Made a Mini today.

[Nate]

@Butch can you post pics of your setup? Maybe start a new post too for this.

[Jason]

I use the steamer part with holes to hold a tera cotta heat diffuser.

Maybe it's too diffused?

with the steamer flat & the terra cotta both, it may block too much rising heat?

---^ This is what I'm thinking too.

@Butch Top vent 100% open? How open were the bottom, or side vents?

How many fully lit coals did you start with?

[fedex]

My setup: 
Full mini chimney in a nice little pile.
6 lit Kingsford briquettes & 1chunk of Apple wood.
No disfuser
Bottom vents just cracked top wide open.
Settled in at around 260 and never got as high as 280.

Just about the same method I use when cooking on my UDS.

Try again without the disfuser.

[1911Ron]

I love it! I am definitely doing this soon.
Where did you get your pot?

What, if anything, are you using for a charcoal ring and diffuser?

@jcnaz I use the steamer tray as my diffuser and i took some expanded metal and made a ring.

[Bob BQ]

@tomtappel something similar to what 1buckie's pictures posted above works great. I've got something similar, and it definitely keeps the ash from clogging up the vent holes.

Yourself, Tommy ( @Lowbrass  ) and I need to get together...  sooner, rather than later...

[tomtappel]

A smoke out, let's do it bob

[LightningBoldtz]

@Butch this is what I did

When I first made my mini I drilled a bunch of holes on the bottom then I used the steamer platform(what you put the food on if it was a seamer) to set my terra cota plate on.  This worked at times and sometimes I just could not get the heat up.  So last year I did this.

I noticed this the most when I switched from a SJG bottom to a SJS(I did this because grilling on a gold kinda sucked)

Original config
Steamer platform pic


w/ Terra Cata plate


The mod that works great
Cut out bottom




Install bolts for diffuser plate




New diffuser plate with bolts to keep it from shifting all over