Tessellated Backyard Grill

For me grilling season is all year. My philosophy is there are two occasions for optimum grilling... when it's raining... and when it's not (provided that you have a covered back porch for the rainy part). I just love grilled food and you can do an entire meal on the grill. Less mess in the kitchen plus it tastes great.

So with all the grilling I do I tend to wear out grills within a few years. One time I splurged and bought one of the Weber kettle grills that had a table. Man I loved that grill. The work surface made it a whole lot nicer to use. Problem was that when the grill finally wore out the table was still in great shape. I wanted to just swap out the grill and not have to buy another table but the grill for that unit is custom made to fit the table and it's not available for sale by itself. Seemed like a big waste... Hey! I like to design and build stuff. What a great excuse for another project!

I always like to see what other folks have come up with so I spent some time on the internet checking out DIY grill carts. Lots of great ideas but my issue is that I never seem to find exactly what I'm looking for. Plus I really like building stuff that is uniquely my own.

I had several design parameters in mind...

1. The main goal was to build a table that would allow me to quickly and easily change out the grill when it has worn out. I'm a big fan of Weber charcoal kettle grills so I'll design it to fit one of those models.

2. I also wanted the grill surface to be higher... closer to counter height than table height. I'm not a tall guy but it always seemed that grills are built too low to be comfortable to use.

3. Of course I wanted a table surface. Not huge. I don't want to have to reach too far to flip burgers but big enough to hold a couple of plates and have a place to set my beer.

4. Oh... speaking of beer... gotta have a bottle opener built in!

5. I've never been satisfied with the ash collection system on the Weber grills. They don't hold enough and are usually a pain to empty. Need to come up with something better.

6. I'd like to be able to easily move the grill cart. Wheels are great but I want the cart to be stable when I'm using it.

7. And finally I it's got to be a little different somehow. I need some sort of an aspect that makes it unique and interesting. That's pretty ambiguous at this point... but I'll figure something out.

I like to reuse and repurpose as much as possible. It kind of makes it seem like you're getting free stuff. I have a bunch of scrap material left over from various projects but most of it was from my cedar garden shed (another one of my instructables). The majority was 2 inch thick rough cut cedar lumber and 1 by 8 cedar boards. I also had a nice piece of oak plywood from an old entertainment cabinet that I tore out last winter. We had some large tile samples up in the attic from when we originally built our house and I have a set a casters that were used to move a boat building frame (yet another ongoing project). I bought a galvanized bucket with a lid from Home Depot for ash collection as well as a set of 2-1/2 inch corner braces and the Weber kettle grill. Titebond 3 is my wood glue of choice.

Here are links to some of the materials I used:

Casters

Grill

Corner Braces

Bucket

Glue

Spray Adhesive

Bottle Opener

High Heat Paint

Varnish

Note: All measurements are in inches.

Picture 1. There are two cross pieces made from 1-1/2 x 1-1/2 x 40 cedar. In fact the whole project will be made from cedar. There are half lap joints cut in the center and at the ends. The joints at the ends are 2-1/2 wide to accept the legs.

Picture 2. The 4 legs are 2-1/2 x 1-1/2 x 36. There is a curve cut on the bottom end. Before I cut the curve the legs kind of looked a little too thick and clunky. I think this gives it a bit more of a refined look. A half lap joint is cut towards the bottom of the leg (5 inches from the floor) to accept the cross piece and up at the top there is some saw and chisel work to accept the table frame. More on the saw and chisel work coming up.

Picture 3 is a close up of the half lap joints. I used a dozuki (pull saw) and a chisel to cut the joints. Cedar is soft and easy to work.

I did some saw and chisel work on the top of the legs to create a strong (hopefully) joint with the table frame. The frame will be made from 3/4 x 2-1/2 boards. Pictures 4 and 5 show the layout for the cuts. The thought here is for the legs to carry the weight of the grill and table top so I want the frame to sit on the legs rather than screwing them into the sides of the legs. This will be more clear when we get to the pictures where everything is glued up. The lines in the X that you see in picture 4 are 2-1/8 long and are perpendicular. The intersection of the two lines is 1-1/16 down from the top edge of the board. In picture 5 lines are extended down 2-1/2 from the ends of the X on each side of the board.

In pictures 6 and 7 we make a series of cuts down to the marks for the length of the entire joint. The cuts are a half inch or so apart.

Use a mallet and chisel to remove most of the waste (picture 8) so that you end up with something like you see in picture 9. Then use the chisel to smooth up the surface. You want to use the saw cuts as your guide as you chisel away until there is just a little bit of the saw cut left (picture 10).

Note: I used the same process to cut the lap joints.

The top frame is made from 2-1/2 x 3/4 x 28-1/4 boards. Just to be fancy (and to make a strong joint) I cut box joints using the router table and a 1/2 inch up cut bit.

I used a piece of 2 x 4 as a sled to clamp the pieces to when I cut the joints.

