Hi everyone. I wanted to introduce myself. I've been mentioning that I'd like to get a smoker for a while now and my wife surprised me with one on Father's Day. She bought a Brinkmann Smoke 'N Grill AKA ECB. My first step was to hop online and see what I needed to do to get started. That's how I found SMF.
Thanks to these great forums, I found out the necessary modifications for the ECB as well as some of the easier items to smoke. I was out looking for a 14.5" replacement grill to use in my charcoal pan and SS all thread to use for the charcoal pan leg supports but was coming up short. While at Wal-Mart, I came across their house brand version of the Weber Smokey Joe. Looking at it, I realized that I could cannibalize not only the grill but also the base to use for my charcoal pan.
I took the base out and chopped 4.5" off of each leg in order to bring the top of the charcoal pan down to the stock height, roughly 8". Once that was done, I drilled a couple of holes in my charcoal pan and attached it to the Smokey Joe knockoff base. It worked great and was very stable during my cure.
I did have some concerns about heat control during the cure. The trash thermometer on the ECB was pegged in the "hot" zone. After reading some more, I came to the conclusion that I gave it way too much fuel to start out with. I haven't done any of the airflow mods so I don't think it was getting too much oxygen.
The last modification that I have planned for the short term is to purchase a proper thermometer and install it. That should happen tomorrow and then I can smoke my fattie that I have planned.
Thanks to these great forums, I found out the necessary modifications for the ECB as well as some of the easier items to smoke. I was out looking for a 14.5" replacement grill to use in my charcoal pan and SS all thread to use for the charcoal pan leg supports but was coming up short. While at Wal-Mart, I came across their house brand version of the Weber Smokey Joe. Looking at it, I realized that I could cannibalize not only the grill but also the base to use for my charcoal pan.
I took the base out and chopped 4.5" off of each leg in order to bring the top of the charcoal pan down to the stock height, roughly 8". Once that was done, I drilled a couple of holes in my charcoal pan and attached it to the Smokey Joe knockoff base. It worked great and was very stable during my cure.
I did have some concerns about heat control during the cure. The trash thermometer on the ECB was pegged in the "hot" zone. After reading some more, I came to the conclusion that I gave it way too much fuel to start out with. I haven't done any of the airflow mods so I don't think it was getting too much oxygen.
The last modification that I have planned for the short term is to purchase a proper thermometer and install it. That should happen tomorrow and then I can smoke my fattie that I have planned.
