Question about heat element placement.

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Moved set point to 250. I have to work in the morning.
 

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Took a break.
Taxidermist called and my Pronghorn is ready.
Love it! Great pose. But hope your mantle is strong enough to hold it? My mantle is mounted off just 3 bricks that jut out from the masonry...wouldn't trust it to a considerable long-term static load and definitely not a seismic one.
 
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Thanks Bill. Its been a lot of work but I hope to get lots of use out of it.
The Pronghorn mount was surprisingly light.
I have one of those threaded latches that go through the brick and screws tight. I did miss with the first drilled hole. Hope the wife doesn’t look behind the mount!!!!
 
I wonder how much heat escapes from the doors when you don’t have a seal around it?
I need to go put that on now. It’s been a long day at work.
 
Anyone with a fan experience this?
Seems excessive for the first smoke.
 

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Anyone with a fan experience this?
Seems excessive for the first smoke.
I think most cookers that are designed to force a little more smoke flow around the food (for both flavor and heating/cooking efficiency) mount a bladed fan at the top. But nothing wrong with squirrel-cage fan like this.

I suspect the splatters are fat splatters...food drips are hitting the blades and getting thrown back like a spray. (With time, the blades would get so coated the air movement would be compromised or the motor would have trouble starting.) Cure would be to build a "roof" over the top of it. A simple, solid sheet of steel, slated from the wall down to the center, would keep the drips off the fan below. However it would also block or re-direct the air/smoke flow in a direction you may not like. So you could put slots down the slant angle of the "roof" so the air/smoke can pass through. Make the slots use up ~40% of the roof area. But then 40% of the drips would still get through. So build a 2nd "roof", just like the first, and spaced an inch above it, but shifted laterally so that any liquid that goes through a slot on the first hits the 2nd at a solid steel section and rolls off like most on the top roof. Air/smoke, unlike liquids, will have no trouble following a slightly jogged path through the 2 staggered roofs.

OTOH, perhaps those splatters are what popularly gets labeled as creosote here. In other words, it's part of the smoke-producing chemical process you've got going. But I doubt it. The color would be blacker in that case.
 
Bill, this was the first smoke. It was a dry run with no meat. It may be the creosote. I was using mesquite pellets if that matters. The good thing is that the fan blades pop right out. It should be easy to clean.
 
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I’ll give it a go tomorrow with the fan off JD, but 2 dry runs is almost un-American. Next I’ll be reading instructions.
 
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Trying to use up my extra lumber.
I’m going to leave the one side open for the WiFi signal.
 

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Trying to use up my extra lumber.
I’m going to leave the one side open for the WiFi signal.
Keep an eye on those Auburn electronics. Not a lot of air flow there so you don't want that chassis getting hot.
Wood is fairly transparent to wifi RF signals but I like the idea of keeping that lower shelf open just to keep the electronics cool. And accessible.
 
Thanks bill1, it was raining yesterday as I was working on the shelf so I thought I’d box it in. I left the front open, the back has 2 vent holes and the face of it is hinged to get the PID out, so I can run with it open if I need to. Sounds like I probably will need to.
It’s all just finish work now. I hope.
I’m building another rack similar to the bottom one now.
 
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Jerky rack.
Need some expanded metal now.
It never ends.
 

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Cleaned that up a little.
 

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Now try a dry run with no fan... see if the pellets keep going and produce a smoker full of smoke ....
JD. It seems that small mesh and board frame is interfering with the smoke flow. Or am I over thinking it again?
Sure wanted that stainless mesh for a jerky rack.
 
JD. It seems that small mesh and board frame is interfering with the smoke flow. Or am I over thinking it again?
Sure wanted that stainless mesh for a jerky rack.
This question didn’t quite come out right
Sounds a little silly actually.
I ran the fan after a while and it wasn’t smoking as much. The frame for the rack is directly in the air flow on the back corner.
 
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