Kiln Post Post

Jeepster47

@Dawnya00 started a post asking if you really could use beer cans to achieve raised direct.  Of course the answer is yes, but here's an alternative product that has lots of different applications.

This Spring I stopped at a ceramics store in Tucson and bought some kiln posts to play around with.  As you can see they come in a wide assortment of sizes. Since they exist to support stuff in a kiln during firing, they work great in our eggs.



Here's probably the primary use for three 1.5" square 4" long blocks.  Pre-Woo, I used fire bricks, but was always afraid they'd fall into the fire bowl and crack something.  The kiln blocks are light enough that I wouldn't have that fear.  You could also pull your PSWoo, drop these into place, and move the grill over to change from raised indirect to raised direct without having to touch the plate setter.



Tipped on their side, they might work to create air space between your egg and the table without concentrating all the load in three small places like the old BGE ceramic feet did.  A configuration like this might work.



I normally use 1/2" copper tee's to space the drip pan off the plate setter.  Just for the heck of it, I tried three 1" square blocks 1/2" long under the drip pan.  Turns out they work great.  They don't move on the plate setter, and more importantly, the drip pan doesn't slide around on the posts like it did on the copper fittings while moving the Woo around.



They cost around a dollar to a dollar-and-a-half apiece.

DoubleEgger

Awesome! Thanks for sharing. I will be buying these. 

dmirish1

Wow those are a pretty cool! Can also get these on amazon. (like everything else) http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=kiln+posts

Dawnya00

Very cool. I have no clue if there is a ceramic pottery store around, I am guessing somewhere in the Twin Cities there has to be one.

HendersonTRKing

Very cool.  I bet you could easily home brew 2 or 3 levels of grid using different sized blocks.  Kinda like an AR for dummies.  (Or cheapskates like me, who doesn't have one.)

MeTed

Awesome post! Thank You!

RRP

Good idea, Tom! Mind if I say say one word though still in favor of using fire brick standing on edge? Rather than try to balance them by straddling on the edge of the fire ring thus risking them falling over...I leave my grate in place and place my fire brick on it and then place an auxiliary grate on top. I have yet to knock anything over this way and I only use 2 bricks though some eggers feel more secure using 3. 

Jeepster47

@RRP ... I don't disagree with you one bit.  What stopped me from following your plan was the lack of a second 18" grill for the large.  Fear of dumping a firebrick into the fire bowl and cracking it was the final push towards a PSWoo.  Once I had the PSWoo, then I started using the firebricks on top of the large grill to support a smaller cheap Weber grill for raised-raised grilling. 



Now that I have a PSWoo extension, I loaned (as in they're probably gone for good) my cut firebricks to my son for his 50 lb butt cook.

Jeepster47

Just a quick update.  I noticed that @tjv has the ceramic kiln posts on his website now.  http://ceramicgrillstore.com/products/ceramic-spacers-3-set-starting-5-99-set.html

Skiddymarker

Yes they do, and like the small ones used on your setter picture above, they can also go under the egg to provide an air gap. Very similar to the ceramic insullators used to space heat shields behind wood stoves....

GATraveller

Awesome. Beats the sh!t out of my bricks wrapped in foil. Thanks for pointing this out.