Just ordered the #3

[wehill]

Walt, when you did your clean up, how spent was your wood chunks?  6 ounces of wood for ribs should have been a strong smoke for these smokers.

Dave, I checked the firebox and there was three piles of ashes.  I placed the wood blocks at the front, back and in the middle of the firebox.  This was the second time I have burned wood and on both times the wood was totally reduced to ashes.

[LarryD]

A-ha!  Ashes would indicate that your wood chunks caught fire and combusted.  When I do it right I end up with full-chunk size pieces of charcoal.  (I actually throw the charcoal chunks in my charcoal supply and burn them in my grill.)  You might try 'foiling' your wood and that could help reduce the incidence of combustion.  I've also been known to soak my wood chunks for 10 minutes before smoking which really seems to help.  Make sure you're not turning on your smoker before the door is closed/locked... otherwise you'll get lots of fresh oxygen in there which might cause the wood to ignite.

This would explain the less smoky flavor as your wood is burning instead of smoking...

Dave, I checked the firebox and there was three piles of ashes.  I placed the wood blocks at the front, back and in the middle of the firebox.  This was the second time I have burned wood and on both times the wood was totally reduced to ashes.

[SuperDave]

A-ha!  Ashes would indicate that your wood chunks caught fire and combusted.  When I do it right I end up with full-chunk size pieces of charcoal. 

My feelings as well.  The Smokilicious folks say that the higher moisture content wood doesn't combust.  For us other guys, a little MacGyver work and I believe combustion can be avoided with any wood. 

[wehill]

A-ha!  Ashes would indicate that your wood chunks caught fire and combusted.  When I do it right I end up with full-chunk size pieces of charcoal.  (I actually throw the charcoal chunks in my charcoal supply and burn them in my grill.)  You might try 'foiling' your wood and that could help reduce the incidence of combustion.  I've also been known to soak my wood chunks for 10 minutes before smoking which really seems to help.  Make sure you're not turning on your smoker before the door is closed/locked... otherwise you'll get lots of fresh oxygen in there which might cause the wood to ignite.

This would explain the less smoky flavor as your wood is burning instead of smoking...

Larry, thanks for the reply. 

My method was to prepare the smoker by covering the bottom with foil; loading my wood chunks in the firebox; put a foil tent over the firebox.  Then loaded the meat in the smoker.  Then I shut the door and locked it down.  The the "last" thing I did was turn the smoker on to a temperature of 225.

I watched the smoker for the first 30 minutes.  I first detected faint smoke at about 15 minutes and it was smoking really good at 30 minutes.  I had good smoke through the first 4 and 1/2 hours.  So, I don't think the chunks burst into flame and burned.  If spontaneous combustion had happened, I wouldn't have had any smoke by the end of the first hour or so.

[wehill]

Dave and Larry, thanks for the advice.  I have spent the better part of the last couple of days figuring out the mechanics of how the #3 cycles through a smoke.  Also, worked on the advice on how to control the oxygen to get a smoother and longer smoulder of the wood.  In my last run, I put in 5 ounces of wood and ran the #3 for three hours at 225 degrees.  I got good smoke for three hours and when I took the firebox out of the #3 I had three blocks of wood that collectively weighed 1.5 ounce.  So, I only smouldered 3.5 ounces of wood during the three hours.

I put in two racks of Babybacks about 10:00 a.m. this morning.  I'm going to let them go for four hours, then slather the ribs with my sauce and put them back in for 20 to 30 minutes.