I Was Bored Today

Photos by MJ Klein

This weekend, we were supposed to be consumed with packaging and shipping tasks associated with our business.  But that didn’t happen (I should have known better).  I was bored today.  So, what does a grill designer and outdoor cooking enthusiast do on a boring day?  Make another grill of course.

I went to the store and bought a few items.

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My small new portable grill is based on a simple stainless steel bowl.  Here it is with some lump charcoal directly on the bottom for a test run.

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Using a hacksaw, I cut slots into the edge to make tabs, which I bent upwards.

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Another tab.

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The tabs hold the grate in place on the bowl.

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I drilled a series of holes in the side near the bottom for increased airflow.  I only put holes in 1/3 of the circumference so I could turn it to manage the wind effects on the fire.

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One thing that I really dislike about locally made grills is the flimsy cooking surface.  Once I threw a big T-bone steak on one of those and it nearly collapsed!  But that’s all you need if you are just grilling bread (I don’t get that!) and thin slices of meat.  I want to be able to cook anything on mine, so this heavy duty grill surface is just what I need.  Since it’s basically just a bowl, it’s quite portable.

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In this shot (quite overexposed by the D80, btw) I have added the bottom grate to hold the charcoal off the bottom of the bowl.  I did a first test without the grate and while hot enough, the grate significantly improves airflow.  With the grate on the bottom, this thing gets amazingly hot.

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I cooked some stuff on it and I declare the test 100% passed.  The most interesting part of this project was the fact that this bowl and the 2 grates were so well suited to this application.  The grates fit so perfectly that it almost seemed as if they were designed with this application in mind.

Bowl:                NT$130
Top Grate:        NT$80
Bottom Grate:    NT$60
Cooking on my homemade rooftop cabana grill: PRICELESS

technorati tags:Taiwan ^[9], Hukou ^[10], grill ^[11], homemade ^[12]

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