Introducing the Bro-Mods Podcast
It’s Bros…Building Shit
- Podcast and blog that celebrates the spirit of invention and innovation that made America great
- From simple hacks and mods…to full scale design and fabrication of new inventions…and everything in between
- Whether you’re a brother bro, sister bro, or an other bro…If you built it, let’s see itÂ
Why I Created the Bro-Mods PodcastÂ
Bro-Mods is a podcast and blog about celebrating and showcasing the people who modify, build, and innovate…and their creations. It’s for the ones who see room for improvement, see opportunities to innovate or invent, and actually do something about it. That mindset is what made America great, and honestly, it’s probably what pushed humanity forward since the dawn of time. The mechanics of thoughts in action are simple. You get an idea, see where it fits, and build it. Trial and error (lots of error). It’s often kind of ugly and even dangerous. Electric shock…things blow up in your face…busted knuckles…a mess your significant other just doesn’t understand. It’s not always safe for your health or your relationships. But progress itself isn’t safe.
Many companies started in garages or backyard sheds, built by Brother Bros, Sister Bros and Other Bros who weren’t afraid to experiment. If we’re being honest, we have to give credit to Small Business and The Trades, the heart of goat-pen.com. Small businesses grow into big ones and it all starts with that first mod, that first innovation, that first “what if?” The Trades are filled with doers and builders. Most tradesmen are in fact employed by small businesses. For many, the trades provide a path to business ownership and the American Dream. We should also expand our definition of The Trades to include occupations that don’t fit the “skilled trade” mold. That aren’t immediately associated with unions or guilds. That might straddle the lines between vocation and knowledge work. Occupations like child care, merchants & shopkeepers and any of the technicians that keep the Internet of Things afloat.Â
What do all these small businesses and occupations have in common? It’s a connection to decentralization while often lacking a clear institutional connection. Small business and the trades are not born of academia. They’re not born of bureaucracy. They are better situated to remain agile. Unfortunately, as they grow, we begin to see symptoms of systemic organizational illness, that then serve to empower academics and bureaucrats to overthink shit, miss the point and offer counter productive, institutional, and collectivist solutions. The reality is that “organizational behavior” is an a illusion. Sure, people behave differently in groups, in societies and in organizations. But at the end of the day, a group’s, society’s and organization’s behavior is the sum total of individual actions. Institutionalization and centralization build systems that interrupt feedback loops, blocking diagnostic and corrective feedback to the system while giving outsized and often unchecked power to idiots in charge. It’s a recipe for removing checks and balances. And, in case you forgot your High School Civics, that’s the heart of a Constitutional Republic…the system of government guaranteed by our Constitution.Â
Bro-Mods celebrates the pioneering spirit. It celebrates taking risk while seeking reward. It celebrates individualism that ultimately contributes to the common good. It celebrates the power of the middle finger while also celebrating the power of the outstretched hand. It recognizes that all creative pursuits are art…from technology, to science, to music, to stories, to product design, to services and businesses. It celebrates the fact that we behave best collectively, when we take action individually.Â
My First Bro-Mod: The Toast Buttering Push Pop
Looking back, my first real Bro-Mod was a solution to a simple but universal problem—buttering toast, when I was about 8 years old. This was before microwaves were in every kitchen, so you either had rock-hard butter straight from the fridge or room-temperature butter. Ours was rock hard.
My poor solution was to peel back the foil on a cold butter stick and paint it onto the toast while the toast was still hot. It sort of worked but it polluted the butter with toast crumbs, which pissed my mom off to no end, it destroyed the toast, and I got butter all over my hands. I envisioned something that was purpose built for toast that my mom couldn’t get upset about. Maybe I could even leave it out on the counter to keep it soft. In my mind, I saw something like a sherbet push pop that dispensed butter without making a mess. I built one out of cardboard and tape and it sort of worked. But at the age of 8, I had more imagination than patience, and my engineering skills weren’t quite there yet. It fell apart, mom insisted I was wasting butter, and I gave up. But Bro… it was my first foray into modding, invention, and innovation.
They actually make something like this now and you can get versions of it on Amazon (click pic for link)
A Coast Guard Mod That Actually Worked
Years later, while serving in the Coast Guard, I developed a nautical chart protection system using 3″ rolls of transparent matte film and rolls of 3M 3000 adhesive—the Post-it Note stuff. I contacted 3M’s R&D department and asked what they had that I could use. They ended up sending me several rolls of sample stock that was actually enough to make a few years worth of chart protection tape. I combined the two products to make removable film that I placed over the track lines. It was just wide enough for the radar lines of position from the compass leads to land on the film. Constant erasures and sharp compass leads usually tear up a chart after a few uses and the marks never really erase clear. Regular transparent tape was sometimes used by navigators but it usually ended up getting damaged by the compass leads and erasures and then the parallel motion protractor (rolling ruler) would get stuck. After two years and hundreds of hours of use, my charts still looked brand new. And, because the tape was held on with the Post-It adhesive, it could be removed and repositioned. So, that mod actually worked. Today, very few people use paper charts so there would be a small market for it. Unlike the butter push-pop, I don’t see that anyone else has developed the idea. Although, 3M still makes the double sided adhesive and there are certainly rolls of matte and clear film available to make the stuff. Matte film works best for the pencil leads but the clear glossy stuff will work if you sand it with super fine sand paper or crocus cloth.
