Removing brackets from old Performer to re-use


 
Kyle,
So if you are not going to use that kettle bowl, why not use it to practice on drilling and getting the height right for your install of the new bowl you do find .
I will state that it is important to have the brackets well clamped and positioned where you want them before you start drilling .
Plus a good idea is to mark with and bright color marker like a yellow or white grease pencil.that way if they slip you can reposition faster.
By the way nice job drilling the welds out .
Tip to clean up (debur) the holes you said you finished with a 5/32 bit so you can chuck up a 3/8s bit and at a low speed 100 /200rpm touch the bit to the back side of the holes you drilled to remove the sharp edges, touch these areas lightly several times to remove the sharp burs this save your finger tips later.
 
Kevin L (NKY) said:
Kyle,
So if you are not going to use that kettle bowl, why not use it to practice on drilling and getting the height right for your install of the new bowl you do find .
I will state that it is important to have the brackets well clamped and positioned where you want them before you start drilling .
Plus a good idea is to mark with and bright color marker like a yellow or white grease pencil.that way if they slip you can reposition faster.
By the way nice job drilling the welds out .
Tip to clean up (debur) the holes you said you finished with a 5/32 bit so you can chuck up a 3/8s bit and at a low speed 100 /200rpm touch the bit to the back side of the holes you drilled to remove the sharp edges, touch these areas lightly several times to remove the sharp burs this save your finger tips later.
Click to expand...
Appreciate all the tips!
There were three spot welds on each side. I don't think I need three bolt on each side. You think I can get away with using one bolt for each side? So two bolts per bracket?

I suppose I could use it for practice, but don't have a ton of time to get grill work in, so I'll probably just do all the drilling on a nicer one I find.

With the two rusty kettles I have now, I think I'm going to repurpose one as a fire pit and one as a planter to grow some herbs.
 
You are correct 3 is yo much you can use 4 shorter stainless screws or bolts as there is not a lot torque or weight involved here.

I like the fire pit and planter idea. Sorry for the info overload it is my aircraft sheetmetal working coming out.
Hope you find a great bowl set and maybe luck out and get a good color.
 
Kevin L (NKY) said:
You are correct 3 is yo much you can use 4 shorter stainless screws or bolts as there is not a lot torque or weight involved here.

I like the fire pit and planter idea. Sorry for the info overload it is my aircraft sheetmetal working coming out.
Hope you find a great bowl set and maybe luck out and get a good color.
Click to expand...
No worries, I appreciate all the info.

I noticed a copper kettle for sale near me today for $75, but it was a little more than I wanted to spend. Hoping for a better price color to pop up, but those are pretty rare
 
So I decided to use the old black (free) bowl to retrofit on to this gen 2 Performer frame. It looks solid inside and I'm going to touch-up a few spots on the outside of the bowl with high temp paint. It shouldn't be noticeable unless you are really looking for it.

After taking the brackets off the old worn out Performer, I placed the bowl upside down on a big piece of cardboard. I traced the lid of the bowl with a marker, leaving a big circle on the cardboard. Then I used a yardstick, level and marker to create a box around the circle. Then I marked the middle of each side of the square on the cardboard. I placed the "new" bowl on the cardboard sitting it perfectly inside the circle. The brackets fit 1" down from the lip of the bowl so I used my level (which happened to be exactly 1 inch think) to use as a guide for the bracket placement. I put some tape on the middle of each bracket and marked the middle of the brackets with a marker. I lined up the middle of the bracket with the middle of the bowl (using the marks I placed on the cardboard. Then I used a fine tip Sharpie to mark my holes so I knew where to drill, did that for each bracket.

I used a small cobalt bit to drill pilot holes in each of my marked areas on the bowl. Then on side "A" I used a step bit to make the holes large enough to accept the 1/4" bolt. Then I held up the bracket to those larger holes on side "A" and chose which holes on the bracket aligned best and then used the step bit to enlarge those holes. Attached the bracket to the bowl on side "A" with nut/bolt/washers.

Then I installed side "A" to the frame. Then I held the other bracket up on side B and visually inspected which holes on the bracket would work best to give me a nice square fit. Then used step bit to drill those holes out....attached to bowl using the nuts and bolts. I installed with the bolt head inside the bowl and nuts outside the bowl to give it a cleaner look.

Since you have to drill out 6 small holds to remove the tack welds from each bracket, you have a lot of wiggle room when it comes to mounting the bowl to the brackets. Just make sure you are sure which 2 of the 6 holes you want to use before enlarging the holes.

I'll add some pictures soon.

Next step is drilling out the 1 bigger hole for the propane tube and the two smaller mounting holes above the larger hole.
The big hole from the factory is not a perfect circle. It kind of tampers on the top and bottom....not sure how I'd do that, so I plan on just making a round hole large enough to fit the propane tube.....then from there mark the area where the mounting holes need to go....drill those out and done!
 
Kyle,
You still have old bowl correct? Then take some heavy brown wrapping paper about 3 to 4 inches wide and tape that to the old bowl over the propane hole and mounting bolts lay something like a magazine on yhe paper on the outside to give a firm backing to allow you to trace the holes for the right placement onto you new bowl.
Cut the marked holes out with a razor Lay onto new bowl tape and using your fine sharpie trace your holes .
For the big oblong hole use your step drill bit to make a large hole maybe a couple to bring out the the close to your needs then finish with a rotary file and complete with a hand file test for then touch up edges with your paint.
The rotary files can be had at Harbor Freight they come in a multi pack of different shapes and coarseness.
 
One thing I found interesting...

On one my my older Performers with the SS table, the original bowl that came with it had one of those side handles on it from the factory, it just sat on the table side of the Performer and the handle was under the SS table so not really any issues there. A while back I swapped out that old bowl with once from a new gen metal table Performer and both bowls fit with no issues. The old bowl with the handle still attached still fit on the newer style metal table no issues.

The bowl I am using to go on this 2nd Gen Performer table has one side handle. I tried dry fitting it today and the handle sites too high on the bowl to allow the plastic table to be mounted on to the frame. So I'll have to chop that off with the angle grinder or hacksaw.

Will probably try to drill out the propane tube tomorrow....have some other projects going on I need to finish up.
 
I finished this project and sold it last week. End result turned out pretty good. Solid grill for sure.

Some suggestions for those looking to do this in the future.
When mounting the brackets to the new non-performer bowl, do one side then dry fit it in the frame to mark where the other bracket should be mounted. Would be much easier this way IMO. Also, wait to drill out the big propane tube hole until after you've got the bowl mounted to the frame with the brackets.
Use the old bowl as a guide for knowing how low to drill the hole. Drill it out starting with a small bit then use a step bit to increase the size of the hole. I then used a small cutoff wheel on a Dremel to cut some arrowhead type cuts on the top and bottom of the big hole to make room for the burner tube.
Get the burner tube through the new hole and use that as a guide for where to drill out the two small mounting holes above the big hole.

Also don't forget about drilling out the holes for the lid bale!

Turned out to be a lot more drilling and measuring than I originally expected to do, but everything turned out great.

I wouldn't say this is an easy project, but it's not too bad if you have the right tools to work with.


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It turned very nice Kyle. Every project has a few bombs along to way just consider them on the job training store them for later use to be able to improve on them.
I bet the new owner will be very happy for a long time.
Congrats on a job well done.
 
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