Hey all, no pics of my mods yet as I'm at work right now...probably wont be any til mid month as I have to go on vacation Navy style for about 10 days. But I just wanted to share the events with you all.
First off. I can't for the life of me find any furnace cement anywhere nearby so I just opted out of that option.
The chimney expansion went off without a hitch, I cut the dryer vent in half and she went on just fine. Used a hose clamp to secure it and that puppy aint goin nowhere!
Thermometers was a bit of a pricey evolution, but I did it and couldn't be happier with the results! I got a step bit for my drill to make the holes ($34.00!!
) I probably wouldn't have been able to make the holes without it...That steel was thicker than I thought! The holes I made were about 4" from the sides and 2" abofe the front lip of the lid. The probes are about 4" long which made a perfect little hole for me to stick my chimney expansion into.
While I was seasoning last night (was able to only do a partial...time restraints. But I wanted to get a "base Coat" so as not to come back from my trip to find rust spots) I found out that this smoker heats up good...I added a bit too much coal and had it running atabout 450 for a few hours. And that was with the vent closed! So I loaded up some hickory and commenced with getting some smoke going on in there. It's got a pretty ok color inside right now but I still want to get some more smoke in there before I put any food in there.
My cooking grates are going to take a while, I don't want to over crowd my oven so I'm just doing 2 at a time and baking them at 300 for about an hour naked to melt off that wax crud that they came with, then I brush them with crisco and bake for 2 hours then another coat and another 2 hours...Think that will work ok? Crisco and that wax stuff don't smell too great when the cast iron is seasoning...makes the baby cry.
First off. I can't for the life of me find any furnace cement anywhere nearby so I just opted out of that option.
The chimney expansion went off without a hitch, I cut the dryer vent in half and she went on just fine. Used a hose clamp to secure it and that puppy aint goin nowhere!
Thermometers was a bit of a pricey evolution, but I did it and couldn't be happier with the results! I got a step bit for my drill to make the holes ($34.00!!
While I was seasoning last night (was able to only do a partial...time restraints. But I wanted to get a "base Coat" so as not to come back from my trip to find rust spots) I found out that this smoker heats up good...I added a bit too much coal and had it running atabout 450 for a few hours. And that was with the vent closed! So I loaded up some hickory and commenced with getting some smoke going on in there. It's got a pretty ok color inside right now but I still want to get some more smoke in there before I put any food in there.
My cooking grates are going to take a while, I don't want to over crowd my oven so I'm just doing 2 at a time and baking them at 300 for about an hour naked to melt off that wax crud that they came with, then I brush them with crisco and bake for 2 hours then another coat and another 2 hours...Think that will work ok? Crisco and that wax stuff don't smell too great when the cast iron is seasoning...makes the baby cry.
