I'll start this tale by saying my ex is cheap. Not like good GRM cheap but like bad cheap where she actually cost herself more money being cheap.
When we were married one Christmas she asked me what I wanted. I told her I wanted a 22 inch Weber charcoal grill. I open my presents on Christmas and I find this as one.
Not a grill but a cast iron grate for a grill. She's proud of the deal she got on it but then is disappointed when she finds out it's not the whole grill. How she thought a whole grill would fit in a 2 inch thick box I have no idea.
So the grate sat around the house with no purpose. I did use it once on a turkey cooker burner for a make shift cookout. That is until an evening a couple of years ago Lil Stampie and I see a Weber grill sitting at the road in front of a neighbor's house. We walk down and it's like in new condition but a smaller one.
We brought it home and put the center cast iron grate on top of it's grill. We've been using it a lot since then to the point we usually grill about twice a week.
Coming home today I see this out on front of the same neighbor's house.
That's right, it's a 22 inch Weber. Not in as good condition as the last one but still very good condition. I can only guess they bought the small one and then decided they wanted a bigger one.
We hauled that baby home and my now 10 year old cast iron grate fits it perfectly.
Now if it just wasn't raining we could grill out tonight.
Those cast iron grates are pretty nice.
I relocated the vent onto the side of my kettle grill. Now I have weber side drafts
In reply to captdownshift (Forum Supporter) :
Got some pictures? I'm thinking I might make the small one into a little smoker if that's possible.
Stampie (FS) said:
In reply to captdownshift (Forum Supporter) :
Got some pictures? I'm thinking I might make the small one into a little smoker if that's possible.
Maybe incorporate the two into a single smoker? Use the baby as the firebox with a vent tube to the larger one?
I love my Weber kettle grill. Over a decade in the Georgia weather and still going strong. There's a huge aftermarket and mod culture around them. If you search it's likely someone has already done something close to what you want and you can stand on their shoulders.
I've seen guys make a central tube body that fits between the lid and base to make it a smoker. Looks like a giant pill, kind of. That height and off-setting the fire to one side works pretty well.
You can smoke on a kettle. Just make a ring of briquettes 2 wide 3 tall or so around the perimeter and pour lighted coals on one end. I can hold mine around 240 with the intake adjusted and top vent full open for hours.
captdownshift (Forum Supporter) said:
I relocated the vent onto the side of my kettle grill. Now I have weber side drafts
But now you need velocity stacks to really get the most out of it.
This is silly, but I'm picturing your neighbors being somehow clueless as to the meaning of putting stuff on the curb, thinking, "hey this spot by the road is great for grilling." going back in the house to grab the steaks, they come out, the grill is gone 
Get a cover.
I had a Weber... until it rusted to nothing. Which was sad, as I got it in like 1994, and it left me ~20 years later, by my brother has my mom & dad's grill that I'm pretty sure pre-dates me. And it's still not rusted.
IMHO, my favorite grill of all time.
I have a KMart 18" weber style grill I dragged home from the trash on about date 5 or 6 with my wife. When she was helping me pick out the best one that someone had set out on the curb, then got excited thinking of what we could make on it I knew she was a keeper.
Ive used it pretty solid for 5 years now and its probably 20 years old at least since it has the old KMart logo on it. Will be a sad day when I finally send it to that big back yard in the sky.
mikeatrpi said:
You can smoke on a kettle. Just make a ring of briquettes 2 wide 3 tall or so around the perimeter and pour lighted coals on one end. I can hold mine around 240 with the intake adjusted and top vent full open for hours.
We decided to try a varient of this. First we cleaned out the 22 inch grill. It was missing is bottom coal grate but the 18 inch grill fit in there perfect.
Here's the planned lay out with the coals plus cherry wood going at the top of the picture and the tin filled with water.
We picked up some center cut pork chops so should be a relative quick smoke.
Also I guess if a moderator wouldn't mind could this go to the build threads?
I don't have the adjuster for the bottom vents but my temp was 304 F with the top quarter open. I closed it more and we're slowly coming down. At 271 F. I'll give it a few more minutes then maybe close it more. But for first time smoking I'm happy. A neighbor walked by right after we got the cherry wood on and commented in how good it smelled. Hope that's a sign.
Oh forgot pictures cause pictures are cool.
Already down to 246 F from the last post.
Well that sucks. Rain started coming down.
Moving a running charcoal grill not easy but now it's under the porch. Temp for down to 202 F and was in the 220s before rain so I opened the vents and we're back up to 210 F.
In reply to Stampie (FS) :
Doubly funny if it's the neighbor's old grills.
In reply to captdownshift (Forum Supporter) :
I think they moved out actually. This grill was their parting gift.
So we flipped at 45 minutes.
No sear but I was thinking we'd have to do that at the end anyway.
I was able to dial in the temp before opening at 239 F to 243 F.
Of course it went up by opening the lid. Right now at 289 F. I'm going to be patient and let it come back down on its own without me being OCD with it.
Dang that looks good. When covid's gone I'm driving down to visit your house and build challenge cars and eat pork chops.
In reply to slowbird :
Remember you can drive but no tools.
We were hungry so no done pictures. Overall I'd give it a B-. Nice smoke favor. Cherry maybe a little strong. I think a pork chop might have not been the best choice as they were a little dry. I tend to cook pork a little under than recommended. These were slightly over. Overall I'm pleased with my first smoking. I've paid for worse in a restaurant.
A trick for chops is to brine them... Soak overnight in salt water.
Those look good from here!
In reply to mikeatrpi :
Thanks for giving me the kick in the ass that I needed. I tend to over think things and try to build the ultimate from the start. This was a good get let's see how this goes and adjust from there.
We had a weber that we also found by the side of the road. I think it lasted us for ten years at least. This is one reason we all should own a truck.
I decided to smoke a chicken for Thanksgiving. Simple salt and pepper and I rubbed it down in bacon grease because I use that E36 M3 on everything.
Three hours later it's at 165 degrees internal temp.
Now it's resting before I get to chow down.
