Dennis - CurlyQ
New member
I built the mini WSM yesterday. It was so easy to build that I was able to do most of it while cooking up some drums and baked potatoes on the genny gasser.
I used an Imusa pot I bought off Amazon, that was sold by Walmart. Made in China. Fits great. I just gotta crimp the rim a little as the SJ lid is a little tight. I used a SJG (SJ Premium). I also used a replacement coal grate for a 18" OT kettle (13.5"), another SJ 14" replacement grate and a 9" x 1.5" non-coated steel cake pan.
I used the SJ coal grate as a template to cut the hole in the bottom of the steamer pot. I used a jig saw with a fine metal blade on it. It made quick work of it.
Then I took the 13.5" replacement coal grate for a kettle and trimmed off the two ends right at the very last cross pieces, leaving those cross pieces in place, but just removing the small sections of outer ring. This makes what was once a circular grate have just two small flat sides opposite each other. I used a jigsaw with the same fine metal blade for this, but I could have used a cutoff wheel on SLN angle grinder. I just didn't feel like fishing it out of the basement. This is just enough to allow it to get past the indentation on the steamer pot so that it can sit on the bottom lip of the pot. The cake pan sits on that, a SJ cooking grate went on the indentation where the steamer base normally would go. Then just drilled 3 holes about 4" from the top to hold the upper SJ cooking grate.
I fired it up for a seasoning run. 15-20 coals, all lit, and a couple small chunks of hickory. I dumped them all in a pile by one of the side vents and ran it wide open. After about a half hour it got up to 403 and I closed the bottom vents down a little to see how controllable it is. I maintained 315 for almost 2 hours, then it dropped to 273 for another 30 minutes. At that point it was getting dark out and the coals were about spent so I put it out. I felt that was a good run on so few coals. It has way more capacity than that. I had the cake pan double wrapped for that run.
I still have to make the coal basket, drill for the temp gauge and the grommet for the probes. For this run I just hung the ambient probe for the maverick down through the top vent. I have the expanded metal for the basket. All I could find locally was strange looks and eventually 13ga. I would have preferred 18ga to bend easier but I can make the 13ga work. I think I'm going to leave it unpainted. I like the homebuilt look of it the way it is. I'll try experimenting with various pans/diffusers in the bottom to see what works well for me once I start cooking with it.
I have pictures but I don't have an easy way to post them yet. I'll try to get then uploaded some where so I can link to them.
I used an Imusa pot I bought off Amazon, that was sold by Walmart. Made in China. Fits great. I just gotta crimp the rim a little as the SJ lid is a little tight. I used a SJG (SJ Premium). I also used a replacement coal grate for a 18" OT kettle (13.5"), another SJ 14" replacement grate and a 9" x 1.5" non-coated steel cake pan.
I used the SJ coal grate as a template to cut the hole in the bottom of the steamer pot. I used a jig saw with a fine metal blade on it. It made quick work of it.
Then I took the 13.5" replacement coal grate for a kettle and trimmed off the two ends right at the very last cross pieces, leaving those cross pieces in place, but just removing the small sections of outer ring. This makes what was once a circular grate have just two small flat sides opposite each other. I used a jigsaw with the same fine metal blade for this, but I could have used a cutoff wheel on SLN angle grinder. I just didn't feel like fishing it out of the basement. This is just enough to allow it to get past the indentation on the steamer pot so that it can sit on the bottom lip of the pot. The cake pan sits on that, a SJ cooking grate went on the indentation where the steamer base normally would go. Then just drilled 3 holes about 4" from the top to hold the upper SJ cooking grate.
I fired it up for a seasoning run. 15-20 coals, all lit, and a couple small chunks of hickory. I dumped them all in a pile by one of the side vents and ran it wide open. After about a half hour it got up to 403 and I closed the bottom vents down a little to see how controllable it is. I maintained 315 for almost 2 hours, then it dropped to 273 for another 30 minutes. At that point it was getting dark out and the coals were about spent so I put it out. I felt that was a good run on so few coals. It has way more capacity than that. I had the cake pan double wrapped for that run.
I still have to make the coal basket, drill for the temp gauge and the grommet for the probes. For this run I just hung the ambient probe for the maverick down through the top vent. I have the expanded metal for the basket. All I could find locally was strange looks and eventually 13ga. I would have preferred 18ga to bend easier but I can make the 13ga work. I think I'm going to leave it unpainted. I like the homebuilt look of it the way it is. I'll try experimenting with various pans/diffusers in the bottom to see what works well for me once I start cooking with it.
I have pictures but I don't have an easy way to post them yet. I'll try to get then uploaded some where so I can link to them.
