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Zbay

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So I decided to pick up a Binkmen Smoke n Pit, I knew they had some issues which I'm currently working on the modifications to correct. I ordered a BGE Gasket kit that I'm hoping will seal up the air leaks around the barrel and burner. I am also going to lower the chimney to the grill level to help with the smoke control.

I am currently planing on building a baffle system that will hopefully help distribute heat evenly over the entire cooking surface. I was thinking about doing the the first 12 inches in a sheet metal then the rest in a cedar planking in hopes that it will offer some additional flavors. Do you think this would be a feasible system? Do you think the wood would be far enough away from the coals to not burn up?
 
So I decided to pick up a Binkmen Smoke n Pit, I knew they had some issues which I'm currently working on the modifications to correct. I ordered a BGE Gasket kit that I'm hoping will seal up the air leaks around the barrel and burner. I am also going to lower the chimney to the grill level to help with the smoke control.

I am currently planing on building a baffle system that will hopefully help distribute heat evenly over the entire cooking surface. I was thinking about doing the the first 12 inches in a sheet metal then the rest in a cedar planking in hopes that it will offer some additional flavors. Do you think this would be a feasible system? Do you think the wood would be far enough away from the coals to not burn up?

I have this smoker, and it's been pretty workable since a few mods, but mostly from just learning how to stroke her.

Probably the best mod so far was unhinging the top and using a 36" piano hinge across the back side where the top an bottom meet. I used some #whatever nuts and bolts that were around 3/16" in diameter. This removed the gap along the back side and created an overbite, where the top now overlaps the bottom by a couple inches along the front where the handle is, and down along the sides too. Way less suseptible to wind and thus more heat retention. It's also no maintainence.

The second 'mod' was to make an 8"x8"x2" expanded metal basket for the firebox. This was easy to make with a metal cutting blade and some right angle forming with a hammer and a cinder block.

This smoker benefits most from a small really hot fire or coals. It doesn't do so well with coals just tossed in haphazzardly and assuming they make a work together for a good long burn. The BEST thing about this smoker is its size, which is a little too big for efficiency and easy weekend warrior stuff. The workaround here is a good one.. hold your hat.. It likes a small wood fire. Yes, wood just like the big boys. The tradeoff is that you'll need to split your own. I use orange tree (because I can) and oak. Make the splits about 6" long and a couple inches wide, nice and snug for the 8"x8" fire basket. Downside: it's higher maintainance, but you can offset that with a mixture of royal oak lump charcoal, which is how I get it started anyway. Use lump in this smoker too, the brickets just don't make enough heat. You can toss in enough brickets in to make a workable 250-275 heat, but then ash becomes a prob mid smoke. If you can handle the wood, the upshot is that you'll be BBQing like a real pro with all the control to ramp up and down. The best part with burning wood instead of "chunks" or other nonsense is that you'll get good smoke. Thin blue smoke. Hot smoke, not the billowy gray/white stuff. That smoke sucks.

You can do the baffle, but there is also something good about the fact that it is NOT even across the chamber. Middle for the long run, further back for the delicates (like when mixing pork and chicken)... and close to the box for a final hour or two next to the box. The "bark" gods will come calling. Don't worry too much about "even heat"... just know what temp the meat IS getting. A lot of those bbq people could use a RDWHAHB.

Last but not least, and this says you are truly invested in making smack yo mama BBQ, images be damned.... drape the cook chamber with a couple old bath towels that you can dedicate for smoke duty. Temps will rise up and stay constant, mark my words. They won't be a fire hazzard.

Terms and conditions may apply, offers for well qualified lessees only, your mileage may vary.

Happy Smoking. :)

one more edit: There's a lot of shlong comparing in bbq circles about "how long the meat went". 12 hour butt, 16 hour butt, yadda yadda. The smokeNpit is not set up for this sort of tomfoolery. Just cook the damn thing already. I have not seen any difference between a 6-8 butt and a 12 hour butt, accept for tending the stupid thing for 6 more hours. Just give it good heat to bring the meat up to pulling temps, and don't get hung up on doing 225. I do pork at 275+ and chicken over 300, with my own temp probe of course. The one installed is junk, accept when when its calibrated with a good probe. Now I don't even bother probing, because I know that when it says 200, it's actually getting close to 300. On mine at least. Alright, soapbox over.. saisons are kicking in.
 
Thanks for the reply, I have been looking at the expanded metal basket. I think that would help with some heat control also. The piano hinge seems like a good fix also. I've only had one run with it but I noticed a distinct temperature difference whenever the wind picked up. I added some nomax gasket around the charcoal box hoping to shore up the air leaks there. I'm still rolling around the idea of making a baffle system to try and even out the temp but before I go and do anything crazy I'm going to wait for my new thermometers to get here. Thanks again for the insight
 
The basket is a must really. It provides a way to keep all of the hot bits tight together so they can act as a single heat source and light off on each other as time goes by. If you make it wide enough (ie, so it sits slightly higher than the stock grate) airflow is improved and thus a better burn. Ash will have more space to fall out without messing up airflow too. AND.. you can remove it mid-smoke to clean out the box if need be.

This smoker is actually kind of fun. Because it's a "cheapie" it has some inherent efficiency issues, but they aren't anything that cant be overcome. The trade of is possibly being a "fuel hog", because it really does need a bigger fire than one would first assume. That's sorta why I started tranistioning to a pure wood burn after getting it started with a chimney of lump. Needed more heat. The store wants $$ for lump, I can get wood for free.

There's a fine line with the wood fire regarding airflow/temp/burnrate/feeding. That's the fun part. You'll feel absolutely empowered after you've figured out how to 'dial it in'. And what's more satisfyingly primal than a man cooking food by flame? I usually start with charcoal and progress to tossing flavor wood on it. After a while it's just a pure wood burn, and it makes the most beautiful smoke. If I foil up I'll start throwing oak in there because its expendable, and I may not want oak flavor. I assume you'll cut your teeth on the charcoal, but I was finding that I'd burn through an $8 bag for a $12 pork butt.
 
I would whole heartedly disagree here. That baffle is a must between the cook and the smoke chambers. I owned this smoker (and it served me well) for over 15 yrs. But I didn't make GOOD, REPEATABLE bbq until doing that baffle mod and putting tuning plates on the bottom. The temp still wasn't 100% even from end to end, but it only differed by 10*. Before that, it was a 75-100* difference. That is huge, especially when doing something like a brisket or rack of ribs. One end was getting grilled, one end was being smoked. As mentioned, you need a hot fire because the metal was a thinner gauge that didn't hold the heat as well.

While I didn't have a basket, I also kept a stainless steel bowl in the firebox that was nestled right in the fire. Kept that filled with water to provide a nice moist heat.
 
eh, horses for courses. Anything sitting at the middle or further is getting similar heat from end to end, and I'd never had a piece of meat that wasn't turned or flipped a couple times during a smoke anyways, or even too big a make a difference. We can agree to disagree here, but its just meat. I suppose it might make a difference if I was filling all three grates, but if I was doing that I have something better than a SmokeNpit! Removing the gaps between top and bottom and throwing a couple beach towels over the cook side did it for me. That's pretty ghetto but I don't care. I think you underestimate what insulating the cook side does for regulating the temps, because the sheet metal has no thermal qualities. During the summer, like now, I could actually get away with just lump for low maintainence.

btw, there are two different SmokeNpits. I have the 'clam shell' one they make nowadays.
 
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