Day 1- Making the Frame
This Green SS Performer is my Donor Cart. It's in great shape but Green is not my color
First order of business is to strip down the cart. This only takes a few min.
Next I cut the welded support bars off the kettle side of the table. I need to spread the bolted horizontal crossbars apart in order to fit the kettle and OTG ash catcher down low. I left the welded support bar opposing the kettle because it's not getting in the way of anything
Cut using a jigsaw. Sorry for the misrotated pic. I actually didn't cut like this, I just wanted to show that a jigsaw fit here. I felt that an angle grinder was overkill and a dremel can't reach in there that well
Sparks while smoothing out the leftover welds.
Test fitting the kettle. I wanted the kettle as low as possible while still allowing for removal and installation of the ashpot. There's ~1" clearance below the ashpot to move it in and out. The performer bowl is now structural as it's the only thing that provides torsional rigidity on that side of the frame. Recall that we cut the crossbar out from that side.
It fits! crossbars are 18.5" ground-to-top. They are attached to the legs with the OEM star nuts and 1/4-20 bolt. I then drilled them to mount the kettle with the standard tabs. I also offset the kettle by roughly one inch closer to the end of the frame. This gives the midsection proper clearance to the radius-cut ss panel. The standard performer kettle hangs a little bit over this panel and I didn't want the panel banging into the midsection's porcelain when I wheel this thing around. Finally, the wheel axle hits the ashpot by about 1". I'll cut it down later and figure out another attachment method for the wheels.
The one thing that i didn't anticipate is the the midsection barely fitting through the legs. There is a mild interference of ~1/2" at the bottom flared edge. It's pops right through though. Because of this I'll probably be less inclined to take the midsection on and off too frequently and hurt my porcelain. Good thing I'll have the OT to clean out my bowl.
Other things to do to the frame:
Cut the axle to clear the ashpot.
Think about moving the propane tank and ignition switch.
Touchup.