In my original plans for my MES Custom SS mod, I was going to install a round "dispersion" plate centered below the smoke stack inlet and spaced about 1" below the top of the inner liner. My thoughts were it would help to keep the heat more even from the center of the smoker to the edges. Before I installed it, I figured I would run the MES Custom with just the smoke stack (which has a 2 1/4" diameter). I did not notice any real heat differences across the racks so I left it as is. I've thought about using a piece of scrap poster board on a snack stick smoke (170* tops, the poster board should hand that OK) and just let the bolts friction fit through holes and see if it makes any difference.
If you are going to use a ball valve through the body as your smoke stack (which is a novel idea and a good one IMO), I would up it to 2" or even 2 1/2" and just use short lengths of black steel pipe to complete the stack. Should be fairly inexpensive and give total control over air flow. I also enlarged the hole over the drip tray for more inflow of air when I modified my MES. I used the same 2 1/4" size hole as the smokestack. I did not use the existing hole as the center as I wanted to ensure the entire hole was over the drip pan so it will still function as a drip pan. I made the back edge of the existing hole along the back edge of the enlarged hole as the drip pan does not go the entire length of the body of the smoker (front to back), but it does extend all the way from just past the hole in the back to the front edge of the smoker. The drip pan sits about 3/8" below the bottom so there is plenty of air flow into towards that intake hole.
Probably makes more sense in photos....
If you are going to use a ball valve through the body as your smoke stack (which is a novel idea and a good one IMO), I would up it to 2" or even 2 1/2" and just use short lengths of black steel pipe to complete the stack. Should be fairly inexpensive and give total control over air flow. I also enlarged the hole over the drip tray for more inflow of air when I modified my MES. I used the same 2 1/4" size hole as the smokestack. I did not use the existing hole as the center as I wanted to ensure the entire hole was over the drip pan so it will still function as a drip pan. I made the back edge of the existing hole along the back edge of the enlarged hole as the drip pan does not go the entire length of the body of the smoker (front to back), but it does extend all the way from just past the hole in the back to the front edge of the smoker. The drip pan sits about 3/8" below the bottom so there is plenty of air flow into towards that intake hole.
Probably makes more sense in photos....
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