Sunday, June 27, 2010

A tour of my pit


By the way, to help put things in perspective I thought it would be good if I let everyone know what I cook on. Here in NJ it's not so common to have a welder in the family, so what I'm inclined to do is pick up something at the store and then do some of my own customizations to it. I have a Char-Griller Super-Pro with a side fire box and several sloppy mods that produce excellent pork. The light color on the SFB is from when I did my mod in there, the raised heat source burned off the paint and it rusted a little. I picked up some spray grill paint, and didn't realize it wasn't black until it was on. I very much like my two-tone smoker.





A pair of spare lawnmower wheel make it easier to get around the yard. I fab'ed the axle from a piece of rod, found some brass flanges to make it roll smoother, all held together with cotter pins.


I have a 3 inch aluminum tube to extend the chimney downward to ensure even smoke-flow throughout the main chamber. This picture is when it was a new mod.


This is a little more recent.


My charcoal tray. Those of you familiar with the Char-Grillers will be familiar with these. I think the heat from some occasional direct grilling is making these bars pull apart. If enough of them go I may order a new one, for now I'm finding creative ways to hold it together. For now when I smoke things this tray holds drip pans and pans full of beer.


At one point my wife noticed she kept getting burned pieces of rib, I concluded that high heat was coming through the SFB, and made this heat shield so it would not blast directly on our food. So far, so good with it.


This is my newest mod. I made my charcoal box (next pics) a while ago, and used them for a long time on top of the SFB grates. I recently pulled those out and bolted in these pieces of plumbers strap to lower the box a couple inches. Now those grates will go camping with me.



This is the charcoal box, made of expanded metal and sheet metal pieces, bolted together. Again if I ever learn to weld I may make something better but this is serving me well for now.


A grate-level thermometer


So that is the grand tour. I think these mods are all pretty standard for the Char-Griller line. If anyone out there has there own method about getting optimal, even heat, please comment as I always like to try new things. More news soon!  Cheers-
-R



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