Spit Roaster build, PRON!

So my wife and I were at a sausage house called Bangers in Austin TX, for their 5th anniversary. This place is awesome and really does whoop it up for bigger events. This day, they had 2 pigs on spits and a 3rd deboned and stuffed with sausage, garlic, onions, and jalapenos in a china box.


We were eating all manners of pork and drinking amazing beer with friends. She started feeling good and said "You are always building things, why don't you build me anything?" I said "Well, what do you want me to make you?" With her arm fully extended she pointed at the spit and said "Build me a spit!"


I was shocked the next day when she brought it up, I thought she was just joking. She wasn't. So I set out to design the spit. I knew that if it looked like a giant spit when it wasn't being used she would tell me to put it in the garage. I can't have a spit taking up that much room in the garage. So it had to look real nice.


I decided that I could make it look like a beefy coffee table. The uprights, motor, and rod would all need to fit in the firebox so I could put a lid on it transforming the spit into a table. This is what I came up with. The spit is 5'x30"x18". I made it these dimensions so it could fit through a door and fit in the bed of my truck, while still being able to roast a 90lb pig.






Sorry for the crappy picture of a monitor.






So I got some steel to get started. I talked to my friend's father who is a journeyman welder. He suggested that I make it out of 11ga or 1/8th inch material thickness. The steel tube is 2x2 inches.




Before you see the ugly welds I'd like to say, I've never welded before. Practiced with the new Millermatic 211 before these welds. Thats right gentlemen, she agreed that I needed a welder to do this project. You can see some practice joints on the floor in the background. I got a lot better by the end of this spit.




As you can see, I changed the design a bit from the sketchup. I decided that it would make the spit lighter if I didn't have two bottom frame tubes. So, I moved the one tube to the center. I'm glad I did this as I can hardly lift the spit onto a dolly and I'm a big guy. That is my cousin I was teaching how to use an angle grinder. There is my 2nd UDS in the background. I also made the garden barrel in the background. My father and I made 4. I gave one of mine to my sister because I have no shade to provide and it just dries out to much in the Texas heat. My fathers and sisters are doing great! I'm going to make some more with my dad.




I bought some 2 inch steel disks for the feet. I drilled a hole in 4 of them and plug welded some bolts on for the feet. I didn't get a pic of the nuts welded on to the end plates for the legs.






Getting the firebox together. The firebox is made of 8" 1/4" and 2" 1/4" flat bars. This was the hardest part. I had to cut the welds twice because the shims I used to give clearance for the frame weren't thick enough. I bent a thick pipe clamp trying to pry it out. I had to end up using a bottle jack to lift the firebox out. I ended up cutting angles into the sides of the firebox to allow for clearance. Major pain. My cousin was helping with the firebox lifting. His name is Earl.



Next was to work on the up rights, as I didn't have the bottom of the firebox yet. The jack wagons at the steel supply store cut some steel for me, they cut it wrong. I saw the guy make all the marks at once, I should have stepped in and said something about the kerf of the blade but I didn't. So all the steel they cut went to the scrap bin. Here is a part that was a full 1/4" off from 2".


Here I marked and punched where the rod would sit on the uprights. I drilled the punch and cut the wide U's with an angle grinder.




Here you can see the rod supports. They are made of 4" 3/16" flat bar.


I wasn't sure if 3/16" of thread would be enough for all the weight I want to put on the spit. So, I took a section of the same bar, drilled a bigger hole than the bolt I planned to use for locking the support to the uprights. I then seam welded and plug welded them on to the supports. I drilled another hole and and tapped the hole. I didn't get any pic of the action, but here are the ground down plug and seam welds.






Here is the jig I made to build the rod supports. I welded the 3/16" flat bar up with a 16ga shim on two opposing sides of the 1"x2" 1/8 tube. In this pic I was just testing the newly drilled and tapped hole.




This is a picture of the uprights clamped to the frame. I put the rod on for fun. I bought the rod, I know I should have made it. Feel free to lay it on thick.





These are the gussets that I welded on to the uprights to help support the attachment to the frame. I again changed my design from the sketch-up. I didn't put the upright bars through the the frame. I don't know what I was thinking when I drafted that part of the design. Like a friend told me "You drew it, you didn't engineer it."




Here is the welded upright. I still need to drill the holes for the connection to the frame.




Here is a test fit of the uprights to the frame with the rod on the wide u cutouts for the rod to ride in. I turned it on and was amazed at the slow turning. It was a great moment of the build!







Here is the firebox with the bottom almost on. My friend, the one with the journeyman welder for a father, told me he could get me cheaper steel from his place of employment. I was happy to hear that it was more than half off! I wasn't to please when it was 1.5" short in the long run. He measured it and owned up to the fact that he recorded the wrong dimensions. His company gave me a 2" strip of steel for free. The large sheet was already at the companies cost so I was grateful none the less. I did have to cut off the .5" to get it to fit neatly. My friend offered this to help ease my mind on the extra seam of the firebox, "Hey man, I didn't measure it wrong I was just giving to more metal to practice welding on!" We had a laugh.




Here you can see the firebox is done being welded and the spit rod is fitting nicely inside the firebox.




Here I am standing in the firebox. I was surprised at how stable and solid it was, I shouldn't have been considering how heavy it is.




This is where it's current state is at, I don't have the lid done yet.






I coated it with vegetable oil and had a fire! The test run was going to be the next day. We roasted some marshmallows with the kids. Then my wife and I cuddled next to the fire after the kids went to bed. She was so happy to see it working. It was nice to have a fire pit again. Normally for just a fire I would have taken the uprights off, but I wanted them to heat up as much as possible to bake off anything I didn't get cleaned off.









Test run day! My wife got 4 chickens and we made them all up in different ways. From left to right: Brined with Salt Sugar Garlic and Rosemary, Mole Sauce, Butter Garlic Thyme and Salt, Cajun Seasonings.








Here they are just put on the spit. The order of the chickens changed from the last description.






Mmmmm chicken! There are 3 different charcoals in the mix. This wasn't done to be fancy, it was done because no one was sober enough to get more charcoal. The cook time was way longer than it should have been and this was the last pic I took that day. I haven't cooked on it since because the rain hasn't stopped in weeks.





Next is a pork belly made up lechon style. My wife is happy with her new spit and I'm happy to have learned so much about metal fabrication. So what do yall think?


I will have more pictures of the spit roaster to come!

Thanks everyone! My wife is quite pleased with the spit. She likes to tell people what I built for her. Reminds me of the first necklace I made for her. She would get a compliment on it pretty much every time she would wear it. She got a kick out of peoples reactions when she told them I had made it for her.

It was a lot of work, but I'm happy with how it turned out.


ssv3, Did you make that spit? Looks nice, but that would have still ended up in my garage. I'm getting to put it on the patio as a bench, small patio and no room for a coffee table in the center of it.