Thanks for the reply zmaxa86! Sounds like you did some effective mods.
Well, Any progress on your side? I finally got mine together, stock. I did use Permatex Red High Temp Gasket sealer. Supposed to be good to 600'. must have not let it cure long enough because did some out gassing during initial burn in. Will try again. During the first burn got to 250', likely need to take it to about 400'. Temp at the cooking grate was 250' at the firebox side and 200' on the other side. Need to come up with a diq baffle to even the temp out. The chimney extension has been a pain because the 3" dryer vent does not fit well. How about you? The grill side gets very hot very fast! Almost too hot. Very hard to keep the temp low. Looses heat fast when opening the lid.
Still breaking it in and getting the feel but so far but I'm pretty happy with it.
Smoker Side:
I got it together, smoked some bologna on it just to get an idea what it was like stock out of the box, and then went on vacation last weekend and haven't had a chance to smoke anything else. The bologna actually turned out very well considering the leaks and temp spikes due to my poor fire management.
I did use food safe high temp RTV to seal up the fire box seams, though I didn't have much smoke leaking there that I could see. Seasoning probably would have taken care of it but it didn't hurt anything to seal it. I let it cure while I was gone four days on vacation then covered it with high temp black paint when I got back home.
My main smoke loss is around the smoke box and chamber doors which was expected.
I bought nomex gasket and installed it but it actually made the gaps worse so I'm going to have to play with it some more when I smoke this weekend. I split it in half by width so that it would fit on the lip of the chamber. I'm still trying to decide if I want to play with gasket arrangement or just install clamps like so many others have to pull it down into the gasket to seal. I'm leaning toward the clamps right now.
I also took some of the nomex gasket and sealed the gap between the smoker body and the external stack which looks to have closed it up tight. I'll see when I put some more smoke through it Sunday.
With a couple of small hickory splits burning on a good bed of coals I was running ~300 on the firebox side and ~250 opposite. One split was about 250 and 200 like the temps you saw. I'm happy with that stock out of the box considering I'm horribly out of practice with regards to fire control.
I'm still working out the idea of a baffle too. It's going to need something to even it out since the chamber is small.
I haven't lowered the chimney and I'm not sure I will. Smoke was doing a pretty good job of filling the entire chamber but we'll see how it goes.
I'm using the charcoal grate and plate that is supposed to be in the smoker chamber in the smoke box for easier clean up. I'll use the plain grate in the chamber as a stand for drip pans and such. I can't imagine I'll ever use it as a straight up charcoal grill but who knows. If I do the grate is easy to move.
Grill Side:
Holy surface of the sun hot grates, Batman. It will flat out sear a nice steak.
It heats up extremely quickly. Even on the lowest dial setting it sits pretty comfortably at 400 degrees on the grate (per the Maverick) with the lid closed. Lid therm reads 450. It does seem to lose heat quickly when you open the lid on the grill side but it recovers so quickly it doesn't matter much.I expect it will settle itself a bit once it is better seasoned.
Overall:
For the price I'm really surprised how nice the materials are and how good the fit and finish is. All the seams sucked up super tight when assembled and every bolt and screw hole lined up perfectly. The metal is approx 1/8 inch thick through out and it's very solid. They even powder coated the wood rack which is a nice touch.
The grates aren't the best I've ever used but they are much better than the normal smoker/
grill grates you get at this price range.
I had 2 very small (less than 1/4 inch long by 1/8 inch wide) scuffs or production/handling marks (leaning toward this since they're in the same spot, one centered behind each door on the rear of the drum) that I covered with high temp paint.
I hate the metal wheels. At some point I'll replace them with rubber like someone else here did. It should make moving it much easier, as well as quieter. For now though they serve their purpose.
