Prototype Hanging Skewer For Vertical Kabobs In My BDS

[thirdeye]

About 10 years ago I built a meat hanging rack for my BDS, originally for jerky, sausage links, ribs and loins (both smoked and Buckboarded), and this year I've gotten into Brazilian skewers with open dome cooking on my small BGE.

With that in mind I've been fooling around with ideas for hanging skewered meats or veggies in the drum.... Below is my first prototype. I wanted the rod to be as small as possible in diameter so it would conduct minimal heat (and avoid cooking the lower pieces from the inside), and I have 1/8" and 5/32" stainless rod to work with. I fashioned the spring meat retainer clip from some stainless steel banding material and my designed is based on those clips that come with a stem thermometer. It's pretty snug but will release easily. The rod in this photo is just a scrap, but I'm thinking about 15" to 18" would be a workable length. Just to test the retainer clip I might put a drill stop collar below it for a few cooks and see if the retainer moves during cooking. Thoughts??

 

[zippy12]

I hang with these in my UDS...

https://www.amazon.com/Barbecue-Skewer-BearMoo-Stainless-Skewers/dp/B073VJ9MSJ/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1508263157&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=bearmoo+skewers&psc=1

I am thinking I may run with your IDEA because its pretty damn good...
At 17 inches I can afford to loose an inch or two for that style clip...

Up till now I have been using stainless screws and nuts....

 

[thirdeye]

I hang with these in my UDS...

https://www.amazon.com/Barbecue-Skewer-BearMoo-Stainless-Skewers/dp/B073VJ9MSJ/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1508263157&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=bearmoo+skewers&psc=1

I am thinking I may run with your IDEA because its pretty damn good...
At 17 inches I can afford to loose an inch or two for that style clip...

Up till now I have been using stainless screws and nuts....

My first thought was a stainless collar like this, they are $3 or $4 at Home Depot, and the hex screw could be replaced with a stainless thumb screw.

 

[zippy12]

I like the clean up aspect of your V clip

 

[effinUker]

I like the clean up aspect of your V clip

I agree with this. It seems to me that it would be an "easy off" thing when the skewer is hot.

 

[zippy12]

Would 18 gauge SS stock be springy enough?

 

[Stlsportster]

Did you see the new PBC hanging skewers? Interesting design where the hole to hang is in the point. Slide items down the skewer and hang from the point.

 

[robert-r]

Have been using these for several years:

 

[NY Pork Junkie]

I wanted the rod to be as small as possible in diameter so it would conduct minimal heat (and avoid cooking the lower pieces from the inside), and I have 1/8" and 5/32" stainless rod to work with. I fashioned the spring meat retainer clip from some stainless steel banding material and my designed is based on those clips that come with a stem thermometer. It's pretty snug but will release easily. The rod in this photo is just a scrap, but I'm thinking about 15" to 18" would be a workable length. Just to test the retainer clip I might put a drill stop collar below it for a few cooks and see if the retainer moves during cooking. Thoughts??

Awesome idea! That's a really elegant solution to a pretty common problem. I think it's superior to the new PBC T-skewers, which I think are too thick and those one's are back-ordered until the end of the month!

Just that small spring clip you have there will give you all the holding power you really need for the application. My woodworking bar clamps work on the same principle (just a thicker bar and a coil spring), and they'll produce 1000lbs of clamping force or so.

For bbq skewers, as long as the spring clamps can hold even an ouce of force, they're all that's needed because friction takes care of the rest. If you wanted to get real fancy to test how different lengths, widths, gauge, and hole position, you could buy 1lb of fender washers and test different designs to failure and see how many oz of fender washers they support.

Awesome idea!

 

[zippy12]

Take a dremel tool and cut a notch in the skewer at the bottom for the clip to notch into and lock it in place...

 

[thirdeye]

Would 18 gauge SS stock be springy enough?

I'll try and get an actual measurement but banding/strapping material is pretty thin, a guess would be 0.035 or thinner.

Take a dremel tool and cut a notch in the skewer at the bottom for the clip to notch into and lock it in place...

