Blower attachment question

I posted this over in the other ATC forum and haven't heard anything, so I thought I would try this one. I apologize about cross-posting. I thought this forum might be specific to the HeaterMeter which I am not using. But then I thought my question, is really general to any DIY ATC. I'm just wondering how to attach my blower fan to my WSM. I bought a small SS bowl which fits perfectly. I've got it attached with a toggle bolt to the smoker. I also drilling a hole the right size to fit my blower which has a round exhaust as opposed to the many I've seen with rectangular exhausts. My main concern is it just getting too hot and melting my blower. Is that a valid concern? Should I try to find some house to create a little buffer? As it is, it's just perfect. A hose would be less perfect, but if it's going to melt from the heat, then that is obviously not perfect at all.

I really appreciate any thoughts. I searched through this forum for some photos, but didn't really see any that were still active, but I might have missed something. thanks!

I dont have a WSM so hard for me to estimate the temps in that area on the grill, what does your experience tell you? Is it generally really hot there during a cook?
You mentioned a small SS bowl, if you feel it is too hot then perhaps use a larger bowl, temps drop rapidly with just a little distance added. Not knowing the blower it's hard to recommend, but some sort of short pipe or conduit fitting could give you a little offset from the small SS bowl and get the blower into safer territory....

Thanks. This is the exact bowl:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30081467/

Then here's my blower:

http://www.robotshop.com/en/12v-16cfm-33mm-blower-fan.html

My experience doesn't tell me much as I've only done a single cook on a WSM. I've used an offset smoker for years. Borrowed a friend's WSM recently, liked it, so I bought one and haven't even used it yet. Planning to do an inaugural run of pork butts on Friday. Thanks for the reply.

Many people here uses a Heater Meter with a plastic (3D printed) damper on a dog bowl with the WSM, but most use some sort of interface tube between the bowl and plastic. (like this conduit adapter http://www.homedepot.com/p/1-in-Electrical-Metallic-Tube-EMT-Compression-Connector-62310/100578239) In your case it seems like you want to drill a hole in the blowl and press the plastic fan right into it? In that case the plastic is much closer to the heat, that blower is kinda large and it looks like the lip might extend into the bowl quite a bit? The bowl bottom is only about 2 1/3" from the grill...
You might want to look for some sort of metal tube to offset the blower a bit, or at very least keep a close eye on the temps for the first couple cooks.

I used a different method which worked fine for me.

I have my blower attached to a steel tube which extends from about 18 inches out of the fire-box and goes a few inches into the firebox. At first, I had a ton of heat transfer. I minimised it via two methods. I switched to a thinner gauge steel tube so that it is less conductive and is better cooled by the air. Secondly, I cut a ton of 75% slices into it with an angle grinder alternating from both sides. So, heat conduction was no longer a straight line and needed to follow a zig-zag path. I filled all the cut out slices with high-temp silicon which is an insulator.

That works quite well, the right side of my silicon fix is too hot to touch and the left side is ambient temperature.

That is an inventive solution to your heat transfer problem! Though I would suspect if you reduce the few inches of pipe that is inside the firebox down to just enough to thread the nut on that would accomplish the same goal. A pipe sticking into the firebox picks up a lot of heat, if the pipe doesnt extend in beyond the shell that cuts down the heat transfer effect quite a bit. I had this with my copper pipe initially, when I cut off the bit that was in the firebox the heat transfer issue went away for me.

At one time, I used the following on my WSM22.5...............sink drain (what sits at the bottom of a kitchen sink); attach a piece of drain pipe (the one with threads and nut, metal about 4" long)' attach your fan to plain end of pipe, and screw this to drain. Add a gasket to top of drain and slide it onto one of the bottom vents of WSM, you may have to bend the tabs on vent a little to hold it in place.close off the other 2 vents and with the above attachment you can open and close vent to your liking.