My old setup was basically stacking splits however they balanced, which meant tons of wasted heat shooting straight for the chimney. Watching him angle those logs in that shallow V totally clicked for me, like the smoke had a path to travel instead of just escaping. Now I catch myself studying the flame roll every time I load the firebox, and the bark on my briskets came out way richer the very next cook.

... so you're telling me I coulda blamed the $40 torpedo level this whole time instead of my own eyeballs and shaky hands, huh... man, talk about a humbling day on the job site. I spent a whole weekend last year fighting a laser that was off by like half a degree, thought I'd suddenly forgotten how to hang a shelf, nearly threw the thing in the lake. Then I swapped it for one of those self-leveling ones and suddenly my corners weren't fighting me anymore. Painful to think about all those "just a little crooked" shims I used to fix what was never my fault in the first place.