Well, I found a new temp gauge at Home Depot and it was by luck because it was in a box with other parts. I put it at the dome and now I wish I put it at the base of the lid near the grill top.
I couldn't find a grate to lift the coals off the bottom of the pan. I'm not sure what to do. I've seen some guys make a basket from some kind of metal weave, but I'm not sure where I can find that. I keep worrying that I'll use galvanized steel and kill people
I went ahead and tried a 3.5 lbs pork butt to test my first smoke out. I put some coals on the perimeter of the pan and lit up some coals in the chimney until most were red hot. I put those in the middle and tried to push those around until I saw two or three little airholes. It got to 230 easily, but it died out about an hour and a half which was disappointing. I guess having the coals off the bottom make the biggest difference compared to having just the holes. I started at 8:00am and put on new coals around 9:30am and did ok until noon. It didn't have a great bark so I tossed it in the oven because of time and finished it off until 1:30pm. Finally I just tore into it and it wasn't fall-apart tender, but it tasted fine.
I'm definitely going to have a large learning curve on smoking, but it was fun.
I'm going to find a grate, maybe use sand instead of water if anything at all, put the smoke chips on a little earlier.
I was surprised that smoking doesn't really put out that much smoke.