No kidding, heck of a job! One of these days, I hope to have a shop and a place with some room for projects like that. Great work!
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What weight rating did you get on the wheels?Comment
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500-600 lbs. about $20 each at Northern Tool.Comment
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Dayam. That's a total rating of 2400 lbs!
I was thinking these guys:
Last edited by wcpreston; December 22, 2018, 10:39 PM.
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Well playedComment
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Wow that's awesome! I always admire you handy crafty guys who can do these things and make them come out looking like a pro did them. I admittedly am handy/crafty challenged I wouldn't even attempt something like this. I can have trouble hanging a picture! Really, believe me!
I'm one of those guys that keeps the economy moving by hiring these types of things out!
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Hey, jlazar . Would you mind taking some more measurements? I want to build this thing and I don't want to wing it.
How big is the base?
How big is the middle shelf?
How tall are the main support 2x4s?
Also, if you did not have spare decking and wanted the least expensive reliable shelfing, what would you use? Plywood?
Also, did you put any supports under the horizontal surfaces? I was thinking of at least one down the middle.Comment
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nicely built - the side tables will add a ton of convenience in addition to the easier working height of the cooker.Comment
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I love your design, jlazar! I decided to draw up my own plans and build one myself. Here is how things went.
One goal in my design was to reuse the huge amount of wood that came with the crate they shipped the G2 Chubby in. Looking at the parts list below, the 12 - 29" 2x4s were all provided by Backwoods. I forgot just how many, but they provided a lot of the lumber. I was also going to use the plywood they put around it, but I couldn't verify that it was rated for exterior use, and didn't want it falling apart after I built it. So I bought 3/4" plywood for it.
Another goal was to only spend what I had to. I could definitely have done both the tops and bottoms w/two full sheets of plywood. But they were $38 each. After lots of back and forth, I settled on one 4'x4' 3/4" panel cut in half, for the table tops. Then I calculated a number of variations of 1x6s and 1x4s. In the end, my math said the cheapest option was 10' 1x4s. Once I got to the store, I found a variation on the 1x4 that was only sanded on side and it was $.76 cheaper per unit. They were 12 feet long. I was getting 4 30" boards out of a 10' board, so adding two more feet wasn't going to change my math, but it did drop another $5 off the purchase.
Having a miter saw and a nail gun really helped. The miter saw made all those cuts WAY easier, and allowed me to do the 45' cuts on the main support beams.
Here are my plans:
And the parts list:
Here are the pics of my build.
Here are the foundational boxes built:
Same boxes stacked on top of each other, kind of like they will be.
Take those same boxes and put the decking put on there.
This was the hard part, especially because I was doing this myself. I had to stand things on their side to build it. I put the 2x4s (that would be on the other side) under it, then started putting the other 2x4s on top of it.
I used my drywall square to line up the tops and bottom, and make sure they would be going straight up and down.
The wheels I ordered need a bigger surface than the corner of 2 2x4s, so I screwed scrap into the corners:
Assembled!
Note that I decided on 13.5" 2x4s to hold up the middle shelf, as this puts the smoker's top shelf right where I want it. (I think. Going to double check when I'm all done. I can move the shelf later if I need to.) This pic shows the shelf holders.)
One more pic of it assembled, before I put the wheels on.
Here are the wheels I bought, rated at 400lbs per wheel, for a total of 1600 lbs. Also, they are steel wheels, instead of the usual PVC ones. I went with steel because I read that the PVC ones can get flat spots if they sit in one place for a while:
But the thing I'm really excited about is the table top. Instead of the stainless steel one that John used, I'm going to go with custom cut cutting boards. They'll cut me a 24x30 board complete with juice groove. Without the juice groove it's $34, and with the groove it's $54 plus shipping. Instead of gluing it down, I'm going to drill holes in the boards and put dowels on the unit to go in the holes. That way I can trim/cut, etc inside, then bring the whole shabang right to my smoker and put it down. Then while the meat is in the smoker, I can sanitize the cutter and make it ready to bring the meat back in! Pretty cool, huh? I'll take some more pics when I get the cutting board. Because of shipping the stainless steel is way cheaper, but I really like this idea.
Here's where I'm ordering the cutting boards from:
https://www.plasticcuttingboards.com...hoCKGEQAvD_BwE
Attached FilesLast edited by wcpreston; December 25, 2018, 06:19 PM.Comment
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Great job. Look forward to seeing the pics of the final. You will love the easy access you will now have to the coal tray and food area. One thing I forgot to mention. I made sure the bottom of my top door was level with the final level of the side shelves. That way everything that may involve fire is below the level of your shelves and it is a straight in/out of the food area to the side shelf.Last edited by jlazar; October 31, 2020, 03:55 PM.Comment
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Hey, @jlazar... I remember you saying something about buying a custom cover for this thing. I was thinking about this one, and I think if I lower my smoker a bit (I did put it higher than you), the dimension should work perfectly. Or was there some other reason you wanted a custom cover?Comment
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The custom cover I bought is made to fit your dimensions so you would not need to cut yours down lower.
I bought the cover to help keep things clean. Even though kept under a covered patio, the smoker and shelves would collect a fair amount of dirt/dust between cooks. The cover solves this problem and just helps keep everything clean. In Texas this time of year, the cedar pollen is really a problem.Comment
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I don't want to buy the custom cover. Wasn't it like $200? The one I'm looking at is $50-75.
I think you have more disposable income than I do. LOL
But I thought I remember you saying you had a NON-custom cover, and you bought the more expensive custom cover for a reason. But I can't find that message. Maybe we talked about it on the phone?Last edited by wcpreston; December 26, 2018, 11:50 AM.
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Thanks! I never would have dreamed up the great design w/o @jalazar. And the one improvement I made (the cutting board instead of the stainless steel) started as a "can I do this cheaper than $40 per tabletop?" I ended up finding a place that would do a custom cutting board for $35, which was less than the $40 for the stainless. Thought I had a win. Then my wife said, "will plastic last in the sun like that? maybe you should make it removable." It takes a village to raise a chubby.
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On each end i put 3 china cup hooks so I would have a place to hang cleaning tools and the BIC lighters. On the front left shelf, I placed a metal brace. The weatherproof and magnetic fireboard case hangs there during cooks. Finally, I mounted a vertical paper towel holder to the leftmost front vertical support. These were added after the pictures were taken.Last edited by jlazar; October 2, 2019, 06:28 PM.Comment
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jlazar My 24x36 cutting board just arrived! I'm almost done!Comment
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I know, I know. Coming. I promise. I decided to mount the cutting board to a 1/2 sheet of plywood, that has 9 dowel holes in it. Those dowel holes match dowels mounted into the surface of the cooking center. Don't want that thing moving around on me, and I decided I didn't want to drill into the plastic. Plus, the plywood makes the 1/4 cutting board more hefty.
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