New here....my mods...be gentle

[MartinB]

New here.

So, after 3 smokes (chicken, pork butt)on my new wsm, im learning what everyone else knows....its great.. with a couple short comings. So i got after it today.

The coal grate needs handle to pick up with ring.. so i welded one on. Side benefit holds ring in place. Cost =$0, I had some 1/4 rod laying around.

The body needs handles to remove.....so i added them. Duh. $13. $4 of which was for SS screws/nuts/locknuts.

Needs more charcoal capacity for longer burns before needing to open inlets to keep temp up....so i welded up a removeable expanded steel ring to add about 50% more coals. Curious how well this works. $10 for the expanded metal. Had to cut two 4" strips from 12x24" piece, weld into one long piece. Slip fit into weber ring. Extended burn test likely coming up. When did pork butt with weber ring only temps were great first 6-7 hrs, then trouble for 2, till put 3/4 chimney new coals in, then rock steady 3.5 more hrs. Id like to be able to sleep all night without needing ATC, or the problem that ash buildup causes after 6 hrs with standard charcoal ring. After take a few hrs to get lined out, doesnt leave enough time to really sleep If i can stretch that to 9 -10 hrs....im good .charcoals cheap.

Vents are too hot to touch ...just like my kettle...so added little wood handles. Duh. $0 again, scraps laying around. This would cost weber like $0.25 per smoker....ridiculous.


All these things should be standard, imo .

Next up.....way to keep flower pot base from falling. Dont trust foil alone to do that. For pork butt i just put it on bottom grate...wont work when need food there .

Probably want wheels and body clamps too. And the hinge. Got one of the unknown bbq hinges on my 22" weber kettle.....awesome. only issue may be spritzing side of meat near hinge with full grate. My kettles lid is less open than id like. Havent tried to modify but likely not hard .

I ordered cajun bandit door. It doesnt fit as good as stock.
And.....the bottom isnt made right, it grinds the finish off the weber at corners, not enough recess. Metal too thick, bend not sharp enough. Dissapointed that gaps at door corners were larger than stock too. When putting into place it flexes the weber....not good. Dont know why people tout these....going on fleabay. Junk imo. Weber has it right, just adjust fit and be careful with it. And realize it might be the shell that needs tweaking to fit, not the door. At worst, apply vaseline to shell opening, mask clean aluminum door and apply silicone. Close and let cure. Perfect gasket fit. Trim excess. Dont need nomex tape at all.

20 yr old MECO POS is in background . Got free from work once as safety award
Did a lot of turkeys on it. 6 hrs was all it was good for. Had to always wrap in cardboard too.....but it was free and kinda worked on poultry only. Its headed out with trash. After using wsm, i wouldnt even relegate the meco to camp duty.

;

 

[MartinB]

This ought to take care of pesky tendency of flower pot base to fall. $5 for some 3/4" x1/8" strip . Inserts with a twist into place. If it do break...maybe wont fall and ruin a cook

Lowered ceramic by about 1/2" to provide greater circulation under lower grate too. Now top lip sits about 7/8" under where original water pan does. Nothing scientific, but seems it needs some room for circulation. Whatever little bit it can get.

The imprecision of my driveway manufacturing requires a little springy flexing by light force to install. Probably a good thing. It wont fall out

I suppose wheel mods are next so i dont have to leave this heavy sob out in rain.

 

[MartinB]

Wheels on.
$16 for 3" casters from harbor freight (20% off 1 item..., had to go in store 3 times.)
With a little heat, bent some brackets out of some scrap 3/16" strip i had. Plenty stout.
Maybe $4 for hardware . 1/2-20 nuts for casters were at lowes

Will weld in supports connecting legs later, (dont really need it for going from porch to my deck though) grind corners, and paint. But this got it off deck and under porch. Carrying parts and reassembling wasnt gonna happen...often.

Still need to adjust bends a tad. If caster not perfectly level, height changes as it swings, tilting smoker.
Mounting direct to bottom of curved soft al leg , as many do ,is very very poor. You can see that in their pics and videos. Also needs to be mounted outboard far enough you dont lose original stability as it swings under.


Yeah, the box its on is about the size a 22" stainless grate comes in. My cast iron craycort grate was awesome at first, but rusted away in humid wet louisiana.

 

[Dustin Flavell]

Wow MartinB. Welcome to the site. Nice Mods and very practical ones at that. I like how you have attached your wheels. Makes a lot of sense. I really like the metal strips addition to lower and keep the flower pot base from falling through. I might need to replicate that one! I am still using a the stock water pan foiled in my 22 but have a pizza stone that will almost fit in the stock holder.

I would recommend the unknown hinge. I have one on both my 18 and 22 WSM and really like it. I’ve had them for quite a few years now and have not needed the holder clips (weren’t around when I purchased my hinges) I have considered them for the 18 but the 22 seems heavy enough and sturdy enough that it might not be necessary.

