Dave's Smokefire EX6 Experiences

[Jon Tofte]

Larry,
As long as you have at least one decent side shelf, then a front one isn't needed. But most of these pellet grills have very little shelf space on the side, so there is no place to set down a tray to either bring out uncooked food or remove cooked stuff to bring it inside. For that reason, I love my Rec Tec fold-down. At the same time I see no reason to have that on my Weber Genesis Platinum which has side shelves on the left and right PLUS fold out side shelves (which I DO like) also on both left and right sides.

 

[Dave - Unixadm]

Looks great.I was liking that full shelf and was going to recommend rounding the corner so it didn't cause a cut on a little kids head lol.

Yeah. Using a jigsaw to cut 1.5" butcher block to round the corners was more of a pain in the a$$ than I thought it would be. My sander is getting a workout cleaning up that mess. I think I'll be in a position to do the staining tomorrow at some point.

 

[MikeCantell]

That looks great,are you going to clear coat it after staining?

 

[J Burke]

That is beautiful!

 

[Rich Dahl]

Okay Dave give us the short list.... what can't you do perfectly

 

[Jon Tofte]

Absolutely beautiful! Gives it a very classy, warmer look.

 

[Dave - Unixadm]

That looks great,are you going to clear coat it after staining?

After staining I'll be coating it in a SPAR urethane or a bar/table-top clear epoxy. I'm starting to lean towards epoxy. I have a boat load of UV epoxy from Stonecoat Countertops because my buddy knows the owner and visited them about six months ago. Or I'll pick up something else.

I went over every hard edge with a round-over bit in a router, then sanded with 80/120/240. All I need to do is blow it off, tack and then I can start staining. I'll be installing a 1.5" aluminum (was going to use stainless) angle "iron" piece on the back of the front shelf to act as a heat deflector. I have a new marine grade stainless handle to mount as well. Debating if I'll mount it to the end of the left side of the chamber above the side shelf with nutserts or if I'll screw it into the side table itself.

 

[MikeLucky]

Good lord man, that's beautiful. So, Weber has all kinds of dudes returning their SmokeFire grills, and here you are turning yours into a serious piece of art. I don't stutter when I say absolutely beautiful.

Just watching the progress of your grill has been awesome. Makes me want to step up my game too. Let's see what kind of trouble I can get into today. Lol

 

[Dave - Unixadm]

Thank you. I've got the shelves stained bottom/top and will let them dry for a couple of days.

Hope y'all approve.

 

[Bob Swaskoski]

Thank you. I've got the shelves stained bottom/top and will let them dry for a couple of days.

Hope y'all approve.

OMG is that a beautiful work of art!!! Most impressive!

 

[Dave - Unixadm]

I've got the shelves pretty much done with the exception of the final coating (urethane or epoxy). Still deciding which direction I want to go.

I cut down the 1.5x1.5x1/16" aluminum angle and then notched it to clear the shelving brackets. I then polished it with Mother's mag wheel polish and polisher on a drill. Made very quick work of it and at least brightens it up a bit. I then adjusted the shelves on the brackets and put a screw in each bracket to attach each shelf. I wanted to see what it would look like with the shelves folded down.

What five minutes of polishing can do to a mill finish piece of aluminum:

Drilled and screwed down with stainless screws:

End result:

When I do the final assembly, the aluminum angle will be spaced away from the back side of the shelf by about 1/8" to create a small air gap to reduce heat transfer to the shelf. I might buy another piece of angle and install it on the side shelf just so they match, but that's just a might at this point.

 

[Bruno]

Can’t wait til my set shows up.

 

[Jon Tofte]

I've got the shelves pretty much done with the exception of the final coating (urethane or epoxy). Still deciding which direction I want to go.

I cut down the 1.5x1.5x1/16" aluminum angle and then notched it to clear the shelving brackets. I then polished it with Mother's mag wheel polish and polisher on a drill. Made very quick work of it and at least brightens it up a bit. I then adjusted the shelves on the brackets and put a screw in each bracket to attach each shelf. I wanted to see what it would look like with the shelves folded down.

What five minutes of polishing can do to a mill finish piece of aluminum:

Drilled and screwed down with stainless screws:

End result:

When I do the final assembly, the aluminum angle will be spaced away from the back side of the shelf by about 1/8" to create a small air gap to reduce heat transfer to the shelf. I might buy another piece of angle and install it on the side shelf just so they match, but that's just a might at this point.

Looks awesome like everything else you have done. You should get hired by Weber's engineering and design department !

Did you add the aluminum angle piece for style or were you concerned about heat affecting the edge of the wooden table?

