Homemade Grill

My father was always skilled at making things with his hands and with tools. In fact, he worked most of his life as a TOOL AND DIE MAKER for two different factories. His job in that capacity was to take raw pieces of metal and make tools that would be used in the manufacturing processes of the factory. His employer recycled as much scrap as they could, but were generous in granting employees' requests for a few pieces, here-and-there.

Some of that scrap which he requested became a grill, which he built with his own hands! It looks a little dirty now because it has been stored in the crawlspace under the house for many years.

My father started with a small metal drum, which he cut in half. Four legs were welded to one half of the barrel. Four metal rods were welded in-place halfway down the legs, securing them to prevent wobbling. A fifth metal rod was purposed as an axle, to which he affixed wheels from an old, retired lawn mower. He intentionally only put wheels on two of the four legs, so that it could be moved (like a wheelbarrow, by lifting-up on the opposite shelf) but it would not roll easily when in-use. He cut a piece of metal grating material to use as the grilling surface on the inside, and another piece of the metal grating was fixed to the outside as a shelf.

The side-shelf is a work-of-art on its own. It was affixed to one end of the grill with a hinge-like mechanism. The shelf is propped-up by a piece of metal on the outside which can be unhooked from the support-rod to allow the shelf fold-down out of the way. Tongs and other cooking tools can be hung on the rod to the right of the shelf while the grill is in use. That same rod serves as a handle for lifting the right-side of the grill off the ground so that it can be rolled on the wheels into its storage space. It's such a simple, but ingenious, design!

The top half of the barrel is affixed to the bottom with hinges at the back, so it opens like a lid. The grate on the inside that serves as a cooking surface lifts-out by hand for loading charcoal in the bottom and lighting it. Once the charcoal is burning appropriately, the grate can easily be dropped back into place.

In the following view of the left-hand end, a bent rod can be seen at the back which serves to support the lid when it the grill is open.

The round spot at the top of this end is a residual vent-hole for the drum and really serves no purpose for the grill itself. If you look closely at the bottom-half of this end, perhaps you can see the little door that is there. It's rectangular in shape, hinged at the top, and has a little handle at bottom that was formed from a bent piece of metal and welded in place. That little door serves two purposes: (1) if a 'draft' is needed during the cooking process, the door can be opened a bit to allow a bit of air to be drawn inside by the heat to stoke the fire, and (2) it facilitates the dumping of the ashes after the grill has cooled.

He built this back in the 1960s, and it is still sturdy and usable today, perhaps 55-or-so years later! I am immensely proud of my father and all the quality work he did over the years! 😊😊

While working on this post, I shared a sneak-peek of the photos with @jamerussell who made two observations. First, he said it looked like it would make a good smoker. He's probably right, but my father never really used it that way. Second, he said this is called a "barbeque" in his area, and the term "grill" is reserved to propane-fueled cooking devices. I think it is interesting how things have different names in different parts of the same country. Of course, this item was made in the 1960s, and perhaps terms have changed since then, I don't know. Where I was raised, cooking outdoors on grills/barbeques was always the domain of the menfolk in the family. It was almost a sacrilege for us womenfolk to touch them, and heaven forbid if we tried to advise with: "I think it's time to turn that over" or any other such thing!  😂

Since I am in the process of paring-down my possessions and since this item is so large and there is no guarantee that I will be able to use it when I move into an apartment at some point in the future, I probably won't be able to keep it. So, I will offer it to a family member or two and try to give it a good home with someone who will have room for it, appreciate it, and possibly be able to make use of it. If nothing else, it might make a good flower planter if they don't want to grill food in it! 😁