How to build your own mini smoker BBQ WSM!

Well today I came across this on the BBQbrethren forums. This was shared by the user JMSetzler over there. I tough I would share this here because I found this pretty creative, unique and look pretty fun to build! Here's is project build of the Mini WSM BBQ: After watching a lot of folks around here build one of these, I decided to give it a try myself... I started out with my Smokey Joe Silver and one of the IMUSA Tamale Pots from Walmart ($24). I bought a small stainless steel pet food bowl at Walmart ($4) to use as a filter over the air intake on the bottom of the Smokey Joe. I bought the necessary stainless steel mouting hardware for the grill rack.. The first step was to remove the ash catcher pan from the Smokey Joe so I could access the tab used to adjust the air vent. I bent that vent tab up about 90 degrees from the vent and drilled a 1/4" hole in it... I used a 1/4" x 4 1/2" bolt with a couple nuts and lock washers to create a handle for the under-side air vent on the Smokey Joe... To prepare the Tamale pot for the body of the smoker, I pulled out the perforated insert from the pot and used it as a template to mark the bottom of the pot with a Sharpie... I drilled small pilot holes at each of the marks... I then used a step bit to drill out those small holes to completely perforate the bottom of the tamale pot. This step took a little time. The step bit gets really hot during this process and it actually gets gunked up with aluminum filings. I stopped several times along the way here to clean out that bit and let it cool. The next step was to measure, mark, and drill the holes for the bolts that will hold the grill rack inside the pot. I measured the pot as approximately 46" in circumference, so I needed to space my three rack bolts about 15 1/3" apart from each other. I set the mark 3.5" from the top of the pot. I drilled the three holes... I used 1/4" x 3/4" stainless steel hex bolts, ss hex huts, ss lock washers, and ss acorn nuts to create my grill rack holders... I mounted the bolts in each of the three holes I drilled... I scarfed a grill rack out of a $10 tabletop kettle grill to use in the bottom of the tamale pot. This grill rack sits right on the spot where the tamale pot insert sits. This rack can be used to put a drip pan or a water pan. Next I installed the cooking grate from the Weber Smokey Joe on the rack bolts inside the pot... Since the Weber Smokey Joe Silver has the air vents directly on the bottom of the kettle, I needed a way to prevent those from getting choked up with ash and blocking the air flow into the smoker... I believe it was Boshizzle who posted this idea... I got a stainless steel pet food bowl. It had some sort of rubberized base ring around it, so I peeled as much of it off as I could and burned the rest off with a torch and then drilled 8 holes around the sides of the bowl... I set the bowl inverted over the air vent and replaced the Smokey Joe charcoal grate... Put everything together and I'm now the owner of a Mini WSM! I drilled a small hole underneath the grill grate so I could run a pit/meat thermometer probe inside. I'm not sure if I'm gonna install an external thermometer on this or not, but I might. I haven't decided if I'll paint the tamale pot black yet or not either... who knows... All that's left to do now is season it and cook on it! Thanks for looking... You Can get Tamil Steamer Pots here: IMUSA-32-qt-Aluminum-Tamale-Steamer or at your local Walmart. Here's a nother version of this project which can be found here: MiniWSM version 2 Source: bbq-brethren.com Enjoy and Happy Grilling!