Repurpose?
In my journey of this hobby, I have Rescued, Restored and Respected the Kettle. I have rescued many blacks for gifting, but some fall short for a gift and have not been taken care of. Hence where the
repurpose comes in. It was
@Hogsy that inspired this. He made the heat deflecting charcoal holders. We all know of the dreaded grate holder blowouts on colored kettles. It was long talked about with another member and we finally were able to make this work. We saved all the leg sockets and handles for future projects.
Kettle one was a trial an error. We made a template from cardboard, copied on the kettle, but fell short on the angle... Second one was better. With some cold roll steel they will function. There was waist, so our thinking was to cut all the way around and we may be able to yield three baskets. Upon completion of this one, the light bulbs went off.
(sorry no pics of this process)
Here is the first cut from the top of the kettle. It will function in an RK awesome. Picture taken is on top grate, but you get an idea. Centered it can guide a snake, with fire bricks it can zone heat or it can just be used as a large charcoal holder. I also put it in the old flat top 26", not a perfect fit, as the contour of the kettle is different. Works, but it also raised the grate level which I think is a plus.
Inside the Flat Top 26.
There was quite a bit of kettle left, so we hacked off another 5" section.
Inside the C & B.
It is a perfect fit. Just a little air gap which is perfect. I do most cooks with indirect heat(one side) and find the baskets to small. Now I can use my firebricks and maintain a long constant heat source without refueling. I have the confidence in this to protect our precious colored kettles.
***Tool of choice, angle cutter or plasma cutter**both cuts were 5" down***