S Sturn
New member
First, I want to thank everyone who has gone before me and shared their build. I'm a big believer in not reinventing the wheel so almost everything I did I stole from you guys. I really appreciate it. After going back and forth, I decided to go with the Smokey Joe "Gold". I thought I would have better air control and didn't want to have to deal with making an ash blocker. I went with cutting out the whole bottom of the pot. This way I have a little more room for the charcoal basket and I thought it looked a little cleaner. At first I used tin snips, but I wound up using my jigsaw with a thin metal blade. It was easier on the thin aluminum.
I went with 2 cooking grates. The main grate is 4" from the top of the pot. The second grate is 5"s below that. The thermometer is just below the first grate. The holes for the 12" terra cotta defuser are just below the notch in tamale pot.
Of course I couldn't just paint it. I found a stencil on the web and then customized it for the pot. I used high temp engine paint. 2 coats of primer, 2 coats of color, and 2 coats of clear and 1 hour in a 200 degree oven to cure. I'm not that good with paint, so there was no way I was going to add additional colors. Anyway, I kind of like the silver and black. This is when I just pulled off the masking tape.
Here is the charcoal basket. I used the rain gutter guard from Home Depot and held it together with stainless wire. It's 4"s tall so it goes into the pot about an inch.
And here is the finished Mini.....I can't wait to fire it up. I'll post pics when I do.
Thanks again!!
I went with 2 cooking grates. The main grate is 4" from the top of the pot. The second grate is 5"s below that. The thermometer is just below the first grate. The holes for the 12" terra cotta defuser are just below the notch in tamale pot.
Of course I couldn't just paint it. I found a stencil on the web and then customized it for the pot. I used high temp engine paint. 2 coats of primer, 2 coats of color, and 2 coats of clear and 1 hour in a 200 degree oven to cure. I'm not that good with paint, so there was no way I was going to add additional colors. Anyway, I kind of like the silver and black. This is when I just pulled off the masking tape.
Here is the charcoal basket. I used the rain gutter guard from Home Depot and held it together with stainless wire. It's 4"s tall so it goes into the pot about an inch.
And here is the finished Mini.....I can't wait to fire it up. I'll post pics when I do.
Thanks again!!
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