Cracked firebox repair?

[Allon]

Philotius, how do you plan on decorating the finished product?

[Philotius]

HAHA!! With the bones of my prey that I've cooked over that firebox!! LOL

[Philotius]

This is awesome. How much time and money has this involved so far?

I bought the cement from Amazon, around $40.00 I had everything else. I highly recommend the steam cleaner I have a little hand held Bissel. Anywhere I did not steam clean, the cement did not bond.

Some wooden mixing sticks, lots of gloves, the plastic I worked on was handy for clean up. Just a boxed roll of painters plastic. A spray bottle with a good misty spray. Some rags you wont mind throwing away. A small sturdy container to mix small batches of the cement. Maybe some dust masks? that stuff is very dusty. Of course the putty knife, possibly some wet sand paper - I haven't tried this yet.

The first day I put about 3 hours into cleaning and assembly. Day 2 I spent maybe an hour cleaning and putting on another layer of cement. Day 3, another hour or so cleaning it up. Mostly just waiting for it to dry now. Our temp here kinda took a dip the last couple of days. So I guess - 4 to 5 hours of actual work. looking to be another 2 to 3 days before I will put a fire in it - so total time 7 days or so, if you have the weather on your side. Maybe faster if you can do it inside with some heat.

[STEbbq]

This is outstanding info. Thanks.

I am feeling ambitious enough to tackle this myself one day if the situation arises!

[fzxdoc]

Thank you, Philotius , for sharing your project with us as you go along. It's been very interesting. I can hardly wait for info about that first cook after the seasoning step is done and dusted.

Kathryn

[Philotius]

Well, here goes nothing. Got a small fire going, started on opposite side of repair. Running the pit fan to keep it steady. Grate temp sitting at 225, probes are on the repaired side. Gonna let it sit there for an hour or 2, run it up a bit maybe try for 350. We’ll see how long my small lump load will last in there. I really need to get an infra red themo. I would like to see how hot the firebox gets.

[Philotius]

So far so….awesome!! Holding temp, fuel load is looking good, passing 325 now, should get 350 no problem, plan on letting it just burn out from there.
Chicken and ribs for Labor Day!! Count this one a win

[Allon]

Good job! Working with composite material can be tricky. It looks\sounds like your got this beat.

It's all gravy from here on out...

[fzxdoc]

Somehow I just knew your firebox repair project would be a success. Congrats on a job well done.

Kathryn