My mini

Hello all,

I found the forums while browsing the web on how to use my Weber 22.5 kettle to smoke. After a few days of reading I found our about the Mini WSM and I was immediately intrigued by it and decided to build one.

I Started out by searching for a pot locally. I found one at a target but was out of round and passed on it. After a few days of searching, I finally found one at a local Mexican market for $14.00.

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The lid fit pretty tight but thought I could crimp the rim around the pot.

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My first modification was the lower vent arm extension.

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I had a buddy at work cut make me a charcoal basket and one charcoal grate from expanded steel.

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I cut out the bottom of the pot leaving a rim like others mentioned for support.

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I used an 11" pie pan from Marshalls as my diffuser.

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Here it is with the top grate and thermometer probe through the lamp feed through(forgot the name).

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I decided to use the charcoal basket for the first test run and the minion method. You learn a lot from reading here

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Ready to go

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All ready for its test run.

Fire it up and toss some meat on there. Good lookin mini - congrats!

I have an 8 pound pork butt going on my mini around midnight tonight.

Nice job Fabian..

looks like that should work. great job.

I used 10 lit briquets to start it off. The temp shot past the 225/250 mark I wanted. I tried to bring it back dwn by closing th lower vent , but had no success. I let it go to 275 and held it there fine for a few hours. Then I just opened up the lower vent all the way and it it shot up to 500.

When should I start closing the lower vent to try and hold it at 225/250? Or should I just use less lit briquets to start off? It shot up past it in less than 20 min.

When you close you lower vents down you can start using the top vent. I recommend leaving the top vent open wider than the bottom. For instance, if I have the bottom closed to 25% open, my top will be 50% or more open. That gives me a chimney effect to pull fresh air thru the bottom where its heated in the smoker and then the heated air will escape out the top. The top vent pulls air thru the bottom. I do this on all my cookers with very successful temp control.

Also, I noticed you don't have a snorkel for your lower vent. You may run into a problem there as well. As the charcoal burns it will fall thru the grate and can clog the lower vent. To solve the problem, an upside down can or bowl can be used to allow the ash to fall below holes cut in the side of the can near what was the bottom (now the top). These holes should allow roughly the same volume of air as the original vent holes. Here's a sketch to give you an idea:

Temp control of the mini is way touchier than the WSM. If you're able to watch the temps climb, cutting it off at the pass is easier than getting temps to come down. When you get to the 175/200 area, trim it back to 1/4 open or less. I loaded up my mini at midnight with the bottom vent at 1/4 (top wide open) and it climbed to 300 degrees. Had I taken Dwain's advice and reduced the top vent, it may not have done that. It's all part of the learning curve we're in.

Nice Job, How far down from the pot rim did you drill the grate mounting Screws?

Like the temperature Probe attachment.

Nice build. Remember, with meat in the cooker temps will behave completely different from running your cooker dry, so experiment with some meat in it.

Thank you guys on the great advice.

Dwain,

I spent today at walmart looking for a suitable container to use as snorkle with no luck. Looks like I'll open up that can if tuna.

Chad B,

I'll try to cut it off around 175 next time.

Chadrex,

I drilled the grate mounting screws at 4" from the bottom of the roled rim. The probe hole is a bit above the grate. That still needs to be cut down flush with the nuts.

I decided on the 4" because my plan is to get a 7440 grate and rest the defuser on the bottom of the pot and use another grate on the steamer ring for more meat. I may also put more screws right below the rim for a grate to cook some ABTs and wings. Decisions, decisions

With mexican store pots in abundance, I'll might just make another one for diffrent cooks. Lol man I havent had my first successful cook on it yet and I'm thinking way ahead.

George
TThanks on the heads up.

I'm on staycation next week, what should be my first cook?

I added a handle to the top vent, but it still got hot during the cook and used a cut off wheel to cut a small slit on the rim of the pot to facilitate the access to the food temperature probe.




Here is a link to my first cook
http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?43110-First-Mini-WSM-cook