Mini WSM Appreciation Thread

gsxunv04 said:
Can you give more info on your elbow vents? What size and material list did you use? Looks great.
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Thanks
(3) 3/4" black pipe elbows. I can get any temp I want. If I add extra air by opening the bottom vent with the 3 elbows, it really takes off. The lid vent is the restriction and you'd have to put angle sheet metal or rebar across the top to hold the lid up( like someone around here :clap:). You should be able to easily do small pizza's. I drilled the elbow holes where the coal grate meets the Weber bottom so I have air below and just above the grate so ash can not choke it out. Also on long smokes (6hrs) the elbows partially fill with ash but do not close off. I only need one elbow for most cooks, but during long cooks, if the coals are only burning on one side I can switch which elbow I want as an intake and direct the heat doing that and the lid. The elbows also stop direct wind blowing in and messing with the temp. Same thing I do on my UDS's only larger elbows.
I have a personal concern of hot ash/coals escaping so I eliminated that from happening. I burned the heck out of my foot once standing next to another Weber I had, never saw the hot coal that escaped and it burned into my heel. Lesson learned.
This is a photo from my first mini showing the grate/intakes. I was just a bit more careful with location this time as the first one was an experiment.
 
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I don't remember if I ever posted here but minis rock! Great way to get into smoking.
 
great project to do but the painting and curing was a bit of a pain.
lots of ideas here and the wkc forums
IMG_0241_zps33943cd0.jpg
 
ebijack said:
Thanks
(3) 3/4" black pipe elbows. I can get any temp I want. If I add extra air by opening the bottom vent with the 3 elbows, it really takes off. The lid vent is the restriction and you'd have to put angle sheet metal or rebar across the top to hold the lid up( like someone around here :clap:). You should be able to easily do small pizza's. I drilled the elbow holes where the coal grate meets the Weber bottom so I have air below and just above the grate so ash can not choke it out. Also on long smokes (6hrs) the elbows partially fill with ash but do not close off. I only need one elbow for most cooks, but during long cooks, if the coals are only burning on one side I can switch which elbow I want as an intake and direct the heat doing that and the lid. The elbows also stop direct wind blowing in and messing with the temp. Same thing I do on my UDS's only larger elbows.
I have a personal concern of hot ash/coals escaping so I eliminated that from happening. I burned the heck out of my foot once standing next to another Weber I had, never saw the hot coal that escaped and it burned into my heel. Lesson learned.
This is a photo from my first mini showing the grate/intakes. I was just a bit more careful with location this time as the first one was an experiment.
Click to expand...

Thanks. How did you attach them to the grill? Did you use a coupling and an electrical nut or are they welded?
 
Welded, but you might be able to use male/female and the flange nuts if you do not have access to welding.
 
ebijack said:
I decided to add 2 handles to the base/bowl sides just below the grate radius to make moving mine around easier. Works great, easy peasy.
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This thread has inspired me to make some needed upgrades to my Smokey Joe. I'm not much of a metal worker, though, so I have some questions:

1) What kind of intakes did you use? I'd like to add something under the coal grate to get some more air flow. I'm working on a handle for the vent cover now.

2) I picked up a cat food bowl ($.97 at Walmart) that is metal but doesn't specify what kind. Is there any danger in it? And if so, how can I determine what it is?

3) I have a grate to hold a clay saucer on the indent in the pot. Do I need this? I've seen some use the inset with holes in it that comes with the bowl. Anyone have issues with airflow doing it that way?
 
I suppose this is the best place to share...

One thing I always thought that kept the mini-WSM from really looking like a WSM was the flat-ish lid. It just so happened that I had a couple of WSJ bottoms laying around from a couple of keg smoker builds that I did, so I figured I'd grab a tamale pot and kill a couple hours this weekend.

This is how it turned out. I still need to get a couple of racks to try it out, but I will say, it is a pretty nifty looking little smoker. I don't think it'll take any cook time away from my keg smoker, so I don't guess I'll keep it; it was just a fun little project while my daughter napped and the short rib was on the Pitfaced BBQ drum.

Here it is:

20151004_202734-01_zps1fyrck4q.jpeg


1-inch ball valve in addition to whatever I get from the bottom vents ought to suffice:

20151004_202809-01_zpsdqzxwxr8.jpeg



Shameless plug for my keg smoker :):

20150626_155805-02_zpscgle9jp1.jpeg
 
Had mine about 3 years now...I cook most of the time with no deflector . I use this a lot instead of my PBC since there is only two of us. Thats a Tip Top Temp controller on top.... works great.
 
I was told I should post my project in here for posterity. Imusa pot, had to crimp the top lid a little to get the lid to fit. Two grate levels, dog bowl as bottom vent cover. Weber thermometer in lid and on back side between grate levels. Thought about using the lid as a doubler on the bottom, but didn't like the way it looked. Fashioned a bottom vent handle out of a souvenir baseball bat, thought it looked pretty cool! Have had two inaugural fatty cooks, going to bring it to work and do some ribs sometime this week.
 

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Cheap mod to increase capacity.
1/4" rod welded across 2 sides from underneath and tack weld each grate rod to the 1/4" rod. Grate is as strong or stronger than original.
You can lay jerky/fish over wooden dowels and low smoke.
You could use 3/8" steel rod/rods and "S" hooks to hang at least 3 racks of ribs cut in half. Might be able to squeeze in 4 racks. 2 whole small chickens and one cut in half should fit easily.
The dowel rods or metal rods can be arranged per requirements of each cook.
This will hold 8 1/2" dowel rods with space on either side of each dowel for laying jerky fish over each rod.
I will be buying some hardwood dowel rods for this. What is shown is just some dowel rod I had laying around.
This idea should work on most any UDS, WSM as well.
 

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Non use. Placed it in the alley besides the trash dumpster and was gone in less than an hour. Thought about giving away but I didn’t want to know where it went. Total release
 
smoke ninja said:
there used to be so many minis around here.....what happened
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My SIL uses his almost daily. I use mine every month or so just to keep it in rotation.
Like you, he cooks for his crew using it.
He stuffs 3 chickens into his in the morning so lunch is there and ready.
Everyone brings their own drinks/bread/sides etc.
He doesn't want a larger smoker/cooker. So I hopefully came up with an idea that will allow him to do even more/different cooks. Mostly for doing his jerky.
 
Here is with 8 - 7/16" wooden dowels. Lots of room to hang. Adjust as required.
 

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