Stainless Charbroil Charcoal Grill

[SmokyOkie]

I have an ancient Charbroil Chuckwagon ccoal grill, vintage circa 1985. It was starting to rust out and I couldn't seem to find anything of comparable construction anywhere for under $1800.00. After checking around, I was able to find a local sheetmetal shop that said the could rebuild it for $300 and I bit. Here's a before and after.

Now I'm in the process of negotiating for some custom made stainless grates. Can anyone give me any input as to what thickness they should be, and how wide the gaps and bars should be? This guy's talking about cutting them from stainless plate with a computer controlled plasma cutter. Or does anybody have any ideason what else I might consider for grates? I just want something that I won't have to replace.

Before

After

 

[Countryhb]

that's purty!

 

[SmokyOkie]

Tell me about your barel smoker. Do I see dual firebox feeds?

The first smoker I ever built used 2 75gal. high carbon steel air tanks one above the other. The bottom one fed through one end, exhausted up the top of the other end, then the main stack exhausted up through the same end as the firebox fed.

Do you have any pix of the inside?

 

[Browser]

Or does anybody have any ideas on what else I might consider for grates? I just want something that I won't have to replace.

Cast iron grates would be better. Stainless transmits the heat to well and also expands too well, with the result that your once fine-and-straight-looking grates would end up distorted, unless they were made from 1" thinck steel, then they'd prove a mite heavy:-D

 

[SmokyOkie]

Cast iron grates would be better. Stainless transmits the heat to well and also expands too well, with the result that your once fine-and-straight-looking grates would end up distorted, unless they were made from 1" thinck steel, then they'd prove a mite heavy:-D

CI is what's in there now, and I was able to rookie doo some cheap ones that size from Academy Sports, but they're really thin and I'm sure they won't last long.

I've been all over the web and haven't been able to find any the right size. The over all size is 18 1/2"x 30". Two 18 1/2x15 would work, but four 7 1/2"x18 1/2" is what it really needs. Does anybody know where I can find some of these?