LSG Fire Management Basket, My Way...

Wanted to try the LSG Fire Management Basket but the small one was too small and the big one was too big. While I didn't check the cost for shipping, I assumed it wouldn't be cheap to get one shipped to the great soon to be white north.
So... I thought I would try to make my own. Here is where I need to insert that I really needed a new auto darkening welding helmet and to finally hook my stick welder up to power in the garage and to spend another $40 on welding rod to replace some of the "vintage" rod that was kicking around.
I measured up the Tejas 2040's firebox and went to work.
Used #10 steel that was given to me by a friend. Cut and bent the sides and cut the back. Caught a bad case of Drillium. Drilled holes and used a zip disk on the grinder to cut the slots.
Then... Needed to get the welder plug mounted and fired up the old Lincoln 250 for the first time in years.
Not going to tell you my welds were beautiful but I think the firebasket will stick together with heat applied.
Still need to flange the sides for the expanded steel to sit on but I am quite pleased with the effort.
Here is what it looks like so far.

Tried it in the firebox. Perfect fit!
Almost like I knew what I was doing....:grin:

My dad was a weldor. It is interesting how the smells of the welds and the grinding take me back to when I was a little guy hanging out in Dad's shop. He passed a just over a year ago and I miss him every day.
When I was cutting, I brought my son out to the garage to let him experience the smell of the metal in the air.
Going to cut some of the scrap and let my son burn a little metal tomorrow.

About to head back to the shop to finish up. May just fire up the smoker for a test run...
Hmm. Wonder if I have anything to throw on the smoker.
Think the grocery store has a ground beef on sale, I could bang out a few meat loaves or something like that.

Finished!


Firebasket right at home.


Happy boy after trying something new!
He did a great job.

After grabbing groceries and getting home I didn't have time to do a cook. I am teaching from home so I may just mix up the ingredients for the meatloaves tonight and let them sit in the fridge overnight and cook a bunch of them tomorrow and vacuum wrap the extras.
I love having ready made meals from the smoker in the freezer! When it is -25 outside it is nice to have a taste of BBQ without freezing your yayas off!

Fired the new basket today.
Put a good load of charcoal in to burn off anything the steel I used had on it before cooking.
What I noticed.
Lower firebox temperatures down low.
Higher firebox temperatures up high and high on the door.
Firebox under the cooking chamber was cooler by at least 100 deg F.
Cooking chamber came up to temperature fast! Had 250 deg F in 10 minutes of dumping the chimney and adding a couple of splits.
Really nice burn and very little smoke very quickly.

Have a couple of meatloaves on right now heading out to check temps.

Almost forgot the photo....


Considering this a huge success! Will look at the basket after cool down and see how it faired...

I had shot the firebox with my infrared thermometer when I re-seasoned the cook chamber and on the two cooks after. This time it went out of range at the tops of the sides, I think at 550 deg F.
Before the radiant heat from the coal bed heated up the bottom more but having the coals contained at the centre, the temps have come down and the heat has gone up where it needs to go.
Edit, the top has a griddle plate under it and never gets too hot but hot enough to cook on....
I think if it stays around 5-600 deg the 1200 deg paint should survive.

Meatloaf!


Crappy photos but great meatloaf!

Had the basket out for a cleanup after yesterdays cook.
No welds failed no metal warpage or damage to the expanded metal.

I think I used less fuel and had more coals concentrated in the centre making for an easier light on new splits.
As the cook was wrapping up I did throw a couple of splits on after too much burn time. Small amount of black smoke but think it was because I let the coal base burn down too much. Caught it quick and opened the door up more and the black was gone quickly.
Before the basket, the smoker wanted to run at 250 deg F pretty consistently but with the basket that seems to have increased to 325 which is a bit high.
Guess I will need to figure out that small hot fire routine to better control temps.
Wasn't a big deal with the meatloaf and didn't use a thermometer on the lower and upper grates this time around.
Happy to see that the basket survived the first round undamaged. It was a lot of work building this the way that I did. In comparison, the LSG fire management basket is a tremendous value. If it fits your firebox, I think it would be worth purchasing and trying.
Maybe if you are as stubborn or stupid as I am you will want to build your own...:-D