My New "Tailgater" Mini WSM

[rowdyrawhide]

Well fist off I would like to to thank these threads for sparking my interest in making one of these:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/121337/heres-my-mini-wsm-build-longish-with-qview

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/123864/another-mini-wsm

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/124803/mini-wsm-geaux-tigers

I also spent about five days over at the weber forum reading all 100+ pages of posts.

So here is the beginning had all of the stuff sitting in the garage for about three weeks before I started putting it together.

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• rowdyrawhide
• Sep 10, 2012

Went with the Vasconia pot off of Amazon

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• rowdyrawhide
• Sep 10, 2012

Most guys are cutting out the bottoms of the pots but I decided to drill the holes and if they didn't work then I could cut the bottom later.  I am using the steamer plate as the diffuser, so no saucer or anything.

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• rowdyrawhide
• Sep 10, 2012

Here are some of the finished pics used window decals and painted with 1200* grill paint and then clear coated with header paint after I pulled the decals off.

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• rowdyrawhide
• Sep 10, 2012

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• rowdyrawhide
• Sep 10, 2012

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• rowdyrawhide
• Sep 10, 2012

I ended up using a 99 cent stainless cat food dish from wally world for the vent ash cover.  I fired her up over the weekend using lump and it ran for over six hours and still had at least a third of my lump left, and I was not even close to having an ash problem.  Ran at about 230* the whole time with about 1/3 vent open on the bottom

Thanks for lookin

Aaron

 

[big twig]

Nice looking mini! Since I have built mine I haven't used my WSM (also haven't done a large cook in a while) but now I am smoking probably 4-5 days a week (less fuel, ease of use). Congrats on the new addition!

 

[jrod62]

Looks great !!!
I need to get off my butt and build me one !!

 

[scarbelly]

That really came out great. Congrats and thanks for sharing that beauty with us 

 

[smokinhusker]

Great looking mini...I gotta get the BF to build me one!

 

[tigersmoke]

Great looking Mini!  Your decals turned out great!

 

[whtplainssmoker]

Looks great.!!!  Funny thing is, if you search for the Vasconia 32 QT pot on Amazon look what the "Frequently bought together" info says...

MiniWSM.JPG

• whtplainssmoker
• Sep 11, 2012

I guess, this is quite a popular project, since the Amazon algorhithms are catching on.

 

[whtplainssmoker]

I've got a few questions....

Have you cooked anything on it yet?  Do the temps hold up when you have meat in it?  What materials did you use for mounting the racks and where did you position them.  They seem very close together. 

 

[rowdyrawhide]

I've got a few questions....

Have you cooked anything on it yet? seasoned it for about three hrs and then threw some cavanaugh spicy sausage in there for about 1.5 hrs

Do the temps hold up when you have meat in it?  it took about fifteen min to come up to 230* with vents wide open I then let it cruise up to about 260* about another fifteen min then choked the vents down to almost closed and took about thirty min for the temps to come back down about 210* opened to about a 1/3 open and she seemed to settle out to 230* after about three hrs or so of playing threw the sausages on and really didn't notice much of temp drop, not a pork butt mind you.  After the sausages were done I let her keep going for about an hour longer at the same setting and she stayed at about that point.  

What materials did you use for mounting the racks and where did you position them.  I used #10 X 1/2 stainless screws and nuts on 2" spacings, they are too close to try to put the smokey joe grate lower then the top so I may need to cut a little off of each one, but they work just fine with the 22.5" replacement charcoal grate, and I found a cheap $4 13-1/2" grate at menards, but this grate would not work for very much weight, and these two will work just fine on the current spacings

They seem very close together. Probably closer than most would put them but I designed this for tailgating and wanted to be able to load it as much as possible with legs thighs and wings as well as sausages and ABT's, and these spacings are about what I figured owuld work to maximize the space.  Of course I haven't loaded it completely yet to see if it will hold temp with all of that either.  But I also plan on doing a pork butt on here as well and you can always pull grates out as needed. 

Hope this answers your questions.  Feel free to ask any others that you may have.

Aaron

 

[rowdyrawhide]

Looks great.!!!  Funny thing is, if you search for the Vasconia 32 QT pot on Amazon look what the "Frequently bought together" info says...

MiniWSM.JPG

• whtplainssmoker
• Sep 11, 2012

I guess, this is quite a popular project, since the Amazon algorhithms are catching on.

Yeah if you go over to weber website I think it is linked in the first link I posted you will see over two years and 100+ pages of posts on there.  You can also google "mini wsm" sand there a bunch of smoking and BBQ websites that cover this topic.  I would almost venture to guess as many or more of these pots are sold on amazon for this purpose than for tamales, esp as you stated the algorithms are picking it up.  

Plus that is almost the same as my initial order from Amazon was exactly the same except I ordered the silver vs the gold

 

[whtplainssmoker]

Thanks Aaron.  One more question. What company did you order the window decals from and did they require any additional cutting?  They really came out great.

 

[roller]

Nice .

 

[rowdyrawhide]

WhtPlainsSmoker,

Here is the company I used:

http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=JCM CUSTOM&index=misc&search-type=ss

These worked out excellent, they were on a clear transfer sheet and did not require any additional cutting. I ordered from a couple of other places but the were just printed on a clear sticker and would have required a lot of additional cutting.  I highly reccommend this company, they shipped fast and also sent me some free decals with my name on them, but they were in a screwy font so I probably wont use them.

After putting the decals on I waited for the grill paint to dry for about three hrs and then just peeled the decal off, no scoring around the decal, and everything came off perfect.  After the decals were removed I waited 24 hrs and then sprayed with the clear coat.  Time will tell how well it holds up, but so far it has done pretty good.

Hope this helps

Aaron

ETA: I changed the spacings in post #9 to 2" not sure what I was thinking when originally wrote it.

 

[whtplainssmoker]

Thanks for the link to the company for the window decals.  What a selection!   I may have to buy a couple extra for our Pilot.

 

[venture]

I don't often check the build posts, but somehow yours caught my eye.

I just gotta say that is a sweet looking build!  Congrats!

Good luck and good smoking.