A Cheap and Cool Grill Fix

For about a year, I've been looking for an inexpensive charcoal grill that wasn't made from wafer thin sheet metal. I don't know what you all know about pre-fab charcoal grills, but the way things are now, most are dirt cheap, designed to last maybe two years and have no ability to store heat or they are designed to leave to your grandkids and are really expensive (e.g. Big Green Egg ).

I finally found one on Tuesday at Walmart that fit my needs almost perfectly. The grill I bought was designed as something that could be used on a "table" and (if you can imagine) hooked to the butt end of a vee-hick-ill on a trailer hitch.

Well, I had no intention of putting my "Backyard Classic" (yep that's the name) on a table (too messy) or hooking it to my car (I don't have a hitch) but straight away I realized that the thing was almost ideally suited to my needs. Why?

• It was heavy gauge steel and was the right size for everyday use by a family of 4
  
• It had vents on two sides to adjust air flow
• The bracket could be flipped over and used to mount it to my deck
• It cost $40, that's right, $40.

To mount it as you see here, I flipped over the trailer hitch thing. I made a post from two pieces of angle iron in-filled with 1" square pressure treated deck balustrade salvaged from when I tore the railings off of my deck. I drove the angle irons and balustrade into the soil and lag bolted them to the deck (see 3rd photo from top). To secure the bracket I cut a piece of stud pine, lag bolted it to the bottom of the bracket and tied it into the deck with a couple of decking screws.

Oh yeah, I had to drill few holes and add a few bolts to tighten it all up. And I painted the angle Irons, cut end where the legs were , various nuts and bolts and the angled 2X4 with black hammered finish Rustoleum just to make it look finished so I could sleep. (I'm going to finsih the base with cedar next week.).