M
mc1z
Guest
After seeing a review of a stainless steel grate for the BGE made by Michael's Custom Stainless & Grill Grates on the Naked Whiz web site, I decided to contact him to see about having him make a couple things I've been wanting for quite a while:
1) A cooking grid for firebox on my Klose Grill Chef smoker/grill. (You can see a picture of it on http://www.bbqpits.com/backyard_smokers/20x42_grillchef.htm - several of the pictures show the top of the firebox open, and I wanted a stainless steel cooking grid that would fit on that opening.)
2) A charcoal basket to use in both the Klose pit and my XL BGE, to corral the lump.
After a phone call and a long e-mail thread with Michael, we got down to the details and decided he'd make the cooking grate out of 3/8" rod, with sides so it would sit firmly on the pit, and so food wouldn't slide/roll off, etc., and a charcoal basket out of 1/4" rod. I paid him $180, including shipping, for both pieces, which I thought was pretty reasonable, until I got them, at least - then I thought it was pretty cheap. I was really impressed with the workmanship, the fact that I got exactly what I asked for in a very reasonable time (a little over a week, including 4 days of shipping time - the UPS people weren't happy, I'm sure, because the two put together, plus the crate he built to ship them in, weighed over 30 pounds...), and how well the stainless steel cooks, compared to cast iron (not to mention the cheap chromed steel ones) - the high mass of the 3/8" diameter rods leave really nice grill marks, too!
I did decide that I wanted a little less spacing on the bottom of the charcoal basket, so the little pieces of lump will stay in better, so he's sending me a round piece of stainless steel expanded metal to put on the bottom.
I'm talking to him now about a custom fire grate for the BGE, and a custom cooking grate with a couple of levels (kind of like the little one you can buy from BGE, but made for the XL, a lot heavier duty and better designed), so he probably won't have time to do anything for anybody else for a while... :mrgreen
Anyway, I've attached a picture of what he made for me - the round charcoal basket is 14" in diameter, so that tells you the scale. The quality of what he did for me is extremely good - I can definitely vouch for the info on the Naked Whiz review, as far as that goes...
(Just for "fine print" purposes, I'll say that I only know Michael through the Naked Chef web site review. I've talked to him on the phone a couple times, and communicated with him via e-mail, to discuss what I wanted, and that's the full extent of my involvement with him. I paid full price for what I got, didn't receive anything free, and don't expect to, so this is just a for-what-it's-worth review of what I bought from him. Good stuff of any kind, much less good custom stuff, is hard to come by these days, so I thought it would be doing him and the Q'ing community both a service to post what I know.)
His web site and contact info are at http://michaelscustomgrillworks.com/.
Mac
1) A cooking grid for firebox on my Klose Grill Chef smoker/grill. (You can see a picture of it on http://www.bbqpits.com/backyard_smokers/20x42_grillchef.htm - several of the pictures show the top of the firebox open, and I wanted a stainless steel cooking grid that would fit on that opening.)
2) A charcoal basket to use in both the Klose pit and my XL BGE, to corral the lump.
After a phone call and a long e-mail thread with Michael, we got down to the details and decided he'd make the cooking grate out of 3/8" rod, with sides so it would sit firmly on the pit, and so food wouldn't slide/roll off, etc., and a charcoal basket out of 1/4" rod. I paid him $180, including shipping, for both pieces, which I thought was pretty reasonable, until I got them, at least - then I thought it was pretty cheap. I was really impressed with the workmanship, the fact that I got exactly what I asked for in a very reasonable time (a little over a week, including 4 days of shipping time - the UPS people weren't happy, I'm sure, because the two put together, plus the crate he built to ship them in, weighed over 30 pounds...), and how well the stainless steel cooks, compared to cast iron (not to mention the cheap chromed steel ones) - the high mass of the 3/8" diameter rods leave really nice grill marks, too!
I did decide that I wanted a little less spacing on the bottom of the charcoal basket, so the little pieces of lump will stay in better, so he's sending me a round piece of stainless steel expanded metal to put on the bottom.
I'm talking to him now about a custom fire grate for the BGE, and a custom cooking grate with a couple of levels (kind of like the little one you can buy from BGE, but made for the XL, a lot heavier duty and better designed), so he probably won't have time to do anything for anybody else for a while... :mrgreen
Anyway, I've attached a picture of what he made for me - the round charcoal basket is 14" in diameter, so that tells you the scale. The quality of what he did for me is extremely good - I can definitely vouch for the info on the Naked Whiz review, as far as that goes...
(Just for "fine print" purposes, I'll say that I only know Michael through the Naked Chef web site review. I've talked to him on the phone a couple times, and communicated with him via e-mail, to discuss what I wanted, and that's the full extent of my involvement with him. I paid full price for what I got, didn't receive anything free, and don't expect to, so this is just a for-what-it's-worth review of what I bought from him. Good stuff of any kind, much less good custom stuff, is hard to come by these days, so I thought it would be doing him and the Q'ing community both a service to post what I know.)
His web site and contact info are at http://michaelscustomgrillworks.com/.
Mac
