Restoring a Sessions Mission Wall Clock - Early 1900's

This was my grandfathers clock and hung in his wall for many many years. As a small child,   I remember him winding the clock every Sunday and the sound of the BONG on the hour and a softer at the bottom.

It also was in my moms kitchen after that but could not stay running for over a few minutes.  It has been silent for over 30 years.

Since I have inherited it, I though I would try to restore it and get it running again.

After trying to clean it with alcohol, bending the verge wires to see if I could align the tick-tocks - I came to the conclusion I needed to do a total rebuild.

Here is a video showing how I rebuilt the clock and get it running again.

Sessions Clock Video

Here are the links to the parts I purchased:

Suspension Springs: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01

Cleaning Fluid: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01

Ultrasonic Cleaner: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01

Clock Oil Cleaner Kit: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079KVK2FN

The video doesn't cover everything I tried - just what worked.  Below are all the pictures and more from the video.

Controlling an Elderly Parents TV Remotely

In my last post, I covered how to setup an Echo Show 5 to video conference with my mom who is in assisted living.  It became evident that we needed to be able to mute the TV as sometimes it was way to loud for a conversation and she is unable to use the remote.

If this sounds familiar, read on!

What you Need:

1. RM Pro Plus ($25) or newer model
2. Any Smart Phone or Iphone to load the IHC setup and remote control app
3. Spare router or WiFi phone hot-spot setup for the same settings as your parents (so you need to know the SSID and password of the facility and it must support 2.4Ghz frequency)
4. The make and model of the TV and set top box
5. The provider and plan of the TV/cable service channel lineup

Setup and Programming:

There are several different stages in setting up the entire solution to not only mute the TV but change channels, integrate with Alexa and build automated schedules.  This gets complicated quickly but will outline each step in sequence and provide examples along the way.

1) Setup of the local hot-spot or router to simulate the remote network:

To program the Broadlink RM Pro device, a smart phone that is on the local WiFi is used to configure and connect the RM Pro to the WiFi network.  You can not change the WiFi settings on the RM Pro without loosing any previously provisioned remotes so if you want the RM Pro to automatically connect to your parents WiFi network, you need to simulate the parents network settings.  If you have someone that can install and connect to your parents network, this step is not as critical.  We tried this but did not realize the facilities WiFi did not support the 2.4Ghz WiFi so we ended up installing internet service with a dedicated WiFi router.  My brother stood outside the window due to COVID restrictions and working with the local facilities person inside the room, connected the router and RM Pro manually.

If it needs to be plug and play, then use can use a spare router or your phones hot-spot capability. In either case, you will program the parents WiFi credentials into the device.

If you use a spare router connected to you home network, you need to ensure the spare router is on a different IP subnet. For example, if your home network assigns a 192.168.1.XXX address, program the spare router to assign 192.168.0.xxx address.  To connect a spare router to your home network, connect the WAN port of the spare router to a LAN port on your home router.  Connect a phone or tablet to the spare router's WiFi and ensure you can access the internet.

Also, on any router, yours or your parents, UPnP needs to be enabled.  On most new routers the default is On. If is off, this will block the remote control aspects.   I will highlight this later once the RM Pro is configured.

2) Configuring the RM Pro:

Download the IHC from google play, or search for it on the apple store.  Once installed, you will create an account in the app.  Write down the email and password as you will use this on other devices or share with family members so they can also control the TV when they video conference.  It's best to setup a google family email account to use for this.

Connect your smart phone or tablet to the 2.5Ghz WiFi network setup previously. Open the app, login, and you will add a new universal remote. Here is a 10 min video of how to install and configure the RM Pro.

Install both a TV and the set top box remotes for the make and model.  Pick the 1st IR remote set suggested and allow the remotes to be selected.

Further programming of the remotes for channel operation, scenes, connecting to Alexa must be done once you have identified and installed the correct IR remotes.  This can only be done once the RM Pro is installed at the site.

You can however, check the remote connection. Using another device, either turn off Wifi and connect over mobile data, or connect to your home network if simulating the parents WiFi network.  Install and open the IHC app, login, you should see the remotes you programmed - example in the picture shown here.  If not, logout of the app and back in again.

Click on the RM Pro device in the app.  The two devices should show a status of "Remote"  If not, check out the UPnP settings on the routers.

To get further detail, click on the three dots at the top right, and then device info, you should be able to retrieve the firmware version of the RM Pro.  If so, this means the device is configured and can be controlled remotely as long as UPnP is enabled on the parents router.

