It's time.

JKalchik · Post by **JKalchik** » June 12th, 2018, 8:39 pm

As much as I hate to..... I'm probably going to have to take one more day off this week to work on this monster. The cook door is done, except for that pesky condensate deflector. The door seems to be sprung a bit, I've left it clamped to my fixture table. Still have to build the small doors.

Dirtytires · Post by **Dirtytires** » June 12th, 2018, 11:32 pm

Time off work is a good thing....dont let you boss tell you otherwise....

JKalchik · Post by **JKalchik** » June 17th, 2018, 12:25 am

Frank_Cox wrote: ↑
May 7th, 2018, 8:26 pm
actually, I have never seen the weld on bullet hinges sag. they will hold a crazy amount of weight when welded on properly..

Oh...... my.

Finally mounted the cook chamber door tonight. Balanced the door on a bottle jack, clamped it down with 1/8" shims at the corners, then spent some time aligning the bullets (zerks up!) Buzzed the hinges down and let it cool down with the clamps on while I built the ash door. When I took the clamps off an hour later, no sag. None. And swings with a single finger. Actually works much better than the ash door or the charcoal door.

Gaskets are in, and the adhesive is curing overnight. Still have to install the rivnuts for the ash door, and weld on the ash door curb (it's already fitted and hinged to the door.) The reinforcing plate for the slam latch striker is mounted, but has to be drilled and tapped. Cook trays need to be cut & welded yet. Almost time for a seasoning burn.

Post by **Big T** » June 17th, 2018, 12:34 pm

JKalchik · Post by **JKalchik** » June 17th, 2018, 2:02 pm

Note to self: it's important to get the flanges on the bullet hinges pointing the right way a well, not just the zerks facing up. Had to cut the hinges off the ash door, grind off the weld, and reweld the hinges. The zerk side of the hinges were welded to the curb, not to the door. Oops......

JKalchik · Post by **JKalchik** » June 17th, 2018, 9:29 pm

I'm at least to a point where I can make a seasoning burn.

Good casters... on a hard surface. They don't work so well on a soft sand lawn.

And my time is rather unfortunate. Just barely got it rolled out of the garage when the heavens opened up. Have to wait for a gap in the rain to get out there and load it and stoke it.

JKalchik · Post by **JKalchik** » June 18th, 2018, 9:39 am

Stoked it with 15 lbs. of Kingsford briquettes (no reason to use the good stuff....) last night at 10:00 PM, got it up to 300 degrees F by midnight (error on firing procedure on my part, I blame the long hours.) Got some oddities in the temps (have I mentioned that I REALLY like Bryan Mayland's HeaterMeter?) It's still burning almost 12 hours later, although at a rather lower temperature than I'd like.

I fouled up & didn't get enough insulation around the firebox, apparently, the skin is a bit warm on that end. The rest of the skin appears to be pretty damp, looking at it from the window this morning, so the insulation seems to be around the cook chamber. Might add another strip of gasket across the top of the cook chamber door, saw a little vapor there.

Post by **Big T** » June 18th, 2018, 7:29 pm

Nice

JKalchik · Post by **JKalchik** » June 18th, 2018, 8:05 pm

<PaulHarvey>And now... for the rest of the story.</PaulHarvey>

Had a minor issue with the fan & damper assembly last night, apparently the air shutter never really opened up. Fixed that this afternoon, and smoked a pork tenderloin for dinner. Yum. I think I'm gonna be happy with this thing. Going to load it up on a trailer tomorrow night, schlep it 600 miles east on Thursday and start smoking dinner Friday afternoon for 70 people on Saturday.

Post by **Big T** » June 18th, 2018, 9:06 pm

Awesome!

ajfoxy · Post by **ajfoxy** » June 18th, 2018, 10:47 pm

Nice....

McBroom · Post by **McBroom** » June 18th, 2018, 11:50 pm

Awesome

I Love My 2018 RAM 2500HD 4x4 Off Road 6.4L. USMC (ret)

Dirtytires · Post by **Dirtytires** » June 19th, 2018, 12:12 am

Im not sure i would have agreed to do an onsite cook with a green smoker for a big group.....bestwishes for a good trip.

McBroom · Post by **McBroom** » June 19th, 2018, 12:15 am

Dirtytires wrote:Im not sure i would have agreed to do an onsite cook with a green smoker for a big group.....bestwishes for a good trip.

I Love My 2018 RAM 2500HD 4x4 Off Road 6.4L. USMC (ret)

JKalchik · Post by **JKalchik** » June 19th, 2018, 7:09 am

Dirtytires wrote: ↑
June 19th, 2018, 12:12 am
Im not sure i would have agreed to do an onsite cook with a green smoker for a big group.....bestwishes for a good trip.

I'm right there with ya, hoss! I'd intended to have this done 3 weeks ago, and cranked out a few trial runs.... this funny thing call LIFE got in the way. Edit: this is for my brother's 65th birthday party. So far, it's still a surprise... and going to try & keep it that way. Shoot, he doesn't know I've built this monster yet.

