Free smoker...... Or how free is never free

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levithan9

Fire Starter
Original poster
Nov 7, 2016
38
29
Houston, Tx
Hey everyone ;

A few weeks ago, my neighbor across the street approached me when I get home from work, and asked me if I wanted his bbq grill. Now, i'm known as that guy who smokes everything. I have a Masterbuilt 40" Electric, a Pitboss 820, and a Pitmaker Safe smoker. When I fire any of them up, I fill the couldasac with the smell of 'Someone Is Smoking.'

So he asked me if I wanted his bbq smoker, because if not he was going to throw it away. I came over and checked it out, just to make sure I wasn't getting some POS.

It was an Oklahoma Joe Highland smoker!! So I said yes, rolled in to the garage, and went out with my other neighbor for pizza.

Next day, I clean it out, and throw some wood in it to see how it works. Within 2 hours, I knew why he got rid of it. The temp on the firebox side was over 400 degrees, and the other side was around 210-225. Totally uneven cooking.

Last weekend, I decided to cook some ribs that I had in the freezer. Controlling the temp was impossible. They came out burnt and over smoked, or under cooked. For the life of me, I could not control the temperature. I had even put in a piece of sheet metal to act like a baffle. I was sitting on my chair, just looking at it after the ribs were done, and saw the flame from the wood thru the seams of the firebox. So, knew what I needed to do.

Took the firebox off, took it to work, and split open the firebox, cleaned up the surfaces, and had my friend Steve weld it together.
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I also had him put some flat steel around the opening on the firebox.

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So now the firebox is airtight.

My next mod is to put a baffle plate in, and maybe relocate to chimney down to the grate level.
 
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