Turkey had to be postponed, I just won't have time this weekend. I volunteered for something at church Sunday night and time didn't work out. Good thing though, it gave me time to concentrate on the remaining work that needs to be done.
MAJOR STEP - Got the fold down table finished!!!! I polished the aluminum plate up, took a while but I finally got it to where I wanted it. It isn't chrome-like, but I didn't want it too shiny else it just wouldn't look right.
Here's the table mounted. I used self-tapping pan head screws; I think it looks good mounted with these verses the hex head.
My youngest son came up with the idea of a place to put a sauce bowl; I ran with the idea and this is what I came up with; a removable piece that is held on by magnets, and will be flush when it is in place. I glued some magnets on the bottom of the removable sauce bowl area; they hold the piece down to a couple pieces of 1/2" angle. I used my model airplane glue, worked great!
Removable piece in place........not the best cutting job, but it works.
In the down position. This is exactly what I was going for!
Here is the bowl I decided on; I looked for a stainless bowl, but just couldn't find what I wanted. This was $2 at wm; it is a salsa bowl.
Like it was made for this purpose!!
Extremely happy with the way this worked out!! Now the only thing left to do is build the vertical exhaust actuator. Gonna try to finish that up today. Can't wait!!!!!
-Mike in Alabama
Why do we park in a driveway, and drive on a parkway?
Guys, it has been 1 year and 5 months since I put the first pieces together. I changed jobs 5 times since then! I got laid off, my Dad passed, and a whole bunch of other things have happened along the way. But Thursday, I finally finished the smoker, and put it in its final spot.
I took plywood and laid it down, rolled the smoker on it, moved the plywood, so on and so forth until we got to the back porch. The rolling on the plywood went surprisingly easy. When we got to the porch, different story........one reason was we had to come up a good 6-8" to get the smoker on the porch. Once on the front, then on the back.........and of course, as my luck has it, my jack started fouling up.........the clip that holds the plunger came off and I had to keep manually putting the clip back on to raise the plunger. After around an hour and a half, we got her placed.
Here is where the fun started........
First set of wheels up and on the porch, woohoo!
Now comes the REALLY fun part.......we had to turn the smoker, and also try to jack it up and put blocks under the wheels to roll it up onto the concrete.
SUCCESS!!!
And finally, in place! I used ALL the space I had to place this bad boy, lol!!
This build has been awesome, and man I am so glad it's done, but it's kinda bittersweet.......when I put the last piece on, I came in the house kinda lost......I told my wife, there's nothing else to do on it.....she looked at me and said, 'You've got a LOT to do on it now!' Lol, she's right, I get to enjoy it now!! I just wish my Dad was here to see it, but I'll be sending him some nice smells skyward for him to sample!
You guys are the best. I am very glad I found this site. Thank you all for your encouragement.
Now, standby for some awesome cookage posts courtesy of MYNEZ!!
-Mike in Alabama
Why do we park in a driveway, and drive on a parkway?
That thing looks amazing, if your anything like me you may want to buy a spare bowl so when you lose or break that one you have a spare that fits that hole..ha. Nice job
Grandma always said "if ya can't be handsome ya better at least be handy"
It turned out nice!! I re-read your opening paragraph on this thread and I'd say you nailed it!! It's a good thing it isn't an inch longer or you'd have to build an extension on your porch. I'll keep an eye out in the food forums for that turkey that you've been talking about smoking for a while now.
I added my temp probe tubes to the smoker the other day; this is the last thing I had to add to it. These are pretty simple, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who has found these. The tubes are made from light fixture pieces you can find at Lowes or any hardware store.
Here's the packs of pieces; Lowe's sells it in two kits. The top and bottom nipples are the perfect size for probe tubes (already removed from the package).
Here they are put together; really simple. I drilled the holes in the smoker front just for these.
Proof that it works..........I can put two probes through these, maybe more.
Here they are installed. I made one for the lower rack and one for the upper rack.
Thanks for looking!!
-Mike in Alabama
Why do we park in a driveway, and drive on a parkway?