Well, the best laid plans of mice and .... On reassembly, one of the bent tabs for the bolts on the band hinge broke. My sweetie came to the rescue and brass soldered a square nut to the band. Then the new SS nuts and bolts galled and one snapped. Crap! Going back to using the rusty steel nuts and bolts.
Yay! Found 5/8" flat fiberglass braid at Vaglio's Fireplace locally. Changed my mind and installed the gasket on the bottom, as per Naked Whiz.
Finally started a slow bakeout Sunday evening: 2 hours at 150F. Then dumped in more coal and got up to 500F very quickly (uh oh!).
Choked damper and top down. Nice! Response is instant. Got to 400F at midnight. 340F 1:00 am, 3:10 1:30 am. 280F 1:45 am. Still 280F at 2:00 am.
Going to bed now and letting Humpty bake overnight. Will check on Humpty occassionally as I wake during the night. Wish I had a wireless remote T-indicator. Hope Humpty will still be whole in the morning.
I LOVE IT!!! The cooker is very responsive to how much the air draft and smoker top are open....
First cookout is tomorrow - Pork Shoulder Roast & Chicken Thighs. Can't wait to actually cook on my brand new Copper Cooker.
Some questions about bakeout observations....
HOT SURFACE TEMP - During bakeout, the dome surface is hot to touch (can't leave hands on) and the hi-temp paint feels tacky. Is this normal? Base surface is also hot, but not as hot as dome.
SMOKER TOP - The black hi-Temp paint on the metal smoker top is sticking a bit and quite HOT! Maybe I shouldn't have painted it?
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How do you insert text between pictures?
May
Project Humpty:
SLIDESHOW,
PHOTO ALBUM
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Kamado/BGE, Cobb