Double Deluxe Pitmaster Mod

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Here it is at 8:45, and sitting at 182. Stalled for over 2 hours. I fired up the smoker at 9 AM and you could smell the primer I put on last night, so I burned it hot for 2 hours. The primer definitely cured. This thing burns so much different than it did before the major overhaul. Before it was all I could do to keep the temps up, now I have to throttle it down. Sealing up the little leaks from last burn has made a hell of a difference. Making the coal basket has helped a lot also. I have some ash under it, about 2 inches, but since I made the basket sit higher, plenty of air flow.

I don't think I would have had that much ash, but I was trying to use up a bag of lump I got at Sam's club, that that was a 40 pound bag, with maybe 10 pounds of lump and 30 pounds of crumbs. The crumbs almost smothered themselves out. Had to keep shaking and stirring the basket and adding wood chunks after I added a chimney that crap. I bought a bag several months ago when they started carrying it. Frontier brand. It was a good lump. Bought it a second time and a lot of crumbs. Bought it a third time and mostly crumbs.Made a mad dash to Price Chopper for some Royal Oak and they didn't have any, so I got Best Choice lump. I read some where that it is made by Royal Oak. Really impressed with it. Burns hot, good sized pieces. Only problem is 10lbs is the biggest they had. Lights up real easy.

Enough ranting, I'll show pics of this smoke so far. Well hold on a minute, it 9:30 now, had a lot of interruptions from wife since I started this post, and it looks like another stall, still at 182. Okay some pics.

Butt in the smoker.

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Some shots of smoker.

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In case you are wondering about original smoke stack, I debated on taking it off, but glad I left it. Makes getting up to temp faster and when the temps have spiked, makes a great bleed off.

5 hours in.

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Some onions out of the garden. Love smoked onions, makes them sweet and tender.

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8 hours in when it stalled again. Looking good.

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That's it for now. Will post when it is done.
 
Finally done and chowing down.

Onions in.

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Out at 195.

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Onions done.

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Thought I could slice it, but just falling apart. Did not wrap, bark still soft.

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A plate full of goodness. Semi sliced butt, slaw, and smoked onions.

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Had to add some of my favorite sauce. Pain is good. Love this stuff.

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Get it sanded down the rest of the way tomorrow and start getting some color on it.
 
KC,

That smoker and the food looks great. Too bad I'm so far away. Can you post a list of materials and maybe dimensions? How thick is the steel?

Thanks
 
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KC,

Jumped right in on the smoking with that bad boy!

Food looks Great!

One question---Doesn't it get maybe a little warm for that digital temp box there?

Just wondering.

Thanks for the view,

Bear
 
KC,

That smoker and the food looks great. Too bad I'm so far away. Can you post a list of materials and maybe dimensions? How thick is the steel?

Thanks
I think the original metal is about 12 gauge. The metal I added is 11 gauge, about 1/8 inch thick. The reverse flow plate is 3/16 inch thick. The sides are twelve inches tall, 17 inches deep, and 35 inches long. The expanded steel is 1/8 thick. Two pieces of 1/2 inch angle, 6 foot long, for the cooking rack supports and reinforcement of the racks. 2 pieces 6 feet long 3/4 angle for coal basket and reinforcement on the front between the two doors. The expanded steel was a 4 x 4 sheet. 4 bench clamps for latches. 4 foot x 3 inch diameter exhaust pipe for the chimney.Got it at a muffler shop and had them expand one end so I could make the chimney slide off.

I think that is all the major materials. Bolts, nuts, and other little misc. stuff. I hope that answers your question.



 
KC,

Jumped right in on the smoking with that bad boy!

Food looks Great!

One question---Doesn't it get maybe a little warm for that digital temp box there?

Just wondering.

Thanks for the view,

Bear
The temp box is hanging on lid handle on the front and the other one is sitting on light bracket. The outside did get pretty hot, couldn't let my hand stay on it more than a split second. The boxes got warm but not hot.

The food was great, even great for lunch and supper tonight. A whole lot easier to cook on now than it was before. Holds temps even for quite a while. Smokemaster, Germany is a long way away, to bad , I would share. I always cook extra, you never know who will smell the smoke and stop by.
 
