horz door mod

Finally got off my arse today and made the door on the Cimarron fit well enough it should need the damper to actually be open to get a good clean burn. Hoping this will provide better fire control when using the Method as well. I have some new hinges on order and will do the hinge side and have the works welded in place as soon as the hinges are in.

Nice job. Wish my Bandera fire box door fit that well.

Went to the local welding shop, paid $2 for a 4' piece of 1.5"x1/8" flat stock, on to the hardware store for $2 worth of stainless machine screws, nuts and lockwashers. Put the abrasive blade on the table saw made a few miter cuts(clean ALL sawdust out of saw and disconnect from dust collector). I clamped the pieces in place as I went. The piece on the right took some.... well in wood working we call it "pocketknife fitting", it had to be notched around the stationary part of the latch. Then when everything fit like I wanted it to I used a spring loaded centerpunch to mark hole locations, drilled some 3/16" holes put in the screws. Last step was to widen the cut in the stationary part of the latch to accomadate the extra material, just a few strokes with a sharp file was all it took as the original fit was quite sloppy.
Finishing the project will be a bit more involved, remove the added parts, cut off the old hinge components and grind smooth, and take all the paint off the end panel. Weld the new parts and new hinges in place then paint. I'm hoping to just paint the end cap but it may be time for a fresh coat overall by then.
Next mod, charcoal basket. Using the Minion Method I've been getting 3 hours at a clip on a (smaller than Weber's) chimney of Kingsford and 2 small 12" splits of wood cut into four chunks each. With the new oxygen control and a proper container for fuel I'm hoping to double that to 6hrs between refuels.

WOW!!! What a difference, I actually have fire CONTROL. Open the damper a bit and the temp goes up, close it and the temp goes down. I took a chance and loaded the fire box with considerably more fuel than normal, put the lit fuel on top of the pile and I'm getting nice light blue and within reason whatever temp I want. I'm anxious to see how long the load lasts.

I took a chance and loaded the fire box with considerably more fuel than normal, put the lit fuel on top of the pile and I'm getting nice light blue and within reason whatever temp I want. I'm anxious to see how long the load lasts.

Click to expand...

Well here's what happened. In short it worked and real well.

Here's the details, I used the shop heater to preheat the smoker. Then I loaded up the firebox with 2 chimney's of briq with one chim of lump mixed in (did this becuase for the ham I was looking for a hotter fire 250+) and 4 12" splits cut into 4 chunks each. Didn't take long with the damper open to get up to temp. Once there I was able to hold it at 260 or so all day. With a couple small additions of fuel this initial load lasted 8hrs @ 250+. Was running short on wood smoke later in the cook so the last 3 hrs I added a skinny split each hour. Remembering what Jim said about impurities needing to pass through the hottest part of the fire, I pushed the splits kinda up under the coals. Even with cold wood and a mostly closed damper I got no white smoke. When it was time to glaze the ham I did add a small amount of lump to make sure I maintained good heat while opening and closing the door often.
I'm looking forward to trying a more conventional (<225 pit temp) cook and see how it goes. A basket is gonna be essential for best results as it will keep the lit stuff up on top of the unlit where it needs to be. I'm thinking that a pair of baskets will make a nice system. As basket "A" begins to die off, just give it a shake to get rid of the crap and pull it out dump the remaining coals on top of basket "B" , rake out the ash, slide in the fresh basket and keep right on cooking. The round firebox limits the height of the basket to what I'm guessing will be 6hrs of fire or so. Still much easier than tending every 45mis for sure.