"Jim" wrote in message

Couldn't see how 2 sheets of paper was gonna make all this charcoal ash
up so I set it on my turkey fryer base and turned on the gas.

Yep, them engineers at Weber don't have a clue. Glad you thought to do
something different rather than try following the instructrions.

Don't know if I went overboard or what, but by
the time the top pieces ashed over, the chimney was about half full.
Didn't know what to do so I threw it in the kettle. Chucked the wet
hickory on, put the top grate on and thew on the meat.

It smoked like crazy

Soggy wood does that.


Problems came in that I'm sure I didn't have enough charcoal..

You lost a bunch of it getting it started using the space shuttle booster.



How can I get the temp up? More charcoal would obviously help but I won't
have time to wait for another chimney full to be ready. Did I ruin the
lump by feeding it the steady flame from the gas burner? I'm thinking I
didn't need the newspaper at all if I was gonna use the gas burner.

And you don't need the gas burner with the newspaper. Lump starts much
easier than briqettes and you can add lump at any time withoug having to
start it.



Also, a good bit of the cooked charcoal fell through the grate. I've read
somewhere that the spacing on the Weber charcoal grate is really a bit
wide. Would it be ok to lay a piece of chicken wire or somesuch over it
to prevent small pieces from falling through?

Sure, why not?



Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...want to use it some more
this weekend.

Vents opened properly?
--
Ed
http://pages.cthome.net/edhome/