First, I have to give a couple of shout outs. First one is to Dustin Flavell. His thread on his mini RK build was my first introduction to the concept and after seeing it, I was like "oh yeah, I have to do this". Reading the thread, Dustin gave props to Steve Porter and Stu G for their pioneering efforts in building mini RK's, so shout outs to them as well.
I also owe a debt of thanks to Kevin L (NKY). I kept putting the project off and every now and then Kevin would make a post or PM me asking for a status update
:D Thanks Kev !!
Anyways, my variation came about because my 26'er was brand spanking new and I had no desire what so ever to drill holes in it to secure it to the frame. The idea was to have the grill just sit cradled by the frame. I went back and forth with all sorts of crazy ideas as to how to strengthen the frame arms to keep it from flexing. Then finally, I said "***, I don't even know for sure if that's going to be a problem". So, I just went ahead and got started. Figured I'd work out any problems as they came up.
I started out by measuring the outer diameter of the kettle, right under the rolled lip. I didn't write stuff down, but I believe that it was pretty close to 26 inches. I measured the inside distance between the uprights of each frame leg and calculated that I needed to remove 9 inches from each one. Another difference between my design and Dustin's (et al's) is that I wanted to remove the uprights that held the charcoal ash pan. So, instead of 2 cuts to take out 1 9 inch piece of each leg, I took out 4.5 inch segments from each side of each frame leg right where those uprights were. This means 4 cuts on each frame leg and 2 splices, for a total of 8 cuts and 4 splices.
BTW, I should point out that I made a number of mistakes on the project that others would do well to avoid. First, my choice of tools. I didn't have a metal cutting saw blade and didn't want to fork over $45 for one at HD. So, I got a 10inch metal cut off wheel instead. It worked fine, but I kind of didn't think to account for the fact that the wheel is over 1/8th of an inch wide. After drawing your cut line, you need to be sure to line the correct side of the blade up with your marking. Otherwise, your length could be off by 1/8th inch per cut !! :mad:
My next problem is that in finding filler for the frame, I went with 1inch steel square tube from HD and a I believe a 1 inch aluminum angle. What I ran into is that the self tapping SS metal screws wouldn't go into the 1inch square tube, it was too thick/hard. So, I drilled what I thought was the right size pilot holes. Some of the screws went in nicely and are holding firm. With some of the screws, the heads stripped out before the screws were completely sunk in. Yet other screws snapped off completely causing even more problems. I'm going to have to go back in, cut some screw heads off, sand them all down, drill them out and then go back with larger pilot holes and larger screws. That or undo everything and replace the thick 1 inch square tube with thinner gauge tubing. (Completely open to any suggestions/advice that anyone could provide).
Luckily for me, I wanted to conceal things so the %^#%^$%^$'ed up screw job is fairly well hidden on the underside of the frame.
OK, all that out of way, here's what she looks like right now.
It's a work in progress and there are definitely some issues still to be worked out. There's some slight outward flexing of the frame uprights, but no where near what I was expecting. I loaded the grill up with 3 paver bricks, 2 chimneys of charcoal, 8 ears of corn, 7 NY strips and 6 chicken breasts and everything held up fine. What is happening though is that the uprights want to move side to side more than I'd like. I'm going to try cutting down and attaching the front handle of the RK cart to see if this solves the problem. One small holdup right now is that one of the center bolt holes is about 1/4 inch off throwing things out of square. I might be able to just pull the bolt, drill a new hole and get things to line up right.
Also, as the picture shows, the lip of the grill is resting right on top of the tube caps and the bolt tabs. Not sure if I'm going to leave it there (but bend the tabs in a bit), or figure out a way to elevate the bowl a little. I thought about bolting some angle brackets right onto the tube caps and resting the bowl on them?
Topic: My mini Ranch Kettle build (kind of still in progress). (Read 2750 times)