I've been starting my chimney in a SJ bowl for many years. In addition, about a year ago I started using an empty second chimney stacked on top that speeds up the lighting process. 7 minutes after lighting, I shake the chimney to move the briquettes around (use the motion a Chef does when flipping ingredients in a frying pan). About 1 minute later the briquettes are ready to dump. 8 minutes from lighting to dumping equates to even less smoke.Here is a thread on the topic from last July:http://weberkettleclub.com/forums/index.php?topic=42794.0
I've been setting my chimney on one of these for years to light it. I finally had to clean off the moss from around the base of the block when I was cleaning up my deck this year, but the block is pretty much indestructible. You'd probably want to pick through a few in the store and find one that doesn't have any underfilled corners, but they're cheap and foolproof.
I've been doing the same thing. I recently found out it's not a great idea to leave a chimney starting on the outside patio cement. So I painted a SJ that never gets used and it's job now is chimney chair.