A few bbq build and stainless steel questions...

[sonickat]

I'm going to be building a drop in fire box very similar tot he one pictured below. Which is going to reside inside a brick structure. I was recently gifted a sheet of 16 gauge stainless steel.

The box is going to be 2' x 2' across x 1' deep.

1) I'm not terribly experienced with stainless steel. I'm just a poor country bumpkin and I'm used to just working with various scrap. Is the 16 gauge going to be thick enough ?

2) The person who gave me the metal mentioned that you can crease the steel to increase it's rigidity. For the size I am building is this necessary? What is the process called? I was unable to find anything related to creasing stainless steel on google.

3) How much of a gap should I leave between the stainless steel box and the cinder block structure? I'm not planning to line cinder block with fire brick. Do I even need to worry about that with the steel box?

 

[jrickus]

Were you gifted a piece of solid stainless or the expanded metal grating( I wasnt real clear)He may be referring to a process which uses a press brake to bend the flat plate into the angle shapes for the frame. 16 gauge is slightly less than 1/16 thick, so not sure if that would be thick enough but I do know that stainless steel is holds up well to corrosion after being heated and cooled several times.

 

[sonickat]

Sorry. It's a solid sheet of stainless steel not the grating. The label indicates it's 16 gauge and retailed at about 300 dollars for the full sheet. It's a 4' x 8' sheet.

From what I can find stainless steel has a melting point of around 1510 degrees Celsius. I'm planning to use charcoal in the pit mostly but I will also be burning red oak from time to time. I honestly don't see myself building a fire in the 1' deep box that is going to get hot enough affect the metal. We're also probably going to reinforce it with some sort of tubing in the corners just to be safe. We're planning to cut an L shape of it to build the box that will be all 4 sides and the bottom. Bend the bottom up and bend 3 corners for the box. Join the 1 side corner and the bottom with the 3 sides we bent in.

I'm worried the most about the potential saftey hazards of not having fire brick lining the block. I've been looking and flexible ceramic insulation looks relatively cheap all things considered and is rated to temperatures higher than the stainless' melting point. I was thinking that may be a good alternative. Just wrap the four sides of the fire box the insulation before dropping the box into the block.

Here's a pic of the plan. I layed out the block how I was invisioning it coming together on our back porch.

I also attached a photoshopped version of what I am invisioning it will look like finished minus the actual drop in.

 

[Yellowhair42]

1) 16 gauge is super thin.It may or may not work.Only one way to find
out.
2) He means to put a reinforcing "x" bend of a few degrees in the panel to strenghten it.Look at some HVAC duct work to see examples.
3)Any gap is probably OK.The more the better.

 

[luke duke]

Stainless steel cutting board? I hope that you don't have any nice knives.

 

[sonickat]

I hadn't given the stainless steel cutting board a second thought. A cursory search of google shows it's not outside the realm of possibility. Amazon carries several cutting boards made out of stainless steel.

What am I missing?

 

[Big Country BBQ]

you know how to weld stainless steel?

 

[Yellowhair42]

I hadn't given the stainless steel cutting board a second thought. A cursory search of google shows it's not outside the realm of possibility. Amazon carries several cutting boards made out of stainless steel.

What am I missing?

Cutting on stainless,or glass or pizza stone will DESTROY any cutting edge.