You have put up with a lot as an early adopter, but at least you can say you own the most beautifully tricked out SmokeFire in existence!

 

[Dave - Unixadm]

It was time to put down my tools and pick up a knife along with some tongs. It was dinner time. I had some steaks I needed to cook, so I made some beer corn on the cob, two bacon wrapped filets and a prime New York strip. All I have to say is, I'm stuffed. I ate a loaf of banana bread my neighbors gave me this morning but that was it. I just stood at the kitchen island, slicing and devouring very tasty meat. The Smokefire performed great other than a slow startup. I cooked the fillets and corn at 350 degrees. When those were done, I set it for 450 and put the New York strip on the grates. Gave it a 45 degree turn to see if I could get some decent grill marks.

The filets were perfect. I might have overcooked the NYS a little bit. It didn't matter, it was still amazing. No, I didn't eat it all! lol

 

[Bruno]

Nice looking cook, I have been thinking about how much I like grilling on this thing, I know early on all I wanted was to slow cook some pork and briskets, but firing this up at different temps and getting good smoke, it is a pretty damn good grill.

BTW what’s beer corn on the Cob?

 

[Dave - Unixadm]

Nice looking cook, I have been thinking about how much I like grilling on this thing, I know early on all I wanted was to slow cook some pork and briskets, but firing this up at different temps and getting good smoke, it is a pretty damn good grill.

BTW what’s beer corn on the Cob?

I'm not sure what it is. I was drinking a Bud Light when prepping dinner and was like, hmmm... what would happen if I put beer in with the corn? I decided to find out and it was tasty! Take a shucked corn on the cob and lay down a sheet of foil. Put a tablespoon or two of salted butter, some BBQ dry rub and about 2 TBSP of your favorite beer. Wrap up tightly and cook for 30-40 minutes at 350 degrees. Longer at a lower temp.

This thing does do a good job at grilling. I wish the temperature would be more even. I'm going to see if I can figure that out though, so I bought a smoke machine. Note to self, do not turn on the smoke machine again inside of the house.

 

[Dave - Unixadm]

Looks awesome like everything else you have done. You should get hired by Weber's engineering and design department !

Did you add the aluminum angle piece for style or were you concerned about heat affecting the edge of the wooden table?

You have put up with a lot as an early adopter, but at least you can say you own the most beautifully tricked out SmokeFire in existence!

Thanks. It's always fun working on projects and improvising along the way. When I started I was going to go with a stainless shelf and had to pivot to butcher block.

I put the aluminum strip for the main purpose of heat management and deflection. I can say that it works very well. When I was cooking at 450 degrees, I could hold my hand easily against the aluminum and it was barely warm. When I did this a couple of days ago without it, the wood was quite warm. I don't even think I'll need to space it away from the wood based upon how well it performed tonight.

I'm pretty happy it the Smokefire now that I'm not having pellet feed issues after the new auger assembly and pellet slide. I've removed all of my do-dads I had installed and it seems to be working just fine now.

 

[Karl Quist]

I'm pretty happy it the Smokefire now that I'm not having pellet feed issues after the new auger assembly and pellet slide. I've removed all of my do-dads I had installed and it seems to be working just fine now.

That is great news indeed. It seems like you have really enjoyed messing around with this thing, and I can say that I have enjoyed reading about it. I see a Smokefire in my future at some point.

 

[Dave - Unixadm]

I've decided to epoxy coat the shelves and I'm going to be working with epoxy like this for the first time. If you guys have ever seen Stone Coat Countertop's YouTube channel, then you'll likely be familiar with this product. If you haven't, then I'd recommend checking them out because you can do some pretty crazy stuff these days with epoxy. I got drawn in when watching them create some killer work with epoxy. My buddy knows the guy who started the company and made a trip up there to visit friends and their YouTube recording area about six months ago. I gave him $600 and he came back with three full boxes of epoxy supplies, color additives and three different kinds of epoxy. I chose their Art Coat as it has U.V. protection built in. I'm going to coat the top side of the shelves first, then sand any overage and lightly coat the bottom side. I'm not so worried about the bottom side from an aesthetics standpoint because it will never be seen. I just want it to be sealed. I may put more than one coat on the top to get the best possible results.

I have to run to Home Depot to pick up some acetone which is used to clean up after doing a pour. Once I have that and a couple of hours, I'll attempt this. Hopefully I don't ruin my work up until this point. haha. I have no affiliation with Stone Coat and I paid for the product (with a buddy discount).

 

[Bruno]

Brave!!!