STOP HERE FOR NOW UNTIL THE RM PRO IS INSTALLED AT YOUR PARENTS LOCATION!

2) Programming the Remotes in the IHC App:

Once you have the RM Pro mounted across from the TV/Set top box and you have found the IR remote pattern that controls the TV and set top box, you are now ready to enter the TV channels. Double check that you can access and control the RM Pro remotely from a different network during the RM Pro install - refer to the last section.

You can program the rest of the steps remotely and don't need any support on-site as long as you have the remotes controlling the boxes, and can also do so remotely.

A) Creating Channels:

In the remote that controls the channels to the programs, in our case the spectrum cable set top box, open IHC, click the remote you want to program, click the bottom more button to open the full remote, and find the CH button, ours was in the lower right.

You will need the channel line up guide to the provider and plan to know what channels to create. In our case is was Spectrum Silver plan. To create a channel, click on the +, channel name, and at the bottom, select the "I cannot find the TV Channel".  This will allow you to use the actual name of the channels rather than the call sign and will be easier to automate. Enter the channel number and save.  It should start to look like the picture shown here. Once you are done entering the channels, you can save them.  I would recommend you program a few and walk through the rest of this tutorial to ensure all will work for your specific case and then come back to customize.

B) Creating Scenes -  Part 1 for Automation:

If you want to manually control the channels, the rest of these steps are optional but if you want to automate channel and program switching, the following steps are required.

Once you have tested all the channels and know they are working, it is time to create scenes.  As a side note, I did a video chat through the Alexa Show and listened to the TV channel to know what I programmed was correct.

For every channel or groups of things you want to control, you create a Scene in the IHC app.  These scenes can be used in Alexa Routines and is how you program the automation later in this guide.  The individual buttons of the remotes are not accessible through Alexa Routines and creating scenes is the work around!

Go back to the main screen of the IHC app where you see all the devices.  At the bottom, you see four icons - Home -  Scenes -  Device - Me. Click on the Scenes icon.

Click the + to create a new Scene.  I named all mine Watch XYZ.  You browse to the remote, channel section, and then pick the channel to match the name.  Make a scene for every channel you want to watch, and also create a Mute TV.  Once complete, you are ready to connect the devices/Scenes to an Alex device such as Echo Show, Dot or other.  This also works with Google and other smart home devices but I have Alexa so only will cover that.

3) Connecting to Alexa and Creating Routines:

IHC has a smart app for Alexa. If you have setup an Alexa device, or your parents have an Alexa device, you will need their account info to program and connect the IHC and RM Pro allowing routines to be created for automation. You will also need to have an Android 6.0 or Iphone tied to the amazon alexa account/app to program routines as this feature cannot be accessed via the web browser.  An alternative is to load BlueStacks for Windows to emulate a smart phone on a PC.

A) Enable the IHC smart skill on the Alexa Device.

Using the device or a web browser, log in to Alexa app or web site (www.alexa.amazon.com) and use the account info that is tied to the parents alexa device. Click the 3-dot menu icon, pick smart skills, and search for IHC.  Enable the skill and enter the IHC login credentials you created in step 1.

Once it recognizes and signs in - it should auto-detect the new remote devices and scenes.  If not, or  you create new scenes after you connect the smart skill, you can discover new devices and scenes at the bottom of the screen.

A) Creating a Routine.

Creating routines you must do in the Alexa App. Again, click on the 3-dot menu icon and select routines.  You create a routine by clicking on the + at the top right of the screen.

Enter a name for the routine - I changed the names of the routines half way through my programming as I could not keep track of what time/day something was programmed.  I found that the following naming works well to keep things straight after you sort the routines by name.

DayType Time   scene name - for example     Weekdays 11:30PM watch NBC

To create a timed routine, you pick from when this happens [time] type of routine. Then you add an action to the routine.  So add action, Smart Home, Scene, pick the scene Watch NBC. I also added a wait command and then repeated the scene selection three times.  This seems to wake the RM Pro and helps ensure the cable box sees the IR command.

In order to know what to watch when, use the channel line-up and enter the provider name and zip code on this on-line TV guide site.

Here is a snap shot of some of the automation routines programmed in Alexa routines.  If your parents are savvy enough, they can say Alexa, watch CBS....

Good luck and happy programming!

