Grill work

[dstig1]

The grates on my Weber grill rusted out. I looked at HD to buy new ones but the main grills were $50 alone plus more for the other bits that had rusted out, so I said, I have leftover 304SS rod from my railings, so why not? A fun little project and it will last my lifetime and then some now.. I even brought them in to have them passivated to ensure that the weld areas would not rust, but the guy at the shop said it was $75 min lot charge either way, so why not electropolish them. What the heck...

Here is my layout and alignment/fixturing to keep them square and evenly spaced


I decided to do the ancillary grates also for the bu warmers and such. That one was a bit of a bugger with all the bends to get right. All welded out:



And then I had some 14ga 304 sheet metal so i cut out some blanks and had the steel supplier bend them for me as I have nothing strong enough to make that bend. You can see them down below, with the rest of it totally complete. Shiny!



This will last forever now.

 

[sea2summit]

Wow, that’s a project worth doing!

 

[dstig1]

Thanks! The main grate is 5/16" rod spaced 3/8" apart and the 2 support rods below it are 3/8". The smaller grates are 3/16" rod. All TIG welded.

 

[Lis2323]

Nice work! I especially like the layout/alignment jig. I just love seeing/creating tools like that even for a one time application.

But you now defeated Weber’s original intent to make you purchase a NEW grill. Lol.

(this ones on me)

 

[dstig1]

Thanks. Yeah I knew warpage was going to be an issue. After I tacked the first rod on the crossbars, the far ends pulled quite a bit, as expected. So I pulled them back straight and kept checking and adjusting them as I went. That did the trick. There was a little final twist in the grate, but that was worked out by clamping one edge and using a large wrench to untwist it from a free corner. Not perfect but it sits flat and does the trick.

Do I still owe you a lunch, Terry?

 

[Lis2323]

I’m a picky eater, so you’re off the hook, Dave.

 

[Yomax4]

The grates on my Weber grill rusted out. I looked at HD to buy new ones but the main grills were $50 alone plus more for the other bits that had rusted out, so I said, I have leftover 304SS rod from my railings, so why not? A fun little project and it will last my lifetime and then some now.. I even brought them in to have them passivated to ensure that the weld areas would not rust, but the guy at the shop said it was $75 min lot charge either way, so why not electropolish them. What the heck...

Here is my layout and alignment/fixturing to keep them square and evenly spaced
View attachment 154

I decided to do the ancillary grates also for the bu warmers and such. That one was a bit of a bugger with all the bends to get right. All welded out:

View attachment 155

And then I had some 14ga 304 sheet metal so i cut out some blanks and had the steel supplier bend them for me as I have nothing strong enough to make that bend. You can see them down below, with the rest of it totally complete. Shiny!

View attachment 156

This will last forever now.

Very Nice !!!

 

[greenlizard]

Nice job! I have the same Weber 3 burner grill. On my second set of factory bars and “flavorisor bars”, too. For some reason it hadn’t occurred to me to make my own. I believe I’ll be making that a summer project. Thanks for the inspiration.

 

[Bearskinner]

Those are nice heavy duty bars