New Guy from South Jersey

[E's Smokin]

Just wanted to say Hi
I just got an early fathers day gift from my family, a new OK Joe Highland, seems like that is the gift of choice lately, Its not even out of the box yet. Hopefully this weekend I'll be building & seasoning it, I already picked up a lot of mods for it, figure I'll build it right the 1st time. I've been reading through the forum for a while now & have a lot of questions , so as they come up I'll be sure to ask, I hope I don't bore you with dumb questions but I'll be trying to shorten the learning curve. So first off , about how much time is this going to take me to build, & should I be using the red RTV on the fire box with Nomex to put the 2 pieces of the fire box together
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide
E

 

[HalfSmoked]

Welcome to the SMF glad to have you on board. There is no dumb questions just the ones that have not yet been answered. There is tons of info on here from a great group of people hang in there and the answers will come I'm not a stick burner so not much help.

Warren

 

[gmc2003]

Welcome to the site glad you joined. I usually recommend using your smoker before modding it to see what mods are actually needed.

Chris

 

[Mark Adams]

Smart choice in sealing as you assemble, it should take about 1.5-2 hrs. I would get some help to bolt the firebox to the cook chamber, it gets pretty heavy trying to hold it in place. I used rtv on the firebox seams and between firebox and cook chamber, it leaks a little but not a lot. I used lava lock sealant on the lids and that worked well also. Good luck with the assembly, I think you’re gonna love it!

 

[Faarg]

Welcome to the boards. I'm a fellow newbie living a few hours north of you in New Jersey. It's amazing the amount of information that is available on the site. Now if I only had enough time to put all of the tips into action.

 

[dcecil]

Welcome and enjoy, you will have fun cookin on that pit

 

[Rings Я Us]

Nice! Congrats on the new smoker.
Maybe we get to see some pics this summer of your award winning food. :D

Take care.

 

[E's Smokin]

Thanks for all the replies , I figured after watching so many videos & reading so many threads, the mods that I got were inevitable, so I thought I would just do them as I build it, instead of having to take it apart & re-do it. I will also have my 2 boys give me a hand this weekend if the weather holds out, that's the real gift spending time with my kids
If I can figure out how to post pix I will definitely put some up

 

[E's Smokin]

Welcome to the boards. I'm a fellow newbie living a few hours north of you in New Jersey. It's amazing the amount of information that is available on the site. Now if I only had enough time to put all of the tips into action.

Where in North Jersey, my youngest will be going to William Patterson U in the fall

 

[SmokinAl]

Welcome to SMF!
Don't know too much about that pit, except there are a lot of guys on here with them.
I'm sure they can help you with any questions you may have.
Al

 

[Faarg]

Where in North Jersey, my youngest will be going to William Patterson U in the fall

Congrats. I'm in eastern Bergen County -- very close to WPU.

When you visit the college you should think about stopping by Goffle Road poultry for some fresh chicken, turkey, and even turduckins for the smoker.

http://www.gofflepoultry.com/

 

[RiversideSm0ker]

Welcome aboard. I am fellow OKJ owner. I have to agree with Chris. I decided not to modify mine before I assembled it. There are so many suggestions about what you need to mod. I can't speak for others but I have not felt any loss for not having made any of the mods. The only thing I did do after I had fired it up the first time to season it was to put the lavalock seal in the cooking chamber door. You don't "need" it but it will help with some more consistent temps. I have been using my OKJ for over six months now and the firebox "unmodded" doesn't really leak at all any longer. The gaps that existed have been plugged by buildup from near constant use. One thing that I will stress before you fire it up is to rub down the outside of the smoker on every surface. You can use vegetable oil or WD40 but you want something on that paint when you do your first burn. It helps the paint bond to the steel. If you miss areas you can pretty much expect it to peel. Especially on the firebox. There were a couple of places I didn't get to adequately and bang they peeled on the very first seasoning run. If you do use WD40 on the outside. Make absolutely certain that you don't get any of it inside the firebox or the cooking chamber. You want the oil on the inside as well before you fire it up for the first seasoning run. The easiest way to do it will be to buy a can or two of PAM or generic cooking spray and go to town with it inside every surface including the firebox. Don't put too much fuel in to do the burn. If you use charcoal one full lit chimney will be great. After a couple hours just drop another half chimney of unlit coals and it will run for a good four or five hours. That will be plenty of time for the seasoning to complete. Don't put any food on while doing the seasoning. Try to keep the temp between 250 and 275 during the seasoning process. Make sure that you use some kind of wood with your fuel source to get some initial smoke during that first run as well. Leave the smoke stack wide open and control the heat with the firebox door vent. The assembly time will vary. It's a bit of a struggle doing it yourself due to the oversized and heavy components. Hanging the firebox by yourself is a challenge. I did it but found something that worked to prop it up on so that I could get the bolts fitted. Plan on 2 plus hours for yourself or a bit over an hour if you have help. It will really benefit you to have that extra person to assist. Have fun, and welcome again.

