Fitting a Signals/Billows on a WSM 14.5 - Pictures

[Matt B.]

My Thermoworks package arrived today, and unfortunately I found it was a bit tight on the little WSM's intake vent. It was scraping on the porcelain and I was afraid it might pop off or chip the porcelain under heat. Also, the outer curve of the smoker is so small the gasket couldn't properly seal. The second picture shows the outside, with the gap visible at left between the bellows and vent:

I've heard about people using a dog bowl or similar item for this, but I wanted to make sure that the bellows sealed well. This required a flat base, and didn't want anything to contact the porcelain. I found a 1/2 cup stainless measuring cup in the kitchen was a perfect fit, with a base sized just right, too. This fits directly over the vent and never contacts the porcelain:

The spot welded handle popped right off. A drill hole and a few cuts with a Dremel finished the fabrication job. Sure it looks like crap, but that's fine:

Using some gasket I picked up on clearance at walmart a few months ago, I made some patches for the toggle bolt to tighten against inside. I'm using the topmost hole with the idea that this will help the adapter to center itself over the other two. Hopefully using 100% of the bottom holes and ~40% of the top will do good things for airflow to the fire, which I understand is sometimes a problem when using the 14.5 with an ATC.

Time will tell how the gasket will hold up to heat. It probably won't. But that's OK - I think the toggle head will cause less harm than the original spring, which was placing some serious pressure on that little vent hole. With the way the porcelain is pooled up around them I just didn't trust it. Here's the finished product. It seems to be hanging off the side a bit, but it's still sealing totally.

Thanks for reading. I know it isn't exactly groundbreaking stuff, but hopefully this will help somebody with the same problems. I'll be taking it on the maiden voyage tomorrow and will post the results after.

 

[Matt B.]

I did the good old BRITU ribs today, with two racks of BB ribs, following the directions to the letter. I don't really think the temperature change at the three hour mark makes a great deal of difference to the end result, but it gave me a way to see how stable the setup would be and how easy it would be to change a setpoint in the app. To my amazement, the temp never wavered by more than 2 degrees during either prolonged period. It was fairly windy down here, as well. There were two brief spikes when I opened the door, but the system quikly figured it out and stopped blowing. Once the lid was back on, temps were normalized within a couple of minutes. Pretty magical stuff. The app works, but it's still bare bones. I've got to say, if there's one part of the system I would rather have half-baked, it would be the app. It's the easiest part to fix.

Overall the little measuring cup manifold was good. The Billows unit never got even got warm, which was a relief, and fuel was burned about as evenly as one could expect. No ash was on the food, even on the lower grate. That little fan means business, though! When it kicks on you know it.

 

[Trey Hand]

Great write up and photos, thanks! I've been stuck trying to decide between the Signals & Fireboard as well as trying to figure which fan and adapter is best. Leaning toward the Fireboard because the app looks very cool and a pit viper fan with some kind of adapter. Maybe I can fashion something like what you did for my 18.5 WSM.

 

[Matt B.]

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it. I did another overnight smoke last night of two pork butts. Came out perfect. It was very interesting to see the graphs, showing the stall so clearly. Very cool. I should have saved some of the graphs for attachment here. The blower attachment held up just fine and the gasket material looks like it'll be there for the long haul, to my great surprise.

The app definitely did what I needed it to do, but it's kind of no-frills. If you want to set alarms, check graphs, and monitor the status anywhere, it's great. You can even export raw data for later analysis. There's no extensive note-taking options, but all the core features are there. The hardware, though... It's battleship quality stuff. I looked at the Fireboard as well, but I just thought Thermoworks was the better name in terms of build quality and reputation. I was swayed by their warranty, too. I'm sure you'll be happy anyway you go. I just wanted something that would work out of the box.

 

[Mike Huff]

Matt B... Thank you so much for the time you took to write this up. I really really appreciate it. I am sitting here this morning wondering if my billows will fit my little 14... Lo and behold you've done it and documented. You're right for sure on the fan, it puts out air! So I was wondering about ash on my ribs! It blows all around my 22! Anyway, great write up! Thanks!