I am always on the road and i miss Q'ing. I bought this little Smokey Joe for $8 well $10 actually because he delivered it. I now can grill high heat or cook some Q low and slow.Total costs as follows.
$10 - Smokey Joe
$18 - Tamale Pot (32 quart from Target, made in china)
$5 - deep fryer thermometer(walmart)
$1 - painters tape
$3 - terracota plate(10")
$8 - replacement grill for smokey joe
$6 - high heat engine enamel
$2 - misc nuts & bolts------------
$53 total i went over my budget of $50 by $3..not bad at all...
Instructions:
Smokey Joe
The Pot
cut hole in bottom of tamale pot with a jig saw, snips or what you have on hand. Cut it about 1 1/2 - 2 inches from the bottom edge of the pot
i used these to do the job.
Rough cut but you can file the edges to clean it up
Next drill some holes in the side of the pot for grill supports.. i measured 2 inches down and 3 inches across from the handles. A total of 4 holes.
If you desire another rack you can eyeball where to drill the next set of holes. For me, i do not need another set as of yet, i am using the natural lip in the bottom of the pan as a second rack.
If you want to paint the outside, you can tape the handles if you wish.
Terracotta Dish and Turkey Deep Fryer
Wrap the plate with heavy duty aluminum foil for easy clean up and place as shown.
The plate is used as a heat sync & smoke diffuser.
Place it directly on the original grill if you do not wish to make a support of sorts.
I will be using the original steamer plate from the tamale pot. i think it will make a good ABT rack, if it doesnt work out i will move things around until it works.
install thermometer
You can make a charcoal ring for longer cooks out of expanded steel, i havent made one yet.Not my picture but you get the idea.You could probably use a piece of 10" black stove pipe cut down to approx 3-4 inches in height. Drill some holes in the side of it for air ciruculation. If you want to eliminate the bottom grill and save yourself some money, you can run a couple of pieces of steel rod or angle iron across the bottom to put the tarracotta on directly.
To keep ash from choking out your airflow, a can 2" tall and about 4" wide. course one end is cut off. i then cut a bunch of holes near the uncut end which now becomes the top. place this over the vent and it works great. the coal grate will actually hold the can in place. Like this:
Cheap charcoal holder made out of flashing with holes cut into it.
The whole project took less than an hour to make. I will finish this when it stop raining here. Final pics and first cook on it will follow ASAP.
some different stuff i did to mine.
the round that was leftover from cutting the bottom out, i wrapped it up and place my tarracotta plate on top of that for the heat defusers
i also cut out the bottom as shown so that i could permanently put in place a cooking grate for the tarracotta to sit on.
some different stuff i did to mine.
the round that was leftover from cutting the bottom out, i wrapped it up and place my tarracotta plate on top of that for the heat defusers
i also cut out the bottom as shown so that i could permanently put in place a cooking grate for the tarracotta to sit on.
