made this but only getting charcoal smoke no wood smoke

[scootie]

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• scootie
• Jun 23, 2015

I made this out of an olive oil drum and finally fired it up this past weekend. The only problem i had was that the charcoal was lighting too quick giving off that charcoal smoke/smell and was not getting the wood to smolding just burned too quickly. Question is why or what did i possibly do wrong. Tried using minion method. And yes i did have a lid on when i was trying.

 

[hamrhead1971]

What did you do to control air flow? Are you trying to use the bottom vent or did you install ball valves? What kind of charcoal are you using?

 

[daveomak]

The oil drum needs to be sealed "air tight" to the fire box portion... also the lid needs to be "air tight"... You want air to be controlled by the operator...

 

[hamrhead1971]

The oil drum needs to be sealed "air tight" to the fire box portion... also the lid needs to be "air tight"... You want air to be controlled by the operator...

Dave is spot on. Most people dont, but I ran a strip of lavalock gasket around the bottom edge of the pot on my jumbo mini to make it airtight. It worked wonders. Since you are using a drum, you could possibly run one around the inside lip of your kettle where the drum sits.

 

[drewed]

Also a 22" kettle will hold way to much charcoal for a minion(in my option). Butter to go with a snake for fuse method.
You may have to choke down on the top vent a bit too to help control burn rate, but only if the bottom vent is already closed

 

[scootie]

Used bottom vents to try control. I was wondering if maybe i had little too much air leakage maybe. Thanks all for your thoughts.

 

[daveomak]

You want .... ZERO ... air leakage...

 

[scootie]

I should of said getting air leaks not too much. I will have to look into getting some sort if seal or gasket and try it again. Thanks again