George

 

[E's Smokin]

Congrats. I'm in eastern Bergen County -- very close to WPU.

When you visit the college you should think about stopping by Goffle Road poultry for some fresh chicken, turkey, and even turduckins for the smoker.

http://www.gofflepoultry.com/

Thanks Faarg, I will be up there in 2 weeks , he's playing soccer for them & has to go for his team physical

 

[E's Smokin]

Welcome aboard. I am fellow OKJ owner. I have to agree with Chris. I decided not to modify mine before I assembled it. There are so many suggestions about what you need to mod. I can't speak for others but I have not felt any loss for not having made any of the mods. The only thing I did do after I had fired it up the first time to season it was to put the lavalock seal in the cooking chamber door. You don't "need" it but it will help with some more consistent temps. I have been using my OKJ for over six months now and the firebox "unmodded" doesn't really leak at all any longer. The gaps that existed have been plugged by buildup from near constant use. One thing that I will stress before you fire it up is to rub down the outside of the smoker on every surface. You can use vegetable oil or WD40 but you want something on that paint when you do your first burn. It helps the paint bond to the steel. If you miss areas you can pretty much expect it to peel. Especially on the firebox. There were a couple of places I didn't get to adequately and bang they peeled on the very first seasoning run. If you do use WD40 on the outside. Make absolutely certain that you don't get any of it inside the firebox or the cooking chamber. You want the oil on the inside as well before you fire it up for the first seasoning run. The easiest way to do it will be to buy a can or two of PAM or generic cooking spray and go to town with it inside every surface including the firebox. Don't put too much fuel in to do the burn. If you use charcoal one full lit chimney will be great. After a couple hours just drop another half chimney of unlit coals and it will run for a good four or five hours. That will be plenty of time for the seasoning to complete. Don't put any food on while doing the seasoning. Try to keep the temp between 250 and 275 during the seasoning process. Make sure that you use some kind of wood with your fuel source to get some initial smoke during that first run as well. Leave the smoke stack wide open and control the heat with the firebox door vent. The assembly time will vary. It's a bit of a struggle doing it yourself due to the oversized and heavy components. Hanging the firebox by yourself is a challenge. I did it but found something that worked to prop it up on so that I could get the bolts fitted. Plan on 2 plus hours for yourself or a bit over an hour if you have help. It will really benefit you to have that extra person to assist. Have fun, and welcome again.

George

Thanks George, I read that I have to hit it hard with the oil both inside & out during the seasoning, I have a lot of oak logs that we keep for our fire pit so I'll have to cut a couple down to size, I'm really glad I picked up the mods after all the reading that I did, what are the chances that I got the perfect OK Joe out of the box, ( I don't have that kind of luck), so if I don't need them its just a little extra insurance, & if I do need them they'll be in place in the beginning, either way its a win, win for me, I'm going to try to put it together tomorrow, but definitely Sunday, I hope it doesn't rain on Sunday but again that goes back to my luck thing, but it will be ready to go by Sunday, I can't wait

 

[E's Smokin]

Smart choice in sealing as you assemble, it should take about 1.5-2 hrs. I would get some help to bolt the firebox to the cook chamber, it gets pretty heavy trying to hold it in place. I used rtv on the firebox seams and between firebox and cook chamber, it leaks a little but not a lot. I used lava lock sealant on the lids and that worked well also. Good luck with the assembly, I think you’re gonna love it!

Thanks Mark,
I have to agree , I think doing the mods of the known problems before hand will save a lot of problems after the fact.
I plan on having my sons helping me put it together, I'm pretty excited about this new endevor

 

[E's Smokin]

Well, I built it on Sunday, It took about 2 hours , the only help I needed was hanging the fire box as everyone said, the mods really didn't take any extra time, but of course the weather did as predicted & poured when I was close to being done with the build so I'm hoping to fire it up & season it up this week & cook something this weekend
When I put Oak in the box do I take all the bark off the pieces or use it with the bark to get more smoke
Thanks
E