Hopefully you've come here after reading my 'Hello Post' but either way here's what I've done to my 'Q'. Most of them are the common mods that everyone does to an offset smoker so don't expect anything original yet!
Seals
Something that struck me even before I saw what mods people had done was that there were quite a few places for smoke to get out. There were three main areas that I wanted to seal:
- Firebox door
- Main grill sides
- Main grill back
The rope will deform and squash so buy larger than the gap you have, I have a could of spots where the gap is about 12mm but since the rope deforms there isn't a tight seal.
Firebox with chimney starter and rope seal by och29, on Flickr
This shows the firebox which had quite a large gap especially on the right hand side. You can also see the main grill side seal. One of the problems is that because the gap isn't uniform you end up with new gaps where the door doesn't press against the seal... although this is easily solved with a brick:
BBQ smoking by och29, on Flickr
Here's a better shot of the side seals:
Firebox with chimney starter by och29, on Flickr
The middle photo should show that there's quite a good seal. One area that does seem to leak is the slide door but for the convenience it brings I'm happy to live with it.
BBQ front 3/4 by och29, on Flickr
I did manage to reduce the leak by lashing the two handles together:
String between BBQ handles by och29, on Flickr