Setup Echo Show 5 to Video Conference with an Elderly Parent

If you have an elderly parent and they are unable to answer the phone, setup technology, or have any other reason that you need a way to video chat with them - read on!

I needed a way to do just this and researched many options, fire TV, Facebook Portal, cell phone accessories, and Alexa devices.  I choose the Echo Show 5 as that could help with more issues than just video conferencing down the road.

Issues Faced With Setting Up the Echo Show 5: (don't worry - I found work arounds!)

1. Having access to parents cell phone to receive text authentications - Alexa App, Voice, etc.
2. Having access to parents email - again for authentication
3. Not all setup can be done on the Show itself - the communications portion of the show - the main feature I bought it for - can only be setup within the Alexa app 
4. Supported phone - Alexa app only works on Android 6+ and iPhones.  Most parents probably don't have a new android phone, or just have a flip voice phone with simple text!
5. Setting up on WiFi once shipped to parent.

What you need:

• Compatible phone for Alexa App -  use yours to log in with a new Amazon account.  I used my old Android 6 phone and just setup on wi-fi
• Parents email account - or setup a new gmail account
• New Amazon account if they don't already have one. (prime is not required but you can add them to your prime account).
• Google voice account - setup to receive text message to the linked email account - use this to authenticate the phone use with amazon.  You could use your Google number but if you want other to be able to call them using amazon devices, you need a separate number.  I linked this temporally to my wife's cell phone as google voice sends a text verification.
• Hotspot or spare WiFi router with the same SSID/Password as parent's WiFi, or someone to set that up.  I had someone local setup the Echo Show 5 to the facilities WiFi network.

Steps to setup:

Setting up the echo show:

One important step NOT to do - DO NOT import contacts in the Alexa app unless you have the parents phone - or you setup a spare phone with the parents credentials!!!! If you allow this on your phone - Alexa imports all your contacts and you can not delete them from the app.  You have to call google support to reset the service.

1. Get access to the parents email account or create a new gmail.
2. Get Amazon account info - or setup a new Amazon account using the email from step 1.
3. Setup the Alexa Show with the information requested during the setup sequence. If you setup a hotspot, or sub-router with the same Wi-Fi credentials as the parents network, enter those to connect the Alexa Show. Here is a good overview of the setup options.

Setting up Alexa App for Communications:

1. If you don't have the parents phone, or it's not compatible with the Alexa App, use yours, or an older phone to download the Alexa app.  If you plan on using the calling features - you will need a new google voice account to authenticate the Alexa app.  I used my old android 6 phone and setup on WiFi.  Since I already had a goggle voice number, I used my wife's cell number to setup the Google voice account as it also sends an authentication text to provision the service, as you can only tie one cell phone number to google voice.
2. If you are setting up a spare phone, download the contacts on to the duplicate phone and setup with the same credentials as the parents phone.  (Not sure this works on iPhone as I used Android and just sync'ed the contacts)
3. Download the Alexa App on the phone and enter the Amazon credentials previously setup. If you are using your phone, DO NOT import contacts in the Alexa app/ If it is a clone of the parents phone, import the contacts.
4. To setup the communications, click on the chat icon at the bottom of the phone.
5. To access the contacts, or to manually add contact, click on the person icon at the top right of the phone.
6. To allow "Drop-In" you must edit each contact that you want to allow, and enable the "Drop-In" permission.  If you do not see the Drop-In permission, that contact does not have an Alexa app or device, or the number is not tied to their Alexa account.
   

Summary

Once you have enabled the "Drop-In" feature for the contacts, you should be set to go and ship the Echo Show 5 to your parent or person who will be adding/setting up the local Wi-Fi.  Don't forget to test it out a bit to make sure it's fine tuned for the services you want to setup in addition to the Drop-In feature.

Here are some things you can say to the Alexa Show to get you started:

Alexa, Play Pandora

Alexa, Stop Music

Alexa, what Is the News

Alexa, what is the Weather

Alexa, tell me a joke

Alexa, what is the weather in Dallas Texas

Alexa, Call [Contact Name]

Alexa, whats on tv now

Alexa, whats on tv tonight

I hope this helps you out.   Now that I have been using this a while to video chat with my mom, I now realize that I need to find out a way to remotely control the TV and mute it when I "Drop-In".  Sometimes the TV is to loud and the TV remote is across the room and she can't get to it!  But that is for another day!

UPDATE:  To control the TV Remotely - check this out!

Happy chatting!!!!!!!!!

