Do you want to make your homemade bbq grill? This is a great idea if you want to spare some money instead of buying a new grill.
Yes, you get your hands dirty and build a barbeque grill from scratch. It sounds hard, but trust me it isn’t. All you have to do is to make sure that you get all the necessary equipment and you are good to go.
This article will guide you through the steps of how to make a DIY bbq grill to enjoy grilled dishes that you love.
DIY bbq grill
Making a homemade grill is not hard since the items that are required are available in your home or can be found at the nearest store.
It also allows the practice of your DIY skills. You can even ask your family members to tag along and make the whole event a bonding experience.
Since most of these items are readily available, the eventual cost of construction will be way less than buying a new grill and this makes it a great way of saving money.
Before we proceed and outline the steps of constructing a DIY bbq, let’s take a look at the items that you will need for the construction.
DIY bbq items
Here are the items that you need to make a homemade barbeque unit.
- A barrel
- Posts
- Plywood
- Brackets
- A grill
- Hinges
- A drill
Build your own bbq grill
Here is a step by step guide of what you need to do to build the bbq grill that you have been dreaming about.
1. Prepare the barrel
The first thing that you have to do when preparing a homemade grill is to find a barrel that will form its body.
Your choice of the barrel is very important since you wouldn’t want to use a barrel that was used to store fuel to make it.
The best barrel that you can use for making your grill is that which was used to store food items such as honey and cooking oil. Empty the barrel and wash it. Get a grinder and cut an opening on one side of the barrel.
2. Construct the grill’s stand
The next thing you need to do it to create a stand for the grill. For this, you will need some metallic posts that you will use to create the stand and the legs.
Check in your store or backyard to see if there are any unused posts that you can use to create the stand.
If not, head to your local hardware store and buy the posts that you need for your construction.
The total number of posts that you will need for this is 6 where 2 posts will be used to create the stand and the remaining 4 will be used to make the legs.
You will use carriage bolts to attach the legs to the stand firmly. Make sure you bolt the legs on either side to secure them.
Use the plywood pieces to make sure that the legs are attached firmly. You can now place the barrel on the stand and it will hold it properly.
Be cautious, making a DIY grill takes some skills, so if you need help ask someone who knows how to drill, etc.
3. Fix the lid and grill grates
With the barrel in place, the next thing that you have to do is to put the lid and the grill grates in place.
The piece that you cut off the barrel is what you will use as the lid and to make sure that you can easily open and close it when needed, you will need hinges.
The number of hinges that you will need for the lid will depend on the size of the barrel but three will be just enough.
The grate will fall into the rack if you don’t secure it and that is where the brackets come in.
Use them to hold to the grates in place to ensure that there is sufficient air circulation within the unit.
This will prevent the fire from going off and your meals from getting charred as a result of getting to close to the burning flames.
When buying the hinges and the brackets, you should only pick those made of stainless steel to make your grill as durable as possible.
4. Burn the grill
The grill and all its parts are full of chemicals and that is why you need to burn it off before cooking your meals on it. Light a fire and let it burn the paint and the coating on the grates, hinges, and brackets.
5. Final touches
Your grill is almost ready for use at this moment but there are a few more things that you need to do to make cooking meals on it a pleasure.
One of these things is to create air vents that will help you regulate the temperature when cooking.
Bore a few holes on the side and have a lid on them that you can use for opening and closing the vents to control the airflow.
Another thing that you have to do is to paint the grill with heat resistant paint that will enhance the look of it.
Conclusion
You don’t have to buy a grill to enjoy grilled dishes as you can make one on your own. You will need some items and skills to build it but with my help, it will be a little bit easier.
