Great job on the mini buildThanks for all the help on this forum! I finally completed my mini. So far I have smoked two pork butts, a chuck roast, and a fatty. Before this, I have been exclusively smoking on my 22.5 Weber kettle. I can say that I love this mini. It really can hold the temp for a really long time and it is pretty much hands off once it gets dialed in. I will continue to use this for most smokes. Probably will still use the kettle for ribs and/or bigger cooks.
Charcoal ring. I have no idea why I used the snips since I had bought a jigsaw. I kind of messed up more than one way because I just eyeballed it and it is too high. Also like a dummy I snipped it the wrong way and ended up with two sharp sides! Anyways, it does the trick.
Drilling the IMUSA handle out of the way (although I didn't end up using the lid).
After the jigsaw cut. As you can tell I'm not a perfectionist ;)
I am very pleased with this cooker. What you can't see is that I drilled two holes for my maverick. One below the grate for the "pit temp" and one above the grate for the meat. The way I have used the "pit" probe so far is to stick some foil into my 1/4in hole I drilled, then stick the probe through it. It holds it steady and horizontal. Pretty nice. I'm looking forward to cooking more things on here. I may try to cut down my charcoal grate so I can fit a double decker. The nice thing about this pot is that the kettle 18in charcoal grate fits right on through the bottom (it passes the steamer ridge nice and easy) so I don't need to cut it at all. The only thing stopping me from using the very bottom for my diffuser (10in terracotta) is the fact that my charcoal grate is too tall and lifts the bottom grate up too high.
What a fantastic looking mini. Enjoy it!
Very nice looking build Points to Plano! BD
Here's my latest build. My nephew graduates tomorrow (5/9/2015) from Ole Miss. And he's a big New Orleans Saints fan. So here's his graduation present. Hotty/Who-dat!
Very nice job! Love it! BD
Thanks for all the help on this forum! I finally completed my mini. So far I have smoked two pork butts, a chuck roast, and a fatty. Before this, I have been exclusively smoking on my 22.5 Weber kettle. I can say that I love this mini. It really can hold the temp for a really long time and it is pretty much hands off once it gets dialed in. I will continue to use this for most smokes. Probably will still use the kettle for ribs and/or bigger cooks.
Charcoal ring. I have no idea why I used the snips since I had bought a jigsaw. I kind of messed up more than one way because I just eyeballed it and it is too high. Also like a dummy I snipped it the wrong way and ended up with two sharp sides! Anyways, it does the trick.
Drilling the IMUSA handle out of the way (although I didn't end up using the lid).
After the jigsaw cut. As you can tell I'm not a perfectionist ;)
I am very pleased with this cooker. What you can't see is that I drilled two holes for my maverick. One below the grate for the "pit temp" and one above the grate for the meat. The way I have used the "pit" probe so far is to stick some foil into my 1/4in hole I drilled, then stick the probe through it. It holds it steady and horizontal. Pretty nice. I'm looking forward to cooking more things on here. I may try to cut down my charcoal grate so I can fit a double decker. The nice thing about this pot is that the kettle 18in charcoal grate fits right on through the bottom (it passes the steamer ridge nice and easy) so I don't need to cut it at all. The only thing stopping me from using the very bottom for my diffuser (10in terracotta) is the fact that my charcoal grate is too tall and lifts the bottom grate up too high.
I've been checking out the Mini's and finally decided to build one. I have a 22" WSM, but sometimes it's too much smoker for smaller cooks. Followed most people's posts, ordered an IMUSA pot, bought a Smokey Joe Gold, extra racks and other accessories at Ace Hardware. Only trouble I had was I had to crimp the top of the pot a little to get my Smokey Joe lid to fit, but otherwise I was happy with it. It only took me 1 1/2 hours and two beers to finish the project.I did a dry run on it last night and kept it at 225 for about 5 hours with no adjustments after I got it dialed in. I sent this picture to my brother in law, and within minutes he showed up at my house to check it out. He's already ordering the IMUSA for his build. Doing a first cook with some CSR's today and a pork butt tomorrow.
Nice mini! Have a blast! B
I've been checking out the Mini's and finally decided to build one. I have a 22" WSM, but sometimes it's too much smoker for smaller cooks. Followed most people's posts, ordered an IMUSA pot, bought a Smokey Joe Gold, extra racks and other accessories at Ace Hardware. Only trouble I had was I had to crimp the top of the pot a little to get my Smokey Joe lid to fit, but otherwise I was happy with it. It only took me 1 1/2 hours and two beers to finish the project.I did a dry run on it last night and kept it at 225 for about 5 hours with no adjustments after I got it dialed in. I sent this picture to my brother in law, and within minutes he showed up at my house to check it out. He's already ordering the IMUSA for his build. Doing a first cook with some CSR's today and a pork butt tomorrow.
I'm the disposable pie pan guy. It works great. I started using them because of the easy clean up. I just thow them away after the smoke.
I cut myself a 3" wide piece of expanded metal that was a touch longer than the circumference of the coal grate for the Smokey Joe. The basket extends your smokes tremendously. A full basket of KBB in my mini can hold a 225~230 temp for 10+hrs, thats a matter of fact. I use a metal pan (pizza pan I believe) a little smaller in diameter than the IMUSA pot that had little holes in a pattern on it. I wrap this in foil and I get great results. I've never used a drop of water in my mini so I cannot comment on the difference it would make. I just know that I've yeilded amazing results with the setup I've described to you.