Wiring a Zongen ATV 250CC

I have had this Chinese Zongshen 250CC quad for  six or seven years now.  In those years, I have re-welded the axial frame, tried to fix the carb many times, but it never really was reliable.  In the past year, getting it started was impossible and recently could not even get the starter to crank.

So I decided to rebuild it.

Parts:

• A new carb - VM26 - $26
• New wiring harness $50 - there are many  to choose from and based on the looks, I ordered WonVon Complete Electric Stator Engine Wiring Harness  THIS COMES WITH NO DIRECTIONS! - details below
• New front break cable - $11

Carburetor Replacement:
This was a one for one swap.  It fit perfectly.  The only difference is the choke assembly.  This has a handle that clicks, where I just have a choke cable to adjust on the old version. I think I can just swap out the assembly and be good to go.  I find that if I take off the seat, it is very easy to adjust the choke.

Wiring Harness:
The harness came with no connection diagram or instructions and was a bit differen. It also had some different connectors for the lights and Stator.  Was planning on just reconnecting the old Stator but since the connections were different, decided to change that out.  Details on Stator replacement below. Here is a diagram I made based on my current connections.  For the lights, I reused the light connectors from the old harness and connected the blue, white and green wires in the front of the new harness.

Replacing the Stator:
This was not an easy task and took me a few hours. I could not find any good instructions so mostly figured this out from looking at many other types of replacement.

Step 1 - Remove the Eight bolts around the Stator compartment. Starting with the top center bolt and working counter clockwise (to the left), remove the bolts.  There are different sizes so keep them in order. And then repeat from the top when putting them back in. You may have to remove you stand and gear shift as well.

Step 2: On the same side - remove the three bolts on the starter casing.  Remove the casing - be careful to note the gear, it may fall out.  The larger gear is on top or the closest to the outside.

Step 3 - Remove the one bolt on the top left in the starter casing where the gear sticks through. On the other side of the ATV, remove the long screw bolts holding the starter to the casing from the .

Step 4 - Using a small tack hammer - lightly tap on the Stator housing to dislodge it and break the seal.  You maybe able to just pull it off without tapping, but mine was stuck on there.

Step 5 - Remove the old Stator.  Cut the cable - remove the three bolts on the Stator.  Remove the two screws holding in the pulse sensor.  This was difficult as they would not come out and I was afraid of stripping the Philips screws.   I soaked them in bolt release lubricant for several hours.  I eventually  had to heat the outside of the casing with a torch before they would break free.  Use anti-seize compound on the bolts before putting them back in.

Step 6 - Install new Stator - Note the color and the position of the wires to the connector.  I marked them with a Sharpe.
Using a small paper clip or piece of hard wire, slide it up in to the connector to push the slide pin down.  This will release the pin, and allow you to remove the wire from the connector.  After all the wires are removed from the connector, slide the wires from the inside of the case out through the cable hole.  Re-seat the runner grommet and the three bolts to the Stator, Put the anti-seize compound on the pulse sensor bolts and install them.  Reset the wires back in to the connector as noted.

Re-install the casing in the reverse order.  Pay special attention to how the wires are routed up from the engine.  Not getting them tucked in good and hidden will prevent the casing covers from aligning correctly.

Still no Start????
After all this and getting the harness connected and all the parts installed, the bike still would not start.  I did not have a spark - why?????    There are two gotchas here!

1) Mid way in the harness, you will find two wires that have matching barrel connectors, join them as this connects 12 volts to your switch.  See the wiring diagram.

2) The kill switch on the new multi-switch is a slider. To kill the engine, you slide the switch to either side.  However, this is a locking slide, you must push in the button to release the kill.  After several hours of trouble shooting this and finding this video on how to diagnose the Stator and CDI, I figured this out.  It came down to the one pin on the CDI being grounded so know that was shorted some where.  I took the harness apart and found the joined wire going back to the multi-switch and by accident, pushed the button in and noticed the change in ohms on the CDI.  After that - started right up!

Connecting the Lights:
Since the connectors on the front are different.  I used the old light connectors and soldered them to the Blue/White connector, and then use the green wire for ground.  Most the other wires on the front or spare connectors as noted in the diagram.  I think some could be used for the back break light that I do not have connected - but the running light works.

Hope this helps someone else - and happy trails!


tim

Using Xiro Xployer Drone for 360 selfie and how to enable Follow Me Mode.

