bonehead762
Full Fledged Farker
Thanks to all who helped with the sizing of the Ranch Kettle charcoal grate.
His is 10 years old and no longer held up the coals. They were just about resting on the bottom. So I wanted to surprise him with a new, heavy duty version. I went with 31 1/2" in diameter. Here's the cut out expanded metal,
/Users/markrios/Desktop/Grate 1.jpg
I cut the 3/8" steel rod to 124" to give me some extra roommate play with while making the outer circle/ring.
Then I screwed in a 3/4" (just what I had) electrical conduit clamp into a telephone pole. I inserted the end of the 3/8" rod into the clamp just far enough so it would hold...like 1". Then I started to gently kinda wrap the rod/bend the rod around the pole, just a little bit at a time. I needed a 31 1/2" circle so I just guessed at how much to bend each time.
Slowly the circle started to take shape. I had marked the spot where the ends had to meet, at 98 1/2", and just slowly kept bending until I had a roughly 31 1/2" circle and the first end circled around to meet the 98 1/2" mark.
I laid the circle of steel rod onto the expanded metal and tacked the 2 together at roughly the middle of the circle. Then I just tacked every so often and pushed or pulled as needed to make the rod align with the edge of the round expanded metal. I finished the circle and went back and welded all the edges/points of expanded metal to the rod.
Then I added three supports to the bottom and tacked the expanded to the rod in the center. This is what it ended up as...
/Users/markrios/Desktop/Grate 2.jpg
After that I made a fire in the back yard and burned off all the oily/gunky stuff on the new steel and it is ready to barbecue!
His is 10 years old and no longer held up the coals. They were just about resting on the bottom. So I wanted to surprise him with a new, heavy duty version. I went with 31 1/2" in diameter. Here's the cut out expanded metal,
/Users/markrios/Desktop/Grate 1.jpg
I cut the 3/8" steel rod to 124" to give me some extra roommate play with while making the outer circle/ring.
Then I screwed in a 3/4" (just what I had) electrical conduit clamp into a telephone pole. I inserted the end of the 3/8" rod into the clamp just far enough so it would hold...like 1". Then I started to gently kinda wrap the rod/bend the rod around the pole, just a little bit at a time. I needed a 31 1/2" circle so I just guessed at how much to bend each time.
Slowly the circle started to take shape. I had marked the spot where the ends had to meet, at 98 1/2", and just slowly kept bending until I had a roughly 31 1/2" circle and the first end circled around to meet the 98 1/2" mark.
I laid the circle of steel rod onto the expanded metal and tacked the 2 together at roughly the middle of the circle. Then I just tacked every so often and pushed or pulled as needed to make the rod align with the edge of the round expanded metal. I finished the circle and went back and welded all the edges/points of expanded metal to the rod.
Then I added three supports to the bottom and tacked the expanded to the rod in the center. This is what it ended up as...
/Users/markrios/Desktop/Grate 2.jpg
After that I made a fire in the back yard and burned off all the oily/gunky stuff on the new steel and it is ready to barbecue!
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