My new 55 magnum is almost done


 
J

Jeff T Miller

TVWBB All-Star
Boy am I excited. I spent the past couple of days working on my weber kettle to magnum. I got all of the parts assembled and currently have a fire built trying to burn off the paint on the outside so I can paint it with some high temp paint.

pic1 is of starting the charcoal for the first time. Burn baby burn!
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Pic2 is the cooking section waiting to go on.

Pic3 Is assembled and coming up to temp. What ever that is. Trying to get as hot as I can get. It is off scale of my thermometer which is 550. I am guessing about 650 at the moment.

I still have to paint the outside and make the gasket for the doors. I made it so it will hold 5 racks. The bottom 3 are only about 5 inches apart. Should be enough to put brisket or potatos on. I still have to buy a guru to keep the temps where they should be.

Edit: Well its midnight and the charcoal is going out. I am kind of disappointed. The paint on the drum doesn't seem to be effected by the heat. I can't decide if it will hold up to the lower temps I will be throwing at it or sand it all off and paint with high temp paint.
 
Looking great there Jeff. Let us know how she burns once you get her all tied up and ready to smoke.
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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by James Tag:
How many pork butts can you put in that thing? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well I am not sure how many pork buts will fit on a 22 inch rack. I am guessing 4. Using 4 per rack it will hold 12 pork butts and several briskets. Again I am not sure how many briskets will fit a rack. Probobly 2 full packers I would think. So 12 butts and 2 briskets or 8 butts and 6 brisket.
 
Hi Jeff,

I finished my magnum a couple weeks ago and it is absolutely great. You are going to really enjoy the extra space. Mine has 3 cooking racks and I was able to get 12 racks of loin ribs in there at a time for the first cook. all of them layed flat. I am trying the pork / brisket cook this weekend. It was worth the effort to build it for sure.

Mike
 
That is so cool. I was thinking about doing something much simpler, as I cannot build stuff well. Anyone know how much another WSM middle section costs? I think I saw on this site that you can just stack another middle section on the WSM to increase capacity and that it works okay.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by James Tag:
You have me intrigued.

Where can I find out more about the Magnum? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

James,

There were several previous threads, here is one of the latest. The plans for the Magnum are here.

Mike P. in Madison - My brother, also Mike P. in Madison, is supposed to be building a Magnum for me. You had my hopes up that he finally got started.

Jim
 
I can't find the link but... There was a guy that converted his 22.5 Weber kettle to a smoker. He used 2 rotis rings, a pizza stone and few other things.
 
Hey mike, that sounds good. I'm surprised you didn't weld some more supports in there for a couple of more racks.
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I am curious. I read last year someone built 2 magnums for some kind of outing. He reported back that the setup was not as stable as the wsm we all love. What kind of results have you had?

After reading that I had decided to call weber and order 3 of the vent adjusters that go on the wsm and drill out the kettle up on the sides like the wsm figuring that would help stabilize the temps. I have since changed my mind and am looking at getting a guru or more likely a pit minder. I would really like to set it and forget it.

I just got done painting the drums. I went to big lots this afternoon and got hold of 4 cans of high temp paint for $.90 a can.
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Got to like that. The only thing is the color. It is aluminum. Oh well I guess I will call it the silver bullet. Tomorrow I will make the door gaskets and it will be finished. No pics tonight but will add a few of the finished silver bullet tomorrow.

Now I have to call weber and get a couple of more racks. I bought 2 last year when I bought my kettle from target on clearance at 7 bucks each. I traded them to someone who also picked up 2 kettles from target. The extras I bought were the hinged on the side version and figured he would like them better. I didn't figure I would want or need the hinged version.

Hey Mike, Have you done any pork butts on it yet? I was wondering how many will fit on a rack.
 
Hey Guys,

My need for a magnum was brought on by an invite from a friend of mine to cook pork butts at a charity golf outing he organized in New Glarus WI this coming weekend. It benefits families of disabled children that need access ramps and other improvements to their homes to allow wheel chairs to come in and out of their houses. I'm using the magnum and 3 WSM's to cook all the pork butts I can fit into them. I am looking forward to this very much as we'll get to stay up and bbq all night and it benefits a very good cause.

We used the plans for the magnum that are posted on the link above. I am fortunate that I work at a general contracting firm and the guys in the machine shop traded their labor for beer and bbq. If you have the means and need a bigger smoker, I highly recommend building one. I do agree about the stability as was noted before. The magnum does not hold the heat as well as the WSM. Then again, few if any do. They're still the best smoker for the money.

Jeff, I wish I would have thought to add more brackets for racks when they built my smoker. I am thinking I need to add a couple more racks after reading your comments. It will be easy to do. You can get the Weber 22 1/2" racks at Home Depot for $17 each if you don't want to order them from Weber.

I'll let you all know how the pork turns out after the golf outing is over.
 
Mike make sure you tell how many butts you are able to get on the smoker also. Thanks for the stability info. Looks like a guru is in my future.
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I am using this to sell food. Last thing I want is to have to be within 25 feet of the smoker constantly.

Our home depot only has the hinged racks that I don't need or want. I was in lowes today and saw that they have the 22 1/2 non hinged type for $15 so I will probobly just buy them there. The original racks in the kettle(s) are a lot more flimsey than the ones that loes had. I may have to get 5 instead.

I forgot to get finished painted pics today. The smoker isn't here so I will do it tomorrow.
 
Steve-

Do you mean this one:

DigCam09102002%20056.jpg


I built this using two of the rotisserie rings before I had my first WSM. It worked great. I used a 20" cake pan with water or sand for a heat sink, and some high-tech aluminum foil gaskets to seal any leaks.

It was not as stable as the WSM since I added quite a bit of height/weight, the legs couldn't handle it. I was at my first KCBS competition and one of the welds gave way. True Q'er that I am, I rescued the ribs and pressed on. Got third in pork that day.
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R
 
Rick-

If you think that's hilarious, I'll have to try to dig up the "after" pictures from when it kicked the bucket!! The contest organizers were certain that was the first time they had seen a cooker collapse in the middle of a cook off. It got me through the first phase of bullet cooking until I bought a WSM (right when I got home from that contest.)

Rich
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Rich G:
Steve-

Do you mean this one:

DigCam09102002%20056.jpg


I built this using two of the rotisserie rings before I had my first WSM. It worked great. I used a 20" cake pan with water or sand for a heat sink, and some high-tech aluminum foil gaskets to seal any leaks.

It was not as stable as the WSM since I added quite a bit of height/weight, the legs couldn't handle it. I was at my first KCBS competition and one of the welds gave way. True Q'er that I am, I rescued the ribs and pressed on. Got third in pork that day.
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R </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yep, that looks like the one. It looks interesting and doable. I wonder if it was built into a table or cart to give it more strength would it hold up.

I've got 2 WSMs but I need another one. I was thinking of this mod to take the place of a third.
 
Steve-

I think with minimal engineering, you could fashion a base for it much like the one used for the Magnum in this thread (or similar with some wandering in Home Despot.) It was a fun project, and I turned out some good Q on it while it was with us.

R
 
I forgot to add my painted photos last night. So here it is the silver bullet. pic 1 pic 2

I got the door gaskets made. Yesterday when I opened the doors the silicon was still uncured. This puppy should ready to fire today although I don't have plans to do so.
 
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