Building a "Caddy" for the WSM

[1buckie]

That's grate!!!

Some room to pull it apart when needed & nice work areas too.....good job !!!!

 

[wire-it-up]

I put the finishing touches on it after dinner this evening. I even got the garage cleaned up, so I won't have to worry about that Saturday. I did get more photos with my phone. But since it's a basic phone, I have to go through hoops to get the pictures from the phone to the computer. Still planning to use a digital camera to get more photos on Saturday.

 

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Here's a side photo. 3 butts on. Hoping they turn out well. Still feeling like a rookie.

 

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Front shot. Got my favorite coffee cup. My daughter made it for me years ago. Not sure she feels the same way all the time now, being a teenager and all.

 

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Closeup shot of the coffee cup...

 

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When she's chowing on some hot Q, she'd probably say "I still love you, Dad", but it's hard to speak with a mouthful of meat, LOL.

That's okay, to see the looks on their faces, and hear the "Mmm's, that's good" is thanks enough for me.

 

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I'll get some pics of the butts posted later today.

 

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Pulled the lid after 2 hours to spritz. By the way, do you veterans of the flame ever add wood chunks during the cook? I used all of the pecan I had for this cook, which wasn't a lot. But I added a little apple and a little cherry. I need to get more pecan, as I really like the flavor it gives.

One of these photos shows the lower rack, with the bigger of the 3 butts. It's a bone in. The top two are smaller and boneless. I may stop buying those, depending on how the bigger one turns out.

 

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When the top two are done and pulled off the Weber, I'll leave the upper grate out and move the probe to the larger cut. The meat temp is already at 140, and they have only been on for a little over 2 hours. Each of the smaller butts are close to 4 pounds. The larger one is about 8 pounds. Company is coming around 5. I guess I started a little early, but I'll keep it in foil, in a cooler with towels.

 

[Happy Hapgood]

Looks real good and you have a built in wind break with that design.

 

[wire-it-up]

I just rolled the whole shebang up into the garage, just to make it closer to the kitchen. It's not putting out much smoke now, so the garage won't get all smoked up. I had it in the garage when I started, but it was filling the garage with smoke, even though the overhead door was open, and the cabinet was barely inside the garage. It was raining a little when I first got started this morning. When it stopped, I rolled the cabinet onto the driveway. Unfortunately, there's about a 1" drop from the garage floor to the end of the drive. When the rear casters hit the drop off, I heard some water spill from the pan onto the hot coals. So when I pulled it back in, I went very slow, and simply lifted each corner over the bump. It wasn't extremely easy, but not terribly difficult either.

 

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12 degrees to go, and the guests are supposed to be here in 20 minutes. I turned the heat up a little (250), and the meat won't get to rest at all. I hope that's okay.

 

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Well, we all thought the pulled pork was fabulous. This was my second time making it, and the first time, I pulled it off of the smoker at 190 degrees. This time, even though my guests were here, I waited until it hit 194. Maybe I'm imagining it, but it seemed like allowing it to go the extra time gave it a much more tender texture. It was literally falling apart by just barely squeezing the chunks. It wanted to come apart when I took it off of the grate. The blade bone pulled out clean and easy.

We'll be having sandwiches and hash for the next few days. I cooked a total of about 16 pounds of meat. Sent enough for another meal home with my guests.

 

[Rusty Kettle]

I just rolled the whole shebang up into the garage, just to make it closer to the kitchen. It's not putting out much smoke now, so the garage won't get all smoked up. I had it in the garage when I started, but it was filling the garage with smoke, even though the overhead door was open, and the cabinet was barely inside the garage. It was raining a little when I first got started this morning. When it stopped, I rolled the cabinet onto the driveway. Unfortunately, there's about a 1" drop from the garage floor to the end of the drive. When the rear casters hit the drop off, I heard some water spill from the pan onto the hot coals. So when I pulled it back in, I went very slow, and simply lifted each corner over the bump. It wasn't extremely easy, but not terribly difficult either.

Don't take this the wrong way but do you want to burn your garage down? And your home? Don't do that. You could poison yourself and others with carbon monoxide or burn your place down. Just because you can't see the smoke doesn't mean it isn't there. There have been loads of threads about this sort of thing and accidents happening. Don't be the next accident. Be safe brother. I say this out of concern not to start anything. It is dangerous to do that. I don't want anyone to do this. It is just not safe. This is one of those moments I have a feeling you might get mad at me for saying that it is a really bad idea but I say it only because I am concerned for your safety. Even with a garage door open things can go bad quickly. Again stay safe brother and I hope you aren't offended but I feel that I need to say something. Way to many preventable accidents happen every year.

 

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Not offended at all. Still learning how all this works. Kept a close eye on it all day, and fire extinguisher was 3 steps away. But I agree with you that we wouldn't want it to come to that.

 

[Maylar]

Nicely done, wire-it. I just joined here and have been looking for ideas for a cart for my new Cabela's 7-in-1 smoker. Been thinking along the same lines as what you have. Though mine will live outdoors under cover, so it'll be painted and have drain slots for the inevitable rain exposure.

How do you support the shelves when they're up?

Nice workmanship, BTW.

 

[wire-it-up]

Nicely done, wire-it. I just joined here and have been looking for ideas for a cart for my new Cabela's 7-in-1 smoker. Been thinking along the same lines as what you have. Though mine will live outdoors under cover, so it'll be painted and have drain slots for the inevitable rain exposure.

How do you support the shelves when they're up?

Nice workmanship, BTW.

Thank you. I really appreciate your kind words. The 3 sides with shelves have a board that runs parallel to the side it is mounted next to. I cut those wide enough to protrude out over the 2 shelf supports by the width of two 1 X 4's, so 1.5". The back of each shelf has two 1 X 4's screwed to it, for a good surface area on the top edge. The top edges of these two boards rest against the bottom of the board that protrudes out over the shelf supports. I started with the supporting board only sticking out past the side walls by the width of one 1 X 4, so 3/4". But that didn't feel stable enough for me. So I widened that board and added a second layer at the back of the shelf. The shelves are slotted, and the slots slide across 3/8" threaded rod.

I can try to get some photos posted today, showing how it works. It wasn't hard to build. I really enjoyed it.

 

[kls44]

Nice cart, nice work.

 

[Rounder]

Don't take this the wrong way but do you want to burn your garage down? And your home? Don't do that. You could poison yourself and others with carbon monoxide or burn your place down. Just because you can't see the smoke doesn't mean it isn't there. There have been loads of threads about this sort of thing and accidents happening. Don't be the next accident. Be safe brother. I say this out of concern not to start anything. It is dangerous to do that. I don't want anyone to do this. It is just not safe. This is one of those moments I have a feeling you might get mad at me for saying that it is a really bad idea but I say it only because I am concerned for your safety. Even with a garage door open things can go bad quickly. Again stay safe brother and I hope you aren't offended but I feel that I need to say something. Way to many preventable accidents happen every year.

That seems like common sense, but I've never heard of that myself, I can absolutely see how it could happen, one would think with an open garage do you'd be ok, but weirder **** has happened. Thank you for posting that, I needed to hear it too.

 

[wire-it-up]

Here are some photos showing how I built the hinge system for the shelves. It's so simple, that "system" is too fancy a word for it.