Hank's Hot Box, gonna do another one (or two)

[FireMan]

Great followin yer work agin! You have a Houston in Sweden? Small world. 👍

[realdocBBQ]

Man that's a bummer about the radius on that steel causing your fitup problems. I think cutting it off and welding some flat steel in place is probably about the best idea in that situation.

Looking forward to seeing them come together!

[Henrik]

Thank you! I’ve gotten another idea, gonna try it out and report back 👍

[Henrik]

Sometimes sleeping on a problem is the best way to solve it. Here’s how I fixed it in a simple way. I just slanted the sides a bit, and now it fits like a glove 👌. I had planned to put the angle iron on the door anyway, to make it more rigid, plus for looks.

[Jerod Broussard]

I LOVE matching up 45's with 11 gauge steel. (sarcasm alert!!!!)

[Henrik]

I haven’t fabricated in a while, and this part I sure don’t miss…😄

[fzxdoc]

Nice solve! Occam's razor.

K.

[Henrik]

And here they are, almost done. I need to add some kind of door stop so the door doesn’t flip over all the way. And attach the legs, and paint it. But good progress so far.

[jgreen]

Looking great!

[Jerod Broussard]

No doubt.

[realdocBBQ]

Man, Henrik those things are COOL! I may have to copy your design and make me one. I've always thought about a 'Chudbox', but a "Hank's Hot Box" would be kickass too!

Although... prolly wouldn't call it that. Around here, 'hotboxing' has a specific 'connotation' I don't think I need to cultivate. lol

[Jerod Broussard]

Googled your hotbox, definitely nothing I've encountered.....thank goodness.

[texastweeter]

Call it "Hanky's Pankey" lol

[WayneT]

I’m envious of you guys who fabricate your own cookers. It’s extremely cool and way above my pay grade, being retired notwithstanding.

[Jerod Broussard]

Best time to pick up a welder.

[WayneT]

Jerod Broussard I’ve got a bad back.

[Henrik]

Got most of it done today. What’s missing:

- expanded metal. I have fabricated the frame that will be the grill grates, but I’m all out of expanded metal
- wheels. I’m two short.
- get a piece of flat iron to cover/seal the front door lower edge.



Will get the supplies next week. The plan is to build a charcoal tray/box for them so I can do direct grilling with the charcoal about 4” below the grates.

Anywho, this is what it looks like now. Have applied the first layer of paint. Will do another one tomorrow.

[Jerod Broussard]

That definitely is a box that will get hot. Does anyone run flat bar across sides to reduce warpage, much like they do with doors on offset fireboxes?

[Henrik]

I haven’t seen it. And I didn’t need it on my previous build, so will skip it here too.

[Smoker_Boy]

Fantastic!!

You should be proud of those. (thumbs-up here)

[Henrik]

Thanks! Can’t wait to finalize them and do the first burn-in.

[Greygoose]

NICE !!!
OK,,,,vid time,,,,
a walk around when you fire them up,,,
Maybe time for me to break out the welder,,,,and buy some more grinding wheels,,😂🤣😂

[Henrik]

Yes, will do that 👍

[Greygoose]

Hank don’t laugh,,,,this was my welding table,,,😑😑😑
added to the challenge,,,😂🤣😂

[klflowers]

Beautiful. That takes some talent. Back in my construction support days I learned some basic welding but I didn't pursue it. 2nd shift welder taught me enough so that he could read the paper while I welded conduit supports.

[Henrik]

Thanks! I compare my welds now on this one with the previous build 2 years ago. Man, this is 100 times better, nice to see progress.

[Jerod Broussard]

Just started using this stuff for drilling holes. Water based, waaaaaaay cleaner than WD-40.

Anchorlube

[Henrik]

So, just a quick update before this weekend. Every now and then Amazon really delivers. I've been thinking a lot about doing direct grilling in this hot box. And to do that the charcoal needs to be closer to the grill grates. A very good role model in this case is the PK grills, either the Classic or the PK300 (which I own). There's about 4" from grill grates to charcoal grates on the PK.

I figured there must be a way to do this in my new cooker also, and I spent a lot of time thinking about the charcoal grate. Have it plasma cut with a bunch of holes, or do it myself, plus a few other versions. But then it dawned on me (yes, I admit I'm a bit slow sometimes): surely these must be available for purchase? And yes, a few internet searches later Amazon has what I need.

It's a product they call "BBQ Toro" from Germany. Fancy name, but it's just some cast iron grates. Perfect fit for me, all I have to do now is to weld up a frame, think a picture frame, of angle iron. I did buy some 40 x 40 millimeter angle iron, so it will effectively form a box of sorts. I say box because I think having 40 millimeter "walls" around the charcoal grate will help keep the charcoal on the grates, instead of falling off at the sides.

So, when I want to do "regular" cooking, think Hill Country style, I simply remove these cast iron grates. And when I need to do some direct grilling, like searing a steak, I just drop in the cast iron grates and move the charcoal up with a shovel. Easy peasy, and I get a grill that can do more than one thing. Should be good.

This weekend I plan to wrap up the build, so I can post photos of what I'm talkin' about. Plus do a YouTube video so y'all can see it in all its glory. I'll keep ya posted.