Newbie from southern Michigan

[nowake]

Been lurking here for a little while and have learned a lot. There is a ton of great easy to find info on here. I figured it was time to join in. Learned about this forum from reading some of (spanky)Capt. Dan's tips on another site.
A couple months ago I bought a char-broil silver and did a few of the mods to it. When seasoning it I had trouble getting it to get up to 300. Finally after pouring a bunch more charcoal to it (too much). It started climbing, and climbing and climbing. The cooking chamber got to 475 before I got it shut down. LOL Burnt the paint right of the firebox on the very first light up. The wife who was already not pleased about my purchase was now really uninpressed. I tried to explain to her now it has character.
After my first experience I decided to do another dry run and this time things worked out much better, but it still doesn't like to get very hot. It's got a great sweet spot between 220 and 270 which is great but I have to run the vents open quite a bit more than what I expected from reading others experiences.
I'm starting to ramble. Anyway so far I've done a few fatties and about 4 pork butts. They've all come out great so far. Thanks for all the info on here.

 

[capt dan]

Welcome aboard No Wake. Great to have another M/S transfer. There are about 6-7 of us here from there.......so far. Glad to see I wasn't the only one who burnt the paint off the silver early!

You'll fit right in here with the rest of us smoke junkies.

 

[jlhog]

Welcome fellow Michigander. Wait till your wife gets a taste of your first smoke. Then she will be impressed.

 

[zzerru]

Welcome aboard Wake!

 

[seboke]

Welcome to the forum NoWake. So Capt Dan is AKA "Spanky"... This ought to be fun!

 

[cowgirl]

Welcome to the forum NoWake!

 

[capt dan]

no it oughta not be!

 

[flyin'illini]

No Wake - Welcome to the forum. (in spite of your association with the Capt 'spanky' -- hee hee)

Torched some paint myself once (ECB) and had a similarly unimpressed wife. Mine became a safety lesson.

There is a lot here and you are tied up to Capt so that will help your results for sure.

 

[ronf]

Welcome NoWake. I too am new to this and am experimenting with my Silver Smoker. I sealed up the firebox door with aluminium foil and that seem to help controlling the temperature. I now have removed the aluminium foil and replace it with rope gasket material that I purchased from a local hardware store. I also caulked up some gaps with Rutland sealant. Going to give it a try tomorrow, ribs on the menu.

 

[justsmoke2]

Welcome No Wake to the SMF never can have enough Michiganders. Your first step will be to admit that you are addicted. After that everything comes easy.

 

[dennisdocb]

Welcome NoWake..Trust me it's takes a few smokes to get the wifey onboard..but then wait a couple weeks without and she'll be pushing for you to smoke.