Band ?

keepervodeflame

My large Egg is about 3 1/2 years old. I cook quite a bit.  I am thinking about replacing the BGE nomex gasket. I am also wondering about the bands. My Egg works just fine but I generally do a high heat  pizza cook at least once a week. I have been tightening my bands all along. I can tell they have stretched because the ears that hold the bolts are pretty close together, and the bolts are pretty bent. My question is how do you know when the bands need to be replaced?

Tony_T

That looks ok to me.
What's the condition of the attachment points to the spring assembly?

fishlessman

i used to do alot of high heat pizzas, the band stopped doing that when i tightened them with a hot egg, had it around 350 for a few hours then tightened them at that temp. bge will not recommend that practice but it worked for me

RRP

If that is really bugging you then you can always remove the bolts and bend those ears back so they begin parallel. Granted in time they will bend again unless you place something - even a piece of wood will do -while tightening to keep the ears from bending while you tighten the nuts. As it is now as you tighten then the ears are keeping the bands themselves from snugging up. That make sense to you?

northGAcock

So you are putting the band back together? https://youtu.be/we7UfubNeqM

keepervodeflame

RRP said:

If that is really bugging you then you can always remove the bolts and bend those ears back so they begin parallel. Granted in time they will bend again unless you place something - even a piece of wood will do -while tightening to keep the ears from bending while you tighten the nuts. As it is now as you tighten then the ears are keeping the bands themselves from snugging up. That make sense to you?

Thank you very much, RRP, and yes that makes perfect sense to me. Do you think I will be able to loosen the bolt on one at a time and then bend the ears straight while the bands are still on the EGG or will I need a vice to hold the band tight during the process.  I don't have any experience with how stiff and resistant to bending the ears rare. Another issue is my alignment is pretty good, I don't want to mess it up. 

fishlessman

keepervodeflame said:

RRP said:

If that is really bugging you then you can always remove the bolts and bend those ears back so they begin parallel. Granted in time they will bend again unless you place something - even a piece of wood will do -while tightening to keep the ears from bending while you tighten the nuts. As it is now as you tighten then the ears are keeping the bands themselves from snugging up. That make sense to you?

Thank you very much, RRP, and yes that makes perfect sense to me. Do you think I will be able to loosen the bolt on one at a time and then bend the ears straight while the bands are still on the EGG or will I need a vice to hold the band tight during the process.  I don't have any experience with how stiff and resistant to bending the ears rare. Another issue is my alignment is pretty good, I don't want to mess it up. 

i would not mess with it unless they start touching down the road. what you have looks normal to me

RRP

Yes you could do it one at a time and here's at least one way of accomplishing the task. After removing the bolt and nut take a pair of Vise-Grips and tightly clamp it in the first ear. You should be able to bend the ear back essentially to a right angle. What ever you do - do NOT use a hammer to whack the Vise-Grips, but if you need more strength find a piece of pipe with a large enough diameter to slip over the handle of the Vise-Grips. That should give you ample leverage to bend the ears. 

keepervodeflame

RRP said:

 What ever you do - do NOT use a hammer to whack the Vise-Grips,  

Funny, but I guess some might get frustrated and give it a whack. I did hit myself in the forehead with a hammer trying to tap a bolt through a hole in a 4x6 beam in a patio cover I was building. Just one among the many stupid things I have done over the years. But rest assured hammers don't come very close to my BGE. Thanks again. 

Tony_T

keepervodeflame said:

RRP said:

If that is really bugging you then you can always remove the bolts and bend those ears back so they begin parallel. Granted in time they will bend again unless you place something - even a piece of wood will do -while tightening to keep the ears from bending while you tighten the nuts. As it is now as you tighten then the ears are keeping the bands themselves from snugging up. That make sense to you?

Thank you very much, RRP, and yes that makes perfect sense to me. Do you think I will be able to loosen the bolt on one at a time and then bend the ears straight while the bands are still on the EGG or will I need a vice to hold the band tight during the process.  I don't have any experience with how stiff and resistant to bending the ears rare. Another issue is my alignment is pretty good, I don't want to mess it up. 

I wouldn't to this.  The "ears" will just bend back when you re-tighten.
Your bands are fine.
Cook, Eat, Drink, Enjoy!

This is from the BGE setup video:

https://youtu.be/F82uidM3Ehk

RRP

Tony_T said:

I wouldn't to this.  The "ears" will just bend back when you re-thighten.

Of course they will, but if you go back and read my original suggestion about bending and then using a piece of wood then the band will tighten around the egg before the bend in the metal will return. I was just trying to help him avoid buying a new band.

Tony_T

RRP said:

Of course they will, but if you go back and read my original suggestion about bending and then using a piece of wood then the band will tighten around the egg before the bend in the metal will return. I was just trying to help him avoid buying a new band.

But there does not seem to be anything wrong with his bands.  
If the bands are slipping on the base or lid, yes, then there's a problem, but he didn't say that was happening, just that they "stretched", and bending the ears won't unstretched them  (and if they stretched, that's not a problem, the bands are not going to snap).

And the "ears" do not look that close together to me.

RRP

Tony_T said:

RRP said:

Of course they will, but if you go back and read my original suggestion about bending and then using a piece of wood then the band will tighten around the egg before the bend in the metal will return. I was just trying to help him avoid buying a new band.

But there does not seem to be anything wrong with his bands.  
If the bands are slipping on the base or lid, yes, then there's a problem, but he didn't say that was happening, just that they "stretched", and bending the ears won't unstretched them  (and if they stretched, that's not a problem, the bands are not going to snap).

And the "ears" do not look that close together to me.

fine - I was trying to help based what I already knew worked, but please take over from here Tony!

Tony_T

I'm also trying to help. 
You have a fine solution, but I don't see a problem needing a fix here. 
The OP now has what he needs to make a decision.