Seasoned my smoker!

[roushy]

Okay so after months of weeke work I was ablew to finalize the smoker and season it today.  Smoked at 350 F for about 3 hours and then at 250 with heavy smoke.  Inside has a nice gold film in it now.   I did run in to a few snags through.  I'll try to post photos as comments come in.  My phone is having trouble sending photos tonight...

So the temp was great from about 300-350.  It stayed there for about 2 hours without being touched.   However, I noticed 2 things.  The first being the fact that the wood didn't really burn to coals... it simply burnt to ash.  I couldn't get a good bed of coals the whole evening.  The 2nd being as soon as I openned the firebox door, the draft would suck ash up in to the smoker and probably would spray ash over the meet.  My grate in the firebox is about 3.5 inches above the bottom with the air vent directly across from the inlet to the chamber.  Should I lover my grate or remove it all together to get some good hot coals?  I pulled back the damper to almost no air and they still burned up fairly quick.  The smoker was at around 270 F and I ran out to the store for about an hour and when I got back, the smoker was 140 F and there was nothing but white ash powder in the bottom of the firebox.

Newbie with the RF and all wood so any help would be lovely!

 

[roushy]

firebox.JPG

• roushy
• Oct 12, 2012

seasoning.JPG

• roushy
• Oct 12, 2012

Here are some photos

 

[jarjarchef]

Very nice...

 

[oldschoolbbq]

Roushy, here's some reading for you :http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/a/stickburning101

Check your wood and see if it's not too old or a soft wood like Cottonwood or Ash .

Your 'Embers' should look like this :

bbq shots 006.JPG

• oldschoolbbq
• Oct 12, 2012

Not a full SFB , but a small hot fire with hard wood . This heat served me 1.5hrs. @ 225° and just a trickle of Air through the intake.

Butt for EMS 008.JPG

• oldschoolbbq
• Oct 12, 2012

Be sure you don't have any leaks in the body of the Smoker and practice "Patience" as you Smoke. A good looking Smoke is Light , Pale and Bluish in color...

Butt for EMS 015.JPG

• oldschoolbbq
• Oct 12, 2012

Practice,practice,practice ,,,Pop a 'Cool One' between Sticks...

Have fun and...

 

[roushy]

Thanks for the pointers.  I had the pale smoke most of the time.  I think what I did was added 5 logs to start and about 3 everytime I added and got it really hot and then didn't maintain it.  Maybe I should do only 3 logs to start, built it up to 300 and then add 1 log every hour as or as needed.  I had my stack 100% open the entire time.  Seemed like when I started to close it, I would get thicker smoker.

 

[roushy]

By the way, I was smoking with 2 year old walnut.  I also think I may try slightly larger logs.