Did a few planned and unplanned adjustments after doing a test firing of the burner the past couple days..... here are the adjustments....
First was to address the door warping inwards and pulling away from the trim. I put a few screws in it and seems to be fixed. Cassie and I were planning on doing some touch up painting the next time she is here. Looks like we have a bit more to add to it.......
I was planning on using a drip pan of sorts for the deflector plate. I have not been able to find what I want, so I cut a piece of 1/8" plate we had around for a temp one. I will place a drip pan under the food for now....... I left a 2" gap around all 4 edges for the heat and smoke to flow.......
I had thought about making a shelf when we are doing the build to hold the Mavericks or iGrills when I get them. I was waiting for my Father-In Law to show up so I could help him. So I used some of the scraps I had left to build a shelf. Cassie wanted to use the drill, but never said anything as we were building. So the shelf will sit there till she comes over and can attach it to the smoker.
When I had it fired up the other night and the next morning, it was able to get to 350+ with no issues. I eventually had to turn off 2 of the 3 burners. It looks like I will only need to use the center burner to keep it at a hot smoke temp of 250, and that is at almost the lowest setting I can get the needle valve to. I am going to look into replacing the needle valve with a smaller one for better control. The burner works very well at low to medium settings. As soon as I try to run it on turbo (not really needed, but wanted to see what it could do) it runs very rough. I have adjusted the air intakes on the bottom, but only really notice the adjustments on the lower settings. Not sure if that is normal for this burner.......overall very happy with it......
OK sidetrack story time: The other day I was talking with someone about the smokehouse. I used the term "well my smokehouse" and Cassie walked up and stopped me and said "OUR smokehouse".......the person I was talking with looks at me and says with a smile "well you were just told"......all I could do is laugh and say"yes, yes I was"............I am happy with how it has turned out, but I am more happy with the fact she has taken ownership of it and is sticking with it.......we did get to cook fatties the other day, just not in the new smokehouse......