Mini WSM Questions

Freddy j · Feb 8, 2013

gonna drill the holes in my tamale pot soon.

i think id like to install 2 cooking grates. can my brethren help me out with some ideas on how to mount the grates (as in how deep to mount in the pot)?

thanks y'all in advance!

HankB · Feb 8, 2013

My bottom grate sits on top of the supports for the water bowl. IOW, as low as I can get it and still have room for a bowl or whatever you plan to use between coals and bottom grate. (I have cut the bottom out rather than drill holes.)

My top grate is just below the top edge of the cooker and is too high. I lack clearance under the lid. Some day when I'm a little more energetic I'm going to measure the distance between top grate and lid and between the grates, split the difference and remount the supports for the top grate.

Freddy j · Feb 8, 2013

HankB said:
My bottom grate sits on top of the supports for the water bowl. IOW, as low as I can get it and still have room for a bowl or whatever you plan to use between coals and bottom grate. (I have cut the bottom out rather than drill holes.)

ok, i am also going to cut out the bottom. did you put a grate right on the very bottom of the pan where the cut out is made or up higher where the diffuser would sit in?

HankB said:

My top grate is just below the top edge of the cooker and is too high. I lack clearance under the lid. Some day when I'm a little more energetic I'm going to measure the distance between top grate and lid and between the grates, split the difference and remount the supports for the top grate.

Click to expand...

thats what i was looking for there. id like to have equal cooking height available on both racks.

Bludawg · Feb 8, 2013

I only have 1 grate in mine it is 1" below the bottom of the handle rivets.
The center of the thermo is 1" below the grate

16Adams · Feb 8, 2013

I drilled holes with a step bit. Bunch of them. One grate sits perfectly in the tamale steamer location. I put the top grate five inches down from the lip. Installed a thermometer 6 inches down for ease of grate removal. Make sure to use only three stainless screws for the top grate support about 15" apart. 4 support screws will inevitably be uneven.

Freddy j · Feb 8, 2013

Bludawg said:
I only have 1 grate in mine it is 1" below the bottom of the handle rivets.
The center of the thermo is 1" below the grate

thats a nice machine! I'm thinking 1" below the handles gives you great clearance on the top grate and you could even add a grate with a good bit of clearance on the bottom lip if you wanted to.

16Adams said:
I drilled holes with a step bit. Bunch of them. One grate sits perfectly in the tamale steamer location. I put the top grate five inches down from the lip. Installed a thermometer 6 inches down for ease of grate removal. Make sure to use only three stainless screws for the top grate support about 15" apart. 4 support screws will inevitably be uneven.

great info, thank you Adams. any pics ?

HankB · Feb 8, 2013

Freddy j said:
ok, i am also going to cut out the bottom. did you put a grate right on the very bottom of the pan where the cut out is made or up higher where the diffuser would sit in?

I'll get a picture a little later. I'm smoking in it right now. :mrgreen:

thats what i was looking for there. id like to have equal cooking height available on both racks.

Yeah, don't make the same mistake I did.

Freddy j · Feb 8, 2013

HankB said:
I'll get a picture a little later. I'm smoking in it right now. :mrgreen:

Yeah, don't make the same mistake I did.

Awesome Hank, Thanks! what you cooking?

16Adams · Feb 8, 2013

Freddy J, check your PM

HankB · Feb 8, 2013

Freddy j said:
Awesome Hank, Thanks! what you cooking?

Couple firsts - sausage 'n eggs. (Would be known as fatties 'round here.) Here they are as they went on.

Eggs were off half an hour ago and the fatty is at 153° F now - be done soon.

Carbon · Feb 8, 2013

Sorry to sidetrack a bid but would a 15 or 16 gallon drum fit on the Smokey Joe kettle?
I've been thinking of modding my Smokey Joe also but was wondering if the drum would work as well as the tamale pot. Thanks.

Freddy j · Feb 8, 2013

Carbon said:
Sorry to sidetrack a bid but would a 15 or 16 gallon drum fit on the Smokey Joe kettle?
I've been thinking of modding my Smokey Joe also but was wondering if the drum would work as well as the tamale pot. Thanks.

ive seen it done with a drum (not sure 15 or 16 gallon) one thing to be mindful of is the height vs width (could be top heavy) but id like to see a drum cut down just a bit taller than the tamale pot to make it work. if you do it, id love to see the build!

