Well I seasoned it. Soaked it inside and out with vegetable oil. Used some very old original kingsford and b&b lump mesquite to get it heated. It has a great draw through it. Smoked a bit in the beginning. Lump charcoal popped a lot and produced some ash that came out of the stack. I guess that is normal at 1st? After a while the smoke was almost clear with just a touch of blue. I am currently using the factory CC thermo just for the seasoning process. For practice I slowly added lump and kept it at 220 by leaving the damper door open about an inch and the butterfly wide open. Stack lid wide open. Then I packed quite a bit in and got it to 420ish. Pretty interesting how you can adjust these things. I can see how you can get the hang of it by the adjustments and with charcoal or splits. I removed all of the old gasket material around the doors so I am getting a little bit of smoke leaking. I guess I need to buy some temp gauges and gaskets. As it stands right now it has sat for roughly 45min at 350 degrees without doing anything. I added a stainless spring on the rod that controls the butterfly. Sorry about the ugly tarp over the train smoker in the background lol. Rain is on it's way and I needed something to cover it. I also bought an OJ highland style cover to avoid anymore rust in the Brinkmann. Fit pretty good.
Well almost there.
Well almost there.
