n_maher

Happy Birthday! Here's to hoping that the only flames today are the birthday candles and not the circuit boards.

Shelly, I'm planning something similar, just likely out of wood to accent the grill. If I get the manufacturing time down I'll make you a cutting board for your Traeger. Al, That cutting board is gorgeous, well done!

You inspired me to get off my ass and work on my first real mod for the Traeger, a magnetic cutting board to mount to the top of the pellet hopper. I used the Shapeoko to machine a pocket into the back side of the cutting board as well as to make the recesses for the magnets. Then used the laser engraver to etch Traeger's logo into the top. I'll probably make a fancier version at some point but this will do for now.

Nicely done, Shelly! I'm still working thru brisket leftovers so breakfast was pretty fantastic this morning. Brisket, egg, and cheese on a grilled bagel.

I gave up on 24 step attenuators a while ago, I always seemed to end up in situations where I wanted a step in between.

^^^ I've never needed such a thing. The fairy has aways treated each instance of infringement has homage, not insult.

He provided the recipe so presumably he (pre)approved the infringement?

Getting ready to reheat for dinner but early snacking is promising.

The brisket finished crazy fast after I wrapped so clearly the cook times on the Traeger are going to be quite a bit different than the electric smoker. Not too concerned about it being done early, I'll just have to check the internal temp about an hour before dinner and reheat as needed. Felt super tender to the probe so here's to hoping I got this one right.

Science begins at midnight tonight. 8-1/2 lbs, before trimming, a little over 6 after. It's mostly the flat with a little point left for making some burnt ends. Plan is to have it ready to pull off around noon so plenty of rest before dinner and no stress.

Shill.

Here's to hoping, Kerry.

This is the correct answer.

Trying to make sure the next fire is bigger?

Arcy sparky!

Same, also signed up to overpay for them a little bit. It felt unjust not to.

They're purrfect.

Nothing so dramatic. Local dealer offered 10% off plus a free cover so I bit the bullet. Am having a few issues getting Wifi setup but I think it's part user error and part signal strength so I'm hopeful I can get it sorted tomorrow. Ran out of time to fiddle today but did get it seasoned so it's ready to reuse regardless.

Woops.

Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels Holy shit, where has this been all my life?

What happened to the old chassis? It was one of the few that I modified on my benchtop milling machine when I had it? I remember precision drilling all of those holes...

I think all of that style of cooker is pretty great at low and slow if you either a) manually mange temps very well and have patience or b) invest in one of the variable external fan systems. From what I've been able to read where they start to fall down is on long cooks where you may run out of fuel - seems like that might be in the 8hr range. I know some of my briskets and even pork shoulders have taken longer and it can be challenging to refuel those kamado cookers mid-cook. And honestly if you're just getting into low and slow I'd highly recommend starting with an electric rig. I did ribs on mine today and they're better than the "award winning" ribs I'd buy down the street for 3x the cost. The electric rigs do have their shortcomings as well but they are cheap, can't really burn your house down, and are WAY smarter than a kamado grill. If you also want a charcoal grill then that's a different story entirely. So really the question is - do you want to smoke stuff? Or smoke stuff and grill stuff?

Serious suggestion - you should have the two white guys building company build an outdoor kitchen with integrated gas grill, flat cooktop, and stuff like storage drawers, etc. I mean having some cart-based solution seems rather plebeian at this stage, no?

Crazy, I thought about that amp recently and couldn't remember where it went. One thing, I have NO memory of adding those boards/caps and they certainly looking like output coupling capacitors. The Ventus had/has(?) a history of DC on the output IIRC. I don't remember all that well, actually, but I've never see PMBs like that, that I can remember anyway. One thing to check would be the influence of the transformer, since it's both unshielded and in the same box with the amplifier boards. I'd try very carefully rotating it while you're listening to the noise and see if you can find a position when the noise gets better. I remember chasing something like this on the first M3 that built and in the end the only thing that fixed it was aggressively shielding the toroid.

This is immediately where my head went. Sell one of the spare DACses, the NAD, and the displaced monitors and call it even? I know, fuzzy math, but isn't that your thing, Shelly? 😈