Two boards are cut as shown in picture 3 and two boards are cut as shown in picture 4.

All the pieces are now ready for assembly (picture 1).

In picture 2 the frame is glued and clamped. I dry fit the legs and cross pieces and set the frame on top to get an idea of how the table is going to look. I like it so far! Though I need to figure out how to make a stable platform for the ash bucket.

4 more pieces are cut as shown in picture 3 and are made from 2-1/2 x 3/4 boards (same as the frame). The ends are mitered at a 45 degree angle. Each of the 4 pieces are custom cut to fit each corner of the frame (picture 4). I made 4 clamping blocks so I could use my C clamps when gluing up the joint. I covered the blocks with clear packing tape to keep the glue from sticking to them.

Glue and clamps applied in picture 5.

24 hours later the clamps are remove and the joints are cleaned up with sandpaper (last 3 pics).

We had some tile left over from when we built the house and I thought that it would make a good fireproof surface to set the ash bucket. I made a frame to cover the edges of the tile (pictures 1 and 2). This was mostly a decorative aspect but it was also handy when I glued the completed assembly to the table base (pictures 3 and 4).

Now I have a nice stable platform to set the ash bucket and it will help protect the cross pieces from getting burned too.

At this point all the work you have seen was done at the end of last year (2020). I was excited about the design for the base and I knocked it out pretty quick. Next I considered what to do with the top. I went around the world multiple times with ideas for the design. I thought about tile, concrete, wood, various shapes... but nothing really struck a chord with me. It all seemed rather mundane. So I lost steam and the project has sat dorment for all this year (2021). Then the other day I was cleaning up some papers off my desk and came across a drawing I had done a few months earlier. I've always been fascinated by the work of M.C. Escher and had been curious about the process for making tessellations. I had done a little searching on the internet and found a good tutorial on how to construct a tessellating lizard. I pulled up AutoCAD and played around with it for a while until I had something I was happy with and printed it out. It has been sitting on my desk ever since. Hmmmm..... I thought. I wonder what a table top tiled with tessellating lizards would look like. I was intrigued... finally I had the excitment I needed to get me going again. Though I was more than a little concerned for how many of these lizards I was going to have to cut out and how long it would take. My concern was well founded. Holy cow it took a bunch these dang lizards to cover my table top. I cut nearly a hundred lizard tiles on my scroll saw. I will say that I am a master at the scroll saw now after all that practice. I got to where it took about ten minutes (maybe a little less) to complete a tile. If I had it to do all over again I'd probably wait to do this project after I had purchased a CNC router. So If you have a CNC router or just want to spend a LOT of time with your scroll saw then go for it. I've included a pdf file of the pattern I used. Make sure you cheat a little to the inside of the line when you're cutting. That way the pieces will fit easily together.

Last winter I tore out an old entertainment cabinet in our living room. I was able to salvage several pieces of 3/4 inch oak plywood that were roughly 3 foot by 4 foot. I set a piece on the completed table base (picture 1). Hmmmm..... I kind of like it. I used the bottom half of the Weber grill as my template and drew a circle in the center of the plywood. Next I set the grill grate on top of the table to make sure that the entire surface was in easy reach from the front (picture 2). When I was happy with that I used the jig saw to cut the opening for the grill (picture 3).

I was pretty excited and couldn't resist the temptation to set the grill in place to see what it looked like (remaining pics).

And I'm very pleased with my ash bucket! It's going to hold a lot of ash and it will be super easy to empty when it gets full.

So after a week of cutting out lizards it's time to come up with a scheme for how to lay these things out and glue them down. It's actually kind of fun putting them together. Like putting together a puzzle but any piece fits everywhere... LOL.

The lizard tessellation is based on a hexagon so it's not surprising to see hexagonal patterns emerge when you start putting the pieces together. The first two pictures are where I came up with the strategy for laying out the tiles and the rest of the sequence shows the glue up process where I used weights and clamps. Towards the end I sanded off the paper template so I could see how the grain pattern looked. I gummed up a lot of sandpaper during that process and figured out it's better to remove the paper with paint thinner first before sanding.

Last picture is the finished table top and I have one of the trim pieces in place for a fit check. I'm using 1 inch thick cedar deck boards that have been ripped to 2 inches wide to frame the table top.

Cutting out all those dang lizards was a gigantic pain... figuratively and literally (my back still hurts). But now that I'm seeing them in place I'm really glad I followed through on it. The tessellation pattern is fascinating to look at. I'm super stoked with the result and can't wait to finish the project.

The casters are intended to be used for work benches and are built to handle a pretty heavy load. Probably way over designed for my grill table but I like how they retract when not in use. They even provide a paper template for the hole patterns (picture 1). Makes installation easy. When retracted the grill table sits directly on the floor and is nice and stable (picture 2). When you step on the little foot pedals it jacks the table up onto the wheels and it is super easy to move (picture 3).

