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a trash find, a stupid idea, & a question

M

mrcranky

Knows what a fatty is.
Joined
Jun 2, 2011
Location
Boston, MA
When I left my apartment on Monday to go to work, there was a 18.5” Weber One Touch grill in the trash right across the street.



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[FONT=&quot]I’m planning to make a smoker out of this. I checked all my homebrewing gear, but didn’t have a pot that was wide enough , and then it hit me... I have a Brinkmann Electric Gourmet. The diameter is just about an inch smaller than the Weber.
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[FONT=&quot]I’m wondering if there is something that I can put in the small open space to make a nice connection to the bottom & top of the Weber grill so that this can be a usable smoker? A friend told me that distillers use a homemade dough paste to keep their stills airtight. However, I don’t want to clean up that much mess after every smoke. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Anyone have any other ideas (or should I try this http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?p=755811#post755811)?[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Thanks![/FONT]
 
I know people have used 30 gallon drums as mini UDS's and the 18.5" lid fits. I think Phubar has one. Are you trying to keep the grill usable as a grill as well or are you dedicating it to be a smoker only?
 
I'm hoping to keep the grill usable as a grill, but if that doesn't work out, I'll probably go the mini-UDS way. Thanks for the tip about the 30 gallon drum!

Foil is worth a shot. I'll fire it up this weekend and see how hard it is to regulate the temp. I was thinking of stuffing some hot water heater insulation in the gap, but I'm worried that the inner insulation might burn, contaminating the food.
 
If it were me, I would clean it up, replace any grates, and use it as it was intended....a grill. Then pick up a SJS and make a mini-WSM out of that.

Nice find...:clap2::thumb:
 
I was thinking about the Smokey Joe smoker instead of using this grill as a smoker, but I'm trying to go the cheap route so my mini-WSM will be built as soon as I find one in the trash or on craigslist (so far, all of them have not been worth the drive to save a few dollars).
 
You can use a 1/2" rope gasket, connect the ends together like a giant rubber band around the smoker body.

Of course a better mod is to turn your electric EBC into a charcoal unit by turning the electric element base pan into a charcoal pan and add a draft door. That's exactly what I did with my electric ECB.
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mrcranky said:
I was thinking about the Smokey Joe smoker instead of using this grill as a smoker, but I'm trying to go the cheap route so my mini-WSM will be built as soon as I find one in the trash or on craigslist (so far, all of them have not been worth the drive to save a few dollars).
Click to expand...

The thing with the SJS's, brand new, they're $30 all day long at Walmart, Target, HD, Lowes, etc. Then pick up the IMUSA from Walmart (made in China) and build your mini-WSM.
 
Carbon - Never thought about using a rope gasket. That's a great idea! It's safe & simple to wedge in there. I'm definitely going to pick some up today!

I thought about converting the Brinkmann into charcoal, but I don't want to lose the ability to regulate the temperatures with the Ranco Temperature Controller. With the Ranco, I can cold smoke cheese at 80 degrees during Winter, smoke bacon, etc., with ease.


Smoked - Yeah, I know that the build can be done for less than $60, but I'm trying to keep costs down right now since most of my extra cash is being stocked away so that I can make as many gallons of wine as I can during next month's California grape harvest. I'll probably build one in a few months though.

Thanks to everyone for the ideas & tips.
 
mrcranky said:
Carbon - Never thought about using a rope gasket. That's a great idea! It's safe & simple to wedge in there. I'm definitely going to pick some up today!

I thought about converting the Brinkmann into charcoal, but I don't want to lose the ability to regulate the temperatures with the Ranco Temperature Controller. With the Ranco, I can cold smoke cheese at 80 degrees during Winter, smoke bacon, etc., with ease.


Smoked - Yeah, I know that the build can be done for less than $60, but I'm trying to keep costs down right now since most of my extra cash is being stocked away so that I can make as many gallons of wine as I can during next month's California grape harvest. I'll probably build one in a few months though.

Thanks to everyone for the ideas & tips.
Click to expand...

I just picked up some 5/16" Wood Stove Rope Door Gasket material from Menard's for $6 and used it to seal between the Rotisserie ring and the base on my 22.5" redhead. Stuffed it in there and it worked like a charm to seal up the air leaks. It comes in all sizes, and if I were you that's what I would use!
 
I went to Home Depot over the weekend to look for the rope gasket, but they claimed that it is a "seasonal item." Seems odd since people need to fix ovens during all seasons. After looking in the obvious aisles, I gave up.

On Sunday, I was going to go with the foiling between the brinkmann body and the weber lid & bottom, but since I was only doing one spatchcocked chicken, I decided to follow the advice of a few people in this thread by leaving it un-modified. I just put two piles of coal (with a bunch of wood chips mixed in) on each side, got the temp to about 240, and pretty much just let it go. Only had to do two small airflow adjustments to keep the temp up.

It came out great. I'm definitely going to be using this weber unmodified for small cooks, but I think that I'm going to be making a charcoal smoker out of a smokey joe, beer can, or drum in the fall.

Thanks again for all the ideas!

Here's the chicken...I like them skinless with a plowboys rub & then a little more plowboys sprinkled on after cooking.

chicken.jpg
 
Last edited:
Looks good! I plan on doing this with a cheapo small kettle and a Brinkman Smoke N Grill.
 
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