Niiiice setup this one!!! Where did you get this lovely sherlock style pipe??
BTW, I couldn't help myself and I opened my HT Lotus to see her insides..(cheeky me
)
I must say that I'm impressed with what I saw. It's different reading about the new elements and seeing the pictures rather than seeing for yourself.
Completely no signs of any char.. The wood is in a perfect state. Just some slightly darker colouring on a side of it but that's it, nothing more. Imagine that I have been using it daily for the past month or so with a lot of solid torching and extra heating. The extra ring beneath the plate does make a proper job there. It definitely absorbs a lot of heat.
The only thing that I found it a little bit weird is that the screws, although I put them perfectly on the slots that there are for them, did not screw back as easily as they unscrewed. Probably this should be due to the 1st time of putting them in. I checked the holes and they were pretty neat. So I can imagine that you wouldn't want to do that too many times. The wood will get lose and eventually there will be nowhere to screw them on.
Moreover, it has been mentioned before but its hard to keep up with all the threads so worth mentioning it again that you don't really need a grinder in case that you don't have one. You can just put proper chunks in the bowl and then they get vaked really nice and even!! I do prefer it slightly grinded but still you get the job done even without...