Hi All,

I have been playing around with the Xiro Xployer V drone, the one with the HD version not the 4K model.  There are many articles on the features and videos on how to use the IOS app, but not many for Android.

This took be a bit to figure out.  How to enable follow me mode and do a 360 selfie.  It appears the Follow Me is grayed out in the app and cannot be selected.  Nothing happens when you tap on it no matter the distance or flight mode.


Well, there are a few tricks to get both the Follow Me and the 360 selfie working, oh and a quick instructional video!

1) You must be in flight mode three.  You select this on the controller.
2) The Follow Me menu is actually a scrolling menu.  You have to swipe it down so it is right above the record button - where the shoot text is now.

Watch the video to see how it performs.  I was impressed with how it performed overall!

Thanks for stopping by and happy flying!

tim

How to convert a Dell Venue 11 Pro (5130) to Android

Disclaimer - this could cause data loss and render your tablet useless.  I take no responsibility for your data or system if you decide to try this with your device. This is no guarantee it will work on your device. Also this article is not an endorsement of any kind for the products or companies listed.

Early last year I received a Dell Venue 11 Pro (5130) tablet as a gift.  It had Windows 8 and even upgrading to Windows 10 I found it - well, not very useful.   Why you ask?  The applications I wanted to use work only on Android or IOS.  So hence another research project - this one took several months and then some!

I tried many versions of Android, Remix OS, 64 bit and 32 bit versions, dual boot options and design loads.  I will not bore you with all the iterations and failed attempts - trust me, there were many!

Remix OS for 32bit worked with dual boot and installing from Windows was straight forward using their install utility. The downfall, Wi-Fi would stop unexpectedly and usually in the middle of a movie, causing the family to look at me with a funny look. Most of the Apps seem to work, but first you have to side load google play using GMSActivatotr.apk.

Since the intense stares were increasing, I decided to go with a straight Android load and found a way to utilize the entire disk storage - there is a trick to get Android to recognize the entire disk storage rather than the default 4Gb storage.

What Worked and What You Need

•  A USB Thumb drive
•  The Android X86- 4.4-R5 ISO image
•  Rufus 2.11 install utility

Steps to install: 

Disk format utility in Android Install

Storage greater than 4gb default

1. Download the Android X864.4-R5 image to a windows pc.
2. Download Rufus 2.11 to the windows pc.
3. In the bios settings of the Venue Pro, you must turn off Secure Boot and ensure booting from USB is enabled.
4. Run Rufus, and pick the Android Image.
5. Pick the USB drive (be careful with this step not to pick your OS drive).
6.  Format and install the image as an ISO.
7. Boot from the USB drive on the tablet (either hit the fcn F12, or hold the volume down key after power-up to bring up the boot menu selection).
8.  On the Android boot screen, pick install to disk (3^rd option).
9. Using the disk utility, Select Create/Modify partition, pick all the disk partitions and delete them (this will destroy any data, so make sure you have saved anything off the tablet, this includes anything in windows as you will wipe that off the tablet).
10. Create a new partition. Pick a small primary size.  This is the trick I mentioned.  I made mine 1Gb in size.
11. Create a secondary partition using the rest of the space.
12. Write the new partition data, then quit the disc utility.
13. Install Android on the second partition. Answer yes to all remaining questions. Format it NTFS (ext3 doesn’t work - the tablet just will not boot).
14.  After it installs, it will ask about the size of the data.img file, enter the size of the second partition minus 1Gb for the OS size (this will take a while to write).
15.  Once complete, Reboot and Android should boot up.

Summary

The only app I found not to work so far is the Time Warner TV app. All household automation apps, screen cast (I use localcast), HD Movies, Kodi and others all seem to work and update.

I hope this helps others out and shows open source can work.  Good luck!

Until next time - happy computing

How to consolidate a business and personal phone!

Last year I was very fortunate to join Dell Services and received a new business phone.  This was awesome, but after a while, carrying two phones around was just cumbersome and many at the office also commented on this.  Given my telecom background, the investigation of how I could combine my services on one phone while keeping  my business and personal interactions remain as if I was using the individual phones began.

