Oregon intro and help

[OregonKettler]

Hey All,

I've been excited to finally share my new collection and introduce myself to the group. This has been a quarantine interest of mine which quickly transformed into a compulsion.

I went from nothing to this little collection over the last two months just by staying locked in to Craigslist. It started when I bought a crummy box store offset smoker off Craigslist and an 18" came with it. I thought at first it would be just a nice side addition, but I soon realized the kettle was really the value of the deal I got.

Soon after I noticed the surprising number of posters willing to part with their Webers on CL for free. A few spur of the moment hour-long drives later and I am all in. I've sold a couple of the 18" and 22" I have picked up along the way so all-in-all I have actually made $15 to accumulate this starter set.

I enjoy the rough projects and the ones people simply list as "scrap metal" not realizing their potential. I love the durability of Weber, I love the look of a newly restored kettle, and I love the product they produce.

I have to say I'm most excited about this WSM 18" and the performer SS (both picked up for free). I must thank an extremely generous couple that arrived minutes before me to grab the WSM for letting me take it after hearing how far I drove and that they already had one shipping to them. Those curbside free postings are always a rush as I drive the 40 miles north to Portland in hopes of being the first to arrive. Surprisingly, I have only been shut out once on those drives, on a particularly heartbreaking newer performer with plenty of toys. I was beat out by three minutes.

I am in need of guidance on how to go about fixing the two performer series I have. The SS needs to have the cross beams reattached on bottom. They're 1x1 hollow bars, but the bolts and whatever attaching nut that is have rusted on well. I am quite limited right now on tools to get this fixed and what exactly are the pieces that hold the bars to the bolts?

On the other performer, I need to replace the table as you can see. This has some nuts that I do not recognize one bit and cannot get a single one off. Rest of the frame has normal nuts, but where the table attaches it's a different story. Picture attached. I would also be interested to try and repair the existing table somehow, but the posts with custom wood installments look like a fun job as well. Again, I'm limited on tools so I'll be hauling it to a buddy's house whenever we decide to build said table.

I'm really looking forward to growing, sharing and exchanging this collection. It's humble and monochromatic now, but the last two months have been an absolute blast picking these up and putting in some elbow grease. Thanks for creating such a cool place to grow my new passion.

-Oregon Kettler


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[JEBIV]

Welcome from Doraville Ga,  you have what they call Weberitis, only known treatment is more Webers, no cure has been found to date,  yet many wives have been heard to be working on one. Nice family,

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[ReanimatedRobot]

Welcome.  Unfortunately with a lot of the hardware on older kettles you will find them rusted to the point they can't be undone. I recommend using cut off wheels on a grider or dremel tool to get them off.  Then take the remains and head to the hardware store to figure out the proper sizes in stainless steel. I recommend buying the hardware in bulk if you are going to do a lot of kettles. Weber tends to use similar sizes of hardware across many years and product lines.

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[DaveG74]

Welcome from just south of Chicago, IL! Nice collection you have going.

[DellJones]

Welcome from Vancouver Wa. Welcome to the club.  Weberitis has set in


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