Pallet wood Weber grill table project on a budget

Pallet wood Weber grill table project on a budget

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Barchettaman

Original Poster:

6,301 posts

132 months

Tuesday 16th May 2017
quotequote all
I enjoy cooking on the Weber but found the tripod a bit low, and the lack of space for stuff either side of it a bit frustrating.

3 years ago I had our wooden terrace extended and quickly put up a worktop on the side of our garden shed.



Sorry about the clutter on the photo... Proof of concept and all that. It worked really well but looked pretty poor, particularly after a few years, so this spring I´ve thrown together a grill table out of pallet wood. Total cost so far (screws, granite slab, hooks etc.) has been about €25.

There´s plenty of inspiration on line, here are some examples of what I was aiming for:








Anyway, back to my project. There´s a company round the corner who sell wood-burning stoves and always have a stack of old pallets round the back. These had already been broken up into boards, so I just had to pick the nicest ones and de-nail them, probably the least enjoyable bit of the project.



There was a guy selling 50cm x 50cm polished granite offcuts up the road, I bought one for €10 and will use this for rolling out pizza dough (we do home-made pizzas with the kids in the Weber, it´s good fun).
I made the top frame and offered the slab and lid up to check it fitted:



The cat seemed interested.



I reused the Weber wheels from the tripod, mounting them on a 10mm steel rod from the DIY superstore, and unscrewed and remounted an aluminium insulating heat band I had put on the round cutout from the previous table.

Here it is pre-paint:



Post-paint:



And ready to grill:



Hook on the side for the lid, a few smaller one for accessories.

A beer opener will be mounted on the led too but it hasn´t arrived yet.

I put a 50x30 steel sheet on the bottom shelf for the chimney starter.

The wood looked OK after sanding but I´ve filled the screw holes and painted it anyway, it ties in with the colour scheme of the houses on our estate and should stand up to the weather a bit better.

Anyway, thanks for looking, all comments and suggestions gratefully received!

Edited by Barchettaman on Tuesday 16th May 12:48


Edited by Barchettaman on Tuesday 16th May 12:50

Too Late

5,092 posts

235 months

Tuesday 16th May 2017
quotequote all
Good work, i wanted to do something like this but havent got round to it. Looks ace

Barchettaman

Original Poster:

6,301 posts

132 months

Tuesday 16th May 2017
quotequote all
Thanks. It does take a while, but then I am improvising a bit with the tools. A table saw would make things a lot faster, for example.

24° here today so it´ll get its first outing tonight - roast chicken I reckon.

sidekickdmr

5,074 posts

206 months

Tuesday 16th May 2017
quotequote all
Looks great, like the granite idea, just not sure about the white paint, surely your first BBQ is going to see it covered in stains?

A dark wood varnish would have been good, and wipeable

Barchettaman

Original Poster:

6,301 posts

132 months

Tuesday 16th May 2017
quotequote all
sidekickdmr said:
Looks great, like the granite idea, just not sure about the white paint, surely your first BBQ is going to see it covered in stains?

A dark wood varnish would have been good, and wipeable
Good point. It may end up all anthracite. We´ll see!

The paint is acrylic, seems pretty wipe-free.

Barchettaman

Original Poster:

6,301 posts

132 months

Tuesday 16th May 2017
quotequote all
First bbq done, Wurst and a 650g entrecote for me and Mrs B, it's a thing of beauty. Recommended!

KRL

121 posts

157 months

Wednesday 17th May 2017
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Thanks, great work and something I'm interested in doing too.

One thought came to mind - how does the wood cope with the heat coming from Weber?

I've seen ceramic style BBQs paired with wooden tables quite often before and guessed they are a good match because the ceramic BBQs don't get too hot on the outside. A Weber kettle however can get very hot on the outside.

Barchettaman

Original Poster:

6,301 posts

132 months

Wednesday 17th May 2017
quotequote all
On photo 7 you can see the aluminium ring I've screwed in to the round cutout.

The Weber has a 3mm airgap, then the ring, then a 1mm gap most of the way round between ring and wood, as it doesn't fit perfectly flush. It was ok like that for 3 years on the red worktop (photo 1).

As long as it isn't sat on the wood cutout itself it should be fine.

LeadFarmer

7,411 posts

131 months

Wednesday 17th May 2017
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That's a great bit of work. Is the weight of the BBQ supported on its handles?

Oakey

27,550 posts

216 months

Wednesday 17th May 2017
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I imagine the diameter of the hole is slightly smaller than the diameter of the Weber?

S11Steve

6,374 posts

184 months

Wednesday 17th May 2017
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You need to get yourself on to the FB DIY On A Budget group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1423184117937567/?...

They love a bit of pallet upcycling there, although they may also suggest that you paint it with glitter and wrap it in Fablon.

wombleh

1,788 posts

122 months

Wednesday 17th May 2017
quotequote all
Looks good!

Think different aged webers had flimsier handles, read that some people were fitting brackets to mount them. I did a more basic table for mine recently using decking but cheated and it still sits on its original base.

Barchettaman

Original Poster:

6,301 posts

132 months

Wednesday 17th May 2017
quotequote all
Oakey said:
I imagine the diameter of the hole is slightly smaller than the diameter of the Weber?
The Weber is 57cm, the hole is 58cm, and it sits 40mm above the cutout.

I took the cosmetic plastic handle off the the side, traced an outline of the underlying metal handle on a block of wood and used the jigsaw as a ghetto router to make a handle-shaped cutout for it. Works a treat. The pic pre-paint shows the mounting points.

I screwed in a couple of 90 deg brackets already three years ago at the back, it sits on those so has three points of contact. Nice and solid!



Edited by Barchettaman on Wednesday 17th May 16:46

48Valves

1,943 posts

209 months

Monday 22nd May 2017
quotequote all
After seeing this thread I was inspired to finally start building a table for my Weber.

I've used a load of decking off cuts.

Needs finishing but happy with it so far.




Evolved

3,561 posts

187 months

Monday 22nd May 2017
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Nice effort

48Valves

1,943 posts

209 months

Monday 22nd May 2017
quotequote all
Evolved said:
Nice effort
Thanks


Barchettaman

Original Poster:

6,301 posts

132 months

Tuesday 23rd May 2017
quotequote all
Top work there. You'll need a hook or something similar on the side for the lid, assuming you hadn't thought of that already.

48Valves

1,943 posts

209 months

Tuesday 23rd May 2017
quotequote all
Feeling like I've somewhat hijacked someone elses thread here.

But a small update. Finished the top apart from routing out the hole to finish it off nicely.

I think I need to purchase an ash catcher from one of the newer Webers




Deerfoot

4,900 posts

184 months

Tuesday 23rd May 2017
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Bookmarked!

I`m moving into a new house in August (all being well..) and something like this will go nicely on our decking.


arfursleep

818 posts

104 months

Tuesday 23rd May 2017
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Think i'm going to have to do something like this.

Love my Weber but it's too short - spend 1 hr leaning over it and my back aches for next 6 hrs (yes, it's the Weber's fault not my back).

Loads of old pallets at work so sure i could knock something up...