I got a good deal on a floor model Old Smokey. The problem is that it is too short.
Old Smokey offers a set of longer legs but from what I have read on various places, they are kind of flimsy. The other option I noticed in a post somewhere here was to use pvc pipe. So I set out to make that mod and a couple others. Here are the parts. In the picture, you can see a new weber charcoal starter and a grill with a removable middle and sides that lift up. I found both at a yard sale, brand new and got them both for $25 (go for $48 at Lowes). The flashing and plywood are for something else.
So I bought three 2' pieces of 2" PVC and caps. Had to squeeze the legs a little to get them in the pipe. Here it is all complete.
Problems:
1) It was a little too tall, but I didn't want to cut the pvc because I could see me going nuts trying to get them all equal.
2) It was sort of wobbly and wasn't very sturdy.
3) I wasn't too happy with the look.
4) It has a high center of gravity and I was concerned that a good storm with some wind would knock it over.
So it was time to look for plan B. (Seems like most of my projects end up going to plan B, so next one I may just start with plan B and save time.)
So I thought a bit and plan B was to use iron pipe as legs. I didn't want to insert the legs into 2" iron pipe as I figured it would still be as wobbly as the pvc version because the flexibility is coming from the Smokey legs. So I used one inch pipe that was 18" in length. I attached them by drilling through the Smokey leg and the pipe. Then used a bolt, washers, and a nut to fasten them together. I used 2 bolts for each leg.
First I measured the pipe against the leg and bucket to determine the limit I could drill down the pipe.
[/URL]
Then I made a little jig to hold the pipe.
Here is a picture of it all completed.
The 2 bolts on the bottom are the ones through the pipe. It was still flexing a bit so I added another bolt through the leg and the bucket. That made it very sturdy.
I added caps on the bottom of the legs.
Now you may wonder what the metal looking thing is that the Smokey is standing in. That was the other thing I made. I have my smokers/grills on my back deck. That is pretty safe since they are gas, electric, or homemade (UDS) ones on brick. Although the Smokey has holes on the bottom, it doesn't appear that much ash will drop down. But to add a little security I wanted to make a stand for it.
The plan was to take a piece of plywood, screw the flashing on it, and put a border of angle iron.
The work in progress.
The completed stand.
[/URL]
Final thoughts:
I am very pleased with the final results. The legs are sturdy. Using iron pipe and caps added some weight and lowers the center of gravity. Now I just need to get down to cooking something in the Smokey.
