Lone Star Grillz Smoker on Order

[oldbill]

Originally Posted by MilitantSquatter

Maybe I'm holding up progress on your orders !!!

my 24" Vertical w/ Insulated Firebox on 4 weeks ago.. Not exactly sure when it will be ready (Chris initially told me 6-8 weeks) but I plan to follow up again next week. I ended up adding a charcoal basket to the order just to experiment...I also ordered a custom cover from GrillWrapz .com

My build ended up about being 9 or 10 weeks. I called Chris at one point to make a thermometer placement change thinking that I was probably too late but when I got him on the phone he told me that he hadn't even been able to start on it yet. He actually builds the pits in a shop in his back yard. He has a good crew working for him but they have a pretty small facility to work in. When I went to pick my pit up, there were two or three others that were ready for pick-up and they were working on one more in the shop. They must put in pretty long days to meet the demand that they have but the good thing about it is that they aren't rushing anything and they're building them right! Also in a small shop like that you are likely getting more personal attention than you would from the larger builders. They're taking it one pit at a time and they keep in contact with you with questions about your preference on your special requests, such as tapping a hole for probe wires or Guru fan adapters. By the way, I also ordered the charcoal basket. I generally don't use charcoal in a stick burner other than to start a fire with but my thinking is that it will work well for using the warmer/oven that I have as a vertical smoker. I'm planning on trying it out for the first time tomorrow to cook some beef ribs, I'll just close off the stacks on the main chamber and use the pinwheel dampers on the oven for the exhaust. I'll let ya'll know how it performs with some pics., I just wish I had something better to take a picture with than a cell phone. ...At any rate I'll get something posted if not tomorrow on this thread then definitely on Friday on a new one.

[BMCSRET]

Sounds great oldbill, looking forward to seeing the pics.

[oldbill]

Originally Posted by oldbill

My build ended up about being 9 or 10 weeks. I called Chris at one point to make a thermometer placement change thinking that I was probably too late but when I got him on the phone he told me that he hadn't even been able to start on it yet. He actually builds the pits in a shop in his back yard. He has a good crew working for him but they have a pretty small facility to work in. When I went to pick my pit up, there were two or three others that were ready for pick-up and they were working on one more in the shop. They must put in pretty long days to meet the demand that they have but the good thing about it is that they aren't rushing anything and they're building them right! Also in a small shop like that you are likely getting more personal attention than you would from the larger builders. They're taking it one pit at a time and they keep in contact with you with questions about your preference on your special requests, such as tapping a hole for probe wires or Guru fan adapters. By the way, I also ordered the charcoal basket. I generally don't use charcoal in a stick burner other than to start a fire with but my thinking is that it will work well for using the warmer/oven that I have as a vertical smoker. I'm planning on trying it out for the first time tomorrow to cook some beef ribs, I'll just close off the stacks on the main chamber and use the pinwheel dampers on the oven for the exhaust. I'll let ya'll know how it performs with some pics., I just wish I had something better to take a picture with than a cell phone. ...At any rate I'll get something posted if not tomorrow on this thread then definitely on Friday on a new one.

Well I didn't get a chance to cook yesterday on account of a freak rain that blew in from Caldwell County which contains Lockhart of all places! I guess that God decided that he didn't want too much Q being cooked yesterday and decided to put a damper in my plans, LOL!!! The rain didn't last very long and wouldn't have been a big deal but my RO lump got wet, so I'll have to let it dry out a little before trying to fire it up. So the ribs have gone into the freezer to be exhumed, cooked and consumed at a later date,... "OH THE HUMANITY"!!! On the positive side of things though, there was an amazing rainbow right over my house which is God's promise of more Q days to come and to never dampen my charcoal again.

[peeps]

Originally Posted by oldbill

Well I didn't get a chance to cook yesterday on account of a freak rain that blew in from Caldwell County which contains Lockhart of all places! I guess that God decided that he didn't want too much Q being cooked yesterday and decided to put a damper in my plans, LOL!!! The rain didn't last very long and wouldn't have been a big deal but my RO lump got wet, so I'll have to let it dry out a little before trying to fire it up. So the ribs have gone into the freezer to be exhumed, cooked and consumed at a later date,... "OH THE HUMANITY"!!!

Damn the luck!

I'm sure it will have plenty of opportunity to dry before the next rain storm to hit central Texas

I keep my charcoal in a rubbermaid trash can with a lid.