If you are looking to do a few more mods I would recommend adding a couple of daisy wheel vents to the lid for high heat cooks. I did a high heat brisket last night and was able to keep 375 for 6 hours no problem with three lid vents and two bottom vents wide open. Another if you haven’t done it yet is the slot mod for probe wires for the upper cooking grate.

Modifying is fun. My wife laughs at me and says I tinker more on my WSM and Kettles more than I cook on them

 

[MartinB]

Wow MartinB. Welcome to the site. Nice Mods and very practical ones at that. I like how you have attached your wheels. Makes a lot of sense. I really like the metal strips addition to lower and keep the flower pot base from falling through. I might need to replicate that one! I am still using a the stock water pan foiled in my 22 but have a pizza stone that will almost fit in the stock holder.

I would recommend the unknown hinge. I have one on both my 18 and 22 WSM and really like it. I’ve had them for quite a few years now and have not needed the holder clips (weren’t around when I purchased my hinges) I have considered them for the 18 but the 22 seems heavy enough and sturdy enough that it might not be necessary.

If you are looking to do a few more mods I would recommend adding a couple of daisy wheel vents to the lid for high heat cooks. I did a high heat brisket last night and was able to keep 375 for 6 hours no problem with three lid vents and two bottom vents wide open. Another if you haven’t done it yet is the slot mod for probe wires for the upper cooking grate.

Modifying is fun. My wife laughs at me and says I tinker more on my WSM and Kettles more than I cook on them

Thanks . I did not know about needing more top vents for higher temperatures. When I did a high temp burnout I got over 400 but that was with no meat in there, and not for 6 hours. No problem cooking 10 lb of chicken at 325.

Got my wheels leveled up today. Hit one small snag trying to brace the legs, with the 3/16 gauge steel wheel mounts bolted to the 3/16 inch aluminum legs that's too conductive for me to weld a light gauge metal to with my little home welder and get any penetration, unless I welded to the edge of the wheel mounts or preheated it, and there I'd probably melt the aluminum, and I'm not welding it apart once it's all been adjusted level. I'll have to look for some kind of way to bolt bracing on by bending metal. I got an idear.

 

[timothy]

Some nice work and Ideas Martin!
Thanks for sharing

Tim

 

[MartinB]

Got legs braced. $9 for some more 3/16" strip. I didn't have enough scrap to complete Y brace. Grrr.

I wouldnt take her off roading, but she will do ok on semi - smooth pavement.
Added benefit.....more substantial thing to hold on to when dumping ashes. After using the 3" wheels, i cant see anything smaller being pleasureable to use unless on really smooth surface.

Not my purtiest weld job, lots spatter to remove. And it was so dim out i couldnt really even see what i was doing, i was guessing. Not to mention i really need bifocals now...But it dont show so dont matter. Ever laid down a weld bead and found it was only on one side of the joint?....me neither.

Now to order some body clamps.

I catch myself giving a little tug on the handles on the shell now to move which causes the shell to unseat easily. I'm pretty sure Weber left these handles off intentionally to prevent that kind of thing for safety.

 

[Timothy F. Lewis]

Cool work Martin,
I just set my planter base in the foiled water pan, easier than having someone weld something for me. No welder, limited practical knowledge either. Have not struck an arc since high school!
Yes, contact Jason at unknown, tell him you’re installing on an 18 and he will tweak the shape a little for you.
Nice guy, he did that for me when I installed one on my 18 kettle for my double barreled “over performer”.
I might do a few mods on mine this spring but, first I think I want to properly design my optimum windscreen!

 

[MartinB]

Cool work Martin,
I just set my planter base in the foiled water pan, easier than having someone weld something for me. No welder, limited practical knowledge either. Have not struck an arc since high school!
Yes, contact Jason at unknown, tell him you’re installing on an 18 and he will tweak the shape a little for you.
Nice guy, he did that for me when I installed one on my 18 kettle for my double barreled “over performer”.
I might do a few mods on mine this spring but, first I think I want to properly design my optimum windscreen!

My goal is to use more charcoal than water pan allows for maximum time, particularly before ash upsets the temps, so i can sleep a few hrs..

Holder can be made without welding, just small screw in middle of crossed bars. Still need to cut strips and slots, a grinder with cutoff wheel is handy . Propane torch likely hot enough to bend narrow 1/8 strips. I used just MAP for 3/16 leg mounts. Drill press highly recommended for 1/2" holes.

 

[MartinB]

Did a cook of a turkey breast and used full load charcoal to see how it performed.(after remove turkey of course)

Filled level with top of my expanded metal. About 19+ lbs -ish i think. Started with 20 briquettes. Let heat for 50 min to 260 before adding breast.

