# Just got my first smoker!!



## koy boy (Mar 24, 2010)

Hey ya'll my name is Koy. Im 27, recently hitched to my wife Lina a new to this wonderful world of smoking . I work as an Autotech for Best Buy. I live in Antioch Ca. It's about an hour away from San Francisco. 

My uncle and I grill carne asada at his house just about every other Sunday on his Weber grill. I love grilling porterhouse's, steaks and rib-eyes but what I have always wanted to make were smoked ribs. I have always loved smoked meats but no one in my family owns a smoker that I could use so I decided to buy one myself.

 I did my homework before buying a smoker and based on what I learned from  amazingribs.com which is a really good site btw, I decided to forgo  the smoker's offered through my local hardware stores and instead kept checking criagslist everyday for a chance of picking up a used good quality smoker at a price I could afford. well about three days ago I found a smoker that I fell in love with and immediately traveled an hour and half from my home to buy it. 

I'm proud to say that I'm the new owner of a Bar-B-Chef offset smoker!! 
	

	
	
		
		



		
			





I had read some reviews and specs about this smoker and wanted to buy one but was saddened to hear that they went out of production a couple of years ago so you could imaging my delight to find this available through craigslist. I think is a good value at 150 bucks. It looks like it was used several times but was kept in relatively good condition by the previous owner who I don't think really knew how to use it.

I plan making some modifications to it soon. I already have some thick mesh grill from home depot for the construction of a minion charcoal box. I'm going to order two good quality thermometers from Amazone, one for each side of the grill. I plan in also buying a tuning plate although they seem pricey and I'm currently trying to find oven bricks to line the bottom of the pit for temp control but I'm having a hard time finding them.
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





  I'm really new to smoking but I am trying cover all bases possible so I can hopefully produce a good batch of ribs on my first try in about a week ( right now i'm trying to clean some rust off and do some minor restorations). any who, I have a short clip of my smoker on my youtube page which you guys can check out. 



I will post up new video once i have done some of the modifications so in the mean time let me know what you guys think and any advice would be greatly appreciated. L8ter


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## pineywoods (Mar 25, 2010)

Koy welcome to SMF glad you decided to join us


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## rgacat (Mar 25, 2010)

Koy
You will find a great group of people here always ready to offer suggestions and tips.


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## irishteabear (Mar 25, 2010)

Welcome to SMF.  Glad you joined us.


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## graybeard (Mar 25, 2010)

Welcome and I like your smoker. You were wise to find a used well built smoker instead or throwing your $$ away on the new ones that are too cheap to own!
Good luck with your ribs butt hope to see you smoke a butt very soon.

beard


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## mballi3011 (Mar 25, 2010)

First off welcome Koy to *SMF*. You'll like it here cause there are abunch of good folks here that would just love to help you out with just about anything to do with smoking. We really like to have newbies here because they can bring in a new propective to how things are done. There's nothing like a new set of eyes to give and new way to make things that little differant to make things alittle better. So I hope you know about the *Qview* here. 
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...ad.php?t=58920
Here's a link to photobucket it's free and easy to download pictures. Then if your really new to smoking Look up the E-course. 
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...play.php?f=127
It's also free and it will give you the basics of smoking. So after all of that you just need to go grab something to smoke and if you have any question just post them here and we will answer it quickly so you don't have any mishaps with your smoke. 
Welcome To Your New Addiction


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## harleyguy (Mar 25, 2010)

Welcome to SMF. You will love it here. There are so many experienced smokers here to offer their advice and/or answers on any questions that you may have. Good luck !


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## smokin relaxin steve (Mar 25, 2010)

Welcome to SMF


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## boiseque (Mar 25, 2010)

Welcome to SMF Koy, you will like it here.  These guys, and gals, are all very friendly and helpful.  This place is amazing in respect to how willing members here are to help out and give advice to those who ask.  I am sure in no time you will be turning out some great BBQ on your new (to you) smoker!  Congrats and welcome!


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## coacher72 (Mar 25, 2010)

Welcome Koy. Congrats on the smoker. You've come to the right place for information about anything that deals with smoking meat. I'm new to the forum myself. There's nothing that someone doesn't know about or will help you with.

Good luck


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## chefrob (Mar 25, 2010)

welcome, i have the same smoker and you will love it. yours is a little older, if you notice mine is round while yours has a flat bottom and your thermo is lower which i like better. here is a thread i did on my refurb.............again congrats!

http://smokingmeatforums.com/forums/...hlight=restore


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## chef jeff tx (Mar 25, 2010)

Howdy, welcome  to   the *SMF*!!


