Assume you complete the circuit for the SSR. Do you have an earth on the cabinet itself?

That is it!! I vote to ban Paul and Barney. I can’t look at those posts without the urge to drive around the country side where they normally dump defuncts appliances. Gotta love Louisiana

That’s the spirit!
No home is complete without a repurposed appliance smoker, preferably proudly displayed on your front porch next to the ice chest full of refreshments and a couple of sleeping dogs.
Got the mental image yet? lol

Any more info on this? I’m hoping to do the same thing but I know I’m missing a step. Unsure how to wire up an SSR to the heating element. I get how the Fireboard drive cable can switch the SSR, but most diagrams are using an Auber PID that handles the main voltage.

Do you have another device that handles the main voltage from the plug to the heating element?

An SSR is just a relay switching device. Two of its terminals are wired between the power source and the heating element. The other two terminals are the control terminals that are connected to a PID or other control device that tells the SSR to turn on or off.

Here is a generic diagram that shows how the SSR connect to the element in the smoker I recently built. The SSR is at the bottom.

Do you have another device that handles the main voltage from the plug to the heating element?

Interesting. I ripped the guts out of my two Masterbuilts because the gap between the chip pan and the element failed to keep the wood chips smoldering.
But going to a modification has allowed perfect smoke control, and perfect temperature control.

The word Perfect being used very ambiguously here. Nothing is perfect, that is why engineering spec sheets are nice. It gives you the tolerances outside of middle of the broad brush strokes.
Most “Consumer Grade” anything is going to be ballpark at best. And bare in mind that ballparks have fields of room for errors.

Ha, Ha, I still have my beer on hand.
I do remote monitoring. I have 3 different thermometers that remotely report what’s going on. (But I usually only use one of them at a time.)
But now I sit at the computer, or TV, and watch the temperatures.
But I’m not one to go traipsing off shopping for underwear or other items while cooking.

Beer is an important safety accessory for BBQing. It is important to have a “cold one” on hand in case of burned fingers.
You can immediately grab your cold can of beer to take the heat out of a burned finger.
Beer has natural anesthetic properties, and can have a numbing effect before the actual accidental burning. So there is that two-fold advantage of cold beer in hand.
A side effect of Beer at the BBQ is it can make you more entertaining to your guests. Especially if they, too, imbibe.
So the next time your spouse complains about having beer with your Bar-B-Que, point out the safety advantages of cold beer on hand.
To me, being safety conscience, it was important enough to put my Curing/Beer Fridge at my Outdoor Kitchen. Because I find my beer has a tendency to evaporate. So having more on hand where it is apt to be needed quickly made sense.
And the little fridge is a good place to put my smoked Bacon to age after smoking to mellow out. Having a ballast of 12 ounce mini kegs for temperature balance, the mini kegs also take on the wonderful aroma of smoked bacon.

I think having separate monitoring is better because if it fails, replacing the thermal probe, or the entire thermometer is better than fiddling with built in sorts of units.