Trying to resurrect my Dad's grill.

[toadboy65]

Hello everyone!

Years ago, we gave my Dad a good grill/smoker from Pitts & Spits. He got a lot of use out of it, and he has given it to me. I don't think he used the gas burners much at all, and I have been trying to get them going. I did contact the manufacturer, but they did not offer much help.

I assume it is supposed to have some method to control air flow into the burners. I ended up making some out of stainless steel. Also, the gas orifices just sort of stick into the burner pipe, with no attempt at sealing. The main issue I have had is keeping the gas flow into the burners, without a bunch of propane leaking out at the orifice and starting another fire there.  I made little bushings on the lathe so that the orifice fits tightly into the pipe, but this seems like a poor solution.

I am using an adjustable regulator, And I bead blasted and checked the burners to make sure there were no obstructions.

grill.jpg

• toadboy65
• Jun 11, 2017

Here is one of the pipes to the burners.

burner.jpg

• toadboy65
• Jun 11, 2017

The shiny tube is what I made to control the air flow. The gas nipple is barely visible in the pipe.

Anyway, whenever I have to start manufacturing parts to get something to work, that is a good sign that I am doing something wrong.

Any advice would be appreciated. DWW

 

[submariner]

Welcome to the Forum and hopefully someone will chime in and help out!!

 

[toadboy65]

Update- I got it going until the flames looked right, and tried to grill some meat. Apparently, there was still gas coming out of the air vents, because several times the area under and around the valves ignited. So I turned off the gas (the bottle was a good distance away), re-adjusted, and relit everything. I eventually just gave up.

But looking at the burner setup, I cannot see any reason why the gas is expected to go down to the burners instead of just spilling out of the vents.

So one way or another, I need to figure this thing out. I have a pretty good shop, so I can fabricate almost anything. My hope is that there is just some part that somehow got lost, and once replaced will get me going again.

At any rate, I definitely need some help. Thanks in advance for responses.

And I was supposed to mention in the first post that I am located in Alexander NC, northwest of Asheville.

DW

 

[sauced]

Welcome to the forum....sorry I can't offer any ideas as I do not cook at all with propane. But, I am sure there will be others to help out.