Hey guys, holy crap sorry I dropped off here my summer has not included more than 1/2 of a day uninterrupted with kid's summer softball or taxiing them from one grandparent's house to the next or god forbid I go to work....
I was able to season my smoker though, but haven't cooked yet. Hoping, please god.....give me the chance....to smoke this weekend.
I got the Nomex tape and did the inside of the firebox door, that's all that was needed. I have a small leak at bottom right corner of door but nothing to worry about. During the cure it held 250 for a good solid 3 hours with no intervention I was really impressed.
The 3m fire barrier stuff I presume you got from Home Depot, I tried that in the gaps too and it chipped off after the curing process. Maybe I did it wrong but it didn't hold, and turns out I didnt' really need it anyway. The screws for the firebox were decent but I do have one big gap in the back
Other thing I did was took an old cookie sheet and drilled a bunch of holes in it, attached a hook and latched it to the bottom rack. This should make a nice baffle and spread the smoke out while keeping the heat regulated due to the large cooking chamber.
Saturday looks like it's going to be free, so I will take some pictures and put up a review.