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It was a windy day in the big city... I was going
to do my signature beef ribs but was concerned about the wind. I set up some
plywood sheets to baffle to lower vents, but the top vent was the most concern
to me - a good crisp wind would probably evacuate the heat from the lid area
in short order - that's where all the cooking happens.
True, I could move the ribs to the lower grate to
offset this problem, but I'm too tall and lazy to do all the bending and stooping
for that. I needed a baffle for the top vent, and I didn't have time to go
through the usual engineering design cycle that I obsessively put myself through
for such things. I needed something now! - a baffle - something that
would let the air come out the vent while preventing the wind from blowing
into the lid where all the cooking gets done.
Here's what I did - I scrounged around the garage
and found one of those mid sized coffee cans - the approx 12 oz of coffee
grind size. It was storing some hardware which I had to find a new home for,
but the need was urgent. The open end of this size can would fit over the
vent and stay there quite nicely.
The other end of the can was still closed since this
can was used for storage. My first instinct was to put the can back in the
can opener to remove the bottom, and I'd wind up with just a tube. But a coffee
can cut into a tube would be too flimsy to last for it's next use without
getting squashed. I wanted to cut a hole in the bottom only as large as I
needed to vent sufficiently.
I calculated area of the top vent openings - 3 holes
at 3/4 of an inch diameter equals 0.44 per hole, or a total venting area of
1.32 inches wide open. I would need to cut an opening in the bottom of the
can to provide at least 1.32 inches of area for ventilation.
The manufacturer of the can gracious enough to make
this can with several concentric circular ridges in the bottom of the can
for strength. The first one was at 2 inches diameter which gives 3.14 inches
of ventilation area - well above the minimum needed and enough material left
behind to keep the can strong. I took some old kitchen sheers that had been
retired to the garage and nibbled out the hole roughly to this 2 inch diameter
ridge circle. Next came the Dremel tool with a grinding bit to smooth out
the burrs and even out the roundness of the hole to look more professionally
machined.
Now I have a @ 12 oz can open on one end, and a 2
inch hole on the other. I would set the open end of the can over the vent
and let the hot air come out the 2 inch hole. I had plenty of options at this
point to use as a baffle material - I could leave the can empty, which would
probably have achieved 80% of the benefit, but I'm not about to leave 20%
on the table.
A paper towel over the hole would allow air to freely
exit the vent, and would probably stop the wind from getting in - a rubber
band could easily hold the paper towel in place. A sheet of foam or any number
of other materials would suffice as well. For some reason, I opted to ball
up 4 or 5 foil balls to put inside the can to baffle any wind entering while
allowing hot air to escape.
The cook is going on right now. So far so good - Here's
some pictures:
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