June 26, 2004. The controller for the FE100 smoker arrived Thursday. I installed it yesterday and smoked beef ribs and corned beefs. They came out wonderful. But there seems to be a problem with the FE100. The temperature will maintain about 200*F in the smoke position as usual. But when I dial in 225*F it slowly creeps upwards. I have seen it all the way to 260*F in the 225 position. I haven't let it go any further by opening the door to let it cool down. I placed a volt meter in the circuit which allows me to detect when the hot rod is on as well as the cycling of the auger. When in the smoke position it operates as expected but in the 225 position it seem erratic. As I understand it, it is supposed turn on the auger for 15 seconds and off for 55 seconds in the smoke position but if the temperature selected is not reached the auger comes on all the time until it reaches the set temp then it goes into the smoke mode to maintain the fire. While the temp was reading above the set temp the auger would stay off sometimes for only 20 seconds, sometimes 40 seconds instead of the 55 seconds! Guess I'll have to call the factory again Monday to see what gives. I did notice something I don't like...I was running it on a generator from the motor home and found that whenever the a/c cycled on the flicker caused the FE100 to think it had been turned off and went into the start mode, auger and hot rod on for 4 minutes. When I realized this I put it on a deep cycle battery.
Received an email from a reader asking what I was going to do next. Because of the lemon eating over zealous health department inspector I just don't believe I want to get involved in this county. Macon County, Franklin, NC. So I am now continuously thinking of ways to make a living. One of those things I wanted to do as a young man entered into this gray headed mind. When I first came out of the USAF at 22 years old I looked for jobs that I was interested in which was the automotive racing field. At 11 years old I wanted to be a NASCAR driver but my father totally discouraged that. But I did switch over to drag racing! Before I got any job I went to a man known as "Sneaky Pete Robinson" clear on the opposite side of Atlanta from where I lived. I begged for a job in this man's machine shop building his "sling shot" dragsters. He seemed like he really wanted to hire me but said he couldn't afford anyone. Back then there weren't any sponsors.
I quickly found jobs at various auto parts stores. I started as a delivery driver, then to counter sales, and then into the machine shop which is where I wanted to be in the first place. I was trained to do everything to the automotive engine for rebuilding. This was a complete shop that even did balancing and blue printing. It was wonderful! I stayed there for a couple of years and moved onto something where I could be my own boss...boats and yachts...that's a whole other story. By the way in that machine shop in the corner was a basket case 1947 knuckle head Harley. The owners brother, who was a local motorcycle cop, owned the bike. It was already sand blasted and every single washer was there. To make a long story short he sold it to me for $100! Today it would be worth thousands. I built my first chopper from it with no front brake, a suicide clutch, and a jockey shift. The suicide clutch ran me through a few red lights and once dislocated my shoulder. Again that is all another long story but I will say that when the engine blew up in south Florida is when I found myself in the boating field.
Okay so my idea for today...it seems that now engines are not being rebuilt locally but are being bought through distribution centers that are having all types of engines being rebuilt in Mexico. Many times I have heard of these engines failing during their warranty period. No problem for the consumer that just got his engine replaced by his mechanic but the mechanic loses his labor the second time around. Big dealers can afford to eat these for a while. I think it may be the time to bring back the local rebuild shop. Also the auto industry seems to be bringing back the "muscle cars" which will attract many young people. So there may be a market that is about to grow where wanna a be hot rodders will want to have someone build there high performance engines. It's just like now a days how motorcycles are built into choppers for wanna a be bikers.
Anyway that's today's idea. I might have mentioned that I have been helping a rekindled friendship rebuild a logging truck so we can both do a bit of logging a couple of day a week. He already has the standing trees lined up free for the removal!
Other than thinking of ways to make money, including my bbq sauce shopping page is online and available, I am running out of money.
June 11, 2004. The kitchen is complete enough to begin the bbq sauce production. The plan is to make a batch tomorrow, Saturday. I must baby sit it because I have to heat the ingredients slowly so I don't burn the sugars on the bottom of the pot. I'd like to build another pot to put the 5 gallon sauce pot in and make it a double boiler so I can turn out the sauce much faster. If I accomplish that then I may need to modify the stove so I don't break the electric elements from the weight. I used to have a commercial gas cook top that I left at a friends house. I think it is still there but it has been in the weather since about 1996! I'll check it out and see if it worth while to repair.
Probably I'll be ready to ship small quantities of my sauce this coming week.
Last week I sure made a blunder. I broke my smoker! Even though it is not practical to run an electrical cord to the concession trailer it is still possible to be able to use the FE100 pellet smoker. The smoker requires 300 watts of 120 VAC power for about the first 4 minutes while the "hot rod" is igniting the pellets then 25 watts and less thereafter throughout the cooking period. If the power is interrupted while cooking the cold start cycle starts again. The start cycle assumes there are no pellets and turns on the auger continuously while the "hot rod" is on otherwise the auger is on only when pellets are necessary to maintain a set temperature. Also the auger cycles on for 15 seconds and off for 55 seconds after it reaches the set temperature to maintain the fire. That is where I got into trouble! But first let me continue with some more info that may be helpful or may just out right bore you...please bare with me.
