Popular Post Taistorm Posted December 23, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 23, 2019 So got the last bits sorted today. Cut some steel and made some grilles. Had to stuff around with the firebox grille to get it functional as the setup was different to the cooking chamber. Also because the rails I fitted to the cooking chamber weren't square I had problems getting the lower one to look right. Everything is kind of shortly but it is functional and looks pretty awesome. I've actually finished this and got it all together but we shall wait til xmas to get some better photos. Hopefully my brother is as stoked as I am with it haha. 10 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Taistorm Posted December 25, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 25, 2019 Merry xmas people. Got the old man to come down with his truck and bring the pit up to theirs as we were heading up for Christmas, and present it to my brother there. Threw on a bit more paint as it got a little scratched up in transit and gave it a clean out on the inside. My brother was pretty Fucking stoked and all my family were pretty impressed with it so was pretty happy with that. I gave him a hand throughout the day and we got it roaring to burn it out. We created a fire in both the firebox and the cooking chamber as well. Got the firebox up to about 650 Fahrenheit for a bit and the cooking chamber up to about 400 for about 3 hours. Cleaned it out again then sprayed canola oil throughout and got it going via the firebox for another 3hours to season it with a drip tray and primarily Manuka to season it. It seals up pretty well once the exhaust starts extracting but it takes a little while to get it going. We also struggled to get the cooking chamber above 200 Fahrenheit when we seasoned it so we need to learn how to get it going hotter. Will try different brickettes and heat beads as we primarily just used wood when we seasoned it. Pretty stoked nonetheless. Will get some meat on it tomorrow hopefully and see what we can come up with. Cheers 41 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rusty360 Posted December 25, 2019 Share Posted December 25, 2019 Looks mint man! Well done! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taistorm Posted December 26, 2019 Author Share Posted December 26, 2019 Cheers man! We had another play around with the temps on this today. modified the firebox and removed the coal basket locator so we could push it right against the side by the cooking chamber. Half filled it with the Kingsford heat beads and a few bits of Manuka which worked a treat. Firebox was around 700 Fahrenheit and the cooking chamber got up to around 220 on the gauges. The heat gun was showing around 210-230 external heat across the chamber and we checked the grill plates later and they were showing approx 270. Realistically I think the internal/smoke heat might be around 230-250 which is perfect, might be worth in getting some other probes or upgrading the temp gauges down the track. Will be doing it's first proper cook tomorrow. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xsspeed Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 Nice job man that's a hell of a xmas present 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakesae101 Posted December 27, 2019 Share Posted December 27, 2019 Try running lump, kingsford run great doing snakes ect in my kettle but ash up too hard and have had coals get ashbound when doing long cooks in my offset. I use commodities nz lump 24-25$ 10kg nice big pieces I normally start with a big chimney of it then switch to running wood and may alternate between the two depending how much wood I have I use alot of Pohutakawa. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taistorm Posted December 27, 2019 Author Share Posted December 27, 2019 35 minutes ago, jakesae101 said: Try running lump, kingsford run great doing snakes ect in my kettle but ash up too hard and have had coals get ashbound when doing long cooks in my offset. I use commodities nz lump 24-25$ 10kg nice big pieces I normally start with a big chimney of it then switch to running wood and may alternate between the two depending how much wood I have I use alot of Pohutakawa. Yeah bro we kind of had a run of this today. Trying out different techniques to get it right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Taistorm Posted December 27, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 27, 2019 Ok so we gave the girl it's first cook today. What a way to start, 7kg brisket the bro sorted out, the thing is a bloody unit. First we swapped out the left gauge for one off the weber to see what discrepancies there were with the budget ones I got from bunnings. We got the firebox going first of all with mostly kingsford Apple wood coals. Got the firebox up to about 700° and the cooking chamber right gauge was showing about 200 and the left weber gauge about 240 so I think the internal temp is really around 220ish, really need to get more accurate probes to get an accurate reading. This is what we ended up with. We had it on the smoker for about 7.5 hours, had a lot of problems trying to maintain heat. We ended up resorting to feeding it pohutakawa, manuka and gum wood to keep it up(we have no shortage of wood as the olds do firewood/tree felling). The brisket was removed after being wrapped for the last few hours with an internal temp of around 200-209 and let it rest for about 45minutes before serving. Slightly over cooked and not the ideal smoke ring but was still delicious and nice and moist. Pretty stoked to be honest, we still need to work out easier ways to maintain the temps, may look at grinding the opening between the firebox and cooking chamber to help draw more heat. Will see how it goes anyway. Cheers 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yetchh Posted December 27, 2019 Share Posted December 27, 2019 Yum.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1vaknd Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 bunnings has finally got around to stocking the fire rope (also the flat stuff) so could try sealing the doors a little more or your chimney is rather tall so id say you a drawing too much cool air through any small gaps you have, try closing the chimney damper until you get some smoke seeping from the cracks around the door and your temp should rise 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowzer Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 Ideally you want a digital temp probe on the grill. Look at the Maverick units on Amazon. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Taistorm Posted January 8, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 8, 2020 @1vaknd We have used the flat fibreglass heat gasket (that I got from bbqs and more) around most of the lid edges, we can't do the all the edges as it creates gaps in other areas. It actually seals quite well. Also forgot to mention we got a whole lamb boned and rolled. Bit of salt and pepper, rosemary, thyme and garlic. Cooked in the smoker at around 240°F for about 6 hours then rested for about an hour. Fuelled with kingsford briquettes and gum wood, with Manuka for smoke. The Smokeyness on the outside was nice but a bit overpowering but the inside was cooked mint! Moist as and tasty. I swapped over the weber temp gauge for the left gauge on the pitlord. The original gauge was showing about 10-15°F lower than the right, however with the weber gauge it was showing about 20°F above the right. Will look at investing in a proper internal probe, temp gauge. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajg193 Posted January 9, 2020 Share Posted January 9, 2020 Just out of interest, why Fahrenheit? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowzer Posted January 9, 2020 Share Posted January 9, 2020 Because for whatever reason America still uses Fahrenheit and so most smoking related literature uses it too, so ya get used to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taistorm Posted January 9, 2020 Author Share Posted January 9, 2020 Yeah, more accurate I guess as more increments haha 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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