HankB said:
Couple firsts - sausage 'n eggs. (Would be known as fatties 'round here.) Here they are as they went on.

Eggs were off half an hour ago and the fatty is at 153° F now - be done soon.

that is awesome! thank you for posting. what is that pan under the grate?

Bludawg · Feb 8, 2013

FreddyJ I cut the bottom on mine I left a 1" lip so to keep the structural integrity i used the steamer tray for my diffuser.

Carbon · Feb 8, 2013

Freddy j said:
ive seen it done with a drum (not sure 15 or 16 gallon) one thing to be mindful of is the height vs width (could be top heavy) but id like to see a drum cut down just a bit taller than the tamale pot to make it work. if you do it, id love to see the build!

I'd like to keep it full length so I can hang a couple of slabs of ribs in it.
Stability wise I realize it'll be tall vs the narrow width but I also plan on modifying the legs of the kettle to give it a much wider footprint using larger aluminum bar stock.

HankB · Feb 8, 2013

Freddy j said:
that is awesome! thank you for posting. what is that pan under the grate?

That's a new water pan on it's first smoke. Two previous large SS water bowls I got at a local pet shop developed leaks so I ordered this "heavy duty" one of Amazon. I hope it lasts a little longer.

Here are some more pictures of my build.

While it was still clean and relatively unused. You can see where the screws are that hold the water pan brackets.

Here's an upside down can over the holes in the bottom to keep ash from blocking the holes on long smokes.

Charcoal ring sitting on the charcoal grate.

Crappy picture of the brackets that support the water bowl. They're angle brackets mounted as low in the pot as I could go. The ends that protrude in are bent up - probably about 1/2" to provide the right diameter for the water bowl. The grate sits on the top edge of these brackets since it is a snug fit inside the cooker. Stacking height is pretty tight at the bottom of the cooker. With a full load of charcoal, the bowl actually sits on top of it until it burns down a bit. The bottom grate is less than an inch above the bowl.

Edit: I took them off when the probe read 160° and they were bleeding on the plate. They went back on and came off - done this time - at 169° after 2:10 on the cooker.

One of the things I love about my mini-WSM is that there is no smoke too small to be worth firing it up. :biggrin1:

Cayman1 · Feb 8, 2013

Kind of hard to see, but I pushed the very bottom grate all the way to the bottom, past the ridge in the pot.

Included a picture of my ring.

HankB · Feb 8, 2013

Cayman1 said:
Kind of hard to see, but I pushed the very bottom grate all the way to the bottom, past the ridge in the pot.

Is that three cooking grates? How did you get the bottom one past the ridge in the pot? Did that require some flexing of the pot?

Do you put something between the coals and the bottom grate?

javahog2002 · Feb 9, 2013

There is only 1 cooking grate in my WSM Mini at 4 " down from the top lip. The grill fits so tightly that I can't take it in and out before and after a cook. So the second grill would be useless for me.

benniesdad · Feb 9, 2013

I have two grates in mine. The top grate is 5 inches from the top and the bottom grate rests on the lip where the tamale steamer goes. I drilled holes in the bottom of mine so I place an aluminum pan on a trivet on the bottom that I use as a deflector and/or drip pan. With this set up it gives me 4.5 inches between the grates.

The picture below is with the bottom grate in place. The bolts and nuts you see are mounted from the inside out as I found that the best way to place them to holding the top grate. When I placed the bolt heads on the outside it made it more difficult to emplace and remove the lower grate.

Good luck with your mini WSM project. I love mine. There is a bunch of info posted on these over on the Virtual Bullet site in case you have not already checked it out.

Cayman1 · Feb 9, 2013

HankB said:
Is that three cooking grates? How did you get the bottom one past the ridge in the pot? Did that require some flexing of the pot?

Do you put something between the coals and the bottom grate?

Yes, the grate is past the ridge. It will fit. Turn it a little sideways and push. I have seen others trim off one section of the grate but it will fit as is.

I installed 3 dampers in the bottom and keep the factory damper shut. I have a grate ubder the coals and ring.

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