a little hand holding stick burning advice please

[ButtBurner]

well I did have it running last night at about 230 to 250f for about 3 hours without too much trouble.

Im sure as I throw some meat on it on Saturday and use it for real all will go to hell

LOL

[biggq]

Glad to see a little positive resonse to cheap offset smokers. I have a Char-griller Outlaw. Not fancy, but that is what I learned to BBQ on. They suck for temp control but after a few smokes you can get the learning curve down. Cant wait to upgrade to a heavy duty big boys smoker!

[Mattmo]

Hey ButtBurner. I bought the same pit in December. I haven't really done a whole lot to it. All I have done is tried to seal up some of the massive leaks around the doors and put and lowered the exhause to grate level. I burned 1 round of charcoal in it and then per other bretheren, decided to switch to wood. I haven't been able to cook on a decent day, it has either been windy as can be and a decent temp, or colder than snot and calm. That being said, I have been adding 3 small splits every hour. The splits are around wrist size and 15" long. I have been just keeping an eye on it instead of putting X amount of wood on in X amount of time. When they start to burn down pretty good (ready to be considered charcoal, they fall apart when touched or moved), I'll add the preheated splits. I scored a truck load of cherry and hickory for $25 so that's what I have been burning, mostly cherry. I start my chimeny full and poor it in then add the wood on top and let it get going before closing the door. I've noticed that it takes me at least 45 minutes to get the temp steady. Once it is there, it is really easy to keep it there. After about 3 hours or so, I have realized that I need to add a half chimney of charcoal as most of the coals are gone. I'm going to try to add a hand full of coals each time I add wood next time. That is my experience with the OK Joe's longhorn. Post some pics of the tuning plates if you don't mind, heck post pics of everything! Lol congrats on the purchase!

[QDoc]

Ok you have what you have. The major problem with those type of cookie stamp cookers is a fire box that is too small for the cooking chamber.
fire management for Stick burners. 1. Start your fire with all doors open and get agood fire going. 2. Close the cooking chamber door and bring the pit up to 100-150* above your cooking temp at the hottest point in the cooking chamber. 3. Put some foil over the grate and let the grate burn off. 4. reload your fire box. Never add wood on top of burning wood when your're cooking . Place as much wood as you can between the fire and the intake-- think minion. Keep your fire on the cooking chamber side of the fire box so it will back burn against the draft. In spite of your best efforts you may have to add a chimney of white hot charcoal to your burning embers from time to time. As you wood burns push it to the chamber side. One final note. You must accept the fact that your cooking chamber has different temp zone. You will have to rotate the meat.

[ButtBurner]

Originally Posted by QDoc

Ok you have what you have. The major problem with those type of cookie stamp cookers is a fire box that is too small for the cooking chamber.
fire management for Stick burners. 1. Start your fire with all doors open and get agood fire going. 2. Close the cooking chamber door and bring the pit up to 100-150* above your cooking temp at the hottest point in the cooking chamber. 3. Put some foil over the grate and let the grate burn off. 4. reload your fire box. Never add wood on top of burning wood when your're cooking . Place as much wood as you can between the fire and the intake-- think minion. Keep your fire on the cooking chamber side of the fire box so it will back burn against the draft. In spite of your best efforts you may have to add a chimney of white hot charcoal to your burning embers from time to time. As you wood burns push it to the chamber side. One final note. You must accept the fact that your cooking chamber has different temp zone. You will have to rotate the meat.

the firebox is plenty big. I could put 30 lbs of charcoal in it if I wanted to.

with the heat deflector in place I have a variation of about 20 degrees from the firebox end to the other end of the chamber, that I can live with

like I said I ran it just fine for a few hours at about 230f then I ran out of time and shut it down

[QDoc]

I know you can put that much in it but then you don't have much air space around your fire . Take a look at a Jambo pit and a commercial pizza oven. Old time BBQ pits made out of brick were sometimes 12 ft long with a lot of space for the fire on one end.

[BayoustateBBQ]

I'm not sure if it has been mentioned but for heat and mild smoke flavor use Oak. many stores sell small bundles of fireplace splits. Just make sure you know your wood and make sure it's not mixed wood. I just picked up a bundle of about 10 good size splits of oak for $3.00 at super one foods. I'll have to cut the length of them in half to fit my fire box.

[Terry The Toad]

You won't find many folks here judging you by your pit. Not everyone starts off on a $500 (or $5000) smoker. I cut my teeth on a Char-Griller with SFB. I enjoyed smoking so much I upgraded. But, I turned out some good BBQ with that CG. If it had been a failure - I would not have continued.

And, if I could not afford to upgrade, I'd still be using my CG. I probably would have kept it longer if I had found this forum first. I've seen there are lots of ways to make it perform better.

[ButtBurner]

Originally Posted by QDoc

I know you can put that much in it but then you don't have much air space around your fire . Take a look at a Jambo pit and a commercial pizza oven. Old time BBQ pits made out of brick were sometimes 12 ft long with a lot of space for the fire on one end.

I am not saying I would put that much in

I dont have any problem at all with the fire breathing. Works fine. I did elevate the fire grate and it really helped even out the temps in the chamber

[ButtBurner]

Originally Posted by Mattmo

Hey ButtBurner. I bought the same pit in December. I haven't really done a whole lot to it. All I have done is tried to seal up some of the massive leaks around the doors and put and lowered the exhause to grate level. I burned 1 round of charcoal in it and then per other bretheren, decided to switch to wood. I haven't been able to cook on a decent day, it has either been windy as can be and a decent temp, or colder than snot and calm. That being said, I have been adding 3 small splits every hour. The splits are around wrist size and 15" long. I have been just keeping an eye on it instead of putting X amount of wood on in X amount of time. When they start to burn down pretty good (ready to be considered charcoal, they fall apart when touched or moved), I'll add the preheated splits. I scored a truck load of cherry and hickory for $25 so that's what I have been burning, mostly cherry. I start my chimeny full and poor it in then add the wood on top and let it get going before closing the door. I've noticed that it takes me at least 45 minutes to get the temp steady. Once it is there, it is really easy to keep it there. After about 3 hours or so, I have realized that I need to add a half chimney of charcoal as most of the coals are gone. I'm going to try to add a hand full of coals each time I add wood next time. That is my experience with the OK Joe's longhorn. Post some pics of the tuning plates if you don't mind, heck post pics of everything! Lol congrats on the purchase!

I took this pic of the plates just after I tacked the 3 shorter plates together, I had not cleaned off the slag yet

thanks for your thoughts, its real helpful and pretty much the same experience I have been having during my burn ins.

[ButtBurner]

Originally Posted by BayoustateBBQ

I'm not sure if it has been mentioned but for heat and mild smoke flavor use Oak. many stores sell small bundles of fireplace splits. Just make sure you know your wood and make sure it's not mixed wood. I just picked up a bundle of about 10 good size splits of oak for $3.00 at super one foods. I'll have to cut the length of them in half to fit my fire box.

there is a well known in my area BBQ store right down the street from me that sells bundles of real nice splits. Cherry, maple, hickory, pecan, apple and oak.

Now if they would only carry some other lump than Cowboy. I would think a place like that would have at least 2 brands to choose from