Brauma's Bandera Overhaul Mod

Brauma

Brauma

somebody shut me the fark up.
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Note from Moderator - TK split the following posts from a thread started by Brauma Mark titled Fire Box Vent Mod. That topic evolved into a great sequence of Mark's overhaul of his vintage Bandera. Here it is...


Ok, Ive found a photo converter tool to convert my pic to a JPEG file. Lets see if this works.

Here is a pic showing how bad my rust is at the smoke hole:
 
Another thought. Since I am pulling this unit apart, how about adding a horizontal chamber in between the firebox and vertical chamber? Would this design support it? Or would that be overkill for this relatively small unit?

When you have the horizontal and vertical configuration, what meats do you typically cook in the horizontal chamber? What's the skinny on that?
 
what meats do you typically cook in the horizontal chamber?
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If you have this type of congiguration, the horizontal becomes your main cooking chamber and the upright becomes a warmer or a place to do lower temp things like jerky, etc.
 
I'm resurecting this old thread to show the old pics of my Bandera and to talk about its refurbishment.

I want to give a big thanks out to Trout Man because he has helped me fix it. Trout's welder buddy Charlie cut out all the rusted out metal and replaced it with nice new shiny 1/8" plate! WooHoo! So if the weather holds out (its supposed to rain) I'll get my newly refurbished Bandera seasoned this wknd and start playing with fire to practice maintaining 220 degrees.

Trout and Charlie installed a different type of baffle. Instead of the Bandera mod, they have a big plate that will mount at the smoke hole and deflect heat under it or distribute the heat better.

Thanks again Trout for helping me. I should be Q'ing soon. I'll post some pics of the metal work later. I had to leave Trout and come to work 2nd shift tonight. Sucks! It's killing me! I want to drink a beer and play with me "new" Bandera tonight. All good things are worth waiting for though I guess.

I will be chaging my signature soon too to reflect a working Bandera.
 
Mark, Congrats on the newly refurbed 'dera!! Happy cooking on the new rig!!

Trout, no suprise to me that a Brother needed some help and it came from you. You exemplify what Brotherhood is all about! Thanks to your friend Charlie for getting Mark up and running.
 
willkat98 said:
How does cat butt, with 300 posts, Get props from Trout, who is hell bent on giving me chit?
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Because I'm nice :wink:

Mark,

No problem with the help, glad to do it. Now I don't care if it is raining put that thing together and light a fire in it. Bill, Phill, Scott and the rest have had too do it. Only two thing will melt when it gets wet salt and $hit and which one are you? (See Bill I can pick one other's)

BTW Charlie will fix just about anything for beer :D
 
Only two thing will melt when it gets wet salt and $hit and which one are you?
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Well, since you've put it that way, looks like Ive got a fire to start this wknd.

BTW Charlie will fix just about anything for beer
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No doubt about that. I was happy to pay Charlie in beer. I may be bringing him some more work in the near future. Beer or cash, Charlie does good work. I was happy to pay him what ever he wanted for resurecting my old 'dera.

BTW, you farkers got me with that dam 480vAC powder that Charlie made. My mouth was on fire. I had to stop at the Parham Rd exit and get a large sweet ice tea from the Exxon station. I'm not much into hot sauces or rubs and that was some grade AA hot chit! whew! And I could see you laughin at me. But that's alright, I have ways of getting even. I can see the beginnings of a great Q & beer friendship here.

Thanks again Trout. For the Bandera help. Not the hot powder!
 
BTW, you farkers got me with that dam 480vAC powder that Charlie made. My mouth was on fire. I had to stop at the Parham Rd exit and get a large sweet ice tea from the Exxon station. I'm not much into hot sauces or rubs and that was some grade AA hot chit! whew! And I could see you laughin at me. But that's alright, I have ways of getting even. I can see the beginnings of a great Q & beer friendship here.
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Charlie makes a hot rub that he call 480Volt he got Mark to try it when it came to pick up his dera and while he had some gum in, I could see Marks eyes start to roll back in his head, but he did not want to pass out at my shop because he knew he would have woke up naked with his picture on the site :)
 
Here are the pics from the rebuild featuring Charlie's work. New metal on the firebox, main chamber and note the metal plate instead of a baffle. I used stainless threaded rod in the upper holes to hold up the heat distributing plate. And I also used an old sheet of Mr Gasket gasket material between the two chambers cut to size.
 
Here are some pics of the seasoning. The newly refurbished 'Dera is slathered down good with crisco and veggie oil.
 
Mark, Looking Good Bro!! Time to put some eats in that Beast!! May Sweet Blue and Tasty Q be in your future!!
 
You're gonna flip out but the first thing I'm going to smoke will be garlic. I raise my own garlic and make my own garlic powder. So this year, with the addition of the Bandera to my line up, I had the idea to smoke some of my cloves before I grind into powder. My garlic is ready to work now so I'll be giving that wild idea a go here soon.

Then I want to do a butt or shoulder for some serious Q sammiches!
 
You're gonna flip out but the first thing I'm going to smoke will be garlic. I raise my own garlic and make my own garlic powder. So this year, with the addition of the Bandera to my line up, I had the idea to smoke some of my cloves before I grind into powder. My garlic is ready to work now so I'll be giving that wild idea a go here soon.
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My Dad was an avid garlic grower. 2 or 3 varieties and elephant garlic (Mrs likes it for the mellow mod). Always planted on the shortest day of the year and harvested on the longest (or very shortly thereafter).
 
I know you have my cell number, Mark. I'll bring the CWB's and optional coleslaw. I'm getting hungry just thinking about that sammich.
 
I need to report that I had no trouble holding the 'dera temp at 220-230 yesterday. Not bad for my first try huh? This makes me nervous. Usually when I do things right on the very first try it takes me another 4 tries to duplicate the effort.

Now, I did not have the water pan in the unit. Would this make a difference? I was just trying to season it yesterday.

I started with a full load of briquettes in my chimney starter. I dumped them into a "bowl" of unlit briquettes on the grate. Once all the briquettes evened out I layed a couple of old small oak splits on them. I made my secondary mission (seasoning being the 1st) to try and maintain 225 degrees. I had no problem doing this for about 5 hours yesterday. Again, this makes me nervous Or maybe I should take away from this experience that I'm a natural Q'r and/or fire tinkerer.

Does this sound like I was doing ok?
 
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