Last Friday I washed the beast out at Clifton Car Wash. So all the sand blasting material is out. Cleaned her good. Decided it was a good day to season her up.
Something this large I don't hand wipe the oil on. I purchased a new spray tank and filled it up with vegetable oil. Pumped it up and spayed it down with oil.
I like a nice even burn with the first seasoning. So I lay in 18 pounds of charcoal and three pear logs for the first seasoning layer.
Touch her off and a way we go. The dark ring in the firebox is where I sprayed the oil in there as well as up under the heat exchanger plate since she is a reverse flow.
While most are excited about first smoke, my excitement will wait until I see if I calculated her angle of induced draft correctly and the bend on the exchanger plate right, as well as the gauge of the plate steel. And only the temperature indicaters will let me know that.
If I did the engineering correctly she should be the same temp at the smoke wrapping point as the stack end. I will accept 4 degrees difference.
I open her firebox damper and let her breath, setting up the infrared transfer I have designed. Lets hope she is even and steady. I am also interested that my draw calculation allows hot red fire up top and nothing beneith the fire grate. A fire jump below the grate tells me I calculated the draw wrong and she needs to jump down to find air. You want to see iron grate only, lucky for me she shows no lower jump, calculation is correct on her draw consumption.
I need to let the firebox come up to temp before investigating her temperture variation from the wrapping point to the stack end of the cooking chamber.
Climbing through 400 F she should settle in at a consumption rate that will equal 575 F when wide open and 450 when half dampered. Looking nice so far.
Now for the wrap side TI ....
200 F on a 400 F firebox. Expected, but what of the stack side TI?
199.5 F I can accept the 0.5 degree difference. But I would have liked a perfect match. I know the TI units match as I put them in the oven to test they both read the same thing. The 0.5 might work out as she seasons or just may be her personality.
Finally the site we all look for in our great engineering creations.
She sets up perfectly at 525 F with 3/4 draft and 3/4 damer and runs right at 275 F in the cooking chambers. She holds that for 4.5 hours on 18 pounds of charcoal and three splits of pear wood.
Not a bad first date. I look forward to taking this chick out a few times to get to know her. But for a first date is does not go much better. She got hot, she stayed hot and even, she teased with the thin blue smoke, and she showed she has the ability to deliver even warmth to me when I command it!
Follow me through her next date as we finally get to second base and play with the breasts on her!
__________________
Something this large I don't hand wipe the oil on. I purchased a new spray tank and filled it up with vegetable oil. Pumped it up and spayed it down with oil.
I like a nice even burn with the first seasoning. So I lay in 18 pounds of charcoal and three pear logs for the first seasoning layer.
Touch her off and a way we go. The dark ring in the firebox is where I sprayed the oil in there as well as up under the heat exchanger plate since she is a reverse flow.
While most are excited about first smoke, my excitement will wait until I see if I calculated her angle of induced draft correctly and the bend on the exchanger plate right, as well as the gauge of the plate steel. And only the temperature indicaters will let me know that.
If I did the engineering correctly she should be the same temp at the smoke wrapping point as the stack end. I will accept 4 degrees difference.
I open her firebox damper and let her breath, setting up the infrared transfer I have designed. Lets hope she is even and steady. I am also interested that my draw calculation allows hot red fire up top and nothing beneith the fire grate. A fire jump below the grate tells me I calculated the draw wrong and she needs to jump down to find air. You want to see iron grate only, lucky for me she shows no lower jump, calculation is correct on her draw consumption.
I need to let the firebox come up to temp before investigating her temperture variation from the wrapping point to the stack end of the cooking chamber.
Climbing through 400 F she should settle in at a consumption rate that will equal 575 F when wide open and 450 when half dampered. Looking nice so far.
Now for the wrap side TI ....
200 F on a 400 F firebox. Expected, but what of the stack side TI?
199.5 F I can accept the 0.5 degree difference. But I would have liked a perfect match. I know the TI units match as I put them in the oven to test they both read the same thing. The 0.5 might work out as she seasons or just may be her personality.
Finally the site we all look for in our great engineering creations.
She sets up perfectly at 525 F with 3/4 draft and 3/4 damer and runs right at 275 F in the cooking chambers. She holds that for 4.5 hours on 18 pounds of charcoal and three splits of pear wood.
Not a bad first date. I look forward to taking this chick out a few times to get to know her. But for a first date is does not go much better. She got hot, she stayed hot and even, she teased with the thin blue smoke, and she showed she has the ability to deliver even warmth to me when I command it!
Follow me through her next date as we finally get to second base and play with the breasts on her!
__________________
