Oh happy Father's Day anticipation, I bought my burial casket today!

[The Burn]

I miss living somewhere that you can buy a $1,500 smoker at the local grocery store....

[johnsteen]

• BUG-A-SALT 2.0 will be shipped to John Steen by Amazon.com.
  Guaranteed delivery: [COLOR=#008A00 !important]June 26, 2015[/COLOR]

[ddmcwhirter]

[_John_]

Looks great and I need that rifle! It has rained my last couple of cooks so smoking has been done in the only covered area I have which is right by the back door. I bet I killed 40 flies and there were at least that many left.

[ddmcwhirter]

[ddmcwhirter]

Trying to post new pictures...

[ddmcwhirter]

Well, I fired her up for cooking, first time, on Father's Day...she was working nice. I'd even gone by All Seasons Feeders the day before and got a quarter inch plate that replaces the firebox grate...to use as a hot grill but also directs the heat and smoke straight into the cook boxes. Baby was humming when I put the meat on. Then the rains came, through the day, maybe two inches...when I gave up there was standing water on the pit and the inside smoke was down to 200 degrees. Not even a strong fire with open flame could get that thick steel pit back to temperature...of course, it was still pouring rain! I got my brisket through the stall but then the temp fell off...had to finish in the oven. My fire was never near as big as the firebox allows. Thinking this rain will not quit anytime soon so I'm working to build a fire pit on the ground where I can make mucho coals out of piles of oak wood.
On a better day, the day I got it and cured it, with it fully vented and the distributor plates fully open, I monitored the temperatures with my Thermoworks Dot thermometers: with open flame and a pile of coals, the first box was reading 305, the second box reading 257 and the smoke box reading 180...at end of day, with just a pile of coals, the first box read 310, the second box read 240 and the smoke box read 162. Apparently, at the start, after firing for 45 minutes, the pit was still not fully heated. I also played with varying the vent openings and found it quite controllable. I did not have time to play with the distributor plate openings. Oh yeah, this baby is sweet! The first two boxes are actually lined near the bottom with a second layer of plate steel so as to make the smoke path straight through, from fire box to smoke box, with the way out being the distributor plate in the first two boxes and the smoke box. Their YouTube video does not show that extra liner. There is also a catchment built in, next to the fire, to be filled with water, beer, apple juice, whatever. This requires another accessory, a metal watering can with a long spout, to refill while the fire is going...burned the hair on my arm! What else can I say...it takes three men to get it onto and off my trailer, and you need 8 foot boards to make a gradual ramp.

[PapaBear]

Oh My! That's beautiful. Is that smoke in the 1st pic? or an angelic glow? Good Luck!

[DeusDingo]

that looks like one happy camper

[Jon Solberg]

NICE!!!

[DWCowles]

Very nice pit ddmcwhirter

[Ray]

ddmcwhirter Wow, that's awesome! post some pics when you put this baby in action..

[Koy Schoppe]

I have looked at these at HEB. Let us know how it works out!

[ddmcwhirter]