Grill cart - material and finish?

[Mark Ashmeade]

My grill died last night, and I'm looking at a Big Green Egg to replace it. I know I'll want to build it into a cart. So my question is what's an appropriate wood for this? I live in metro Atlanta, where it gets up to 100 or so for several weeks in the summer, and down into the teens in the winter. I was thinking of maybe cedar, possibly red oak.

Then there's the finish. Plain old poly? A penetrating oil finish? This thing is likely to get grease on it, and needs to cope with high and low temperatures. I thought perhaps of a tile inset on the work surface to combat the grease issue.

All suggestions gratefully received!

[Charles Brown]

Mark, I'm moving back to Atlanta this May and will be purchasing my Big Green Egg to celebrate the return. Cypress is wood that is great outdoors and is on the relatively cheap side compared to other woods that stand up well to outdoor conditions (ie. white oak, teak). Personally, I don't like working with cedar. It may be nice to smell at the bottom of a blanket chest, but when you start milling hundreds of board feet the smell becomes irritating. The BGE company used to offer plans for an outdoor cart on their website but I haven't looked in a long time. What about putting a stainless top on it instead of tile?

As for finish, you can leave it natural and it will last just fine in the outdoors.

[Mark Ashmeade]

Thanks Charles. I can get Aromatic, Western Red or Spanish Cedar from my local lumber yard. Aromatic is *much* cheaper than the others. The WRC in particular is more than twice the cost. Aromatic will suffice?

[Greg Goober]

For BGE table ideas, there are two good resources: 1. the egghead forum website where there is a "table forum" or 2. The Naked Whiz's website where there is a gallery of many different tables as well as plans for one he built.

Most of the tables I have seen have been made out of cedar (my preference) or pressure treated lumber (not a fan).... As a rookie, I made mine out of red oak (which I had gotten a good deal on), but as I later learned it doesn't weather real well....

The big thing to take into account when building a BGE table is the heat issue (the thing reaches 700 degrees plus internally)... there are more than a few stories of people setting their carts, and subsequently, houses, on fire... it is fairly easy to combat this problem and it involves spacing the bottom of the egg from the shelf it rests on via usually a paver and then the BGE feet.... then, just make sure the hole for the egg is sufficiently larger than the egg itself so that there is room for the heat to dissipate...

Here is a picture of mine before I moved it to its permanent location where it was subject to some more direct weather....

DSC00996.jpg

[keith ouellette]

I had posted a picture of some (so I've been told) western clear cedar. I just ripped and planed enough to make 16 4"x7' planks for a blind I am making. It looks beautiful but I learned quick

WEAR A DUST MASK. I found it way worse than sawdust from maple,oak and pine. A lot of times I wont wear a dust mask because it fogs up my glasses but with the cedar it was a must.
I mention this because I plan on building a small out door grilling kitchen and want to used the cedar. Seems to go with grilling in my mind for some reason.

[Joe Angrisani]

Is it just me, or does the idea of surrounding a 700 degree device with wood sound like juggling swords to others, too?

[Mark Ashmeade]

I was a little concerned about that Joe, but then again, there are thousands of wooden grill carts out there for BGEs and others. The key is to insulate the bottom with a concrete paver and allow some room around the circumference of it.

[Cody Colston]

Cedar would work and of the choices, I'd go with Aromatic Cedar over Western Red. However, Cedar (any of them) is a very soft wood and is probably not the best choice for a grill cart.

The ultimate woods would be Honduras Mahogany or Teak but those are sorta pricey. Cypress is another soft wood that is used outdoors but most Cypress available today doesn't have nearly the decay resistance of the old-growth stuff that gave it such a good reputation.

I would immediately discard Red Oak as a choice because it is not suited at all for outdoor use.

I would go with White Oak. The tyloses in White Oak cells block the absorption of moisture through the pores. Red Oak does not contain Tyloses which is why it's a poor outdoor wood.

White Oak is hard, strong and stands up well to the elements. I like your idea of a tile top for the cart. On the rest, I would either paint or coat with epoxy followed by Epifanes varnish per their recommended schedule of 7 coats. I have Cedar adirondacks that were finished with only Epifanes varnish that look as good after two years outdoors as they did when new. I live in East Texas, too, and we get some serious sun and rain which are normally finish killers.

