The road to my first smoke, Masterbuilt dual fuel pro

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smokinvw

Newbie
Original poster
May 5, 2014
4
11
Western Mass
Hi All,

  Thought I would post about my new and first smoker.  I had eluded to a upcoming purchase in my 'Roll Call' post and did end up purchasing the Masterbuilt dual fuel pro from my local do-it-yourself store.  A lot of evaluation went into my decision but, I think it was the right choice for me.  I knew about some of the issues people had with them from searching the internet and thought I could still work with it maybe applying similar mods.  I also read a lot of success stories too.

 On to some pics.. 
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Unboxing the unit showed some nice packaging of all the parts..

  
Assembly was pretty straight forwards and easy.  Once assembled I noticed the gap between the door and the cabinet that has been previously mentioned elsewhere.  What I found interesting was that the upper door was flush at the top and had a good size gap at the bottom.  The lower door matched the gap at the top and tapered down to just about flush at the bottom.

  
(<-- thats two pennies)

I thought about the oven gasket but, when looking at the hinges I noticed the weld was not that big.  I thought, why not cut the weld, grind down and clean the area. Then fix the doors in the new location and re-weld the hinges on with my trusty MIG welder.  The MIG needed some exercise anyways. 
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  Figured I would just go ahead and do it before seasoning the smoker.  So no, before/after temps etc.  Here's a shot of the cut hinges, door now clamped in position and the hinges being located.

  
That is it for the moment.  I'll post some more details and pics in the next few days.
 
Thank you chestnutbloom!  Glad I found this place. :)

So to continue where I left off,  here's a shot down the hinge line, top to bottom with the hinges welded back on, before painting.  The next shot shows the comparison with the bottom door which has not been cut and re-attached.

  
So, went ahead and did the same for the lower door.


Painted/blended as best I could with some high-temp engine paint.  Used a satin finish and did a little splatter/misting as the first coat was setting up.  Came out OK.  Not an exact match but, better then bare metal.

So after a little drying time and cleaning all the metal particles/sanding debris out/off of it, I got it setup to start seasoning it.

Wiped it down with veggie oil and sprayed the inside corners with some cooking spray.  Really just followed the instructions that came with it at this point.  Put a small ziploc container of wood chips in the pan.  Fired it up and ran it for 30mins on high and let it cool down.  Here's some 'action shots'. 
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First shot just after startup, next is a couple minutes in.  Last is the temp at that time.

  
About 20mins in and temp is approaching 500°F.    Noticed that the door bowed a little from the heat.  Figure I could get another latch and relocate the existing one lower and make it a two latch door.  Not going to bother with that right now.


Shut it off at about 35mins and saw a temp of about 525°F.  Figure that is pretty good. 

 
Couple shots after it cooled down.  Interesting how the 'porcelain' finish cracked and the ring around the burning is now white.  So a second seasoning for 20mins after wiping everything down again with oil and this last shot is after that.  Ran it about 3/4 open and still got the temp over 400°F.


Guess it looks ready to go. 
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  Had some neighbors walking by (out of curiousity I think) when it was going.  
 
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