My try at a Weber kettle pizza cooker thingamajig.......

[polishdon]

Here's my version of the "frankenweber". After doing a bunch of online research and seeing how other people have made these I borrowed the ideas

I liked, made a few tweeks and here's what I ended up with.

The goal of this project is to make a wood burning pizza cooker that will cook pizzas at a high temp using materials I had lying around and as little fabrication as possible.

Any ideas or suggestions are welcome.

Start with 2 Weber 22.5" kettle bottoms. One will remain the bottom and hold the fire, the other will be used upside down as the top. The bottom I decided to use was one I had already cut the legs down on to use as a fire pit. I think the shorter legs are a must when you take into account the amount this weighs when done.


Decide which one you will use for the top and remove the grates. Remove one of the factory grate holders and mark out your opening hole, mine is
about 15 inches wide by 4.5 inches high. Cut the opening, I used a cutting wheel on a 4" grinder. Clean up the opening to remove any frays or
sharp corners.


Bend the factory pieces that hold the charcoal grate so that you can put the grate below them, instead of on top. This will become the roof of the oven.
.

Here's a shot of the charcoal grate in place as the roof. My first idea was to attach fire brick to the grate to flatten the top and provide heat. Due to weight though I think I am going to replace the fire brick in the top with a 16" round pizza stone. Should fit right in.


Add hardware around the kettle to hold the cooking grate in place from falling out as the factory mounts are now on top of the grate. I added
extra hardware around the kettle to account for the weight of the fire brick on the cooking grate.


With the grates in place it will look like this


THen I laid out the fire brick for the base on the cooking grate. Only had a chisel and hammer to work with so I was pretty happy with my
corners. Still have to cut 1 more brick for the front. THere will not be brick along the back edge, I am leaving that open to put a hot log.


I reassembled everything and put the fire brick in. I like the way it's coming along. There's about 4.5 inches between the top of the fire brick
and the roof of the cooker. My hope is that I can get a nice hot fire going in the bottom, then put the top on and put a burning log right on the
fire brick to help heat the cooking area. After letting it all heat up I will push the log to the back on the grate and as it burns out it will fall back into the bottom kettle.


Now I need to name it.


Things to finish:
Add cooking stone to top
Add some kind of support to make sure the top doesn't slip off the bottom while using. I'm thinking some steel around the inner and outer lip of the lower kettle.
Test cook

[mbellot]

[biker.chef]

[mtnside]

That will work ,just dont try a high temp cook,410 420,and a few flaming wood chips on the side to cook the top.

[polishdon]

[BluDawg]

Heres mine

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[polishdon]

[Texas Golfer]

[polishdon]

[Teleking]

[ggarner]

Nice looking build! Thats a really cool idea.

I remember watching a show on travel channel or something where they went to NY to what was believed to be the first couple pizza places in the US. One of the places used (and still does) a coal fired oven. I think there oven was somewhere in the 500-600 degree range.

[killswitch505]

i like it. but i would like it better if had a pizza in it
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[Soapm]

[BluzQue]

Mighty Fine Job on the Pizza Cookin' Mod polishdon

Post some pizza pics!


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[polishdon]

More progress to report.

I bought a 15" pizza stone to use as the roof. I attached it to the top grate using a nut, bolt and some washers. I purposely positioned the stone so it was closer to the back edge. I'm hoping I can create some draft up and over the stone near the front where the opening is larger.


Here it is installed in the kettle. I put the stone on the upper side of the grate just because I like it being held in there. If I can't get a hot enough temp on the top, the grate can be flipped over so the stone is on the bottom and closer to the pizza.


Then I finished cutting in the fire brick so there's not a big gap in the front:


And here's what it looks like inside the completed "oven".


To make sure the top doesn't fall off during use I fashioned some clamps around the rim of the bottom kettle.




With just the 2 clamps in place the whole unit is much sturdier, but I plan on adding 1 more clamp. I am able to pick the entire thing up and move it around. It's heavy, but not much worse than my UDS with the grates and charcoal basket in it.


Only thing left to do now is try it out, Friday night is lookin like her maiden voyage.

[mbellot]

[AltoonaFlyer]

Nice job and a lot of work polishdon !

This is a pic of how my friend turns out some nice pizzas...



No stones, his pizzas are cooked in cast iron fry-pans...sourdough crust with various tops are as good as any I've eaten!!

He says he can get to 700° with lump charcoal and the increased airflow from the kettle bottom vents. It CAN be a little "wiggly"...and he's tall enough to make it all work Work with what you got!!
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[Soapm]

[Teleking]

[quote="Soapm"]

[Oregon smoker]