New "Cabinet" for My Large BGE

Six years ago I purchased my large Big Green Egg and scrambled to build a stand.  Following a day of work I crafted a straight forward functional stand that has served me well until this spring.  While sitting on our deck enjoying the first warm of spring I looked at me BGE in the stand and noticed it was tilted.  Upon examination I found that one of the legs was severely decayed below the stain.  Immediately cut some braces and splinted the “broken” leg.  I moved the stand into a bump out on the deck and ended up placing some car jack stands under it to ensure no damage would come to the Egg.  

This led to me moving my plans for building a new stand from the “nice-to-have” list to the “time critical” list.  I started with a Google search on BGE stands and tables.  The tables of @Cazzy and @PMG immediately caught my eye.  They were more than a functional table; they were truly pieces of furniture.  I knew at that moment that my woodworking skills were on a collision course with my love for cooking on the BGE.

I started with some simple specifications for this project to include:

·       Can bear the weight of the concrete pad and the BGE

·       Table height of about 36” (personal preference)

·       Fits under a custom cover I had made for original stand

·       Fits within the deck bump out space (76” wide)

·       Is mobile enough to move around the deck

·       Contains drawers

·       Has an area that could take hot items without damaging the wood

At first I was interested in redwood.  I found that redwood is not readily available in norther VA so then I called my local hardwood store, Colonial Hardwood, to discuss options with the owner.  He suggested I consider Mahogany or Sapele, both selling for about $7 bf for 4/4 rough cut.  I estimated I was going to need 100 bf . . . ouch!  This was going to be a pricy piece of furniture. 

I purchased pressure treated pine for my skeleton.  The PT wood was extremely wet when I first purchased it (as in spraying from the saw blade wet).  The frame was fairly straightforward and went together fairly quickly.  I used my Festool Domino DF 500Q jointer with 10 x 50mm exterior grade dominos and exterior glue on all the joints.  I reinforced the joint with a long exterior grade screw between the dominos.

The Sapele wood has ended up being a beautiful choice of wood as far as working with it.  Sapele machines beautifully with no splintering . . . . I just get consistent clean crisp cuts.  For the exterior walls I decided to make 3 1/4” wide wanes coat slats with a V-notched tongue and groove that interlock on the sides and are tacked at the top and bottom with galvanized staples. 

For the base of the BGE, I opted to go with the BGE table nest resting on a standard concrete patio stone that I colored with some walnut stain.  I cut and glued up several pieces of Sapele to clad the interior walls and floor of the Egg nest area. 

Next I focused on the face frame.  I needed to design it around the existing structure as well as ensuring that it was visually balanced.  Once I figured out a design I mocked up the frame and clamped it in place to ensure I was comfortable with the results.  After some minor modifications, I built the frame again using the dominos for most of the joinery with a few cross members using Kreg’s pocket screws.

The next under taking was the top.  I wanted the top be between 1 ½” to 2” thick.  I accomplished this by building a lower frame out of Sapele and “filling” in the center using Poplar.  This ended up being a time consuming exercise and probably not worth the cost savings based on the additional cost of time.

I’m now working on the drawers, made from 5/8 inch maple with a beech plywood bottom.  Keep watching for more to come. 

Check out all the build pictures on my Flickr page.  I will post additional pictures over the coming weeks as I make progress.

Cheers!