The Weber Kettle Pizza Oven That Became the OG Bro-Mod
Now, I’ve never been a full-time Modder or fabricator. It comes and goes, sometimes out of necessity, sometimes just because. But when the need arises, the mods follow.
One day, I decided I wanted a real NY style pizza oven. One that could make an 18-20 inch pie and that could maintain 550-650 F, just like the real thing. My home oven wasn’t cutting it. The crust tastes different when it cooks hotter and faster. Now…I know I could buy one… but the ones that can handle an 18″ pizza are way too expensive. And… why not build one?Â
So I started modding.
The Trial and Error (and Near Explosions)
Version 1? A Lodge cast iron pizza steel on a propane bonfire pit and covered with the top off an old generic Home Depot bargain kettle grill.
The result was that I burned the hell out of my pizza and my hands. But it was kind of working and the crust was different from a slower, cooler cooked pie.
This was mostly a proof of concept. It cooked a pizza in about 90 seconds. Well...truth is it burned a pizza in about 90 seconds.
I just stacked one on top of the other for a makeshift oven.
The V.2: A Craigslist Weber Kettle—new in the box for 100 bucks with an 18 ” bonfire ring for heat and a 19″ 1/4 inch thick shop built pizza steel from a metal fabricator dude off eBay.Â
What I actually made was a bomb. I couldn’t control the flow of propane and it kept blowing out the bottom like it was breathing fire. Dangerous AF. The pizza steel was perfect though. It comes coated with mill scale that you need to remove with a 50/50 water vinegar soak for a couple of days. I used a water heater overflow pan for my soaking vessel and lifted the steel plate off the bottom with few pennies. Although, it was probably an unnecessary expense and I’m pretty sure you could use a contractor bag, maybe dammed up with a makeshift cardboard base. Get your vinegar at Walmart for about $4 a gallon. The bigger your soaking vessel the more vinegar you’ll need.Â
Then came more trial and error:
More vents holes
A banjo burner (for more precise flame control)
A convection fan from a commercial chicken rotisserie like the ones at Costco. I tested the fan on the bottom below the burner and in the hood. On the bottom it blew the flame out but in the top it worked great and blew hot air right on the pizza.Â
Separation between the flame and the pizza steel using a 16-inch carbon steel wok as a heat diffuser. The wok would get red hot so a few lava rocks worked wonders to tame the hot spot.
The hood needed to go up easy and stay up. I chose a lid from a barrel drum smoker. The flat lid on the 50 gallon drum meant that the hinge, when put on the kettle, would already be in a partially open position even with the kettle lid down. So, the geometry was such that the lid would only open â…” of the way, which helped to keep all the heat from vanishing when checking on and turning the pizza.Â
The convection fan was regulated with a potentiometer but it didn’t pair well with the motor so it really only had two speeds…full speed and off.Â
I also added a thermometer in the hood and a handle on the front for easier opening.Â
The top was browning perfectly but the bottom crust burned. So, I added a pizza screen to give some separation between the crust and the pizza steel. This actually worked better than expected. The steel is so hot that I still got a perfectly browned bottom and handling the pizza from the kitchen to the oven and turning it in the oven was much easier than placing it directly on the steel. It was a win/win.Â
Here is the general construction from the bottom up
The final result? I can fire up the Bro-Mod, get it up to temp in a few minutes and I end up with a real NY-style pizza that cooks in 7-10 minutes, just like a proper NY pizza oven.Â
But I wasn’t done.
I added an electric heating element from a Masterbuilt brand electric smoker. With a little experimentation, I discovered that wood chunks placed on the original kettle charcoal grate directly over the element produced excellent smoke. And, I could kick start it with the banjo burner. The temperature control on the element allows the Bro-Mod to maintain an almost perfect 225-250 degrees F. It makes outstanding pulled pork, brisket and smoked salmon. And because it’s also a convection oven, it does it about 25% faster. If I don’t want to mess with the electric element for wood smoke, I can pipe some smoke it with a cold smoke wand, or use it as a slow roaster.Â
We use this contraption for all kinds of cooking now:
- Propane Pizza Oven
- Propane Powered Giant Air Fryer (perfect for roasting peppers for my Laotian wife’s dipping sauces)
- Camp Stove, Wok Station, Steak Searer
- Roasting Oven
- Smoker
I called it the Bro-Mod. And while I’d built things before, in my mind this was the OG Bro-Mod, because the idea for the podcast came from it.Â
At some point, I started wondering:Â Who else does this kind of shit?
Seriously, who spends their time and money building things when they could just buy them?
The answer? People like me. People who don’t care what others think – People more driven by the creative process and challenge than anything else.
The Bro-Mods Podcast: A Celebration of the Modders, Fabricators, Inventors and Innovators,Â
I want to interview those people. I want to see the awesome shit they’ve modded and built. I want to share their stories and their creations with the world.
Bro-Mods is part podcast, part whip-it-out contest. I’ve shown you mine…Now show me yours.Â
My Modding Didn’t Stop There – I Used it in My Studio
Even my podcast setup is modded.
Microphone stands: Risers removed so the boom arms sit directly on the base for better camera angles. And, 2.5-lb Olympic weight plates JB Welded to the bottom so they don’t tip over.
Home office desk? A 30-inch IKEA tabletop that slides over my keyboard tray so I can pull it out and rest it on the arms of my La-Z-Boy Harbor Town swivel rocker recliner.
Recliner? Raised with casters from Harbor Freight to bring it to the perfect height and make it mobile.
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