 Goals

• Have friends call me and receive the calls on my work phone without having them know the new number
• Receive text from friends and alerts and respond from the work phone as if I was using my personal phone
• Have access to my contacts, emails and pics, without mixing with my business accounts
• Eliminate the worry about losing personal info if the company phone needed to be wiped

 Device Details

• Personal phone  - android with a personal number for over 15 years so my number is out there
• Business phone - android- company exchange email 
• Windows 8 tablet - of course a Dell Venue 11
• Home PC - Windows 8

 Setting up contacts, emails and Pics

Since both phones were android, using the google account to sync my personal contact info and emails was simple.  This involved moving all my contact information from the phone sim card to the google account.  This can be as simple as changing what account the contact is associated within the phone, or exporting the list and importing to google contacts.  Details here, but my export function was down under several sub menus so you may need to hunt and poke around a bit.

Pictures, I decided to sync my phone and PC photos to google photos as well.  This allowed all my pics to show up on every device, even the tablet.

Phone calls

This was also a simple task.  Call forwarding using the phone dialing setup menu allowed me to forward all calls to my work number.  Since my google contacts were now synced, when friends call, it shows their picture if they are a google+ user.  You can also use the dialing command codes to control calling features.

Text/SMS messaging

This was the most difficult item to solve as I wanted my text responses to friends show up as if I sent them from my personal phone, but also allow business text to co-workers remain with the work number.  Each without requiring each group to program a new number.There are many programs that will forward text, or allow text to be sent to different devices, but most required a new number, including google voice.

The Solution - mysms.com
Mysms allows text to be synced across many devices including PC and tablets.  You can respond and it appears as if you texted from your phone.  There is also a sms mirror that you can load on a different phone that will allow the same functionality, only this is available in the paid version - only $10US per year.  Check out their video

So, on my work phone, business text shows up in the native messaging app, and my personal text shows up in the mysms app.  Mysms for text forwarding currently only supports the android phone, but you can load the mirror app on iPhone, android, or IOS tablets.

Hows it working?

So far, it has been working great.  The only issue I find is that you must to remember to forward your personal phone, if you swap during the weekend, and you must leave it on and plugged into the charger during the week.

Next up - Synchronizing calendars across the devices.

Oklahoma Joe Smoker Mods to make a great smoker!

One of my hobbies I have found is smoking various meats and trying new recipes to cook. Not to boast but think I am getting fairly good at smoking brisket, pork shoulders and ribs.  My thin tin can of a smoker finally rusted through the bottom of the firebox making it difficult to smoke anything to say the least - so here goes another research project!

The first step was researching various smokers and I decided on the Oklahoma Joe from Lowes. There are many modification videos, articles on YouTube and is what I based my modifications from - so thanks to everyone whom previously posted; that made my research and work much easier!

Modification Parts:

I ordered the following from Amazon:

• Food Safe RTV red adhesive 2.8 oz BBQ gasket grill smoker pit NSF silicon rubber High temp - Sold by: Island Outdoor, LLC
• 2" 550F(2-pack) BBQ Charcoal Grill Smoker Temp Gauge Thermometers  2.5" Stem
• 1/2" x 1/8" Nomex High Temp BBQ gasket smoker pit seal, self stick Sold by: Island Outdoor, LLC

With the smoker, I purchased the following at Lowes: 

• 2 - expanded sheet metal 12" x 24"
• 5 - 6 x 24 26 ga metal sheets for heat shield
• 1 - OK Joe cover

 Unpacking the smoker:

This is a heavy unit so you may need help with unloading.  I unpacked in the bed of my pickup and my son helped me unload.  Assembled it weighs almost 300lbs.





The first step was the firebox.  Using the RTV, make a seal around the two halfs and bolt together. Then I assembled the bottom, legs, stood up and added the top lid.

Around the firebox opening on the main unit, add more RTV.  This will seal between the main smoker and the firebox once connected. 

I put the firebox back in the styrofoam packing and using a car jack, lifted it up until the holes matched, then mounted the firebox to the main chamber.

I sealed the firebox door by mounting a metal strip on the inside so the door would seal.  As it turns out, my unit is so air tight now, that I might not of needed this mod.  I must keep the fire door open almost 1/2 and the flew open to allow enough airflow to maintain 220 degrees.


Add the heat shields from the 5 metal 26GA sheets.  For the firebox opening, I bent one at about a 75 degree angle and mounted to the bolts that attached the firebox.  The rest just lay in the chamber so you can slide them together or apart to adjust the heat transfer.  I also made a wood basket from the corrugated expansion sheets.  Just place in a cross, mark the lines, and then bend up using a 2x4 as the guide.

Once you are done, drilling and assembling, you can add the heat tape around the doors, add the temperature probes and follow the instructions to season the grill.

Happy smoking!

tim