Patrick Finch
New member
Okay, so I broke down and bought the 18.5" for my wife and I. If the kids were still home, I would have opted for the 22.5" but this will be more than enough space for what we'll need to cook. I wanted to break it in right with some cheap meats or bacon or fatty stuff but I just couldn't resist Harry Soo's slapalicious chicken recipe so I cooked one of those (split in two). Damn, that was good. My wife claimed it was the best chicken she ever ate. Only thing I would have done differently would have been to cover the water pan with foil (I was in so much of a hurry, I forgot). I didn't and it took 4 hours of soaking to get the drippings off. Harry doesn't use water in his so I didn't either and I would definitely cook chicken this way again. It's a little harder to control the temp but you want to cook this at around 300 anyway. It was great.
A few remarks about this unit. Weber should have put locking wheels on this expensive unit and handles on the sides of the drum. Since they didn't, I did some mod's shown below:
I had the particle board and locking wheels for the rolling base from a different project but they were about $12.00 total as I remember. Wheels were from Harbor Freight and the particle board was left over from a shelf kit but you can buy pieces around this size from Lowes or HD or just use plywood (1/2" or 3/4") and paint it. If anybody wants the exact dimensions, I can provide them. You also have to drill holes in your legs to mount to the base and I just used 1" Particle screws to attach them. I also used this type screw to attach the wheels. These screws are needed with particle board and have very widely spaced threads for gripping power.
The handles were a bit of chore to find, modify and install. I expect to find everything on the net but the only options I could find were either way too expensive or looked like crap. So, I traveled to my local Sears hardware and found the perfect match. They are black Hillman door pulls labelled 6-1/2" and were 5 bucks each. They do require some bending to match the curve/arc of the drum. I did this by starting the bend (carefully) in a Rockwell jawhorse and then touched the bends up with a pair of Channellocks while protecting the metal with a thick rag. You want to be careful not to overbend or you'll lose the paint or snap them at the ends. I believe they are steel and they're pretty heavy duty but I also wanted to protect them from heat so I used a thick bakelite washer on the outside (between drum and handle) along with a nylon washer to protect the sides of the drum and add some space to help with heat dissipation. If you look closely at the pic, you can just see the edge of the nylon washer which isn't really too noticeable. I couldn't find these in black. The screws were 5mm 3/4" panhead allen screws (the only machine screws I could find in black at Sears) and I used a lock washer and nut on the inside. The only other mod's I'm considering is the access hole for a temp probe and possibly the heat gaskets in the usual locations. Does everybody agree that the gaskets are needed?
Needless to say, I am very happy with the grill overall and I am really looking forward to baby backs tomorrow and more chicken on Saturday.
A few remarks about this unit. Weber should have put locking wheels on this expensive unit and handles on the sides of the drum. Since they didn't, I did some mod's shown below:
The handles were a bit of chore to find, modify and install. I expect to find everything on the net but the only options I could find were either way too expensive or looked like crap. So, I traveled to my local Sears hardware and found the perfect match. They are black Hillman door pulls labelled 6-1/2" and were 5 bucks each. They do require some bending to match the curve/arc of the drum. I did this by starting the bend (carefully) in a Rockwell jawhorse and then touched the bends up with a pair of Channellocks while protecting the metal with a thick rag. You want to be careful not to overbend or you'll lose the paint or snap them at the ends. I believe they are steel and they're pretty heavy duty but I also wanted to protect them from heat so I used a thick bakelite washer on the outside (between drum and handle) along with a nylon washer to protect the sides of the drum and add some space to help with heat dissipation. If you look closely at the pic, you can just see the edge of the nylon washer which isn't really too noticeable. I couldn't find these in black. The screws were 5mm 3/4" panhead allen screws (the only machine screws I could find in black at Sears) and I used a lock washer and nut on the inside. The only other mod's I'm considering is the access hole for a temp probe and possibly the heat gaskets in the usual locations. Does everybody agree that the gaskets are needed?
Needless to say, I am very happy with the grill overall and I am really looking forward to baby backs tomorrow and more chicken on Saturday.
