Cheshiresmoker

Hi, its a Barrel smoker I would presume. Not the best but starting out at the min. Do have my eye on a Masterbuilt 560 🙂 I have started on lumpwood and I know its a hotter faster burn. However I've tried snake method but it burned out to quick and have tried the minion twice but the whole lot of lump seems to ignite too fast. I've tried closing the intake and exhaust as its building heat but it still overshoots all the time and doesn't hold temp on my target temp. John.

New to smoking.. Done a few cooks with a barrel smoker from Argos. Its similar to the cosmo bbq type smoker but has the chimney.. My question is I've tried snake and minion method with Big K lumpwood. However it always seems to ignite the whole amount of lumpwood amd therefore I hit temps of 250c. I shut my intake to a tiny gap at 70c and my exhaust to 3/4 shut but still seems to fully ignite. I've sealed the smoker best I can. I'm wondering if I've to much in the chimney to start with? I usually light half a chimney. Sorry for the big questions... Cheers folks..