Usually, a stationary barbecue is used for this purpose, and in its absence, they carry with them a bulky, inconvenient and heavy structure welded from thick carbon steel sheets to prevent burnout from constant use.
Is it possible to replace this unsightly and difficult-to-transport product with something more aesthetically pleasing, ergonomic and lightweight? What material to choose in this case, and how to arrange it in order to make a simple, compact and convenient portable barbecue for grilling kebabs outdoors?
Stainless steel meets all these numerous conditions, because it is distinguished by sufficiently high strength, excellent heat resistance and, most importantly in this case, durability. This type of steel does not rust, does not oxidize and does not burn out.
The grill, made of stainless steel, will serve you for decades. Its design will depend on the source material.If these are sheets, then the grill will turn out to be angular, which is not very convenient and practical.
A more ergonomic rounded shape of the barbecue can be obtained if you take an old stainless steel drum from an automatic washing machine as the starting material. You can try to find it at a scrap metal dump or remove it from your old broken automatic machine.
Making a barbecue from a washing machine drum
Let's get to work. First of all, it is necessary to cut off the end part in the form of a shell in a circle using a grinder.
This is a blank for future legs, and the remaining cylinder with a bottom will be the basis of the barbecue for starting a fire. We cut both blanks into two equal symmetrical halves using the same grinder.
Next, we connect the two parts of the cylinder with the overlap so that the halves of the bottoms look outward.
The joint can be connected using bolts and nuts or spot welding. Thus, we get a barbecue body with a rounded base and vertical side walls.
Now you can attach legs to the body (to the vertical side walls) on both sides. They will be shells cut into two equal parts, representing halves of a circle.
They can also be attached to the grill body using hardware or the same spot welding. To do this, we bend the collars symmetrically on both sides where the legs will lie using a plumber's hammer. Then we place the legs in them and attach them to the grill body with bolts and nuts or spot welding.
If the grill is assembled using bolts and nuts, it will be dismountable, which will increase its mobility, facilitate transportation and simplify storage.
The width of the grill turns out to be just right for the standard length of the skewers.All that remains is to check our homemade grill in action. To do this, we place wood material in it; of course, it would be better to use saxaul bars, but birch logs will also work. Let the fuel burn down to coals and now you can start grilling kebabs.
Improving the design of the barbecue
If the grill is somewhat shortened in length due to a wider overlap in the middle, then the bottom in the zone of the most intense and longest burning will be double. This will undoubtedly increase the reliability and service life of our homemade product.
To increase stability and give the barbecue a finished look, you can weld heel stops to the lower edges of the legs or simply attach plastic stops in some way.
