Well mate...it looked so inviting, the grandson and I chomped it somethin' terrible...and I tell ya what...it was brilliant. Have to admit, the BBQ plate is one of the best I have used...absolutely magnificent. No hot spots, the heat is even all over and it holds the heat well.

Cheers, Vince

Vince,
Great to hear the pig works so well.
My old gas grill finally went belly- up, so I'm cooking with charcoal for a while, but at least I now have a spare LP tank. I'll have to start roundin' up the necessary supplies to give it a try. If it turns out half as good as yours, I'll be well pleased.

The bits and pieces are easy CB...with the exception of the plate, smokestack and hinge...everything else I cut out of the top and bottom guard.

Good luck with buildin' one mate...its was a very satisfying project. Once you have the basic PIG, well, then you can start looking at improvements you can make...exactly what I'm doing now.

Cheers, Vince

OK Slim...just for you mate...I fired up the PIG again this evening and threw a few pieces of filet steak onto the plate...cooked to perfection (I like my steak medium rare). My daughter who is a damn fine Chef also liked the steak...so I musta did sumfin' right.

To give you an idea how well the 'stack draws, check the second pic...the fire is burning nicely inside, the door is closed and there is no smoke coming from the 'stack.

I'm really looking forward to the day I can throw a couple of nice venison steaks onto the plate.

Cheers, Vince

Those steaks look to be 2 inches thick!! Can't find meat around here like that, at the local grocery, lol. Looks great!

Yep...not a bad lump of beef Phil.

When I go to the butcher, I tell him how I want the meat sliced. You can buy a full rib filet for about $12 a kilogram (2.2lbs) and have it sliced how you want it. A good size rib filet will set you back about $25. Its the same with rump steak...buy a whole rump, $12.99 a kilo, and the butcher will slice it for you, how you want it done. Scotch Filet is a bit more expensive...$26.10 a kilo.

I remember when I would buy a complete side of lamb cut into a shoulder roast, a leg roast and the rest into chops etc for a total of about $18. Lamb Chops alone are around $15.50 a kilo now.

Cheers, Vince

Vince wrote:

OK Slim...just for you mate...I fired up the PIG again this evening and threw a few pieces of filet steak onto the plate.

Vince, now that is mouth-watering!!!!! I can just hear the sizzle and smell the juices boiling! Think I'm going to have to change my plans from cereal to beef sausage for breakfast this morning!

You should start making this as a side business and using that picture to sell them. You could make your second million in no time!!!

Geez, now he's got ME drooling...

Vince, (because I love pigs?) your invention always finds a way to return in my mind... I already got me a few gassbotles, even cleaned one and now I have a practical question: how did you cut these round holes? Just want to make sure that I'm not looking for the most difficult way of doing this...

Aloysius wrote:

Vince, (because I love pigs?) your invention always finds a way to return in my mind... I already got me a few gassbotles, even cleaned one and now I have a practical question: how did you cut these round holes? Just want to make sure that I'm not looking for the most difficult way of doing this...

The best way to cut the hole in the front for the door, and the top for the grill plate opening, is with a plasma cutter if you have one, or have a friend who has one. I don't, so I did it the old fashioned way...the hard way.

To cut the round holes Aloys...the first thing I did, after cutting the guard off the top, was mark them onto the gas bottle with a texta/sharpie marker. Once I had done that I drilled a three or four SMALL holes where the hinge will go and using that as the start point carefully cut around the marked line with a 100mm angle grinder using a 1mm thick cutting blade. The secret to getting a nice neat and even cut is to "make haste slowly"...take your time and do not rush it.

Remember, the piece you cut out of what used to be the top of the bottle is going to be the door to the firebox, so you want that nice and neat and a gap all round of no more than 2mm. This allows for a bit of air to get around the door (helps keep the fire going) as well as air going in through the opening where the gas valve used to be. Once I had cut out the "door" I cleaned up the edges with the angle grinder so that there was no sharp area and they were nice and smooth.

Cutting the hole in the top was done exactly the same way, although marking the hole out to be cut was very difficult. The hole in the top of mine is not perfectly round, it is slightly oval, but that is not an issue...it still works a treat. When I had marked out the hole, I went around the marked line with an electric drill and drilled a series of holes, each separated by maybe 1mm, all the way around, then cut it out with the angle grinder. The reason I did it this way is because the metal is thicker in places, and I didn't need the piece of metal being cut out...unless you want to use it for scrap...so it is easy to clean up the edge of the hole with the angle grinder.

The opening for the chimney or flue was done the same way, although first up I shaped the end of the flue to fit the profile of the end of the bottle. Cut out carefully with the angle grinder, checked the fit of the flue (I made the hole as close to the same size and shape of the flue as I could), cleaned it up with the angle grinder and welded the short section of flue into place.

If you want some pics of the process...I can hand draw some, scan them and email them to you mate.

Cheers, Vince

I can picture the proces, but I'm still thinking on how to do it myself. I have an acethylene-torch, but that gives a nasty cut. I now was thinking on how to fix such a bottle on the milling-machine, but even then the gap would be more than 2 mm. It could work for the 2 other holes, but for the door it will be a problem. Maybe I should make a square door...
1 improvement I allready got from my daughter: "When you name it 'pig', it should have a curled tail at the back"

Well, here we have a saying: "I should not be to easy because then everybody would do it"
so when I cross your pig with an 18-shooter and use blackpowder for fuel, maybe I can make bigmacs in a second, but where am I going to put the french fried? Using the exhaust as a potato-canon? With a little luck (an good aiming/timing) it could also make some mighty good dove-soup at the same time...
but how about licenses? It used to be that everything bigger than 20 mm came without permits, till they discovered someone shooting wooden poles... scottish people still like to throw poles while showing arround in their kilts, why didn't we wear skirts when shooting poles? It might have drawn attention to other things...

Not sure how a square door would go...but it would be an interesting exercise mate. I think the hardest part would be making and fitting the right type of hinge. Not an insurmountable problem though.

As you say I don't think a "gas axe" (oxy acetylene) would give a clean enough cut...a plasma cutter is the ideal, but the angle grinder, used carefully, does a good job as well. I'm not sure how efficient they are, but a jigsaw with a hacksaw blade fitting would, or should, give a nice clean cut.

If you decide to cut the door out with the oxy set...you could always weld something around the outer edge of the door to close up the gap a bit. Be a bugger of a job though mate.

Tell your daughter I love her suggestion on the tail...it works for me mate.

Cheers, Vince

ok guys heres a thought try a bigger bottle eg the ones they use on forklifts they are about 1mtr long 3ft ish. and just cut the end off square and poke your hindge on one side and a latch on the other.you could weld some scrap just back from the door to stop embers falling on ya jandles when you open the door...

Good idea for multi hotplates along the top Elvis...wouldn't really be portable though.

As for the embers mate...that's the beauty of the 9kg bottle...it has that curved end that contains the ashes until you want to tip them out.

Cheers, Vince

Had the urge for a snack the other night...decided that a bacon and egg sangs was in order, so the PIG got the breathe again.

Cheers, Vince