My Take on the Mini WSM


 
R

Rick Kelley

New member
I've read countless posts on building these and here is what I came up with for mine.

Picked up a Smokey Joe Silver on clearance at Target, an Imusa pot at Walmart, and some hardware at Ace.

I've seen a few people use a pie pan for a diffuser instead of a ceramic flower pot base.

I went with a cake pan.

I used the cake pan as template and cut out the bottom leaving three tabs. The pan is 2" tall so I made the tabs 2.5".



This left me with a .5" gap around the pan.



And with proper positioning there is no direct path for the heat.



Drilled and installed three bolt, 4" down from the top. I only have one grate at this time. When I get the second grate it will sit on the ledge.



Installed a thermometer and a lamp rod for my probe.



I haven't made a charcoal basket and I'm not sure I will. There is a modified roast beef can hiding under there for a ash shield.



Did a dry run to season the smoker and it worked great.

Did a boneless shoulder on Sunday and it was a big hit.










I welcome any comments or suggestions.

I'm new to the world of BBQ. Always a gas grill guy before but I've gone over to the dark side of Weber charcoal grills and I'm not looking back.
 
First, WELCOME!
The food looks great.
I too used a cake pan, however I used bolts to hold it. I like your tabs idea much better.
Lots of things to learn here
 
Nice looking meal and build...Welcome.

I would add a basket, a basket helps with air flow through the coals and less ash build up for cleaner burns. It's not as important when air flow is from the bottom only but imo helps regardless...who knows you might add side air eventually. 10 dollar piece of expanded steel from Lowes is all you need.
 
Welcome to the forum, my mini is my favorite cooking toy and with all the nice people on here to help you with suggestions and new ways to cook your favorites you’re going to very glad you joined up. Also very nice build and great looking first cook.
 
Great job on the build. I love the idea of the tabs and the deep pan so you can use water if you want. If I build another one I would follow your direction.

Thanks
 
Rick first off welcome.... You did a great job on the mini build & a excellent job on that plated picture of supper.
 
I love the cake pan idea! What size pan is that? I just received my pot yesterday and have been trying to figure out if I was going to cut the bottom out or just drill holes. I think I'm going to try your way. Thanks for sharing!
 
I used a 10" x 2" cake pan.

$8 at Walmart.

I used the top of the pan for a template to cut my hole.

Next time I will use the bottom of the pan as it is slightly smaller.

That would make it easier to ensure the pan covers the hole and you have no direct heat path.
 
Great looking build Rick +

Keith has given some good advice regarding the basket - I cooked a few times with and without it and there is substantially less ash buildup and it seem to use less fuel overall when it's in.

Happy smoking :wsm:

KeithFWI said:
Nice looking meal and build...Welcome.
I would add a basket, a basket helps with air flow through the coals and less ash build up for cleaner burns.
Click to expand...
 
Rick-
This is a GREAT build thread.

Do you know if there is still room to fit a lower grate on the bump-in where the steamer shelf would normally fit, or does the cake-pan get in the way?

I was going to use a clay saucer for the diffuser in my build, but after reading many threads on these mini's , it sounds like the cake pan works just fine and may even allow higher temp cooks when desired.
 
AJ Aytay said:
Rick-
This is a GREAT build thread.

Do you know if there is still room to fit a lower grate on the bump-in where the steamer shelf would normally fit, or does the cake-pan get in the way?

I was going to use a clay saucer for the diffuser in my build, but after reading many threads on these mini's , it sounds like the cake pan works just fine and may even allow higher temp cooks when desired.
Click to expand...

Yes the second grate fits on the ledge and the pan ends up just below it.

Cooked a tri tip last sunday and it worked great.

Still need to build a charcoal basket but life is getting in the way.
 
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