Joe here from PA just a little north of Philadelphia, new to smoking but have extensive cooking experience. Neighbor put out an Oklahoma Joe combo in the trash so I took it and stripped it down sanded and primed and painted replaced the thermometers etc. Anyway it looks great and I have Jeff's book "Smoking Meat" read it and also read "Smoking with Myron Mixon" it gave me some great info on how to start smoking. I did a thick rope country sausage first as a test run it came out good very tasty nice smoke ring but a little crisp. Then I did a Boston Butt it seems like it would be a nice next step and from reading the books it may be more forgiving than some other cuts. It came out great as far as taste after I pulled it, had a very thick bark that was inedible and as far as I know it is supposed to be edible. As I said the pulled pork from it was great next I just did a couple racks of ribs they tasted great also but I cooked them bone down and there was another burnt crust on the bottom luckily there isn't any meat on that side but it doesn't seem right. Normally I would just assume that the heat was too high but it seems like something else, I did range from 230-260 F . So if anyone has any advice I don't know if I am using too much smoke or maybe not heating properly, I am using all wood no gas or propane so let me know if you think I need to do something different that I'm not getting from Jeff's book thanks and I'll talk to you all soon.