The wait is finally over! I received delivery of my new Bell Fabrications smoker on May 5th. It has a 24"x48" cook chamber and is 3/8" steel all the way around. It arrived on a massive pallet, and watching it get unloaded made me glad that I opted to have the freight company deliver it to the driveway, rather than trying to manage the process myself.
After cutting it off of the pallet I was hit with two minor disappointments- one of which was my fault, and the other happened at some point in the shipping. Firstly, I failed to lift the rod that supports the folding front shelf before rolling it off the pallet, which ended up bending it and weakening the weld. When I went to bend it back in place, I broke the weld. Whoops. I was able to come up with a solution by buying some 1/4" threaded rod, along with a threaded corner and tee pipe fitting. I cut the rod down to the right size with a hack saw, cut smaller sections for the tee joint to support the shelf, and cut one more smaller section for the elbow joint, securing it in the hole with a zip tie. So far it is holding strong and actually kind of looks cool. No big deal.
The second thing that I noticed was that at some point during shipping, the firebox side of the smoker must have been jammed into something, because the butterfly damper on the top side was bent in by about 3 inches, and the end of the adjustment rod was all scuffed up. I'd hate to see what was on the receiving end of that blow. I attempted to remedy this by cutting a 2x4 down to the interior length of the firebox, wedging it up against the bottom of the butterfly damper so it wouldn't counteract the movement, and wailing on the top side with a rubber mallet. I got the gap down to about a 1/4", and I may have another go at it later in time, but for now it's okay.
After acknowledging those initial hiccups, I cleaned out the metal shavings and scrap from inside the firebox and cook chamber, washed it with some dish soap and water, rinsed it down really well, and seasoned it with a combination of Lodge cast iron seasoning spray and Pam (this is just what I had on hand).
To make grease draining easier, I bought a ball valve and a small section of 3/4" pipe to fit the grease drain hole. I also grabbed a UF cable connector to plug the temp probe port and reduce the smoke loss coming out of that hole.
So far, I've burned a few fires, cooked a couple of batches of chicken thighs, as well as a hot and fast no-brine salmon, and am just trying to learn the pit, but I'm looking forward to throwing a pork butt on tomorrow so I can put in some good hours of learning more how it operates. I put an expanded metal grate over the existing grate in the firebox to discourage the coals from dropping down to the bottom, but I am still struggling to find the sweet spot in terms of split size. Once this beast comes up to temp, I'm finding it hard to maintain a good coal bed without running it too hot. It just holds the heat so very well.
I have noticed that the 2" stemmed Tel-Tru thermometers I installed on the lids are reading about 50-75 degrees cooler than the fireboard probe installed on the grate. I'm wondering if it would be more accurate if I had gotten 4" stems, but unless I see the need to replace them, I'll probably just do the mental math.
Here are some pics!
Arriving on the pallet:
Detailed shot of the firebox after hammering the butterfly damper back in place:
After vacuuming out the metal shavings, pre-seasoning:
After seasoning, fixing the broken rod on the folding front shelf, installing the ball valve to the grease drain, and installing the UF cable connector to the probe port:
All closed up:
**Glamor Shot**
Chicken thighs about to go in (you can see I had propped the shelf up with 2x4s before fixing the rod)
Hot 'n fast no-brine salmon cooked to 135º right before pulling it out:
After cutting it off of the pallet I was hit with two minor disappointments- one of which was my fault, and the other happened at some point in the shipping. Firstly, I failed to lift the rod that supports the folding front shelf before rolling it off the pallet, which ended up bending it and weakening the weld. When I went to bend it back in place, I broke the weld. Whoops. I was able to come up with a solution by buying some 1/4" threaded rod, along with a threaded corner and tee pipe fitting. I cut the rod down to the right size with a hack saw, cut smaller sections for the tee joint to support the shelf, and cut one more smaller section for the elbow joint, securing it in the hole with a zip tie. So far it is holding strong and actually kind of looks cool. No big deal.
The second thing that I noticed was that at some point during shipping, the firebox side of the smoker must have been jammed into something, because the butterfly damper on the top side was bent in by about 3 inches, and the end of the adjustment rod was all scuffed up. I'd hate to see what was on the receiving end of that blow. I attempted to remedy this by cutting a 2x4 down to the interior length of the firebox, wedging it up against the bottom of the butterfly damper so it wouldn't counteract the movement, and wailing on the top side with a rubber mallet. I got the gap down to about a 1/4", and I may have another go at it later in time, but for now it's okay.
After acknowledging those initial hiccups, I cleaned out the metal shavings and scrap from inside the firebox and cook chamber, washed it with some dish soap and water, rinsed it down really well, and seasoned it with a combination of Lodge cast iron seasoning spray and Pam (this is just what I had on hand).
To make grease draining easier, I bought a ball valve and a small section of 3/4" pipe to fit the grease drain hole. I also grabbed a UF cable connector to plug the temp probe port and reduce the smoke loss coming out of that hole.
So far, I've burned a few fires, cooked a couple of batches of chicken thighs, as well as a hot and fast no-brine salmon, and am just trying to learn the pit, but I'm looking forward to throwing a pork butt on tomorrow so I can put in some good hours of learning more how it operates. I put an expanded metal grate over the existing grate in the firebox to discourage the coals from dropping down to the bottom, but I am still struggling to find the sweet spot in terms of split size. Once this beast comes up to temp, I'm finding it hard to maintain a good coal bed without running it too hot. It just holds the heat so very well.
I have noticed that the 2" stemmed Tel-Tru thermometers I installed on the lids are reading about 50-75 degrees cooler than the fireboard probe installed on the grate. I'm wondering if it would be more accurate if I had gotten 4" stems, but unless I see the need to replace them, I'll probably just do the mental math.
Here are some pics!
Arriving on the pallet:
Detailed shot of the firebox after hammering the butterfly damper back in place:
After vacuuming out the metal shavings, pre-seasoning:
After seasoning, fixing the broken rod on the folding front shelf, installing the ball valve to the grease drain, and installing the UF cable connector to the probe port:
All closed up:
**Glamor Shot**
Chicken thighs about to go in (you can see I had propped the shelf up with 2x4s before fixing the rod)
Hot 'n fast no-brine salmon cooked to 135º right before pulling it out:
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