SAFETY NOTE & First Smoke on Silver Smoker w/pics

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smokemaster

Senior Cook
Joined
Feb 8, 2007
Messages
152
Location
Germany
Here are some pics from my first smoke.
I bought a Silver Smoker 6 months ago and started gathering the materials to make the mods.

I bought and got all my metal cut from a local metal shop. When the guy was bending aluminum (to line the fire box), his gloves got caught in the machine. Luckily I was there and stopped the machine and placed it in reverse so he could get his hand out. That machine would have taken his whole arm. He's going to lose the first joints of his middle and ring fingers. He shouldn't have been wearing gloves while operating the press/roller. SAFETY FIRST!

The machine looked like this but had no emergency stop or safety shield.


Here is the imprint of his hand




I made most of the mods to the SS. I addded a baffle, steel tuning plates, extended the stack, put a gasket between the firebox and the chamber and made a charcoal box. When I seasoned the smoker I used too much charcoal (20lbs) and burned alot of the paint off the fire box :( . Oh well it looks aged now.



The baffle needs reshaping and might need widening


Soup can for the stack extension and cork to hold the temp probe


No weld charcoal basket


Need to put an ash tray or raise the charcoal basket



The temp difference is about 50F between the left and right side


Definitely need to reshape the baffle to direct the heat better. I'll also make the tuning plates narrower to allow more heat radiate upward. I used 5lbs of unlit charcoal and added a full chimney of lit charcoal. I'll use less lit charcoal the next time


The ribs came out great.


A little charred. These were closest to the firebox at the beginning
 
The baking sheet idea is a really good one!

I use a water pan above the baffle on the top rack, and a hotel pan as a drip pan on the bottom rack (of my Bar B Chef Offset). The baffle and the drip pan make the topology of my heat and smoke path very similar to the two sheet pans.

My actual temp differential < 5 deg from end to end. So, the performance difference between the two methods isn't significant. I'd still go with the baffle + water pan + sheet or drip pan over two drip pans because I'm a big believer in the benefits of humid air for a lot of reasons.

Rich
 
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