Hey folks. I picked up a OK Joe's version Bandera a few months ago and have been tinkering with it some, trying to get a good handle on its operation.
As we all do, first and foremost I ran it as I got it (used BTW) and had some decent luck with it. This was a Pepper Palace Music City rubbed picnic shoulder with apple and mesquite chunk in a roughly 2:1 ratio. My personal favorite pork smoke.
It turned out pretty good! I'm not new to smoking, but trying to continually improve at it.
I've been focusing on learning to control my fire better. Namely the size of it to control temperature rather than relying on the dampers as much.
But, next I wanted to fix some issues with the doors. The firebox door didn't close well at all. It hung low and the latch didn't contact the striker very well.
I pulled the handle and put two 7/16 (1/2" hole) washers between the latch's welded on washer and the door to push it up against the firebox tighter.
This had the desired effect, closing the gap at the top considerably. I also had to pry up on the door to bend the door side hinges so that it closed the gap even more. What you see in this picture is the result and worked perfectly on the trial cook yesterday.
I also added a washer to the smoke box door. It is still loose enough to allow my temperature probes through without pinching them but closes much more securely than before and did a much better job holding in the heat and smoke.
Lastly, the fire grate. I'm not sure who decided to put the fire grate INSIDE the ash pan, but they have apparently never had to manage a 6-10hr+ smoke with charcoal briquettes.
I hit up the couple hardware stores that were open yesterday but couldn't find any expanded metal in the size I needed. So for a test run, I flipped the factory grate upside down and bolted it to two pieces of 1" x 1" x 1/8" angle iron. I cut out the last 3/4" of the web that would hang down so it would sit flat on the lowest cooking grate brackets.
That left me with a large opening near the door. I had a tuning plate laying around from my old American Gourmet (God rest is soul) and it happened to fit perfectly between the newly raised grate and the door.
So with all that done, it was time to play with fire control. I set my probes up on the 4 grates in the smoker box, and fired off a full chimney of briquettes.
Once it was hot and clean burning, I began adjusting coal amounts to get my temperature where I wanted it. For 3+hrs, I ran it smoothly and even tossed on some burgers and hotdogs so I could claim i was "fixing supper" rather than "screwing around in the yard drunk again" as I'm often accused. (LOL)
Anyways, that's my story. If anyone has any other ideas or mods for these things, post them up! I'm looking at this thing being the last smoker I ever need with any luck.
PS: I will be building a more permanent version of the fire grate once I can source materials. But I don't envision any drastic changes to its overall design as it worked exactly like I'd hoped.
As we all do, first and foremost I ran it as I got it (used BTW) and had some decent luck with it. This was a Pepper Palace Music City rubbed picnic shoulder with apple and mesquite chunk in a roughly 2:1 ratio. My personal favorite pork smoke.
It turned out pretty good! I'm not new to smoking, but trying to continually improve at it.
I've been focusing on learning to control my fire better. Namely the size of it to control temperature rather than relying on the dampers as much.
But, next I wanted to fix some issues with the doors. The firebox door didn't close well at all. It hung low and the latch didn't contact the striker very well.
I pulled the handle and put two 7/16 (1/2" hole) washers between the latch's welded on washer and the door to push it up against the firebox tighter.
This had the desired effect, closing the gap at the top considerably. I also had to pry up on the door to bend the door side hinges so that it closed the gap even more. What you see in this picture is the result and worked perfectly on the trial cook yesterday.
I also added a washer to the smoke box door. It is still loose enough to allow my temperature probes through without pinching them but closes much more securely than before and did a much better job holding in the heat and smoke.
Lastly, the fire grate. I'm not sure who decided to put the fire grate INSIDE the ash pan, but they have apparently never had to manage a 6-10hr+ smoke with charcoal briquettes.
I hit up the couple hardware stores that were open yesterday but couldn't find any expanded metal in the size I needed. So for a test run, I flipped the factory grate upside down and bolted it to two pieces of 1" x 1" x 1/8" angle iron. I cut out the last 3/4" of the web that would hang down so it would sit flat on the lowest cooking grate brackets.
That left me with a large opening near the door. I had a tuning plate laying around from my old American Gourmet (God rest is soul) and it happened to fit perfectly between the newly raised grate and the door.
So with all that done, it was time to play with fire control. I set my probes up on the 4 grates in the smoker box, and fired off a full chimney of briquettes.
Once it was hot and clean burning, I began adjusting coal amounts to get my temperature where I wanted it. For 3+hrs, I ran it smoothly and even tossed on some burgers and hotdogs so I could claim i was "fixing supper" rather than "screwing around in the yard drunk again" as I'm often accused. (LOL)
Anyways, that's my story. If anyone has any other ideas or mods for these things, post them up! I'm looking at this thing being the last smoker I ever need with any luck.
PS: I will be building a more permanent version of the fire grate once I can source materials. But I don't envision any drastic changes to its overall design as it worked exactly like I'd hoped.
