Didn't want to, but had to... mailbox mod

[danbury]

Bought a Masterbuilt Electric smoker a few months back and have been using it a couple times a week the past few weeks. I posted in the AMNPS Tester Forum about the sawdust probably igniting and instead of lasting a few hours, only lasted about an hour. I really didn't want to build a mailbox mod but ended up having to anyway. Right now I don't have it hooked up to the smoker, but I did put in about 1/2 tray of dust, sprayed inside of box with some PAM and let it season for a few hours. Will be doing a pork loin roast tomorrow, hopefully. With the short cook time on those, it will be interesting to see what the results will be on smoke flavor. I don't do a lot of cold smoking and just didn't want extra stuff around the deck.

 

[solman]

not sure if it's ever been brought up in the past, but i haven't seen it mentioned in the short time i've been on this board, but why not use a small, cheap grill in place of a mailbox? something like this for $15: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Expert-Grill-14-5-Portable-Dome-Charcoal-Grill-Black/575252759

it's cheaper than a mailbox, and the holes are already drilled. it may not be air tight as a mailbox, but i don't think having a slight air leak is that big a deal. it can double as a grill.

 

[smokerjim]

why not start out with low temp for an hour or two then crank it up to finish cooking that way you will have more time in the smoke, as long as you get to 145 internal temp around the 4 hour mark you'll be good. just a thought

 

[danbury]

Well I paid about 10 bucks for the mailbox and my son is a contractor who had all the other stuff laying around. Only other thing I had to buy was (4) 1.5" carriage bolts and nuts to get it up a bit higher.

 

[danbury]

why not start out with low temp for an hour or two then crank it up to finish cooking that way you will have more time in the smoke, as long as you get to 145 internal temp around the 4 hour mark you'll be good. just a thought

I'm an old UDS user. We live in an apartment now (in transition to townhome) and I'm so use to getting things up to temp before putting meat on. I guess I could have, but I'll live with this.

 

[fivetricks]

Well I paid about 10 bucks for the mailbox and my son is a contractor who had all the other stuff laying around. Only other thing I had to buy was (4) 1.5" carriage bolts and nuts to get it up a bit higher.

If it happens to not burn as you expect, try removing the bolts. I say this only because I tried the bolt mod myself in the mailbox and it stopped my tray from burning properly instantly. I believe whole hearted in the advice I get here, but that was one particular mod that did not work for me.

 

[danbury]

Worked o.k. I haven't connected to the smoker yet, but I did spray the inside with PAM and burned half a tray of dust. It worked out good at this point. I'll put it to a good test tomorrow when I do the pork loin. I also made a little shallow tray out of a disposable roasting pan to set the raised tray into, to catch any ash. So far so good.

 

[johnmeyer]

not sure if it's ever been brought up in the past, but i haven't seen it mentioned in the short time i've been on this board, but why not use a small, cheap grill in place of a mailbox? something like this for $15: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Expert-Grill-14-5-Portable-Dome-Charcoal-Grill-Black/575252759

it's cheaper than a mailbox, and the holes are already drilled. it may not be air tight as a mailbox, but i don't think having a slight air leak is that big a deal. it can double as a grill.

Yup, at least one person has done that:

My "lil" grill mailbox mod w/amnps

 

[chopsaw]

Worked o.k. I haven't connected to the smoker yet, but I did spray the inside with PAM and burned half a tray of dust. It worked out good at this point. I'll put it to a good test tomorrow when I do the pork loin. I also made a little shallow tray out of a disposable roasting pan to set the raised tray into, to catch any ash. So far so good.

I like the tray to catch the ash . I made one to go with the 12" tube . I found out that if you get a clean burn , not much if any ash to catch . You did the test run / season with the mailbox day lighted . Might be different when you hook it up to the smoker . Be watching to see how it goes .

 

[danbury]

Update... Hooked up the mod to my smoker and fired it all up this morning. Wanted to wait till later but our son and his wife had their baby in the wee hours of the morning and we will be going to see them later in the day, so I had to get things going on the pork loin.
Loaded the AMZN tray with about 2 rows of saw dust...mixture of oak and hickory... my favorite combination. The only vent in the mailbox is where the flag was, looks like about half inch hole. Smoke is good, burn is good so unless there are any unforeseen glitches, all should go well. Hopefully I'll have time to post a picture later of the finished pork loin.
Thanks all for the replies, advice and suggestions!