My Smokey Joe Gold Mini WSM Smoker build with a couple of twists


 

Murray C.

New member
So I am new to this forum and also to low and slow bbqing, not much of this type of cooking going on up here in Vancouver BC Canada. However alot of people do smoke salmon here and I have done a bit of that. I have read the many many posts and will try to start with some slight differences my build has and then go into the rest.

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I have a Smokey Joe Gold and a Vasconia pot, decided to drill the bottom and used eight 1 1/4" holes around the perimeter and 12 1/2" holes nearer the middle, I used the pot lid knob as a handle on the top vent. You can sort of see it in the photo above.

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and since I didn't find a diffuser I liked I used what I had around the house
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This is a "smokeless stovetop grill" a bit like this one on amazon
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000O8YIZQ/?tag=TVWB-20

My one is 12 3/4" diameter. There is about a 1/2 inch gap around the outside of the pan but heat can also come up thru the vents in the aluminum grill plate which is why i drilled the 1/2' holes in the middle of the pot.

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My first burn results with no food in the clean pot and 60F outside temps:
Total of 30 briquettes with half of them lit in the chimney, vents wide open. Measured with Maverick 732 on the top rack 3' below the lip of the pot
After 20 mins 210F
After 30 mins 350F
After 40 mins 393F
Then shut bottom vents to 1/4 open and top vent to half open and
After another 30 mins it settled at 240F. I have room for more holes in the middle of the pot but for now the heat geting past the diffuser seemed good enough.

Cooked a blade pot roast on it with this setup and it went well, subsequently I have changed the diffuser a bit to this
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with a 9" foiled tray and it catches more fat. Heat and smoke can come thru from around the foiled tray and also from around the larger unfoiled tray, both can catch fat or hold water. I did put about 1.5 cups of water in the outer tray one time and it lasted about an hour then temps went up about 10-15F once it had boiled off.

Here is a "grate lifter" that was in my shed, I just bent it to make a handle
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So far everything I have cooked has worked out well, thanks for all your help that this forum has provided
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beef ribs, baby backs and pulled pork, and some ABT's that were already eaten. I did not know what an ABT was a month ago.

I have two weber grates (13 3/4") and I had another slightly smaller one (13 3/8") lying around that fits on the steamer ring.
I put 2 sets of bolts in so I can have two weber grates in with 6" clearance for each one or have 3 grates in with only about 3" clearance on the two bottom ones. I plan to smoke some salmon in this so I wanted 3 grates and now I have room for a 4th at the top, and I have found a 12 1/2" grate that we have never used that came from a convection/microwave oven that I will alter and post under a seperate heading. (EDIT: It is posted here now http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?418...e-needed-on-low-low-temps&p=431255#post431255 )
I had to be careful with the length of bolts so they don't catch when putting in the grates when the levels are this close together. I made one bolt slightly shorter in each set of three so the grates are easier to remove.

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The pot lid is good for putting the weber lid or a grate on and acts as a tray

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I had a second charcoal grate and wrapped some 1/2" wire around it to make a charcoal holder, I squeezed another 12 briquettes on the outside of it yesterday, this was after a 7 hour burn.

5 bonus points to you if you can guess what team I grew up supporting?

Cheers
 
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Wow...nice build and certainly good cooks coming out of it!

I'm surprised that you're getting good heat flow essentially through 2 diffusers, the tamale pot bottom being one. Great job.
 
Yes all the valuable bonus points go to R Stillwell for the New Zealand and All Blacks silver fern logo.
Cheers
 
I am a Canucks fan, but it just doesn't run quite as deep as the AB's...and the colours are easier.

I gotcha. I was going to try a canucks logo on mine but i was too impatient waiting to get a die cut logo in. I just kept it silver.

Not to change subjects from grilling but this years final four teams really suck. I literally wish they could all lose. I dont want Chicago to win for obvious reasons, definately not LA since they crushed the canucks last year on their way to win it all, i dont think i could stomach Boston winning again annnd i dont like the penguins (even though im in PA) and theyre getting crushed so they dont have much of a chance anyway. whew, cant wait for next year.
 
Normally after we lose I don't watch anything much until the final series is midway thru...its easier that way. That Stanley Cup is SOOO hard to win with knockout series and so many teams.
Its easier to watch the AB's as they have an 80% win record, it sort of spoils you as a fan.

Regarding the Canucks logo. This one would be fairly easy with the stick making up part of the "C"
http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=...MSwUby8NMekigKoroDgBg&ved=0CDoQ9QEwAw&dur=675

I just put painters tape over the whole area to get the logo and stuck on a printout of my logo (that I printed off from computer on normal paper) with tape over the painters taped area. Then cut out the logo on the paper and it cut thru the painters tape underneath also, then pulled off everything but the logo which was now made of painters tape and sprayed it a couple of times.

You could do the same with the canucks logo, cut out and remove the green outside strip and spray 2/3 times, then cover the green and cut out the blue and spray 2/3 times then pull the rest off and it should be silver.
Cheers
 
I gotcha. I was going to try a canucks logo on mine but i was too impatient waiting to get a die cut logo in. I just kept it silver.

Not to change subjects from grilling but this years final four teams really suck. I literally wish they could all lose. I dont want Chicago to win for obvious reasons, definately not LA since they crushed the canucks last year on their way to win it all, i dont think i could stomach Boston winning again annnd i dont like the penguins (even though im in PA) and theyre getting crushed so they dont have much of a chance anyway. whew, cant wait for next year.

Which obvious reasons might you be referring to? GO HAWKS!
 
Which obvious reasons might you be referring to? GO HAWKS!

lol simply that Chicago has become the unofficial rival to Vancouver (at least the past couple of years since they met in the playoffs so many times). Im sure youre enjoying this series especially!
 
I gotcha. I was going to try a canucks logo on mine but i was too impatient waiting to get a die cut logo in. I just kept it silver.

Not to change subjects from grilling but this years final four teams really suck. I literally wish they could all lose. I dont want Chicago to win for obvious reasons, definately not LA since they crushed the canucks last year on their way to win it all, i dont think i could stomach Boston winning again annnd i dont like the penguins (even though im in PA) and theyre getting crushed so they dont have much of a chance anyway. whew, cant wait for next year.


How does someone in PA become a Canucks fan? :)
 
How does someone in PA become a Canucks fan? :)

not the first time ive been asked that question... but to see that it was your first post on this forum is funny lol

i never followed hockey, ever, until about 5 years ago. my best friend is a Sharks fan (he's one of those guys that has never been a "home team" kind of guy so he likes teams from all over for whatever reason). well he got me into hockey and I more or less started rooting for Vancouver randomly. I loved watching the magic the Sedins have (except it apparently disappears during the playoff time) and Luongo is the man. I thought it was so cool that he was named Captain (in 2008 i think), even though it didnt last very long. I wish he could stay. Believe me, being in the east coast and watching west coast games start at 10PM my time really sucks. but once i started liking them i couldnt switch. I do root for the Caps when I watch them play because I have several friends that like them but they arent a favorite of mine. should be a good finals this year though, both teams cruised through the third round. i wont be rooting for either, instead i'll just try to enjoy some good games.

Sooooo I am very sorry Murray that this ended up thread-jacking your post!
 

 

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