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## beer-b-q (Mar 25, 2010)

[font=&quot][/font]

[font=&quot]Welcome to SMF, Glad to have you with us. This is the place to learn, lots of good info and helpful friendly Members.[/font]

[font=&quot]For those of you new to Smoking, be sure to check out *Jeff's 5 Day Smoking Basics eCourse*.[/font]
[font=&quot]Click Here it's *"FREE"* ... 5 Day eCourse [/font]

*[font=&quot]I Would Highly Suggest Reading these posts on Food Safety by bbally. [/font]*

[font=&quot]This thread will tell you basically everything you need to know and the man explaining it is[/font]
[font=&quot]both a *ServSafe Instructor *and a *HACCP Instructor*.[/font]
*http://tinyurl.com/ygg8gfb*

*http://tinyurl.com/yjavfkj*

*[font=&quot]Here you can get the 2009 USDA Food Safety Guide from his site.[/font]*
*http://tinyurl.com/ykq5p9t*

*[font=&quot]How to post Qview to Forum:[/font]*

[font=&quot]When you uploading to Photobucket I always use the Large IMG setting, 640 x 480 it is a nice size...[/font]

[font=&quot]Everyone here enjoys seeing the Qview so be sure to post plenty of pics...[/font]

[font=&quot]Large ones that us old people with bad eyes can see.[/font]

[font=&quot][/font]

[font=&quot]For Step By Step Instructions On Posting Qview Check Out This Tutorial[/font]

*http://tinyurl.com/yjm4xkh*


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## mama's smoke (Mar 25, 2010)

Welcome from Austin, TX.  You're going to learn so much from this forum, but you must also share Qview.  Looking forward to seeing your productions.


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## northern greenhorn (Mar 25, 2010)

Welcome to smf


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## etcher1 (Mar 25, 2010)

Welcome 


to the *SMF* forum, You came to the right place. Good people and good info.


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## treegje (Mar 26, 2010)

Welcome to the SMF, We are glad to have you onboard


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## deltadude (Mar 26, 2010)

Nice choice on your smoker, if you can refurbish yours like Chefrob did for his, you will have a nice piece of equipment.  Your among meat smoking friends here at SMF.  Looking forward to some pics of your Q off the new smoker...

You have gone and done it now! Stumbled into a whole nest of grazed   smokers. Next thing you know you will be getting funny looks from your   family while you snap pics of the excellent Q you just smoked. 

_*





*_USDA Kitchen Companion


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## zjaybird (Mar 26, 2010)

Welcome to SMF Koy Boy.

Hey do they still have the Rockford Fosgate Top Gun Academy? I remember when I used to play around with Car Stereos and compete in USAC...all the installers would talk about that school..but I am getting old....and older....

Jay


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## smokednarwhal (Mar 26, 2010)

Hello Koy, welcome to SMF.  Looks like a great choice for your first smoker.


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## koy boy (Mar 27, 2010)

heh heh, thanks for relaying the commandments to me deltadude. I had never heard of them till now but I will try my best to follow them. I can't tell you guys how much I appreciate your welcomes. It's like I arrived home :) 

So I'm itching get smoking already and so far the only thing I have done with my smoker is cook some chicken with indirect heat. My brother had a couple pounds worth of marinaded chicken at his house that would have gone bad (he cant really cook well) so I offered to cook em for him and the family. I figured that I would give the smoker a test run with something simple. well let me tell you that she performed beautifully. got hot fast, retained a steady good temp and leaked very little smoke in general.

So here is what I plan to do soon.

I get all my wisdom teeth yanked out next month on the 8th. I am going to have six days off during that time which I will use to break down my smoker for a full restoration much like the one chefrob did. 

I have my two tel-tru thermos on order which i will be installing  (thanks rickw for the link btw)  and I have my maverick on order.

I will be building my charcoal box.

I have big huge slab of stainless steel sheet metal the roughly measures five feet tall by 15 feet wide and with the thickness of a quarter on it's side. I know it's hard to imagine it exactly guys but I will take some pictures tomorrow and post them for you guys to see. I want to use that medal to fabricate some tuning plates and maybe extend the shelf in front of my smoker a little to the right so I can have more space.

I really would like some suggestions and ideas please from my fellow smokers please.


oh yeah, Jay i'm afraid to say that bestbuy is dropping the rockford fosgat brand for kicker and polk audio :( I beleive that the Top Gun Academy is no longer around but the Snake Pit academy form Directed Electronics took it's place in a sense.


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## koy boy (Mar 28, 2010)

so here are the pics of the stainless sheet metal i spoke of. I want to make some tuning plates out of them but other than that Im not sure what I can do with the rest. any suggestions?

front side 




back side 



top side


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