My open pit and Nola Mae

[wanbli]

I've had this open pit for a couple of years. I cook over it using a tripod and grill. It's basically the same kind of pit available in our state park campgrounds, except theirs are burried almost completly. It's 2 pieces of culvert one is 24" X 18" the other is 18" X 12". The other big difference is they use concrete to fill the void, mine has sand. Six inches of sand in the bottom of the big piece then the smaller piece is set in and the void between them is filled with sand. Lots of good food and memories there.....


I'm going to try to fire this pit with coals from the open pit next time we do a campfire. This is Nola Mae, my fathers day present. I've cleaned her up and seasoned her. Ran a couple of racks of ribs through her but no Q View as of yet. Soon, very soon for Q view as I just now learned how to post pics here.

 

[mikey]

Gotta love the oldies but goodies

 

[rickw]

Real nice. A few more close up pics of the bottom pit would be nice. I love pics, can ya tell

 

[wanbli]

More pics and closeups? I think I can do that. lol. I found Nola on Craigslist. She was 1/2way accross the state so my wife and I did a roadtrip to check her out. She was a little rusty and the ash pan was full but she looked like she could do the task she was built for. The guy said she'd burn charcoal or sticks so I used charcoal to get her up to temp then started using sticks. She went to 250* easily and maintained it well after I learned to toss the stick in and close the door. Otherwise I'd get a flare-up in the firebox. Here are some closeups of her interior.











The top 3 pics are when we got her home before cleaning and seasoning, the last one is after seasoning. As you can see in the last pic, there are 2 levels above the fire to cook on. The center set of racks is missing but I'll just get some expanded metal and make a set. I don't think I'll ever use the bottom grate as it sits so close to the fire. The guy said he used the lower grate to put charcaol on if that was what he was cooking with and if he used wood it went on the bottom.

 

[cman95]

Nice score....now enjoy.

 

[rivet]

Very nice score and love your pit! very nice things to have

 

[rickw]

Thanks for the pics. Nice pit.

 

[mballi3011]

Very nice father's day gift there. thats a reaalt thoughtful family.