He's a maniac.............maniac!!!!

Yesterday was the my first lesson on welding metal. I'm so excited to learn this skill in preparation for building my own custom smoker. I was a guest of metal artist Gary Boyce who is famous for building the 30 foot double helix that stands outside LabCorp's corporate office. Gary wanted to start me out building a small table. He certainly had more confidence than I did. I asked to run a few practice beads first. I wanted to practiced a little before diving into a small project. Started to get the feel of the motion for laying down a bead on my practice pieces and the welds came out pretty good.

This is my work station



I started in on the table by cutting the stock on the band saw. This thing is cool it cuts by using gravity. There is an adjuster on the hydrolic arm that regulates the speed at which it "falls" onto the metal.


Once I got the stock cut I had to grind off any burs.



At one point as I was welding I noticed a strange odor. It turns out that it was my hair burning. I was like...."this is awesome." One strange observation I noted was as I progressed in the project my welds were getting worse instead of better. I suppose that is what happens when you're new at something.


While putting the pieces together I made sure they were square and level. I like to measure twice and cut once so to speak. Gary on the other had likes to eye ball it. He says "I'm an artist not a fabricator." That was funny to me because it reminded me of Star Trek.

Here is the base of the table that I made. Gary said that He'll/We'll make a top for it after I grind down my pillows of metal that I call welds.



Gary said that I did well for my first time. I find that after my first time welding that I'm inconsistant but have great potential. One thing is for sure I'll be spend a ton of time grinding those welds down.

No meat this weekend

After smoking meat on Fridays or Saturdays for almost a month, it was sort of strange not firing up my beloved smoker. On the other hand it was nice to get a full nights rest. This weekend was vary nice. Very relaxing. Jen and I made a fire on the back patio and spent some quality time together. I also played a lot of WOW. Fun times. Jen even made me a cake :) It was really good. She made orange jello filled white cake with a pudding like topping. My mom used to make me that cake when I was a kid. So cool and refreshing.



pork chop or NYS??

Happy Birthday Chris

So, poker last night turned into a really nice gathering in the back yard next to the smoker. Just chillin and grillin. What a good time we all had. The wings were totally righteous. The Jalapeno poppers (ring stingers) were very tasty with the bacon. Everyone was waiting patientlly for the fatty to finish cooking. There were no complaints on any of the food. We had some drinks while shuckin and jivin about work and life. Part of me wished we had started up a game of poker but another was just happy to relax and hang.

I hope Chris had a great birthday. I know I enjoyed it.

Here is the Q-view of the food.

4 butts to rub..........And smoke this weekend.

Got another gig this weekend. I'll be making enough Pork BBQ for 50 people. My future welding mentor's daughter is having a 16th birthday party. This won't be a drop off event, I'll be serving up the sandwiches myself. So on Thursday night I'll have those butts rubbed and cooling in the fridge for Friday night.

Additionally I'll be hosting a poker party and serving some smoked chicken wings. With the kids away at camp we'll really be able to let loose.

Q-view of the weekends smoke.

Despite all the troubles with my remote thermometer everything came out awesome. I received many compliments on my BBQ. Here are the before and after shots of the chicken.

I put them in a brine for 6 hours and then rubbed them with my chicken rub. They went in the smoker for 3 hours.

This is what some of them look like after 3 hours. I did mop them to keep them moist.


Here is a shot of all the pork that I smoked. I forgot to take one of the finished product but you can see that in my previous posting.


Here is my latest mod for the smoker. I got these wheels from Harbor Freight. Now I can push this around the yard easily. Or down the street again if need be.

Next smoke will be on Friday. I'll probably smoke chicken wings for the poker game and then another Boston Butt for the birthday party I'm catering on Saturday night.

Last night was LAME!!

I went to start my meat smoking and found that both my remote thermometers were flaking out. I had Jen run to walmart at 10:00pm to buy a new one. Of course this one has a nice screen but when you set the temp and it is reached it starts beeping until you reset it. It was annoying to tweak the smoker temp with that alarm going off. So......the bottom line is I was out of sync with my normal routine and got no sleep. Maybe 2 hours at a time.

Murphy showed up and layed down the law.......loser.

I've got about 15 minutes to get the pork off and wrapped in towels and into the cooler. Then the chicken will get thier time in the CharGriller. I have to be at Cecils at 4pm. I'll keep you all posted.

KOB

What are you.....Chicken?

This weekend will be very fun. I'll be smoking a ton of meat. I have a catering gig for a chap from church who is having a nice get-together in celebration of our Independence from Briton.

The order: pork BBQ for 50 and chicken for 20. (36 lbs. of pork, 15 lbs. of chicken)

My fridge will be packed with half chicken swimming in brine and rubbed pork shoulders wallowing in spices. I'll post my results.

KOB