The WOPR

[peculiarmike]

I love this thing! When you get the vents in place they will help a BUNCH with your temperature control, give you some regulation other than controling the hot plate. You need some air flow through the smoker.
That piece of Lodge cast iron wasn't cheap!
Paint this jewel with whatever, temp is not an issue. Make sure we get a set of pics when done.
Smoke on!

 

[jmastera]

Actually I got the cast iron plate on ebay for $19 including shipping.

 

[jmastera]

So I am thinking of 2 external additions for the WORP.

1. Since the door opens left to right, I was thinking of moutning a shelf on the left side of the fridge to set things on. Any ideas on a mount for this. I was thinking of the standard shelf mount you usually see on grills. I guess I could always fabricate a mount out of angle iron. hmmmm

2. Mounting some sort of light to the top of the fridge just a little back from the front edge. I would hope to find something with a goose neck or similar so i can adjust the angle of the bulb to point into the frdige for night time. The are were the smoker is is not in a well lit area. Any ideas?

 

[starsfaninco]

for the lighting, I'd look at something like this...

http://www.pegasusassociates.com/pro...cueLights.html

 

[deejaydebi]

Just make sure to give yourself some room on the shelf. They always make shelves the size of a dinner plate. That won't hold a huge brisket, a few ribs and a pork butt very well.

 

[jmastera]

So I took a couple of pics during the first smoke in the WOPR. I have still yet to add the vent mainly because of the lack of seal around the door. During one of the pre burns I noticed that a fair amount, not billowing but not thin, of smoke was coming from all 4 sides of the door. I also found that when I went to cut the hole in the top of the smoker that I didn't have the right attachment for the Rigid 3in hole saw bit so i could'nt cut the whole this weekend. Anyway, the first true test, a 12lb Turkey went beautifully. No creosote taste, great Cherry\Hickory taste, crispy skin, amazing flavor. The only thing is I should have taken it out about 5 degrees earlier than I did, it was just a tad bit dry.

I'll keep posting til it's finished.

 

[deejaydebi]

Congrats JM!

Looks like you could smoke a ton of food in there!

 

[jmastera]

I'm guess and say that I could probably fit 4 12lb Turkeys + 3 maybe 4 Cabbages in 6in round disposable pie pans. Not sure how the hot plate would handle it with all that grub in there, I think it would be hard to keep up temps with it all in there.

I have also figured out that making mods to the beast is a pain in the rear. I was thinking of putting in a slide out shelf with door on the right side of the fridge to slide the wood chip pan in and out. While drilling holes for temp probes and such I found the interior and exterior not easy to cut through. Since I didn't have the attachment for the hole saw I used my Dremel which cuts through it like butter but the cutoff bits am using go pretty quick. I'll work through it though I am determined to have an amazing smoker.

 

[tender loins]

Any updates on this thread or link to finished project? Thanks.

 

[emtee]

I use one of the office type lamps that is essentially two long arms with springs to hold tension (Wally World- less than ten bucks). It sits in a base that I permanently mounted to the top of the unit and has a single pivot point. That way I can swing it around from the shelf table to the chamber and pull it down to rack level for food viewing. I also like it because it will pop out of the base for storage in the cooking chamber between smokes.

And I second or third or fourth the other guys in that any good enamel paint will suffice for the outer skin. Just rough up the surface a bit with a green Scotchbrite pad and spray bomb away.

I have to say that I love a big chamber smoker- of any kind. It does make one feel like a bad *** when opening a huge "vault" door or the like and having the smoke roll out in yer face. Oh, and there's just no limit as to what you can smoke or how much of it you can do at a time. Wanna do a whole side of beef? Yeah, go ahead! How about a small pig? Do it man! Got a whole tuna? Hang that bad boy right in there! Smoke on!!!!

Jeeze, I'm gettin off just writing this!

 

[richoso1]

I'm with Up in Smoke on the paint job, but you haveto take some pics on that project. I think you hit a main artery on this topic, lots of members thinking the same thing.