My new toy

[Shawn Braquet]

Originally Posted by eman

tin can , wood chips , 25 watt soldering iron and a cardboard box and i'll put my cheese against anyone's

Sounds great. But then how would I justify buying a $1200 dollar pit if I use a cardboard box for her cheese?

[meaux fishing]

Originally Posted by eman

Shawn Give these smokers a look see before you buy.
http://langbbqsmokers.com/smoker_cookers.html

Any suggestions on a smoker/grill for 1/3 of what those cost?

[eman]

Originally Posted by Shawn Braquet

Sounds great. But then how would I justify buying a $1200 dollar pit if I use a cardboard box for her cheese?

You buy the pit then learn about the box.

[eman]

Originally Posted by meaux fishing

Any suggestions on a smoker/grill for 1/3 of what those cost?

The OP's Okie joe is around $400.
For a great smoker at a cheap price build a UDS yourself.

Ugly Drum Smoker - YouTube

Ugly Drum Smoker - YouTube

[mr crab]

Originally Posted by eman

tin can , wood chips , 25 watt soldering iron and a cardboard box and i'll put my cheese against anyone's

My entire family will back this up. as stated before...Eman is ane heck of a cook. If you are inclined to bring cheese in July, I will definitely pitch in. hint hint

[moe1967]

Originally Posted by ScubaLatt

Bought from Academy. $399. Any tricks to keeping temp steady? I fought with baffle on smoke box all day. Fluctuated from 200-300 degrees when I opened/closed the baffle. Someone told me to control temp by only using the smoke stack baffle?

Keep smoke stack wide open and control heat only with the firebox damper(s)AKA= intake vent(s)

Originally Posted by eman

Keep the exhaust fully open and control the heat w/ the intake vent. Go to smokingmeatsforum.com and do a search for SFB mods. (side fire box modifications).
The most important one is a charcoal basket to get the coals up a few inches off the bottom to allow more air flow under the coals and to allow the ash to fall away from the coals. . Also, most folks extend the smoke stack down to right at grate level.
Lots more help at SMF.com

Listen to this guy^^^

Also, it looks like you have air leaks around your door. You may want to see about taking care of that with a gasket of some kind. But cook with the smoke stack wide open first and see what happens. A little door leak is harmless, but a significant one will cause temp problems.

Last thing, learn about gray smoke and blue smoke. Gray smoke = bad, Blue smoke = good

Another good website with tons of info:

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/


Enjoy!!