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THE WILD DOG 10 years, 4 months ago.
Why not use the SS or cast iron burners from gas grills??? These & controls can be had for about the same price.
http://allpartsgrills.com/item539802.ctlg
http://www.thepartsbiz.com/BBQ-Grillware-Gas-Grill-Tube-Burner-Stainless-Steel-Pipe-Burner-12611_p_1340.html
I don’t have a link for the control valve, but I will find it again.
I’m gonna give it a try and see what happens. Worse case scenario is I spent $40 on a stove I can put back together and take back and wasted a days time vs spending $800 on a new one.
If it works at 80% I will be happy, I’ll just save to buy a new one. Only thing is that my counters are only 22″ deep and most griddles are 25″-29″ deep. This one is only 17″ deep, so it makes sense to try it and it doesn’t cost me anything.
I did lower the burners ( a few times ) made my base into swiss cheese, but now they are about 3″ from the top/bottom of the griddle plate. Should make for a better burn surface.
I’ll have it up and running in a few days, I’ll report back to how it went. I don’t doubt I’ll have cold spots. I’m just hoping they are less than more. lol
Wild,,,,,You are going to have 2 hot spots, and the rest stone cold. A grill burner is “U” shaped and spread the flame evenly across the grill surface.
How are you going to light the left burner? I see holes to get a lighter in on the right side, how about the left? Or is there an electronic ignition system or pilot light orifice there that I cannot see? And I would be concerned about gas buildup inside of the body of the grill, I think you need more ventilation along the base.
And those burners look like they will give you two real hot spots on the griddle plate, I don’t see how you will evenly cook your product? Or am I off base on that?
Mike
Well, I went out and bought the $39 grill from HF today, and basically gutted it. It was simple to do, Just remove the knobs, the screws and the screws that held the pilot parts in place. and installed it into my grill base. I have to say it wasn’t too bad of a fabrication. The only thing I had to purchase was a 1/2 drill bit to drill out the hole for the peg hole. ( plastic piece behind knob was big) So I drilled it to match the circular plate. It looks a little off centered, but the gold pieces are pretty much right underneath the griddle top with maybe an inch or a half inch to space in space. So the flame will spread quite nicely. Plus their were long screw shafts built into the bottom of the griddle top to heat up and spread around the heat ( my assumption, but the original set up was electric so who knows, But I had to bend the shafts back into the bottom of the grill top so they would hang up on the burners.)
I have attached some pics of the before and after for your viewing pleasure.
So tomorrow I will switch the gas feed to the left side ( has more room to pipe it to the back of the grill base then the right side) and adjust the connection in the trailer and hopefully by noon I will have it tested and fired up. I hope this works. I see no reason why it shouldn’t. The only hangup I can see is that the burners are so close to the underneath of the griddle top that it might not function properly. However I am pretty sure all will be ok.
Thoughts ??
Rubok, you need to buy the EZ hot dog cart build DVD, as the info is in there including the needed measurements so that you only have to do this once along with the proper materials list. I bought it, and it was worth every penny, as it has helped me understand allot of the workings of my own custom built trailer.
Here is the link # http://www.buildahotdogcart.com/
Mike
The black smoke I’m referring to will be on the bottom of the grill plate and maybe visible from the combustion vents. This would be the result of the plate being too close to the burner and interfering with the proper combustion air/mixture ratio; thus more carbon monoxide in the air. … the smoke you are seeing is most likely from the oi/grease burning on top of the grill.
no black smoke or smoke that I saw when it was heating up. It is a pretty old griddle top I will say. However it was pretty dark when I was doing it. I noticed after awhile with all vents closed and window/ door shut it was pretty smokey. Def gonna need a vent hood for sure.
I can’t wait to get it fired up tomorrow for lunch and see what throws together. I’m gonna get a cheap frying pan lid to use to help things along. Gonna need to get to RD soon too for supplies to clean it. Whats the best thing to clean these grills with ???
The flame looks good in the pic. Are you getting any smoking or black smoke with the grill plate down?
Anyway … good luck & hope it works great.
well the install finally happened. Grill heats up pretty good. Everything sizzles straight across. Assuming that the middle is going to be less hot as the flames are not directly under it. I will keep it as it is for now and I will be changing out the burners, I will probably go with an ” H ” style or a ” U ” style eventually. I want to do some test runs for burgers and steaks to see how they cook up and the times it takes. Should only take a minute or three with the steaks. Here are some pics of the battle warrior I like to call MONGO GRILL. LOL
i use these stoves as my steam table too. Haven’t had any issues with that. The grill burns nice and hot for the most part. I gotta season the top some more. It’s an old top. I cooked on it tonight at my auction and out out about 12 1/3lb burgers. My only issue is they are sticking sometimes. I’m sure once I season it again , all should be ok.
The fun part is going to be cleaning it tonite when I’m done. It’s nice and black lol but I’ve been scrubbing it as I go best I can. I def gotta get to the supply house tomorrow and get cleaner , scrubbers, nd a scraper. Tonight will be just water, degreaser, and a green scrubby.
it’s kinda cool how the EZ setup is seen all over the place. It’s ideas are incorporated all over.
I was measuring out the HF stove yesterday and think it will fit. My own roadblock to that is the knobs. Not sure the knobs will reach through. ( or the pegs actually ) lol.
My griddle is old and beastly, but if it can work for $40 vs buying a new one, I’m all for it ya know. I will take some pics. I have yet to come across my toastmaster griddle anywhere. The grease trap is actually in the back of the griddle instead of in the front like most standards are. LOL
Localnet,
Thats exactly the set up I’m working on.
Perhaps you could answer one more question for me.
Concerning the burner-box.
I’m not sure of the construction matrieals used for a compleyed burner box.
Is it a box made out of wood, and then “lined” with metal? Or maybe a metal frame and “wrapped” with sheet metal?
I’m just not sure about having a floating sheet metal box hanging down there. It don’t seem to me that sheet metal alone would be structurally sound enough. But I may be wrong about that.
Mike
Wild dog,
I’m glad you brought this subject up. I also am putting together a griddle similar to what you described. Feed back will be extremely helpful to me as well.My fall back plan is to get one of those 2 burner hobo freights stoves, and modify it to fit my needs. But I would prefer to use a “tube” type burner.
So far I haven’t been able to find valves to control the generic burners with.Hope you get some helpful feed-back.
Mike
Here is you griddle top, # http://www.littlegriddle.com/
I have one in my garage, (very heavy and well constructed) for my yet to be built grill on my yet to be built cart. I bought the Harbor Freight three burner cook top to heat it http://www.harborfreight.com/stainless-steel-3-way-lp-stove-with-grill-99861.html http://www.harborfreight….-with-grill-99861.html
There are a few guys using this same setup on their homemade hot dog carts. Just build a fire box out of steel siding/flashing that you should be able to get at Lowes or Home Depot.
Mike
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