first burn went great today! i only had about a 3-5 degree variance from end to end. it really seemed to like holding a temp of 250. from start to finish i never needed to adjust anything. nothing sprung on me metal wise during the burn. i had it going from 830am to about 6pm when i cleaned up shop for the day and only added one small split (4x8 or so) about every hr. never had a big fire or huge bed of coals.
it did really well and i'm impressed and very happy with it.
while all that was going on i got the storage box skinned and added to the trailer. i should have the lid for it done tomorrow. getting down to the nitty gritty now.