The bottle opener is stainless steel (picture 4) and only costs about 13 bucks. I've had the rare earth magnets for a long time and for the life of me can't remember where I got them. But I bet you can find some on Amazon. The opener looks great on the grill table (picture 5) and the magnets are set below to act as a bottle cap catcher. Afterwards I had to test it (pictures 6 and 7). Works like a charm!

The circular saw cuts the edges of the table top smooth so that the trim will fit nicely (picture 8). I mitered the ends of the trim boards and they are glued, screwed, and plugged (remaining pictures). When the glue dries the plugs will be sanded flush.

My main goal for the table design was for it to be easy to remove and replace the grill when it wears out. Problem is they spot weld a handle to the side of the grill and the dang thing is in the way. I had to use the angle grinder to remove the handle and then I painted over the area with a high temp grill paint to keep it from rusting (picture 1). Not a huge deal but it did detract a bit from being easy to remove and replace. Oh well.

The grill sits on four 2-1/2 inch corner braces that I got at Home Depot. I painted these with the black high temp grill paint as well to help hide them (picture 2). That way they kind of blend in with the rest of the grill and are not noticeable. Just for asthetics I also painted the cutout edge too (picture 3).

The brackets are screwed to the bottom of the table at equal intervals (picture 4) and then I bent them inward just a little. They will fit under the lip of the grill when it is set in place.

Picture 5 is a fit check. I'm happy with it. I think there is enough of a gap to keep the wood from scorching. Though I did see a project where they made the cutout smaller and the grill set directly on the wood with reportedly no problems. But that just didn't seem like a good idea to me so we've got corner braces and a gap.

In the rest of the pictures I'm admiring the results. Hmmmm..... looking at the last picture... note to self... need to add a hook to hang the lid when it is removed.

The table was sanded smooth with the random orbital sander. Next I hit it with some compressed air to blow most of the dust off. And then used a cloth and some thinner to clean the surface.

The varnish is oil based Olympic Spar Urethane. Nothing magical. Currently I only have one coat applied but several more will be added later to get a thick waterproof finish. I'm pressed for time and need to get this published before the contest deadline expires!

Got to hurry and take the glamour shot now. It's Saturday and the contest deadline is Monday.

The Tessellated Backyard Grill has been moved out into the backyard in preparation for some grilling tonight. Another one of my projects (The Cedar Garden Shed) can be seen off in the background. Dang... I need to mow the yard again too!

I have lots of ideas for upgrades to the grill. I definitely need to add a hook to hold the grill top when it's not being used. Maybe I'll add some more hooks for grill tools (spatula, tongs, etc.). Paper towel rack maybe? Whatever I come up with I'll be sure to update the tutorial. Oh... another idea I had was to add 4 inexpensive wooden bar stools. That way you could have folks over and host a table top Japanese BBQ party where each person grills their own food. Though the person sitting next to the bottle opener might be awful busy!

Thanks for reading about my project... I hope you enjoyed it and got something out of it. Maybe you can use the lizard template for another (maybe not so big) project. Or if you're as crazy as I am then go for something big. LOL. Whatever you come up with please post some pics in the comments. And as always questions and comments are welcome.

Until the next project...

Willy

GrillGrate

I'm fascinated by this product. Once I've used it several times I'll provide an update on its performance.

A little late on the update (long story) but holy cow... or holy beef tenderloin!!! I cannot be more impressed with the GrillGrate... what an amazing product. Excellent results and just look at those insane grill marks. Just make sure to follow the cleaning and seasoning instructions before you use it and you will get outstanding results on your first use. Highly recommended! Can't wait to flip it over to the flat side and do smash burgers next.

Oh... my... gosh... Smash burgers on the GrillGrate are ridiculous. They are a combination of a burger done on a flat top with that amazing crust but with a charcoal grilled flavor. Freakin' awesome!!!

And now I'm torn. Grilled the burgers tonight and got the most incredible grill marks (pics 7, 8, and 9). Wow! Not sure which version I like better.

Pic 10. Kabobs tonight. Enjoying a whiskey sour and grilling out on a nice evening. A pure joy being able to grill with perfect temperature controll across the entire grate, absolutely zero flare ups, and those incredible grill marks. HIGHLY recommended!

Last 3 pics. Benihana style tenderloin with onions and peppers. Oh my!

WL

Installed hooks to hang a couple of grill tools, the grill top, and ash can lid.

I think I have my grill table set up the way I want it for now with the last upgrade being the magnetic knife holder. Very handy and only $19.99 at Amazon.

I discovered something the other day when I was grilling during windy conditions. The hot ash dropping out of the grill was being blown around instead of falling directly into the catch bucket. To counteract this I reinstalled the ash collector that came with the grill. I like the look of this configuration even better and it's no problem to detach the small ash collector and empty it into the larger bucket below. So I think I'm going with it!

WL