Grill Grates - Cut 'em yourself?

[Dewesq55]

Has anybody, instead of having them custom cut, bought a slightly over-sized set and cut them down yourself with a grinder or a table saw? I am think about doing so to take advantage of the kit pricing and getting the spatula tool.

[Spinaker]

Yeah I thought about trimming the corners on mine so I can get the ones I bought into my keg. But I haven't tried it. I need to try it with the Plasma Cutter but you gotta have your gasses dial in to get a really nice cut. I suppose I could hit the edges with the grinder to smooth them out.

Table saw I'd be pretty hesitant but I know that people use them to cut aluminum. If I was going to use a saw, I'd use a chop saw with a Carbide blade. But wear a mask because that metal dust is gonna be really fine. And you don't wanna inhale that stuff.

Dewesq55 If you try it, let me know how it goes.

[Dewesq55]

I cut basic aluminum stock on my table saw all the time. The carbide blades go through it like butter, but I don't know about the hard anodized stuff. I will probably try the grinder with a metal cutting disk

[DeusDingo]

i would think a bandsaw would work for this as well if you have the right blade

[David Parrish]

Just remember wherever you make a cut you'll lose the hard anodized coating.

[Dewesq55]

I seem to have an in between size. I will re-measure when I go back to the vacay house to see if the 17.375 size will fit without falling through.

[Lakeside Chef]

I cut about an inch off the corners of a pair of GrillGrates to fit a round komado. No problem. I used a jig saw with a metal cutting blade and then I smoothed out the edges with a file. The bare metal edges seasoned over and did not affect the cooking performance of the GrillGrates.

[Dewesq55]

Good info Lakeside Chef Thanks!

[Dewesq55]

So, I remeasured and it turns out that the standard 18.5 inch grates should fit my gasser without modification. The original porcelain clad cast iron grates have given up the ghost and started depositing porcelain grit and rust paricles on the food. SHMBO won't even eat a burger cooked on them (and we practically live on grilled burgers at the vacay home when i'm not doing a big smoke or rotisserie chicken. So I bought a set of 5 to completely replace the original grates. The company was great to deal with. In addition to the 5 grates, I had ordered and paid for a grate tool. Today I got a call telling me that a grate tool is included with the 5 grate purchase and did I really mean to buy a second grate tool (I didn't). They refunded the money to my card. I thought that was really good customer care. I am so excited to get my new grates and try them out. We are going home tomorrow, but coming back Thursday night. Hopefully I will get the GG's before we come back. I sure hope (and expect) that they are as good as y'all (I'm in Virginia now 😜) say they are.

[Porterdriver]

I have a GG that just, I mean just, holds a five grate set. Wishing that I could cut down one to allow for a looser fit. Then it dawned on me. I took out one of the grates and put two grates on the right to be the 'hot' side and two on the left to be the 'cool' side, wth gap spread evenly (~1.5") between the two sides of the GG and the center of the cooking chamber. This way they two grate units do not physically touch and virtually all heat transfer is from convection and radiation but not conduction. Found that it was much easier maintaining the temp on the cool side that way.
For what it's worth.

[Dewesq55]

My set just arrived today. Will take them to VA and put them in this wekend.