Tim's gravity feed (mini)

[Rodcrafter]

Yeah very nice!!!!
The rule of thumb is spray it down with either cooking spray or olive oil on every thing inside the cooker. Then take her for an ride up to around 300* and let it stay there a while. Then let her come down and cook something like a bunch of pig candy to get some fat on there. She should turn black and shine like a cheap paint job.

Then you're ready for real Q.


Making memories.

[Big T]

[Richb]

That looks amazing. I really like all the custom touches. Please be sure to let us know how she performs.

[mp4]

Very, very nice!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

[Tim Schmidt]

Seasoned the smoker today. Thank you for the advice Rodcrafter.

I put a few wood chunks in ash tray, produced decent smoke, but seemed to burn up quickly. For those of you smoking on a gravity feed, does anyone add wood chunks to the charcoal chute. Also do you guys prefer charcoal briquettes or natural lump charcoal.
Will post finished photos of smoker this week. Added an oak folding shelf to left side, also added a bottom shelf..
Thanks again
Tim.

[Frank_Cox]

Very nice job buddy!!!
as far as the wood chunks go, we always put them on a small rack in the ash box and let the ash and cinders fall to light them.

[Puff]

I've done exactly as Frank says. In fact I didn't think of placing it on a small stand, I just put it in the ash box. The piece might roughly be as big as a brick. On the placement of wood chunk in the chute, I have cut some coaster sized pieces of apple and oak on my table saw during moments of boredom ( rare these days) and I have mixed in 1-2 in the lump charcoal mix every 6-8 inches of charcoal. I'm thinking I would not do more than that figuring in the combustion method of fire in the firebox. They need to ignite and burn unlike the charcoal as I know it.while that is only a guess, it's got to be a different process .

Either way as you know Tim, I've enjoyed spectacular results. Looking forward to see these add-ons

[Tim Schmidt]

Puff, so are you only using lump charcoal in the chute, or do you also use briquettes?

[Puff]

I've used both but after reading the posts about the briquette contents, I stick to the lump with a 5% mix of oak or Apple. Once again, NO concrete reason ... Just feeling like its something that was a good thing to do.

[Tim Schmidt]

Having trouble maintaining temperature. My gut is telling me, that my smoker is so well insulated, and therefore very sensitive to minor adjustments.
Once up to temp I can maintain 225 w/out the needle moving. It was neg 6 in Wisconsin yesterday, and the ball valve was only open about 25%, and the needle did not budge until I either add wood to ashbox, or meat to chamber. I am currently using stubbs charcoal. However if a put a few small pieces of wood in the ash tray, my temp will rise by 5-10 degrees after the wood ignites. The ball valve is very sensitive. I only have to bump it a fraction of an inch to raise or lower the temp. However when I do decrease airflow a bit, I find I overshoot my target temperature and go to low. At this time I'm not comfortable leaving the smoker alone for more than a few hours. Also, when I put meat in the smoker, my temp may drop by as much as 20 degrees, and I often will open the ash box door to recover the temp. quickly. If I open my door without meat in the smoker, the temp will recover within a few minutes on its own.
Has anyone else experienced this, does anyone think a fan controller would help this.
For the most part the exterior is cool. The only warmth that I am feeling is around the ash box door, and the charcoal chute door. Im assuming this is due to conduction transfering heat from the firebox/chute assemble to the exterior skins.

My goal with this smoker is to run it overnight, and not have to worry about it, other than occasionally adding some smoking wood.
Thanks again in advance for the advice.

[scottyk]

I have been using a controller on mine lately and love it, leave ball valve wide open and thats it. but I have found in some experimentation that the cook chamber varies alot in temp, the door thermometer will read alot lower than what the center of the chamber actually is, by the tune of 50 degrees or so. So keep that in mind, I tested mine with a maverick wireless thermometer and calibrated all 3 thermometers in boiling water to make sure its accurate. I can get it up to temp in about 15 minutes "center of chamber" or about 1 hr "according to door thermometer"

[mp4]

just curious - why do you think there's such a temp variance?

[scottyk]

well, when you can spread bacon out to the extreme corners of the cooking grate and it cooks evenly it proves that it is working fine. I would say get the longest stem on the thermometer you can and bias the mounting position toward the bottom of the top shelf so it wont hit your food. Maybe the trays are redirecting the airflow or conduction thru the door, Im not real sure but as long as it cooks evenly is all that really matters, and it does that well