j biesinger
TVWBB Platinum Member
I made 3 of these windbreaks before our first competition (sept '07) and have used one pretty much every time I cook on the wsm. My yard tends to get windy and I wanted something to keep my cooks consistent. The big key would be to create something that was portable and easy to set up.
This design works nice and the wind break was easy and inexpensive to make. Its basically a sheet of plywood (osb in this case) cut and hinged so it can fold flat or into box. I used door hinges at the joints.
I started with a full 4x8 sheet of plywood. I went with the cheapest option, osb, which work fine but is very heavy. Snap a chalk line (or use a cutting guide) every 2 feet, and make the cuts with a circular saw. The center cut should be made at a 45* angle to allow that joint to swing open more.
cut plywood:
once you have the plywood cut into 4 pieces (two with a beveled edge), you need to carefully plan where the hinges go. You can see from the pic above that two joints show hinges and the center one does not. The hinges are on the underside and the beveled edges make a V at the center joint.
I made a quick template for my router that I could line up with the corners of the plywood. This made assembly a snap, and every hinge lined up perfectly so there's no binding when it folds.
router template:
You dont want to recess the hinges too much, because you wont have anything to set the hinge screws into. I used small wood screws and in 2+ years of carting these things around, I've only had to redo one hinge with small nuts and bolts.
here's a shot of the center joint. You can see when the box is set up, the hinge need to swing past 180*.
To make them a little more easy to move around I attached some ropes with pvc handles.
windbreak folded flat:
opening:
inverted and open:
there was a few unintended benefits to these. my favorite is that when 2 or more are honeycombed together (as in the top pic) you can set the lid of one wsm on the Y that's made at the center to the two.
