BluesDaddy
Full Fledged Farker
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2010
- Location
- South...
Okay, first of all let me come right out and confess I'm cheap. I don't mean I like cheap stuff, as in poorly manufactured items; but I like nice stuff cheap. I just got my oldest daughter graduated from college and married last June and my second daughter finished up her junior year in college last week. Both went to private colleges, so I don't really have much money to play around with these days.
That said, I love my Weber OTS and got a Smokenator for my Birthday last month so I could do low and slow without having to invest in a WSM or (the desire of my heart) an X-Large BGE. I've had great success with the Smokenator, but have found the urge hit me to grill something while waiting on a pork butt to cook. Of course, after being on this forum for a while I discovered it not unusual for folks, even common back yard cookers like me, to have multiple cooking devices. (My wife use to think it a bit overkill when I had a BGE, a gasser and a charcoal grill...) Anyway, I've been hankering for another Weber, but not willing to pay for a new one I have be scouring CL pretty much every day. Being in Atlanta, must folks price used Webers WAY too highly (not sure what is up with that). And what show up on CL are usually a good ways away from where I live. But yesterday a listing showed up for a yard sale for today and a Weber grill was listed. From the pic it appeared to be an 18.5" OTS. Best of all, it was only about 7 miles from where I live, so I thought I would check it out. At the worst I could go from there to the nearby Wally World and pick up some stuff.
So, at about 8:15 AM I'm out the door and in my truck. When I get to the neighborhood, it is a multi-house event through out the subdivision. I cruise around a bit; stop at a couple places; but don't see anything of interest until I get to the address listed on CL. I hop out and first thing I see is the Weber OTS. It is not an 18.5 but a 22". :thumb: It's not too old, maybe just a two or three years, but obviously left out in the weather. The ash catcher is banged up and bent and the lid was in the line of fire of some white or other light color spray paint. It also has a sticker for $25 on it. Too much. I walk around a bit, looking at other stuff and the lady running the sale says hello to me. I mention the grill and would she take $15 for it? She starts walking toward it, hemming and hawing a bit, and say it's a little beat up and I'll have to replace the grates, etc., and she says okay. I pull $15 out my wallet (all that was in there save one George W) and proceed to load my new toy into the bed of my truck and strap 'er down. I know if there are no pics, it didn't happen, so, here you go:
Back home, but still in the back of my truck. You can see the nasty grates.
Here it is in the backyard, looking into the bowl. Nasty!
From this angle you can see the bent up ash bowl.
Well, I break out the hose, some Barkeeper's Friend, a scruby and go to work. 45 minutes or so later, a good bit of cleanser and elbow grease, here are the results:
A shot of the clean inside:
Lid and handles scrubbed up:
With a brand new $12 WalMart grill.
I cleaned up the ash bowl from my original OTS (using a terracotta pot with it now) and attached it and place the grill on the patio. The front leg didn't have a cap, so I pulled the cap off a propane bottle I had in our shed and, with a little encouragement, it fit:
Here are my not quite identical twins side by side.
One can be a dedicated smoker with the Smokenator and the other used for grilling. You can see the light dusting of spray paint on the one just purchased, not sure how to get that off. I feel a little bad cause the new old grill looks better now than the old old grill, but I got some charcoal in the old one from a cook Thursday night that I want to use up and didn't feel like messing with it.
Thanks for the inspiration of this forum! It ain't much, and it sure ain't expensive, but as Harry Soo proved, it ain't the cooker, it's the cook!! Hope I haven't bored y'all!!
That said, I love my Weber OTS and got a Smokenator for my Birthday last month so I could do low and slow without having to invest in a WSM or (the desire of my heart) an X-Large BGE. I've had great success with the Smokenator, but have found the urge hit me to grill something while waiting on a pork butt to cook. Of course, after being on this forum for a while I discovered it not unusual for folks, even common back yard cookers like me, to have multiple cooking devices. (My wife use to think it a bit overkill when I had a BGE, a gasser and a charcoal grill...) Anyway, I've been hankering for another Weber, but not willing to pay for a new one I have be scouring CL pretty much every day. Being in Atlanta, must folks price used Webers WAY too highly (not sure what is up with that). And what show up on CL are usually a good ways away from where I live. But yesterday a listing showed up for a yard sale for today and a Weber grill was listed. From the pic it appeared to be an 18.5" OTS. Best of all, it was only about 7 miles from where I live, so I thought I would check it out. At the worst I could go from there to the nearby Wally World and pick up some stuff.
So, at about 8:15 AM I'm out the door and in my truck. When I get to the neighborhood, it is a multi-house event through out the subdivision. I cruise around a bit; stop at a couple places; but don't see anything of interest until I get to the address listed on CL. I hop out and first thing I see is the Weber OTS. It is not an 18.5 but a 22". :thumb: It's not too old, maybe just a two or three years, but obviously left out in the weather. The ash catcher is banged up and bent and the lid was in the line of fire of some white or other light color spray paint. It also has a sticker for $25 on it. Too much. I walk around a bit, looking at other stuff and the lady running the sale says hello to me. I mention the grill and would she take $15 for it? She starts walking toward it, hemming and hawing a bit, and say it's a little beat up and I'll have to replace the grates, etc., and she says okay. I pull $15 out my wallet (all that was in there save one George W) and proceed to load my new toy into the bed of my truck and strap 'er down. I know if there are no pics, it didn't happen, so, here you go:
Back home, but still in the back of my truck. You can see the nasty grates.
Here it is in the backyard, looking into the bowl. Nasty!
From this angle you can see the bent up ash bowl.
Well, I break out the hose, some Barkeeper's Friend, a scruby and go to work. 45 minutes or so later, a good bit of cleanser and elbow grease, here are the results:
A shot of the clean inside:
Lid and handles scrubbed up:
With a brand new $12 WalMart grill.
I cleaned up the ash bowl from my original OTS (using a terracotta pot with it now) and attached it and place the grill on the patio. The front leg didn't have a cap, so I pulled the cap off a propane bottle I had in our shed and, with a little encouragement, it fit:
Here are my not quite identical twins side by side.
One can be a dedicated smoker with the Smokenator and the other used for grilling. You can see the light dusting of spray paint on the one just purchased, not sure how to get that off. I feel a little bad cause the new old grill looks better now than the old old grill, but I got some charcoal in the old one from a cook Thursday night that I want to use up and didn't feel like messing with it.
Thanks for the inspiration of this forum! It ain't much, and it sure ain't expensive, but as Harry Soo proved, it ain't the cooker, it's the cook!! Hope I haven't bored y'all!!
