Another Charcoal Basket question

[cnl390]

I didn't want to high jack the previous thread with my question.
I currently use the minion method with the basket I built from instructions I found on this forum. I start the coals near the vent and let them burn toward the cook chamber and get a pretty good burn, but would like it to burn longer and regulate the heat better.
Questions...
1) Would using dividers and doing a serpentine burn help.
2) what would be a good size, LxWxD, be. Firebox is around 21 L x 18 W x 12 D
Thanks

 

[motocrash]

cnl,it's gonna be a trial and error game to see if you can get the temp you want from a serpentine setup or maybe try a horseshoe with a single divider down the center of the box so more coals are burning at once.You could play around with bricks but they take up valuable coal Real estate.Another option would be to build another basket you could fire up for a quick change.

 

[Rings Я Us]

Maybe need to know if your putting that on a grate.. you need a couple inches all around for air space and at least a couple for ash underneath..

 

[cnl390]

Yes, I have a grate with 2-3 inches of air/ash space underneath.
To get ideas as what type of basket to construct I looked the Lavalock baskets http://bbqsmokersupply.com/grates-baskets.html , but got more confused. They offer sizes from 10x10x6 to 15x15x8. But offer dividers for only the 10 inch wide baskets. Can't figure out why none for the bigger baskets.

 

[WillRunForQue]

I use firebrick in my basket to create a maze. I find that it gives me cleaner smoker to run a maze rather than minion-style in a full basket (my basket is really big). The firebrick also can act as a heat sink.

When I use firebrick in my Weber, I will often set the brick on top of my chimney starter when I'm starting coals to preheat it.

If you are looking for a custom size like I did, my basket came from XXL, they did awesome work!