well i bought an offset smoker

[cody27]

yea i was going to get some large rivets and put the braided stuff on but i havent even fired the thing up yet so im going to wait till i get it smoking and see what needs to be done from there

 

[cody27]

well new job has been kickin my butt and i havent been much into doin much after work the last few days but today i got a coal basket fabbed up out of some extruded steel i had laying around and im going to hit the steel yard tomorrow for some angle iron so it has a bit of rigidity and a more professional look than the bailing wire thats holding it together at the moment and ill stop by the hardware store as well and see if they got more BBQ thermometers and pick up some coal and such and fire this thing up and see what else needs doing and then i got a salmon sitting in the freezer that will make a good test subject
 

 

[duffman]

Wow sounds like you are having a great time. I am going to be getting some of that braid here in the next few weeks to seal up my firebox. Glad to hear you had an easy time installing it.

 

[cody27]

well i figure i should post some progress pics, got my coal basket and baffle made for $10 worth of steel and bout 30 min of my day

gave it 1" legs so it sits pretty stable just above my burner in the firebox.

and the basket is 5" deep so it should hold plenty

the baffle i made from 14Ga sheet metal and simple made a cardboard template, copied it to the steel and gouged the metal where the bends needed to be and bent it with a body work hammer, it sits on the lower grill(3" off the bottom) and butts up to the firebox hole

And apparently Grill thermometers are like gold cause i checked three places today and all were sold out so im going to check out a few other places over the next few days and hopefully i can get my hands on some so i have an idea of what temps im operating with.

 

[duffman]

Looks Nice. I have been debating on a baffle myself, you will have to let me know how it works out.

 

[cody27]

yea for sure, im hoping i can get some thermometers and have it fired up by the weekend but it should most likely happen on saturday

 

[cody27]

well ive looked high and low and cant find any temp gauges locally and places that would stock them i seem to always get the kid that barely has a clue what im talking bout let alone if they can order them in for me..

..but i gave in and picked up a digital thermometer with pager that seems to have all sorts of bells and whistles as for my temp gauges ive found a set of 2 for just over $20 on Ebay so im going to order those and they should arrive in a week or two...as far as smoking anything that has been pushed up till tuesday as i got booked for work and all i wanna do after work is take a nice long nap......this new job is killing me with these 6AM shifts

anyway thats my update for now talk to ya all later

 

[cody27]

well been busy with life and havent had much time on the computer but the thermometers i ordered finally showed up yesterday and put them in this morning and they look great, put them as low as i could on the lid and the probes sit about 1.5" off the surface of the grill so now i gotta find something else to smoke....mind you thats not the hard part its finding the time that is killing me

 

[kcbluesnbbq]

Hey Cody, looks like you are off to a great start. Kind of a neat looking smoker. Can't wait to see food come out of it.

 

[cody27]

well so far  i have done up 2 salmon and they turned out great for a trial run, im thinkin maybe another salmon to give the gauges and some other fixes a go and then maybe some ribs or a pork shoulder

 

[kcbluesnbbq]

Now that you have good therms, it shouldn't be to hard to get a handle on temp. With that baffle it should help eliminate the big hot spot by the fire box. You will find that you will still be hotter near the box though. Just place the meat a little farther from fire box and you should get good results. I fought that same problem till I put a plate that curved out from opening of fire box. Still hotter at that end, but stuff that I want to cook faster can go at that end.

When you get some ribs or butts going, put up some qview.