Held 245-260 for duration of turkey breast. Spiked to 280 once when removed lid. Took turkey off at 5 hrs.

Woke up a few hrs later..was 221.@ 11 hrs. And declining.
Let it go until 12.75 hrs was 201, then removed shell, knocked down ash, opened vents and got up to 240 , set vents halfway. Kept 225-240 next 5 hrs. Shut down at 18 hrs, probably 20% coals left .

So, with the larger charge, it didnt crash requiring attention until about 11 hrs. Coal bed collapsed by 30% or so when disturbed. 18+ hrs easy without adding coals, even with 250 for first several hrs. Was still 232 when shut down.

Can i trust it to sleep? Maybe. Im likely headed to ATC one day, but for now the extra charcoal may suffice. Especially when embers is 2.99 for 15.4 lb at home depot right now, and i bought a bunch.

 

[Timothy F. Lewis]

Strong work!

 

[MartinB]

Added heater meter

First pass....dogbowl approach
Made a deflector for inside cut from a muffin pan.
Just covers holes. Deflect air down and around sides a bit. The thin steel of the muffin pan is flexible. It will mold itself to the curve of the shell when you tighten down on the nut.

I suppose it worked okay. At least well enough. Burn for a total of about 11 hours with the normal filled level to the top of the weber basket. First three hours were about 300-340 f, next eight were 250. Just a couple coals left on the grate when it was done. There was certainly no pile of coals on one side or anything like that. But I didn't look till the very end, when the blower ran so much at the very end that that could have changed things. for most of the cook the damper did the Lion's share of the work .

Starting with about half of a chimney, 340 was about maxed out for temperature for me. The chimney I use is a little bigger than normal chimneys I think it's a Weber. More coals would obviously get a higher temperature, and this is about as hot as I ever go and this was to render the skin on some chicken i cooked. Chicken was good, skin was edible. in fact I was kind of surprised the chicken was so juicy being cooked that high of a temperature.

the engineer in me knows that distributing the air beneath the coals will be better for efficiency and getting maximum temperature out of the coals. I.e, minimizing bypassing., I'm a little reluctant to drill a big hole in the bottom of my smoker just yet when this works, and most importantly cost less.

With my wire mesh extension to the basket I can hold a lot of charcoal. I may move the coal grate up a tad to have more ash capacity to go with that. Would just take some bolts to sit it on.

 

[Timothy F. Lewis]

Very clever, I like it!

 

[MartinB]

Well, most of the time when heatermeter blower comes on theres a slight temp drop, a degree or less maybe, before temp begins rising.

When out of coals near end, like last hour of coals, this gets pronounced. Maybe 5 F, which leads to temp swings of +-5/10 f. Perhaps better air distribution would help then. But since coals are scattered on grate..who knows.

Filled my extended coal ring about 75% for slow brisket cook. After brisket finished let it continue at 250F. Got 18.5 hrs on 75% of coal basket running on heatermeter and blower/damper. A full load would push 24 hrs then at 250, more at 225.

 

[MartinB]

Decided id try hanging ribs.

Cobbled a hanging rack together from what little 1/2" x1/8
I had in garage. Ran out . Just winged it, bent a ring in circle to fit by hand, guesstimated 6.5" high and 13" wide would fit by sticking ruler in wsm lid.

Cant see paying $50 for something so simple. Stainless not needed either, everything will be coated in thick layer of grease.

Ill pick up some stainless skewers for $4 to bend into hanging hooks.

 

[MartinB]

Added other side to rack.
To prevent any falling into coals, take my support i made for drip pan, turn upside down on coal ring, and put grate from 18" smoky joe on it. Bent some hooks to try out of skewers...$2.99. hooks can be picked up by rings with meat on them

 

[Lew]

Strong work! Modding smokers is fun work, especially if you can weld (I can't). The only mod on my older WSM was to add a thermometer in the lid.

 

[MartinB]

Good thing i put the catch grate in.

Tried to break it in with a whole chicken
Trussed, hooked thru back and under trussing....

It...fell ...ripped out thru back
It fell slowly, but it dropped. Meat probe stayed in, but noticed temp was hard to control on heatermeter. Found chicken on catch grate

Rehooked thru breastbone, to finish it

Definitely different smell, like burning chicken

Direct temps are different from indirect with the drip tray as well. Dont need as high it seems. My legs were dried too much.

 

[Clay Neubauer]

Bit late to the party, just now saw this thread. The idea of using some of that expanded metal to extend the charcoal ring is brilliant and I can't believe it never occurred to me, we've got some of that on the metal rack at the farm and I'm going to do that immediately! Really surprised to hear of somebody not liking the Cajun Bandit door though, mine fit beautifully.

 

[Clint]

Some nice work and Ideas Martin!
Thanks for sharing

Tim[/QUOTE

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