Great work Bob.... I love it, I wish I had the option of using it in a 26er
And I'm honored that I inspired you to try it
There I was thinking that it was just another crazy idea from The Land Of Odzs
A couple of things I like about using this setup
1. No direct heat
2. More cooking area
3. Even heat over entire cooking area
4. Less fuel needed to generate more heat
5. No mess below charcoal grate
As far as using the metal instead of fire bricks. Well I can't comment cause I've never used them
But there is no direct heat, which is what I was trying to stop
I've found that when cooking wings that the wings at the back of the grate cook just as well if not better than the ones next to the metal plate, without the plate I always had to move the wings around to ensure they all cooked evenly or didn't burn..... Must have something to do with the convection
The only thing that worries me is the fact that the fuel is against the kettle which may cause crazing
So I made this charcoal basket out of an old kettle bowl
It holds more than a full chimney of fuel and leaves an inch gap between the bowl and the basket
The other idea I had was to weld an inch high band around the bottom deflector plate to turn it into a drip pan