I love most things about my new Weber, but that grease box frame just drives me off the wall. I didn't take a picture so here it is from the manual.
From an engineering point of view, it's just all kinds of horrible. It takes up quite a bit of space, uses not small amount of material, just end up being very flimsy. My version doesn't even have the 4 slots for hanging things. Why do the bottom two mounting screws have to be there in particular, so that the structure had to be extended far beyond end of the box it's trying to support? The vertical post cuts the storage space in half. Without it, a shelf could be put there. Hell, support the grease box with a shelf that could be doubled as extra storage. One shelf stamped and folded will not cost much more than making that weird shape bracket, and it would add storage capability instead of hinder it.
Anyways, I've designed my own bracket and going to cut it from 11 gauge 304 stainless sheets. It's got same "slide in and drop" motion for inserting the box as the old support, while being pretty much self-contained within the dimension of the grease box itself, freeing up storage space. It needs one extra hole drilled on the left panel (I'll have to adjust it to avoid the vent slots). The triangulation structure from the 11 gauge material should be plenty stiff. If not, I could add another bracket on the front side as well. Once I've installed and tested it, I'll be making the plans for the parts available here if people are interested.
From an engineering point of view, it's just all kinds of horrible. It takes up quite a bit of space, uses not small amount of material, just end up being very flimsy. My version doesn't even have the 4 slots for hanging things. Why do the bottom two mounting screws have to be there in particular, so that the structure had to be extended far beyond end of the box it's trying to support? The vertical post cuts the storage space in half. Without it, a shelf could be put there. Hell, support the grease box with a shelf that could be doubled as extra storage. One shelf stamped and folded will not cost much more than making that weird shape bracket, and it would add storage capability instead of hinder it.
Anyways, I've designed my own bracket and going to cut it from 11 gauge 304 stainless sheets. It's got same "slide in and drop" motion for inserting the box as the old support, while being pretty much self-contained within the dimension of the grease box itself, freeing up storage space. It needs one extra hole drilled on the left panel (I'll have to adjust it to avoid the vent slots). The triangulation structure from the 11 gauge material should be plenty stiff. If not, I could add another bracket on the front side as well. Once I've installed and tested it, I'll be making the plans for the parts available here if people are interested.