New Braunfels Black Diamond


 
Bill Freiberger

Bill Freiberger

TVWBB All-Star
In this post I told about using my old New Braunfels Black Diamond smoker. Someone asked to see pictures, but I hadn't taken any. Well, today I used it again, and this time I took plenty of pictures. Here they are (click to see them full size).

First up is the NBBD before the cook.



Next up are several mods I made to the smoker a long time ago.

Gas assist (which I didn't use for this cook).



Two water trays to act as a baffle.



Raised grid and lowered smoke stack.



And finally, charcoal basket in the fire box.



Next is the smoke box with charcoal and wood chunks. I left room at the top for lit coals to be added (but I didn't get a picture of that). I used Rancher charcoal, by the way. In this picture and the next you can see the ignitor button that I added for the gas assist.



Here are the ribs on the cooker.



And here's the NBBD smoking away.

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If the food doesn't get eaten too quickly I may post the "after" pictures.

Bill
 
Looks great bill! I have a NB longhorn deluxe and I'm sad to say I haven't used it much lately. I did season a lot of antique cast iron that I picked up a few weeks back with it tho. Anytime I fire up the offset I have to give it a lot of attention, a lot of fuel, and a lot of friends. Love the mods too. I use the water baffle one myself.
 
It's true, the offsets (especially the cheap ones) require a lot of tending. But sometimes that's part of the fun. My Big Green Egg and Traeger are set and forget. And my WSM is also pretty self sufficient. But there's something about keeping an eye on the cooker that makes you feel like you're really barbecuing.

As I said in the other post, I don't think I've used this smoker in 10 years, but I did have a lot of fun using it twice in the past week. I think it's gonna stay in the permanent rotation. Although, it's not very fuel efficient -- I used about 15 pounds of charcoal to make four racks of ribs. The WSM would probably have used less that half of that and the BGE even less. Oh well, it was fun.

Bill
 
Looks great so far! So what about them "after" pics
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My New Braunfels el-dorado has an unusual design with the firebox beneath the main chamber. It's unusual but I like it a lot.

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New Braufels made some good smokers before they were bought out by Char Broil. The Char Broil ofsets at Home Depot look like they're made of aluminum foil.

Bill
 
Funky lookin' cookers out there butt I tell ya what: Bill, your ribs aar lookin' pretty daggum comfortable in it
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here is my longhorn deluxe.

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Once it gets up to temp I throw on a split oak log every 45 min and a half a chimney of charcoal every 1.5 hours. This one came from academy.
 
Nice pics and report, Bill! I say it doesn't matter just how funky your smoker looks, as long as you get great Q from it, and that's all that counts!
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Thanks for sharing!

Barret
 
I'm really enjoying the pics of other people's non-WSM smokers. This style of smoker doesn't get the attention that WSMs, BGEs, and pellet cookers get. If anyone else here has this style let's see some more pictures.

Bill
 
Bill,

Bet you will like this one. My uncle picked this up a couple months ago and is the process of getting in good condition. He cleaned up the inside (they used the barrel for grilling) and sealed it up nicely. Dropped the smokestack in the chamber, added a baffle and wheels. This was his first smoke (Brisket) on it Sunday. He did not have a box in the charcoal chamber so charcoal management was a pain, but I think it will be much better once he gets a box in there.

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Ask and ye shall receive. I didn't expect a response that quick but I'm happy to see it. That's a beauty. I love the wheels!

He's gonna have some fun cooking with that beauty.

Bill
 
I was already uploading some pictures of my weekend cooks and saw that pop up. Thought you'd like it. I had actually shown my uncle pictures of yours yesterday from my phone. Once he gets it finished and painted it's going to look great. Have to love craigslist.

It ran 250 with no real problems other than the CC management. Because it is just flat rack in there it's hard to pile in and get a consistent burn. Brisket came out tasting great, could have used a little more time, but he had guests waiting to eat.
 
Originally posted by JSMcdowell:
I was already uploading some pictures of my weekend cooks and saw that pop up. Thought you'd like it. I had actually shown my uncle pictures of yours yesterday from my phone. Once he gets it finished and painted it's going to look great. Have to love craigslist.

It ran 250 with no real problems other than the CC management. Because it is just flat rack in there it's hard to pile in and get a consistent burn. Brisket came out tasting great, could have used a little more time, but he had guests waiting to eat.
Click to expand...


When he finishes it up we need to see more pictures.

Bill
 
I saw a black diamond on Craigslist and considered picking it up as a second unit but the price was a little more than I wanted to spend. Now the listing is down. Oh well.

Bill
 
Bill,

2 Questions.

1. How long of a smoke can you get out of your smoke box with a minion method ?

2. What was it going for ?
 
I get about five hours with the smoke box. I've read about people who will then empty it, refill it, relight it and start over. I haven't tried that yet.

The NBBD on Craigslist was about 10 minutes away from here and he was asking $100. I was gonna wait a little bit and then offer $50 but he took down the ad before I got my offer in.

Bill
 
God one Bill.

Reminds me of a TV serie and one of the dudes did This it´s not a joke. And the type of grill is what 90% of the swedes have.

The funny part is when he used alot of fluid the camera man ask him "how mutch do you use?"

He looks at the bottle and says "Its plenty left" and continue to drown the coals.

After that the store the tv show was folowing made this :
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It was a Show about a BIG "mall"(everything under one roof but still only one store)

Added some fun facts about the Ullared store. Read here
 
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