 
Man I like your idea with the onions, pork is lookin mighty fine man.

I am liking the design with the flat front like a fuel oil barrel. I may have to try your design when I get to using my 33 gal aircompressor tank.

Did you get any of the hail damage at the house? I spent all day north of the river, things aren't looking to good up there.
 
No hail damage here. Looked like some one dumped a layer of rock salt all over the place. Real small hail, but a bunch of it.

The cars came streaming in all day at work. The office was a mad house, estimate after estimate. Quite a few with sunroofs and glass busted.

That flat front works out pretty good with the sliding rack and seals real good. Not fighting a curve to get the seal.
 
Looks like we will using this one. One of my buddy's has an old Southern Pride that we have used in the past, but he backed out on us, so we will use this. Will burn a lot less fuel and easier to use, just won't hold as much meat. I think I can get a better product out of this also.
 
What a bummer, the Southern's are awesome. Especially when you have a couple hundred slabs to cook.

If you need another, pls say so. I have both drums and the new RF sitting here. I would be glad to help out if you all want another rig so you can run different temps.
 
Thanks Tom, I appreciate the offer. I think we can get by with this. It does have a hotter area on the lower rack by the fire box, works out good to crisp up the chicken.

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I got some paint on it tonight, yee haw!! Came out close to what I was wanting it to look like.

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I need to polish up the blend area, it is not quite as slick as the rest. Get the hardware back on it with some stainless fasteners and it should look okay. Too bad I couldn't find glossy paint that would hold up on fire box. I need to wrap it some thing shiny Hell I might put some aluminum foil around it for now
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At least it will look different and you can find me by looking for ol yeller.
 
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I have to say, I like it alot. Its gonna look factory after the hardware is back on.

Nice Work.
 
Thanks Tom. I have had some Budwieser tap handles laying around and decided I would use tose for the lid handle. Now I have to figure out how to make it work. To bad I don't have the spigots. Think I will solder up some copper and make it look some what like a spigot. Another trip to the hardware store,lol.

I need to quit doing more stuff and just get it done. Yeah right. A project is never finished till you get rid of it.

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I really need to find those specks on the lens. Probably weld spatter.
 
Hmmm, I was thinking more of an old 60s song, "We All Live in a Yellow Submarine"

There I go showing my age again!

Old Bear
 
Something in that sharp focus is typically not on the lens as it would not be in focus but blurred. So blureed it would virtually disapper but just soften the focus of the entire image a bit.  However, it is quite possible that it could be dirt on the surface of the image sensor. If it shows up on all the images you take with that camera, it probably is.

If you have a way to access the sensor, be very careful when you clean it off. If the sensor has a glass cover you should be in pretty good shape but be careful not to scratch that glass it may be coated and optical glass is soft. If it's an uncovered sensor like some are, the surface is very fragile and made of pretty soft material. A very soft brush, like a make brush will probably remove the dirt. Easy does it. 
 
Hey Dick, I was thinking the same thing. I can't see anything on the lens. I will have to take apart and get out the magnifying lens and look it over real good.

I took a break last night and went and hung out with Tom37 at Shawnee Great Grillers. Had a great time walking around and talking. Thanks Tom.

Back to work on lid handles today. Was pretty easy to make up the fake spigots for the tap handles.

Two 1/2 inch elbows, two 1/2 inch couplers, two 1/2 x 3/8 bushings, four 3/8 bolts, and two 3/8 nuts ( I know 4 are in pic, but only needed 2).

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Fish mouthed the couplers till they fit the curve of the elbows. Used a die grinder and then filed till they fit snug.

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All soldered up. The nuts and bolts fit fairly snug in the elbows, so I tapped them in place. Cleaned everything real good, used a lot of flux, fit every thing together laying down on their sides on a block on oak, heated up coupler and moved to the elbow. Solder sucked in real good. Added extra solder because the coupler and elbow was butted together. Not pretty but got a lot of solder to make sure it holds.

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I filed down the solder joints and polished them with some 3M rubbing compound with a wool buffing pad. Cut some gaskets to go between spigots and lid, then bolted them on.

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Really pleased with how good, and real they look. Polished up nice. To bad there is no brew flowing out of them.

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This overhaul is all most done. Just some minor little things to finish.
 
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