the kamado, but good nonetheless. I've got some learning curves to get through and I'm excited to do so! 

Gasket gets in today and I'll apply and trim it all up this afternoon. I think I'm going to try smoking a pork butt and another rack of ribs tomorrow or Thursday. Que view will be present for sure. 
 
That birds nest sure messed things up. Glad you figured it out.
Will be looking forward to seeing your smoke.Thumbs Up
 
Here is the firebasket and intake damper on my Shirley . Just like SmokinAl showed, it's good to have few inches air clearance beneath where your sticks actually burn and the bottom of your firebox.

Intake may be another factor. Prior offsets I had required that I not only open intake dampers as wide as they'd go but that I'd either keep the door in open latch position or even swing the door wide open if the winds were fighting me.

[ATTACHMENT=3323]IMG_4089.JPG (2,953k. JPG file)[/ATTACHMENT]
 
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a27729c0_IMG_4090.jpeg


Here is the firebasket and intake damper on my Shirley . Just like SmokinAl showed, it's good to have few inches air clearance beneath where your sticks actually burn and the bottom of your firebox.

Intake may be another factor. Prior offsets I had required that I not only open intake dampers as wide as they'd go but that I'd either keep the door in open latch position or even swing the door wide open if the winds were fighting me.
Hi Notorious,

Here is a tutorial on how to upload photo's into your post, instead of just the jpeg links.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/125263/how-to-upload-a-photo-q-view-to-your-post

Al
 
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