I thought about that, but opening the spring will tighten the grip... and a hole closer to the .156" diameter will make it bind better. Right now I have .156" rod and .187" holes.

For bbq skewers, as long as the spring clamps can hold even an ouce of force, they're all that's needed because friction takes care of the rest. If you wanted to get real fancy to test how different lengths, widths, gauge, and hole position, you could buy 1lb of fender washers and test different designs to failure and see how many oz of fender washers they support.

I thought about taking a plastic container and poking a hole in the bottom so it can sit on the rod above the clip... then fill it with whatever to check the load bearing weight of the clip. But that would be dead weight.... to some degree the meat on the rod would sort of stick a little bit. And lets face it, 10 or 12 cubes of meat is not that heavy, veggies would be even lighter.

 

[jeffeg]

Where did you find the stainless rod?

 

[zippy12]

Where did you find the stainless rod?

Local Mom and pop hardware stores have it...

I got thicker SS rod to make meat hooks

 

[thirdeye]

Would 18 gauge SS stock be springy enough?

The thickness of my clip is .025" and the width is 5/8".

Where did you find the stainless rod?

I have some scrap pieces of the 5/32" diameter rod that is leftover from the ash wiggle rods I build and sell to ceramic pit users. I've used this material to make my single and double hooks. But a common source is stainless steel welding TIG rod, this is bare stainless rod. Grade 309 stainless is common and less expensive than other grades It comes in 36" lengths and the diameters range from 1/16" and up, usually in 1/32" steps. Some welding stores sell it by the piece, others will have 1 pound tubes.

 

[ssv3]

I hang in my drums quite often. In the beginning I used to plug russet potato chunk at the ends just for insurance but I stopped since nothing was really sliding or fallin off. I usually get a nice hot fire going at the bottom which sears the meat outside and helps it to tack on.

These skewers are plenty available here so I just looped the ends into hooks for hanging in the drums. I hang beef, ground beef, pork, wings, sausages etc without any issues. I plan on doing Churrasco soon. For ground meat I tend to use the wide skewers (more mass) and for chunks of meat the narrower ones work. If I need to use narrow skewers for ground meat kabobs then I'm careful not to tack on too much meat on the skewers as I usually do on the wider ones.

This was on Sunday in the Hunsaker drum

Ground beef/pork kabobs

Pork shoulder chunks also

Nothing fell or burnt

 

[ssv3]

Pork belly is about my favorite to cook on the skewers. This was in the PBC again using those same skewers

Wangs too

 

[thirdeye]

Hopefully the round rod behaves similar to the flat stock with respect to sticking. I made a long fork style skewer for cooking sausage on my BGE, I may have to adapt that idea (only a little wider) for a vertical skewer for sausage. I usually cut whole pork loins in half before hanging, so the longest things I hang would be pork ribs. The doneness is very even with the exception of the end bone, so I'm guessing kabobs or sausage links will be similar..

 

[thirdeye]

Pork belly is about my favorite to cook on the skewers. This was in the PBC again using those same skewers

Wangs too

Pork belly burnt ends are already on the list, and I'll add wings as well. You have any estimates on cook time for your things?

 

[ssv3]

Pork belly burnt ends are already on the list, and I'll add wings as well.

Crazy good Thirdeye! Cut into cubes like in the pic they take about 1 and 1/2 hours.

As for the skewers the key is to go a bit wider to relieve the sliding off problem. I have the short thin skewers also and you can't hang anything on them to matter how light. The width is what makes it work. Let me know if you want to measure my skewers for reference.

 

[thirdeye]

Crazy good Thirdeye! Cut into cubes like in the pic they take about 1 and 1/2 hours.

As for the skewers the key is to go a bit wider to relieve the sliding off problem. I have the short thin skewers also and you can't hang anything on them to matter how light. The width is what makes it work. Let me know if you want to measure my skewers for reference.

Yeah, if I don't like my rod style with the V-clip, for future reference I'd like your dimensions. I've seen some good deals on Amazon for sets of flat skewers in 1/4, 1/2, and 1" wide but the longest is around 18".