Hole cut out in stainless table?

theKYLE

I have been having visions of my LBGE resting in a used stainless table/cabinet from a restaurant supply store. My 3 questions are:

1. How much did a shop charge to cut the hole?
2. Did they roll the edges of the hole, or finish it anyway?
3. Would I seal or gasket the hole-egg gap?

Thanks for any advice! I will try and post a picture the cabinet I'm interested in when I figure out how

NPHuskerFL

Here's mine.
CNC Plasma Cutting: http://youtu.be/AQegllgMkS4

NPHuskerFL

@theKYLE‌
»»»Shop will charge normally based on labor & material. Mine was $X yours may be $Y.
»»»Mine was cut w/ a CNC Plasma cutter as seen above. The edges are perfect and no not rolled edges.
»»»I choose to seal the gap w/ clear high temp silicone from Rutland that I purchased via Amazon.

theKYLE

NPHuskerFL said:

@theKYLE‌
»»»Shop will charge normally based on labor & material. Mine was $X yours may be $Y.
»»»Mine was cut w/ a CNC Plasma cutter as seen above. The edges are perfect and no not rolled edges.
»»»I choose to seal the gap w/ clear high temp silicone from Rutland that I purchased via Amazon.

Perfect! I just made a two day fence/ deck staining project take 2 1/2 weeks. Although, I now feel I know everything there is to know about oil stain, I really enjoy the thought of a maintenance free stainless table.

theKYLE

If the Egg was on the left, would the doors need to come off permanently for air flow? Or would just sliding one open when cooking be enough? Pretty sure that's my last question.
Thanks again!

Maccool

I had my whole table top finished with some 13 gauge 304 stainless steel. The fabricator rolled the table edges and welded the corners, cut the hole for the egg freehand with a plasma cutter. He polished all the edges. I then custom fit a new table top out of 3/4 inch treated plywood and glued it down with a generous amount of construction adhesive. I cut the hole for the egg to exactly match the hole in the stainless top using a RotoZip. I then polished up the stainless to a mirror finish with some fine Scotchbrite followed by for 800/100/1300 wet/dry on an orbital sander, then finished up with some Flitz on a Porter Cable detailing buffer. I didn't do anything to the edge of the hole, although I did think about some high-temp exhaust header tape for insulation. I ultimately decided to skip it. The Egg has been sitting in that hole, same dimensions, for over 8 years and inspection of the wood top before I threw it away showed no charring or burning whatsoever.

The fabricator charged me $225, parts and labor.

Terrebandit

@Maccool‌ great job.

Maccool

Terrebandit said:

@Maccool‌ great job.

Thanks. The table has been an 8-year evolution. Here it is 8 years ago when I built it, and earlier this year when it still had the cedar table top.

The stainless has been a fantastic addition. Really excellent work surface...everything from rolling out pizza to cutting and vegetable prep (I have a big poly cutting board I can lay down).

NPHuskerFL

theKYLE said:

If the Egg was on the left, would the doors need to come off permanently for air flow? Or would just sliding one open when cooking be enough? Pretty sure that's my last question.
Thanks again!

Sliding one open or partially open would be sufficient IMO.

Mine is an older repurposed (modified) Pizza Hut make table. I might have a total invested of $475 including: table, new HD swivel locking casters, all the SS hardware, table nest, high temp clear silicone and all the mods.

Maccool

Yes, I've been advised that it's always a good idea to shop around at restaurant supply places that take in used equipment. They apparently often get liquidation stainless steel prep tables when restaurants go under. Which they reportedly do at a rate of about 25% in the first year and about 60% in the first 3 years (source H.G. Parsa).

NPHuskerFL

+1 @Maccool‌ comment. Also when a location does a update/buildout they will many times at the same time update equipment that is due for replacement according to age. It may require some extra elbow grease to cleanup and 99.9% of the time the casters are shot. But, these are perfect candidates for egg table mods as you can normally pick them up at a nominal fee.

Tspud1

TheKyle, put a magnet on several areas of the table. If it sticks, it's Type 430 stainless, if not it's more than likely Type 304. You want Type 304 especially on the top.

theKYLE

Tspud1 said:

TheKyle, put a magnet on several areas of the table. If it sticks, it's Type 430 stainless, if not it's more than likely Type 304. You want Type 304 especially on the top.

Thanks!