Having said that......I've been using a HeaterMeter for a couple of years now, I'm pretty comfortable with what it can do and how it works. This GF smoker is going to utterly spoil me compared to the cheap Oklahoma Joe clone I've been struggling with over the last several years. The ability to fire it and stoke it and walk away with a tasty beverage is a game changer. The pork tenderloin from last night turned out so well that I feel a whole lot better about this whole trip. Just cut it far too close for comfort.

One of my coworkers was commiserating with me over the seasoning burn yesterday morning, looking over my shoulder conceptually from his house, watching the HeaterMeter display, as I know the device is well capable of better temp control than what I was seeing. Yeah, I know..... NERD!

Post by **Rodcrafter** » June 20th, 2018, 9:28 am

Good stuff

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

JKalchik · Post by **JKalchik** » June 20th, 2018, 9:43 pm

Nuts, nuts, NUTS.

Started to bolt on the lift eyes tonight before rolling it onto the trailer..... and discovered one bolt just plain won't go. That bracket got welded down solid for this trip. When I get back, I'll have to cut the bracket off, and about an 8-10" square panel to get into the interior to fix the nut that's obvious got some weld slag in it some how. There is a slim chance I might be able to fix this without cutting the panel but I'll need to chase down a long 3/8"-16 tap, longer than 3 1/2".

ajfoxy · Post by **ajfoxy** » June 20th, 2018, 11:05 pm

Sheesh, and you thought it would be easy...

Dirtytires · Post by **Dirtytires** » June 20th, 2018, 11:35 pm

If it’s only a small piece of slag, I’ve had a little luck making thread chaser by grinding one side of a bolt flat...kinda in a wedge shape. No guarantee but it will take less time than cutting off a side.

JKalchik · Post by **JKalchik** » June 22nd, 2018, 9:33 pm

Dirtytires wrote: ↑
June 19th, 2018, 12:12 am
Im not sure i would have agreed to do an onsite cook with a green smoker for a big group.....bestwishes for a good trip.

There is another aspect of this smoker compared to my Oklahoma Joe clone. On a long cook, it appears to cook much "faster," i.e. at the same indicated temp, the food will absorb heat & smoke better. Or maybe the cooker isn't losing heat as much.

I started the smoker and left to attend funeral services for the daughter of someone I worked with years ago (go hug your S.O.s, kids, etc.) 6 hours later, the brisket & butts were a LOT closer to done than I anticipated. This is far better than the reverse, I'll just slow the pit way the heck down to a warming oven. This isn't a problem.

JKalchik · Post by **JKalchik** » June 24th, 2018, 5:19 pm

AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH.

Okay..... good news first. I did smoke enough oink, moo & cluck for about 70 people on Saturday night. The usual comment was "ohmygawd..... best I've ever had." Several people wanted the 50 cent tour of the smoker, and how the meat was prepped. Personally, I thought the brisket was just a little over done, a little too much fall apart tender. Everything was not over smoked and quite tender.

Now, for the downsides..... as noted above, this thing really did smoke FAST. The brisket & pork were done way earlier than expected, the smoker was turned into a warming box.

And for the REALLY bad news. I have a bad leak in the bottom of the smoker. The grease pan is failing at capturing the grease, it's leaking through both the interior and exterior skins. I"m gonna have to cut open the bottom skin, pull out the insulation, clean out the cavity, stuff in new insulation, and weld it all back up. There goes a couple of evenings. Oh, and run a bead all the way around the inside of the inside of the grease pan.

ajfoxy · Post by **ajfoxy** » June 24th, 2018, 5:30 pm

Damn that is a pain. I had that fear when I built my DP. I filled the bottom grease tray with water before I put the bottom insulation and outer skins on... just to make sure the thing was not going to leak. Truth to tell I did not trust my dodgy welding. Fortunately in my case it held water.

Might be a good test before you close it up.

Dirtytires · Post by **Dirtytires** » June 24th, 2018, 8:39 pm

Bummer.

We have all been there.

Post by **Big T** » June 24th, 2018, 9:01 pm

but at least you were able to cook for them.

JKalchik · Post by **JKalchik** » June 25th, 2018, 3:34 pm

Big T wrote: ↑
June 24th, 2018, 9:01 pm
but at least you were able to cook for them.

Yes, yes indeed, I was able to cook for the gang.

The party turned out to be a resounding success. Some way, some how, it was kept a secret from my brother that all 4 of us siblings (3 of us live out of state,) would be here and conspiring on this shindig. I made about 60 lbs. of smoked meaty goodness (will see about getting pics from my niece,) 5 gallons of home brew Kolsch beer, and 5 gallons of Sprecher's root beer served on tap which pretty much all went over the weekend. Call me happy.

Now if I can just recover from a MAJOR blood sugar crash last night......

SmokerBuilder.com

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