CL Find - Weber Ranch Kettle

[johnny 2 shack]

MOTHERSHIP TO BASE ....MOTHERSHIP TO BASE !...require immediate evac ! repeat immediate evac landed in hostile territory... intercepted terrifying transcript.....going to turned into ..into..a FIREPIT ! NEED HELP IMMEDIATLY..

[SixZeroFour]

MOTHERSHIP TO BASE ....MOTHERSHIP TO BASE !...require immediate evac ! repeat immediate evac landed in hostile territory... intercepted terrifying transcript.....going to turned into ..into..a FIREPIT ! NEED HELP IMMEDIATLY..

Great first post Johnny

Welcome to the club!

[xring01]

Really,

I never said it would be a full time fire pit...

Maybe a couple of times a year.. Its very easy for me to break out the mig welder and build a fire pit grate.. Thinking a smore night for the kids.. Entire friends and family gathering around the kettle after a smoked brisket/ rib dinner, making smores for the kids dessert.

Please tell me how thats nothing but respect.

My offset smoker cant do that!

[jcnaz]

Really,

I never said it would be a full time fire pit...

Maybe a couple of times a year.. Its very easy for me to break out the mig welder and build a fire pit grate.. Thinking a smore night for the kids.. Entire friends and family gathering around the kettle after a smoked brisket/ rib dinner, making smores for the kids dessert.

Please tell me how thats nothing but respect.

My offset smoker cant do that!

I believe that using it as you described here would constitute respect.

[Jon]

The best fire pit is a washing machine drum. Burn a bunch of oak down to coals and the heat radiates out of the sides.

[xring01]

Jon

I think washing drums are pretty ugly. They are great for the desert. Not so much for my back yard.

[pbe gummi bear]

Really,

I never said it would be a full time fire pit...

Maybe a couple of times a year.. Its very easy for me to break out the mig welder and build a fire pit grate.. Thinking a smore night for the kids.. Entire friends and family gathering around the kettle after a smoked brisket/ rib dinner, making smores for the kids dessert.

Please tell me how thats nothing but respect.

My offset smoker cant do that!

I'd love to see this.

[MacEggs]

Just use a regular 22" kettle as a fire pit ....

[MrHoss]

A good cooker has seasoning from previous cooks. Using a cooker as a fire pit is gonna burn that off. If you put the lid on to kill your fire it would quickly remove seasoning.

[xring01]

Well, My back and feet are tired... Spent all day bent over the Ranch Kettle Cleaning it up..
Background, I tried the steel wool and lacquer thinner technique.. It worked, but a whole lot of elbow grease was involved. Thats a very big grill..

So I got to thinking.. I know some of you purists are about to have a heart attach... Paint Stripper.. This is industrial grade stuff.. I tried it on a small area of an older beat up grill.. It worked..


So on to the Ranch... I would say this stuff cut the work by 75%.. It was still work.. But It got the job done. The upside down C Rust spot.. Is from the Weld for the Leg stantion.. All three legs have the same weld/rust spots.









Before any of you start thinking that the stripper caused the light and dark spots on it... I can assure you,  that it didnt. I was getting the same results with steel wool and thinner....

After I was done using the stripper... I washed the entire thing down with Thinner... Then I washed it completely with Dawn Dish soap, Twice...

Then I lit a chimney of charcoal to burn off anything I might have done.



That was alot of work..

I am not done yet. I am thinking about replacing the wooden handles.. The ones I have, are cracked and about to fall apart.. The purist in me is thinking just take then off and glue them back together, sand them down and keep the originals that came with it..

Decisions..

[TheDude]

Go with new @zavod44 can make exact replicas for you.

[WNC]

Nice job on the clean up!
That's a helluva nice grill you got there, I keep telling my wife I need a ranch...she's not too keen on the idea, but just you wait til one shows up on CL for a reasonable price!
Excellent job again, can't wait to see some cooks!

[xring01]

The Chimney of Coal pretty much ran out...

I played with the Bottom and Top, Intake/Exhaust Ports, seeing how they effected the temp...

Then I got to thinking... This thing just ran at 290-375 for almost two hours... Its 4pm... Humm..

There are some Brautworst in the fridge...

Added a Chunks of Red Oak... about 8 more coals..., And some Brats..

She's smokin away at the moment at 230 degrees..

An hour later




Brats, onions and queso.. Its a good day



I use an original IGrill, great device.. I use it alot..

Please forgive the condition of my back yard.. When you live in SoCal.. and there is a water shortage.. Had to basically kill the grass in the back yard.. Hell I think I killed a few trees in the process.. Turned the water down that much.. Come on El Nino.. We need some Rain.

[JDD]

Nice job!

[pbe gummi bear]

Nice work! The paint stripper is standard for removing the paint. It looks a hell of a lot better stripped down.

You can use the Pam trick to make it look darker:

That's my rationalization for the results of my 'cleanup.'

This is my first Weber and was a wedding present in '74. IIRC it remained in the box for a year or two.  I finally got around to setting up and my first cook was some baby back ribs. Holy cow! They were terrific! I wish I had not waited to get started. I've been cooking on Webers ever since and recently the collection has been growing. Flush with the success of cleaning up the CGA destined for a trade with Brian, I set to work on this. I had tried once before and found that the rust on the lid was pretty stubborn. Here's a before and after picture. It does not have the sharp looks that I had hoped for when I began the cleanup, but it is entirely serviceable and should remain so for as long as I can get charcoal lit.




The ash pan got my first attention.



It was pretty dull and pretty dented up. I took a rubber mallet to it and got it surprisingly close to original shape. Then I started with the steel wool. I did succeed in getting some spots shiny, but the corrosion is really durable! After more and more scrubbing, I caved and decided it was good enough.  I followed the cleaning with a coat of Nu Finish - a silicone based car polish. Hopefully that will help to prevent further corrosion.

I took it apart and used some oven cleaner on the inside of the bowl and lid with particular attention to the vents. They were getting hard to move. I did polish the vents up with 0000 steel wool and then Flitz metal polish. I followed this up with a coat of Nu Finish. The results were better than the ash pan, but not that high shine I have seen others here produce.

I scrubbed the outside porcelain surfaces with steel wool. I also tried CLR (HCL solution) and some other rust removing solution. Nothing fazed the rust stains. The legs got the same steel wool, Nevr-Dull polish and Nu Finish treatment. I even bought a new 1" vinyl cap for the one leg that does not have a wheel.

I took a wire wheel to the triangle. There were places where I could still see some chrome, but for the most part it was just rust. I sprayed it with a rust inhibiting primer and then silver colored paint.

The next thought rant toward preserving the grill. I have a cover for it which should help. (Do not buy the non-premium Weber covers as the one I have already ha area  s cracks in it.) I note that oil provides a durable finish on cast iron cookware, particularly when heat is applied. I decided to use that to see if it would prevent further rust. I sprayed Pam (canola AKA rapeseed oil) around handles and leg sockets where the paint was chipped and across the pitted section on the lid. The area around the rim of the bowl also had considerable rust so I sprayed that too. The oil caused an almost magical transformation to the porcelain. The gray darkened to nearly the original black. This is an interesting phenomena and hopefully it will tell me when the oil needs to be reapplied.



Ready to cook! (*)



(*) I have the push on axle nuts on order and am using a couple zip ties keeping the wheels on in the mean time. I also have a lid handle coming for it from Brian. The bowl handles do not have holes in them so I presume they never had wood handles.