[Deep South]

I happen to have a 24" Lone Star vertical on loan from a friend.
This thing is well built and I will be ordering one when funds allow.

[oldbill]

Originally Posted by peeps

Damn the luck!

I'm sure it will have plenty of opportunity to dry before the next rain storm to hit central Texas

I keep my charcoal in a rubbermaid trash can with a lid.

Yeah I usually keep my charcoal in the garage but I had gotten it out in anticipation of cooking the ribs. Before the rain hit it was a typical sunny central Texas day, maybe a little muggier than usual but definitely no real sign of rain! Well as they say... "If'n ya' don't like the weather in Texas,... JUST WAIT A MINUTE"!!!

[peeps]

Originally Posted by oldbill

Yeah I usually keep my charcoal in the garage but I had gotten it out in anticipation of cooking the ribs. Before the rain hit it was a typical sunny central Texas day, maybe a little muggier than usual but definitely no real sign of rain! Well as they say... "If'n ya' don't like the weather in Texas,... JUST WAIT A MINUTE"!!!

Ahhh...one of them boogers!

Put a blow dryer on it...I want to see how that thing cooks! ;)

[BMCSRET]

Oh well, it will make the next burn even more special from all the anticipation...

[BMCSRET]

Originally Posted by Deep South

I happen to have a 24" Lone Star vertical on loan from a friend.
This thing is well built and I will be ordering one when funds allow.

I'm loving all the good feedback.

[oldbill]

Originally Posted by Deep South

I happen to have a 24" Lone Star vertical on loan from a friend.
This thing is well built and I will be ordering one when funds allow.

Good choice, it's a very efficient design. Are you going with an insulated firebox or anything? I would recommend the 1/2' box at least for more thermal mass and heat retention. I upgraded mine to 1/2", had my cabinet widened from 24 to 30 inches and I also added the warmer/oven which I highly recommend. The oven was $550 extra but the things that you can do with it are limited only by your own imagination. I can smoke at 250 in the main chamber and bake cornbread or simmer beans in the oven at 350 to 400 at the same time! Heck, I cooked a pizza in it a couple of weeks ago! LOL! In the future I'll probably have Chris build me a trailer pit for comps and I'll definitely have him put the oven on there as well! If you haven't seen the video on the LSG site for the warmer/oven here it is.

lone star grillz warmer box 2 - YouTube

[peeps]

Originally Posted by oldbill

Good choice, it's a very efficient design. Are you going with an insulated firebox or anything? I would recommend the 1/2' box at least for more thermal mass and heat retention. I upgraded mine to 1/2", had my cabinet widened from 24 to 30 inches and I also added the warmer/oven which I highly recommend. The oven was $550 extra but the things that you can do with it are limited only by your own imagination. I can smoke at 250 in the main chamber and bake cornbread or simmer beans in the oven at 350 to 400 at the same time! Heck, I cooked a pizza in it a couple of weeks ago! LOL! In the future I'll probably have Chris build me a trailer pit for comps and I'll definitely have him put the oven on there as well! If you haven't seen the video on the LSG site for the warmer/oven here it is. lone star grillz warmer box 2 - YouTube

I thought of a perfect use for that warming oven!

Dry lump storage when anticipating a smoke ;)

[BMCSRET]

ZING....padumpum

[oldbill]

Originally Posted by peeps

I thought of a perfect use for that warming oven!

Dry lump storage when anticipating a smoke ;)

Very good!... A little messed up, but good!

[peeps]

Originally Posted by oldbill

Very good!... A little messed up, but good!

Giving and taking a little ribbing here and there keeps the world a tolerable place ;)

Now back to these LSG's...

The grate space for smoking with that divider plate removed on top of the firebox is HUGE for such a small footprint!!!

I would consider that on mine for the future but I am looking to get a griddle top made (like in this thread but removable)that I can put on top of the firebox when I want to use it and a whole removable oven box would be just too damn heavy to have both options ;)

The $200-250 for the SS griddle top just wasn't in the budget.

[STCL01]

Originally Posted by peeps

I would consider that on mine for the future but I am looking to get a griddle top made (like in this thread but removable)that I can put on top of the firebox when I want to use it and a whole removable oven box would be just too damn heavy to have both options ;)

Not to hijack this thread, but I've been looking to build a vertical smoker along these lines, but haven't seen the oven, removable or otherwise, can someone throw me some pics of that along with how it is set up?