Did a little tune up on the mini

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mdboatbum

Master of the Pit
Original poster
OTBS Member
Apr 22, 2011
4,076
371
Washington, DC
This thread got me thinking:
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/189902/keeping-temp-down-in-a-mini-wsm

One thing that has always bugged me about the mini is the haphazard fit of the pot into the grill. The obvious solution is to mount the pot lid on the bottom, but as has been discussed, this is no longer an option due to the fact that the pot won't fit inside the lid.
The rounded edge on the bottom of the pot just doesn't mesh too well with the sharp angle on the lip in the grill. It works, but a good bit of fiddling is generally required to get as snug a fit as possible. And as was pointed out in the thread above, if you don't get it quite right, you have an air leak and runaway temps. This hasn't been much of an issue for me as I generally run in the 275°-300° range, but it just bugged me.
So I'd tried reshaping the bottom a few times, but just ended up making it worse. Finally I just decided to start over. I had originally cut the bottom out leaving about a 1" lip, so what I did was just to pound that flat so there was no lip at all. It was like an open tin can if that makes sense. Then I took my jigsaw and made slices about every 1.5" to a line I'd drawn around the circumference of the pot, so they all were at the same level. Then I just bent the tabs inward at a 90° angle, giving me a harder edge.
It now fits very snugly every time I drop it in there. No more rotating it to get it to sit straight and to make sure there are no gaps. I checked with a flashlight and it really is a tight fit, no gaps at all.

While I was at it I decided to make a better charcoal basket. The one I had was hastily bent into shape on a weekend trip to the cabin and was too shallow and a little too small in circumference.
So I just bent one of my trusty mesh gutter guards in to the proper dimensions, riveted it in place and viola! It now comes up exactly to the level of the steamer insert. This gives me a good indicator of how high I can pile my coals. As long as I don't go higher than the top of the basket, I know I'll have clearance. With the old one, it seemed I was always piling the coals too high and the steamer insert was resting on them.
Haven't run it yet, but I'll take care of that this week. Thanks for looking!
 
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Sounds like a good solution.
Hopefully. The other option was to just buy a new pot and hope the lid would fit on the bottom, but I didn't want to give up just yet. By the way I did notice the Imusa pots are back down to $28 on Amazon. I think they qualify for free shipping with prime as well.
 
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