Charcoal baskets

[pigcicles]

I did mine similar to BBQ Bubba's only I didn't even bolt mine. I cut it long enough to clip the metal and bend the ends through to hook it all together. No bolts, no welds - just a hammer, side cutters, and something to bend the expanded metal over.

 

[walking dude]

bubba........how many pounds of charchol does the basket hold?

 

[bbq bubba]

I think about 8# in that basket.......so thats an hour burn per pound, does that sound decent??

 

[walking dude]

pound a hour..........H*LL YEAH...........sounds like the times you get outta your ugly drum smoker

 

[bbq bubba]

Oh nooooooooo, that same basket will go 12 hrs + in my drum!!!

 

[gramason]

Got a 20" grate from Home Depot, and made this basket for my UDS, Tried it out Saturday, and it worked well.

 

[geek with fire]

Well done Lance! Can you explain the design a bit? Namely center area?

 

[mpeachhead]

I found an old pizza pan in the cabinet last night. It fit perfectly into my firebox. It has vents in the bottom. It's not a basket, but it raised the level a few inches. At least my ashes won't build up and choke out the flame. I'll try it out this weekend and let y'all know how it worked.

I also bought some 10 inch aluminum flashing, rolled it up into a tube, and stuck that in my smoke stack. It lowered it to grate level. Then, I cut another 10 inch square strip of the flashing and made a baffle. I crimped the top edge around the ledge that my charcoal grate hangs on in the smoke box.

So, now I have a baffle, a lowered smoke stack, and a charcoal basket, all for about $16 in materials (counting the tin snips I bought). I'm excited as hell. I'm going to smoke some St. Louis ribs and a corned beef brisket this weekend. I think it's all going to work well.

 

[morkdach]

sounds like a sound plan man

 

[gramason]

I leave the center empty as a divider, and put the coals around the outside, so they burn one way around the basket, I found it to be more of a even temp than using a basket with all of the coals together.

 

[smoke_chef]

I don't understand that??

 

[gramason]

I dump a lit chimney at on end of the coals, the coals burn their way around the basket. Longer burn time, lit at 10am, still warm the next morning.

 

[walking dude]

seems it would burn in both directions........maybe put a expanded wire dividermaybe 4 inches apart? this needs to be far enough away so the heat won't start the other side of the divider.....or maybe a solid divider........better heat resistance, and no chance of stray sparks crossing the open barrier

so it burns in ONE direction..........long time burn that way

 

[capt dan]

Rotation of the earth makes it always burn clockwise.

 

[walking dude]

LOLOLOLOL.........yeah THATS it

killing me here

 

[jdfire40]

Looks good....I think I'll be working on something like this in the next couple of days. Do you happen to know the dimensions of this box?

So when you use this, do you start a chimney, get it glowing, dump it in then fill with fresh coals....or do you fill with fresh coals then dump a chimney of glowing coals on top (if it even matters which way).

 

[geek with fire]

I know you asked him, but I'll give a stab at it: It think it depends on the temps you want to achieve. Fire wants to travel up, so if you put hot coals on the bottom and unlit on top, you will get that "holy hell" type heat. If you put the coals on top, the heat will rise, but slowly ignite the coals underneath; this being the "Minion method". This works well if you only have to load coal once. The problem is, if you run out of coal half way through the smoke, you have to fire a chimney full again, dump unlit coals in and the hit chimney coals on top. This will cause a temperature dip, follow most likely by a temperature spike.

What I do is put hot coals on the intake side, and unlit on the smoke chamber side (I'm talking horizontal here. I'm thinkin you have an upright...oh well). The hot coals will make their way through the unlit coals. When it's time to load coals, rake them to the intake side and add fresh to the open void. Your temperatures stay more even and requires less damper adjustment to maintain temperature.

 

[nh3b's]

Nice explanation GWF. It makes sence to me....Thanks

 

[bustedluckbarbq]

Geek... thats the way I've been doing it.... i pile my lump at the chamber side with my wood chunks spread in.... light in the chimney and dump in at the intake side letting it burn into the pile... I get a pretty good burn out of the pile.... when i add.. i try to rake towards the intake and add coals to the chamber side... or i'll load another chinmey... and just dump hot coals in....

 

[jdfire40]

Thanks for the explination!