While I haven't gotten the monster blasted or painted yet, there were a few things to take care of. On Saturday I built a platform even with the trailer height for me to stand on while tending the pit.
It's big enough that I thought about mounting a pole in the middle, but nobody wants to see my moves.
I then cleaned the pit out burned everything good with the weed burner, hit it with simple green and pressure washed. I then got after the inside of the cook chamber with a putty knife and scraped away the very thick layer of dried drippings coating everything.
I built a fire to dry it out, and once it was dry sprayed the inside with pam and cranked the heat a bit. Between the 6" diameter stack and the "collector" that covers pretty much the entire width of the pit, this thing draws really well. It also holds temp a whole lot better than I am used to. Early on the stack end runs about 25 degrees hotter than the firebox end, but once it gets really warmed up temps are with 10 - 15 degrees across the grate, the hot spot being right over the end of the baffle.
This morning I got up at 5 and built a fire,
got a butt in the pit at 6:30. It's coming along well.
About a hour ago a good little shower came but the pit didn't lose a whole lot of heat.
I like having this much metal. More to come.
EDIT....Not sure why pictures aren't showing up.....Edited again - figured it out...old man on the internet syndrome