[Charles Brown]

I forgot about Spanish Cedar. We just milled 2500' of siding for a customer but they had picked aromatic cedar so that's where my mind was focusing. I've built a number of sash windows, entry doors, and exterior shutters using Spanish Cedar and it has held up well to the exterior conditions found in Richmond, VA (read: weather that is more fickle than Atlanta but not as severe as New England.) I think Spanish Cedar will be more expensive than Cypress, but I'm just speculating there.

If I remember we did a exterior job with 8/4 Spanish Cedar that came in under $5/bdft for rough timber. Where as cypress was less than that. I'm also assuming with the 8/4 material that you have capabilities to mill the stock from the rough stage through final thickness, etc.

Have you considered SYP or something like that? I haven't priced decking material before, but that could be an option? Just laminate a couple of boards to make up the stock for the legs and go from there.

Most important, however, is to remember to cook the butts low and slow. I love me some pork shoulder but the wife is a big fan of the pulled chicken you used to be able to get at Dusty's BBQ around Emory.

[Ben West]

A couple of suggestions:

First, about the grill. Ceramic grills are a huge step above any other option, in my opinion. The Eggs are fantastic, but you should at least consider the models made by Primo (http://www.primogrill.com/). They are American made (in Atlanta), and are at least equivalent to the Eggs. A lot of people, myself included, think their XL Oval is the best and most versatile ceramic grill on the market.

Second, I made a cart for my XL oval our of white oak and cypress and finished it with Cabot's deck stain. It's held up very well for 6 years. As mentioned above, white oak is vastly superior to red oak for outdoor projects.

[Van Huskey]

Is it just me, or does the idea of surrounding a 700 degree device with wood sound like juggling swords to others, too?

While kamado cookers do get reasonably warm on the outside PROPER tables are extremely common and no problem. The amount of insulation they have is the reason they work so well.

[Henry Ambrose]

Western cedar will be too soft to look good for very long. Eastern Red Cedar would be much better if you like it's looks. White Oak would be OK too. If its under cover almost anything would be OK in terms of rot. Just being outdoors won't be the problem, its the constant wet and dry cycles and general wetness if its out in the open that will kill it.

I built an egg cart for a friend last fall from thermally treated yellow pine. Its essentially rot proof and being a dark honey color does not show stains very much. I put a granite insert in the top to provide a hard durable and cleanable surface. There is a company selling thermally modified hardwoods. That might make the ultimate outdoor furniture. Here's the site-- http://www.cambiawood.com/

[Ray DuBose]

I've got 2 BGE's a Small and a Large that I made a Table for it to go in. I made my table of IPE and didn't bother putting casters on it. I'm not moving it anywhere and it can be a impromptu bomb shelter if I need it to be. I've seen several that were nice made from Juniper and Cypress both from what I gather hold up pretty well and are fairly inexpensive in my area (Memphis TN) Good Luck

[Norb Schmidt]

What, no Grill Dome people? You got good suggestions, and the Naked Whiz site has more than 50 different egg table pictures, plus plans for a generic one (for the Primo Guys, just supplement Primo for Egg). I've got a Cypress design (the wood dealer in Suwanee sells this reasonably) that holds up well. This whole tread is a lot like comparing the LV plane to the LN plane discussions in the Neaderthal forum below. BTW, some guys are using poured concrete for their top, which, outside of the effort involved in building such a beast, is a great idea.

Either way, you'll end up with a great grill, very tasty BBQ, and sizzl'n steaks! Happy cooking (and some woodworking too).

[Russell Smallwood]

I've had my BGE for 20 years, cook on it at least 3 times a week in the summers and once a week in the winter. You can find my guide to smoking salmon on the whiz's website

I had a table I made from treated lumber that lasted forever. It was ugly and I didn't want to bring it to our new house when we moved 6 years ago so I took it apart with a chainsaw.

I now have one of the metal nests with the side shelves on it which I really like and probably won't replace with a table despite having a shop full of tools and about 150 bd feet of cypress sitting in my garage (ok, a lot if it is spoken for but there'll be a good bit left)

If I were going to do an egg stand though, my first choice would be white oak. I have some Adirondack chairs I made from white oak about 15 years ago. The only finish I gave them was a couple coats of some poly-something-or-other. They have been sitting uncovered in the Atlanta weather for every one of those 15 years and are still holding together.

I've worked a lot of cypress in the last year and it can be difficult as it tends to split, check, and warp pretty dramatically and there can be a lot of waste.