OK, so I got sick of piddly gas barbecues that don't heat up enough and chew up gas. Decided to make a real barby, wood fired and built of stone.

I didn't want to use a plain old rectangular plate, so had a look around the scrap and dragged out an old bulldozer sprocket. It's about 70 cm across and 12mm or so thick.

I tried cleaning it with a wire wheel and a flap disc, but it appears to have a reddish appearance and I'm wondering if it may have some hard paint coating. Anyone know about these things? I'm not willing to consign the sausages to it for the moment. If it's red lead or something I will get the plate sand blasted back to bare metal.

It's a fairly hefty piece of gear. A mate of mine reckons if we call a barbecue on Saturday night I'll have to light the fire on Thursday to get it hot.

Here's a pic:

 

What sort of bull dozer?

that looks to be a rather small pitch for track chain 

was it from the reductinon before the bullgear or something 

I can't place it it must be old 

A few thoughts, chemical strip, grind, heat, wash, heat, sand...

Looks like the remnants of surface rust from here.  Maybe build a big fire under it then start spraying and wiping with cooking oil.  It needs to be seasoned anyway so might as well git'r done...

Fergy, the assumption was that it's off an old dozer, as there were a lot of other old Cat parts among the scrap. Perhaps it's from another type of heavy machine - not sure. Agreed it doesn't look as beefy as the track drive sprockets. In the picture it's sitting on a steel ring that happened to be the same diameter.

HW, it did have some light surface rust which came off easily with the wire brush, but the reddish colour is hard to remove. It's a bit too big to fit in my cabinet sand blaster. Maybe I could try oxy or, as you say, build a big fire under it.

The camp cook I work with reckons lamb's fat is the best seasoning agent.

Remove anything except the metal and then build a fire under it for a long while. Who knows what soaked into the metal.  Finally take the hose outside the sand blast cabinet and point it toward the metal and clean it to bare metal. Another good fire and throw on the lamb's fat and let it cool. 

No use getting sick from what was on the metal before you got it. New metal costs less than a visit to the hospital.

Edited September 28, 201510 yr by Glenn

It looks like the old iron oxide rust paint, you probably need a flap disc with a coarse grit or use an angle grinder to remove the top surface.

I use a Z60 grit flap disc for most things on a 5 inch angle grinder, interestingly it will barely mark an anvil but tear masses of metal from spring steel.

the trick with seasoning is the first few layers needs to be super thin, like, wiped dry with paper towel thin otherwise it will crack and lift. Oils or fats with a high iodine index work the best I have had some success with grapeseed oil when I haven't got any fresh linseed oil handy.

Edited September 29, 201510 yr by yahoo2
slow brain

Looks like quite the griddle but I'd sure as heck strip it to bare metal before I used it. I'm not about to guess what I THINK's on it from a pic on the internet, I wouldn't base a decision on such. I'd treat it like it's been soaking in red lead paint for 50 years and have it sand blasted, then probably burn through a few sanding disks with my 9" disk grinder. BOTH sides.

Is there a hub? It's certainly not a dozer track sprocket, not at 12mm. thick it isn't. Too big around and too thin to be a road grader walking beam sprocket. It's cool and will make a terrific BBQ griddle. Of course not knowing what it's off of just opens the possible stories you can tell about it.

Oh Oh, it's part of the speed reduction system to spin a flying saucer! That's it, I knew I'd seen one before.

Frosty The Lucky.

A few good fires under it before cooking on it I think 

does look a whole lot better than a square of 5/16 plate 

a plate that thick will take a bit of gettin used too but once you do you will never go back 

 

 

 

Hey you know someone had to go and post it...

 

 

 

Hey you know someone had to go and post it...

i had iimagined something more along these lines. 

J

Great  stone work and the plate is unique , you need to heat it up dish it  slightly and drill a hole in the middle to drain the fat. Nice  Ek what the one on the right?

Hey Stan, you are very observant. The EK is a ute ( lot of people mistake it for an FB) - we've had it since new (1962) bought from Ireland Holden in Cairns. My favourite car. It's also  my blacksmith tool carrier and gets a lot of photos at demos.

The one beside it on the right is my race car - Outlaw series stock car racing. I'm no champion racer - just like the fun and competition and getting sideways. Bit of argy bargy. I spend a lot of time knocking out the dents.

And the plate does have a hole in the middle - about 35mm with a heavy (axle?) flange underneath it.

 Ute is going to confuse a lot of those in the northern hemisphere here they are known as a bakkie  .. a pick up/ truck!

So you're sorted for 'Mongolian ' and brekkie can you swop it out for a grill? Nice looking stonework and an awesome sub-grid(did you forge it? ) or is it some cast iron grid?

I fathum its a contraction of utility vehicle. 

Not named after the same tribe as Utah was???

Charles is correct. Ute is Australian for Utility Vehicle. Pick up. Some of the older folks call them a 'tilly'.

 

Ian - the plate is not fixed; its weight keeps it in place. I guess you could put a grill in place as well. The fire bars are cast iron bars from an old steam engine boiler I found in the scrap.

The plate is sand blasted to bare metal now so we'll give it a try soon.

Aut to make a fair griddle. 

I'd put a real hot fire under that griddle even after it's been sand-blasted.  Better safe than sorry, and I'd want to burn out any nasties that might be down in the pores.  Certainly wouldn't hurt to do a wash with muriatic acid (available at any home repair/masonry store) and then sand blast it again, and then put some serious heat under the thing.  Of course, I'm a belt and suspenders kind of guy.

What sort of drive did the old wire rope dozers use on the winch?

Don't know, Brendan. We've got a heap of old dozers around the place but I can't see anything that looks like this plate. It came out of the scrap where there was a lot of dozer parts - old rams, blades, gears etc but it could be off an old crane or any number of mining winches or whatever.

Well, I sandblasted and cleaned to plate and here it is seasoned and ready to accept the first fillet steak.

I must report that it cooked the steak perfectly!

Looks Great! where's the picture of it sizzling steak so we can all drool?

 

Looks Great! where's the picture of it sizzling steak so we can all drool?

 

Ha! I mainly wanted a picture of the fire ... it was a bit too hot to put the steak on at that time. Had to let it cool a bit! I was surprised that the heavy plate did not take very long to get screaming hot.

Learn to manage it and you will be doing breakfast on that thing.