I recently upgraded to the 22" WSM and I want to be able to use it as a charcoal grill as well as a smoker. I looked at a few different ideas for supporting a charcoal grate a few inches below the top grate, and I liked this one from Phil N Florence, but I wanted to avoid two things about this mod:
1. Although I was willing to do it, I preferred not to drill any more new holes in the smoker body.
2. I didn't like that the supports for the grilling charcoal grate might get in the way of lifting the bottom grate out easily when smoking meats.
After mulling it over for a few days, and the idea to use these stainless shelf standards and supports that I had used on a custom cabinet project a few years ago. The standards are narrower than the WSM grate support straps, so I hoped I could cut them to length and secure them to the straps using the existing bolts. The standards are 6 feet in length so one is enough to do this project. I ordered 2 from ahturf.com (just in case) and paid $4.89/ea for them. I had several of the supports left over from my previous project, but they are fairly inexpensive as well.
Once the standards arrived, I went to work. I was hoping the screw holes in the standard would line up with the bolt holes in the WSM grate support straps, but I doubted I would be that lucky and I wasn't. That's ok--I planned to line one screw hole up with one grate support strap hole and drill another to line up with second. I chose to line up the existing screw hole with the bottom grate support strap hole. It would have worked either way, but doing it this way meant I would be able to place the shelf supports slightly greater than 5" below the top grate; if I had lined it up with the top hole, the shelf support placement would have been slightly less than 5" from the top grate.
I cut the standard into 4 equivalent lengths so that each would just fit inside the top and bottom grate supports of the WSM grate support straps, as shown here (the green lines are where I made my cuts):
I used a Dremel rotary tool with a cutting wheel to make the cuts but a hacksaw would work too. I filed the cut edges smooth and then drilled the holes (I had to bore out the screw hole that I was going to use because it's smaller than the WSM bolts). To drill, I clamped the standard piece to the back of the support strap, with the bottom screw hole lined up to the bottom bolt hole. Then I flipped the assembly over and used a 1/4" drill bit to enlarge the bottom screw hole and create the top hole, using the strap holes as guides. Once that was done, I used a round file to clean up the holes and installed them in the smoker, with a standard piece in front of each grill strap. I used the existing WSM bolts and nuts. The nuts of course do not screw on as far with the extra depth, so I added some thin lock washers to ensure they don't come loose. I purchased this Charbroil 21" round grate to use as the charcoal grate.
I'm pleased with the result. I can remove the supports when not using as a grill so they're not in the way, and I can even use them with another grate to have a third grate (of somewhat adjustable height) for smoking. Pictures below.
1. Although I was willing to do it, I preferred not to drill any more new holes in the smoker body.
2. I didn't like that the supports for the grilling charcoal grate might get in the way of lifting the bottom grate out easily when smoking meats.
After mulling it over for a few days, and the idea to use these stainless shelf standards and supports that I had used on a custom cabinet project a few years ago. The standards are narrower than the WSM grate support straps, so I hoped I could cut them to length and secure them to the straps using the existing bolts. The standards are 6 feet in length so one is enough to do this project. I ordered 2 from ahturf.com (just in case) and paid $4.89/ea for them. I had several of the supports left over from my previous project, but they are fairly inexpensive as well.
Once the standards arrived, I went to work. I was hoping the screw holes in the standard would line up with the bolt holes in the WSM grate support straps, but I doubted I would be that lucky and I wasn't. That's ok--I planned to line one screw hole up with one grate support strap hole and drill another to line up with second. I chose to line up the existing screw hole with the bottom grate support strap hole. It would have worked either way, but doing it this way meant I would be able to place the shelf supports slightly greater than 5" below the top grate; if I had lined it up with the top hole, the shelf support placement would have been slightly less than 5" from the top grate.
I cut the standard into 4 equivalent lengths so that each would just fit inside the top and bottom grate supports of the WSM grate support straps, as shown here (the green lines are where I made my cuts):
I used a Dremel rotary tool with a cutting wheel to make the cuts but a hacksaw would work too. I filed the cut edges smooth and then drilled the holes (I had to bore out the screw hole that I was going to use because it's smaller than the WSM bolts). To drill, I clamped the standard piece to the back of the support strap, with the bottom screw hole lined up to the bottom bolt hole. Then I flipped the assembly over and used a 1/4" drill bit to enlarge the bottom screw hole and create the top hole, using the strap holes as guides. Once that was done, I used a round file to clean up the holes and installed them in the smoker, with a standard piece in front of each grill strap. I used the existing WSM bolts and nuts. The nuts of course do not screw on as far with the extra depth, so I added some thin lock washers to ensure they don't come loose. I purchased this Charbroil 21" round grate to use as the charcoal grate.
I'm pleased with the result. I can remove the supports when not using as a grill so they're not in the way, and I can even use them with another grate to have a third grate (of somewhat adjustable height) for smoking. Pictures below.
