Mini Weber Smokey Mountain
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Mini Weber Smokey Mountain
With the advice of others I chose the Smokey Joe Gold unit and the Vasconia steamer pot. Stainless hardware, thermometer and expanded steel sheet were all bought at the local big box home improvement store. I'll be more specific about the hardware as I go through my build process.
The first thing was to build the charcoal hopper. This is done by using expanded wire and cutting it to the 3" height. Wrap the expanded metal around the charcoal grate supplied with the Smoke Joe. I used rebar twist wire to hold it in place. ….Which would have been fine and held well. But my brother in-law has a welder close by so I asked him to spot weld the wire in place.
Some folks are attaching the lid of the Vasconia pot to the base. It fits perfectly on the lower half of the Smokey Joe. Doing this raises the pot about an inch higher and that will allow 2 things. 1 gives you a bit more room for charcoal in the lower half of Smokey Joe 2 give you more area inside the pot to add another grate level if you would like.
Some folks drill holes in the bottom of the pot and other simply cut the bottom out leaving about a 2" lip all the way around. I'm going to cut mine out. To only cut once I temporally pop riveted the lid to the bottom of the pot and drew my cutting circle.
Turn the 12" terra-cotta saucer upside down and us it as the template for your hole. Draw you cutting line with a pencil or sharpie.
After the bottom and lid are cut out I pop riveted the lid to the pots bottom lip.
I’ve read that sometimes the terra-cotta saucers (used as a heat defuser) might crack if the base is not supported evenly. Because I want more room in my smoker I wanted to lower the terra-cotta defuser as much as I could. I didn't like the idea of bolts holding up the defuser. I wanted something a bit more solid. I bought a charcoal grate for a weber 18" kettle part #7440 (About $8) and cut the ends off so it would pass through the pots steamer plate ridge. You will want to cut the grate at the second cross bar as below. This creates a super strong and sturdy base for the smoker chamber. The grate sits inside on the bottom lip of the pots bottom. It's a lot easier than drilling holes; fast and simple.
Here is the bottom grate installed with terra-cotta defuser in place.
With the grate in place and the terra-cotta defuser in this lower position there is now plenty of clearance in the pot for multiple levels of grates or grate adjustment.
As you can see with the terra-cotta defuser all the way to the base of the pot the steamer plate ridge inside the pot will have good clearance for the lowest level grate. The highest grate is measured 4" from the top lip. The second grate is half way between the top grate position and the steamer plate ridge. I'm installing 3 grate bolts per level. So I'm using a string 14.5 inches long to space the holes.
Drilling 1/4 inch holes for the grate hold bolts. One inch below the top great bolt holes I drill a hole on the side for my dial thermometer. Its probe will be just below the top grate.
One the opposite side I drill a second hole for the electronic thermostat probes. This hole is ABOVE the top grate bolts.
I then install the bushing and nuts for my electronic temperature probes. (You can find these bushings in the lamp repair area of your local home improvement store.)
Back to the other side, I test fit the dial thermometer and then remove it before painting.
Okay, Time to install the grate hold bolts. These are 1/4 by 1/2 inch hex head screws with lock washers and nuts. ALL HARDWARE IS STAINLESS STEEL.
3 at each level for a total of 6 bolts lock washers and nuts. Inside of the pot view.
I tape the handles and rim and paint with Gloss Black high heat barbecue paint by Rustoleum.
I've also put a cutaway decal on the front that I'm using as a stencil. Decal stencil… http://www.ebay.com/sch/rdnzla/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=