Hello all. I was referred to this site by another new member of yours, who happens to be my best friend and ALSO happens to be working on a little smoker project of his own (which I'm sure he'll share at some point).
I've grilled for a number of years on a Weber kettle grill and added a Master Forge charcoal grill a little over a year ago. I'm no expert at grilling, but I've always cooked over charcoal and do a pretty good job, I think. At any rate, I've decided to put the effort in to learning to be skilled at the "low and slow" method of cooking. To start, I needed some equipment and, after doing some research, decided to buy used and restore/modify it to my tastes. I happened across a New Braunfels Bandera that I scored for $75 on Craigslist and have been modifying slowly over the last couple of weeks. It is almost ready for paint, then off to start cooking. Below is where I'm at so far. Pretty excited about learning this craft.
Here is what I started with:
So far, we have done the following;
1. Added heat deflector/baffle
2. Replaced rear wheels/axle with casters
3. Replaced front casters with steel legs/feet
4. Built a (badass) fire-basket
5. Cut a plate to reduce the size of the cooking chamber (removable)
6. Sealed some joints that could potentially leak heat/smoke (inexpensive factory assembly)
Still have a few more things to do like add a shelf to the outside and make a little covered mount for the wireless transmitter (I bought a Maverick ET732), but it is almost ready for paint.
Baffle:
Fire-basket. The divider is removable and the whole basket is pretty stout.
Here is the removable plate for reducing the cooking chamber size. This should make it a little more efficient when BBQing/smoking smaller amounts. The "exhaust" is in the back left.
Casters:
Legs/feet. This caster/legs/feet combo raised the smoker by about 3 inches, which is good for a taller guy like myself.
Here are a couple small gaps we filled in:
Looking forward to reading more on the site and learning from the more experience/skilled grillers/smokers/BBQers on here.
I've grilled for a number of years on a Weber kettle grill and added a Master Forge charcoal grill a little over a year ago. I'm no expert at grilling, but I've always cooked over charcoal and do a pretty good job, I think. At any rate, I've decided to put the effort in to learning to be skilled at the "low and slow" method of cooking. To start, I needed some equipment and, after doing some research, decided to buy used and restore/modify it to my tastes. I happened across a New Braunfels Bandera that I scored for $75 on Craigslist and have been modifying slowly over the last couple of weeks. It is almost ready for paint, then off to start cooking. Below is where I'm at so far. Pretty excited about learning this craft.
Here is what I started with:
So far, we have done the following;
1. Added heat deflector/baffle
2. Replaced rear wheels/axle with casters
3. Replaced front casters with steel legs/feet
4. Built a (badass) fire-basket
5. Cut a plate to reduce the size of the cooking chamber (removable)
6. Sealed some joints that could potentially leak heat/smoke (inexpensive factory assembly)
Still have a few more things to do like add a shelf to the outside and make a little covered mount for the wireless transmitter (I bought a Maverick ET732), but it is almost ready for paint.
Baffle:
Fire-basket. The divider is removable and the whole basket is pretty stout.
Here is the removable plate for reducing the cooking chamber size. This should make it a little more efficient when BBQing/smoking smaller amounts. The "exhaust" is in the back left.
Casters:
Legs/feet. This caster/legs/feet combo raised the smoker by about 3 inches, which is good for a taller guy like myself.
Here are a couple small gaps we filled in:
Looking forward to reading more on the site and learning from the more experience/skilled grillers/smokers/BBQers on here.