Xmas Present to myself

[Friedturkeyspam]

Originally Posted by 16Adams

I realize Mods can add significant dollars, what does the basic in this model price point come in ?? I found prices from 2010 but nothing current.

Craig stays busy without doing much advertising except by word of mouth and he runs a local Craigslist of a 24" model for $500. That's how I found him after calling the phone number in the ad. He has a website with pictures but not overly informative as none of the dimensions are given or even identified. I went to his shop and he showed me some he was working on and pointed to neighbors in his housing development's back yard at one's he'd built. I found a little information from former buyers by "Googling" and reading. I think he could increase his business by 500% if he wanted to but like he told me he stays plenty busy now so why change.

The one you see above is not exactly his standard 30" diameter model. Most of the time his cooking chamber is 5/16" thick and a little shorter than 4' long, but he had this slightly thicker piece of pipe laying around and used it for mine. Only thing "extra" on this one is the 8" shelf he added along the end to give me a place to grab ahold of it to move around on my patio, and some 3/8" probe insert plugs and mini shelves to hold my electronics on the back side of it. He makes a 4' "T" handle that comes off that projects out from the cooking chamber to help in major moves. I took it off and put it in the shed, that's why it's not visible in the photo.

$900 is what this one cost me, I think his slightly thinner, shorter 30" is $750.

He's never built two the same, and he'll make whatever you want. I spent a good part of November and early December going over plans I drew up for a trailer mounted version of this same pit but decided to go to a patio model. He's great to work with. His older two door models used to have a center piece of steel running down the center so his main cooking grate was in two pieces, now he puts a piece of flat stock on the second door and as long as you grab the door closest to the firebox first you only have to open one at a time. The main cooking grate slides out full width now, runs on 1 1/2" angle and can be removed. Same for the 1/2 size upper shelf, it's a one piecer also.

Mike

[Friedturkeyspam]

Here's a picture with the "T" handle still attached.

[bbqgeekess]

That rig looks really nice. I'll keep this guy in mind for my horizontal offset needs since he's local. $500 is a steal for 1/4" thick 24 inch diameter.

I have a question about the chimney on your model. How close is the entrance of the chimney to the grate?

[Friedturkeyspam]

About a mile away!

Seriously, his design he's been building for years doesn't need the new age tweeks and mods of the COS.

It was all I could do to get him to change a few things as far as vents etc. He spends his time under a welding hood not surfing the web like you and I, what he makes works well, and when you come over to pick up your Bandera, I'll show you it in person.

Mike