It is possible to run the FE100 on a deep cycle battery and inverter. There are 2 good reasons why you may want to do this. If you're at a competition and there is a power loss it would be possible to continue and complete the smoking of all your meats. If there was just a power glitch then you will experience a temperature peak because the auger is continuously on for 4 minutes injecting pellets into the fire pot regardless of what the thermostat is set to. I'd like to see the manufacture modify the controller with manual over ride buttons and/or switches. If there is a battery hooked up then those problems are eliminated. If the battery is of a typical popular size (group 27) it'll probably be rated at about 70-80 AH (ampere hours). Usually a deep cycle battery will hold a useable voltage for a time of about 30% of its total rated AH. So an 80 AH battery is good for about 24 AH. The FE100 starts using 20 amps for 4 minutes which equates to about 1.33 AH. When it reaches the set temperature it is consuming 2 AH. Hence, the 80AH battery will be useful for almost 12 hours of cooking after a cold start.
I hooked up the battery after a fresh full charge, but you have to remember this is not a new battery and I wasn't sure if it was a good battery! The battery held the inverter on and the smoker on during the start. The voltage went down to near the threshold of where the inverter would go into a fault and turn off its output. As soon as the 20 ampere draw stopped the voltage jumped back past 12vdc. It did a wonderful job and everything thing seemed to be going quite well. But then I noticed that the temperature wasn't coming back down to where it was set and it was very slowly creeping up. It was set at 225*F and crept to 260*F. I opened the door to let it cool a bit and again it crept up! The one thing I can think of is that I didn't have enough air circulation in the trailer as I usually do when the smoker is on, but I am not convinced of that yet. Now here is where I got into trouble. I figured the auger off time could be longer. A few months ago during the very first burn after I installed the smoker in the trailer, it had always been out doors before that, I noticed on my remote thermometers that the meat temperature had gone down a few degrees. It was sometime in the wee hours of the morning...panic! I quickly got dressed, sort of, and ran to see what had happened to the smoker. It was running, the internal thermometer was way down, and inside, there was a pile of unburned pellets! I cleaned out the pellets and restarted the unit...have never had that problem again! Fast Eddy suggested a few things...first, did I have enough air coming into the trailer....perhaps not! Now I always leave the small window open a few inches when cooking. Secondly Fast Eddy said to check an electronic timing adjustment on the back of the controller, he said it should be on number 2 which would set the timing for 65 seconds off auger when temperature is reached or the thermostat in the smoke position. It was set to number 3 which is 75 seconds off auger. I set it to 2 and hadn't had anymore problems. Then on the bbq FE/Cook Shack forum it was mentioned that the timing should be 55 seconds off auger, position 1. I set mine to 1 sometime back and noticed no differences.
Sometime last week I got the battery in place, made a heavy duty charge wire to use from my cars battery and fired up the smoker. I had 8 racks of beef ribs and a corned beef. After a while I noticed the temperature and figured that maybe I ought to change the setting to number 2 in the smoker control panel. Problem was that if I shut it down it will go through the start cycle and use to much of the battery and cause a heat peak. The wire to charge the battery was not hooked up and if I hooked it up I probably would have inadvertently disconnected the battery from the inverter causing a restart anyway. So I thought if I was really careful getting the control board out of the smoker I could make the change. Well I thought I remembered which way to turn it on the way out of the cabinet...I was wrong! I saw a spark and it died. The fuse had blown so I replaced it...everything looked good until I noticed the auger wasn't running as a matter of fact it was creeping backwards! Anyway the board has been shipped to the manufacture and for a flat $60 they'll send me a new one or it repaired with free shipping. Should any of you run into a problem with the controller look on it for the phone number of Ortech Ind, Inc., in Hillsboro, Or. The controller should be back next week. But I wanna do some smoking now!
The ribs were done and the corned beef, or now pastrami, was at 155*F so I popped it into the oven and brought it up to 160-165*F. The ribs were very good and tender but the pastrami got the hottest reviews from everyone that tasted it. Wednesday was Sam's Club shopping day so we picked up a case of corned beef at $1.84 per pound, that's 15 of them! That was over a 40 cent savings for less than a case. I used pecan pellets and will see how hickory is on the next batch. I also have cherry to try. What we have always enjoyed is oak for beef.
June 10, 2004. Went to the appointment the next day, sat down with the director and began my blurb. He stopped me in a few minutes and requested that one of his inspectors sit with us to answer my questions because he felt they were more equipped for detail then he. This young women of about 28 or 30 walked in that looked like she just took a bite of a fresh lemon! The only time she even hinted of a smile was when she was leaving the room and laughed at something to the director.
Bottom line is that there are the rules, almost exactly like in GA, but there is absolutely no leniency! They said that and they meant that. I believed them as I have heard that over and over again pertaining to NC or at least this particular county. Some questions I had were...can I set up with permanent power from the power company and use my water holding and gray water. Nope, can't do that. Well can I use a hose from the city water on a building next door. Nope, gotta be hard wired! If I go through all that then the permit is $200 per year. Then the inspector made a suggestion..."Why don't you do event? We only have about 2 vendors and there is an event every weekend all summer through the leaf season" To do this the inspector does a check of the concession trailer even when it is not clean and ready to serve. They are looking to make sure things are food safe. The cost for the permit is ZERO! I am considering the last option!
In the mean time I have hooked up with a friend from about 18 years ago and I might be getting involved with part time logging!!!
The trailer is for sale...
I think I'd might really like a large traditional stick smoker like a Klose and perhaps get into catering.
Today I am going to complete the new kitchen to begin production of my bbq sauce. If I get that done today I'll have a new proper batch of bbq sauce for sale within a day or so. I'll keep you posted and hope that ya'll will give it a try.
June 1, 2004. Have an appointment with the director of the health department tomorrow at 1:30 PM. Friend JOe knows him from church!
My feeling now are that I'd rather open again as described previously than sell the trailer! Keep your fingers crossed for a hopeful outcome!