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Big GOLD Egg (with photos)

WileECoyote
WileECoyote Posts: 516
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
My new egg table turned out so nice that it seemed a shame to install just an ordinary egg. I decided to rebuild my egg starting with a complete tear down. First I scrubbed it clean with a 3M grill brush on the inside and a stiff nylon brush with mild dish soap on the outside. The felt seal was burnt in a few places so I removed it and repaired a few small chips in the rim with JB Weld Stick epoxy. John from BGE headquarters was kind enough to help me order a new Nomex gasket which I installed along with a new stainless draft door obtained from a local dealer. I used Permatex copper high-heat silicone to seal the draft door. I also replaced the old hinged band with a new spring band and replaced the standard BGE temperature gauge with a Tel-Tru 200-1000 model.

Then I decided to do just one more thing. The green ceramic finish on my egg was in great shape but it just didn’t match the brown earthy colors of my new table. Green is a fine color for grass, parks, gardens, etc. but my egg will sit in its new table surrounded by a concrete patio and a vinyl siding house so the green color just had to go. I lightly sanded the exterior of the egg with 100 grit sandpaper followed by course steel wool, and then I wiped it down with rubbing alcohol and clean rags. I waited for a sunny 70 degree day with low wind then I spray painted it with Dupli-color ceramic engine paint which is rated to 500 degrees F. I used a nice metallic gold color and applied a total of 3 coats (2 light coats, 1 heavy coat) within 1 hour per the directions on the can. I let the egg sit for 24 hours for the paint to cure enough to be handled and then I reassembled it and installed it in the table.

Unfortunately I was not careful enough during installation of the spring band so I nicked the paint near the rim in a few places. It takes a full 7 days for the paint to completely harden so this was my fault for rushing the rebuild. You aren’t supposed to re-spray this paint until after the first application is fully cured so I had to wait a week and then I was able to apply 3 more coats which covered the nicks and filled in a few light spots that I missed on the first pass. This time I was very careful when installing the spring band and I didn’t chip the paint at all. I decided to paint the feet and cap to match while the egg was drying. I also put the daisy wheel through a high burn on my gas grill and polished it with a wire brush, then applied two coats of black silicone grill spray paint which is rated up to 1200 degrees F. The egg came out better than new and it made a great match for my new table. Here are the pics:

front.jpg
capfront.jpg
capleft.jpg
caprear.jpg
dfmtfront1.jpg
dfmtfront2.jpg
dfmtleft.jpg
dfmtrear.jpg
back.jpg
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Comments

  • Photo Egg
    Photo Egg Posts: 12,110
    Wow...Talk about pimp my ride...
    Darian
    Thank you,
    Darian

    Galveston Texas
  • milesofsmiles
    milesofsmiles Posts: 1,377
    SOOOOOO.... Who's gonna kill the Goose that laid the GOLDEN AGG ??? LOL Nice work. Miles
  • Beli
    Beli Posts: 10,751
    Wowwwwwwwwwwww........looksalmost like a FABERGË.....Congratulations!!!

    faberge-eggs1.jpg
  • tjv
    tjv Posts: 3,830
    where's the bottle opener.
    www.ceramicgrillstore.com ACGP, Inc.
  • Richard Fl
    Richard Fl Posts: 8,297
    That EGG deserves champagne, no opener necessary. Beautiful work!
  • Darnoc
    Darnoc Posts: 2,661
    That is awesome dude. You just might have to quit your day time job and apply for a position in Georgia.But I just have the gut feeling that they could not afford to match your current paycheck.That is a +15 on my scale.Well done.
  • Eggtucky
    Eggtucky Posts: 2,746
    That is awesome good work WileE..for me..the green is part of the egg's essence..the world should match the egg..not the egg match the world!...lol..j/k..eggcellent work and serious good craftsmanship... ;)
  • Oledog
    Oledog Posts: 118
    You did a wonderful job ; I'll bet she glows in the dark when you bring it up to temp :)

    Oledog
  • Rollocks
    Rollocks Posts: 570
    Let us know how the paint holds up. I've contemplated putting Bengal Strips on my egg for tailgating.
  • TomM24
    TomM24 Posts: 1,366
    Very Cool! Now its time to cook. Oh yes and of course post photos :laugh:
  • Clay Q
    Clay Q Posts: 4,486
    A golden egg. Wow. My egg is worth it's weight in gold.......so I understand what you are thinking. Go for it.
    Have fun! B)
  • WileECoyote
    WileECoyote Posts: 516
    I had used the egg for about 2 weeks after the first paint job and it held up fine. The new finish didn't burn, chip, or flake once it was fully cured. It actually looks and feels like the original egg finish, just a different color. I think the prep work that I did made it go on smooth and adhere better. I thought about using primer first but decided that it probably wasn't necessary. This paint has ceramic resin in it so maybe that is why it came out so good. It says on the can that it won't blister, flake, crack, or peel and it is resistant to oil, gas, etc. so it must be pretty tough stuff.

    I purchased this paint at Advance Auto Parts for $4.94 per can. One can was enough to apply 3 coats to the entire egg including base, dome, cap, and feet. Note that I did not paint the bottom of the egg since this would be a problem for heat transfer. When I did it over again I didn't use a full can since I only needed to touch up some spots. So now I have some left over in case future touch up work is needed but I doubt it will be. My table protects the egg pretty well so it should be in good shape for a long time.

    They also sell this paint in a number of different colors including a green which is close to the original BGE color and it is good up to 500 degrees F. They also have some of the colors in a high-temp version which is rated up to 1100 degrees F but I didn't think that would be necessary considering that the outside of the egg shouldn't ever get that hot or I will have bigger problems.
  • Big'un
    Big'un Posts: 5,909
    It seems to me that if you are gonna decorate it, you should also ensure that it is jewel encrusted! :woohoo: I'd like to hunt for an egg like that around easter.Haha.
  • i wonder if that treatment voids the lifetime warranty?

    i thought i read on here sanding the rim of the base during a gasket replacement voided the warranty.

    500 degrees doesn't seem high enough to me.
  • WileECoyote
    WileECoyote Posts: 516
    I spoke to BGE corp. first before painting the egg. They were fine with it and said it will not void the warranty. Of course they can't be liable for repainting any replacement parts but they liked the concept and supported it - said the gold egg really looked great!

    If you want the extra protection then you can get the higher temp paint, but keep in mind that this is the exterior of the egg we are talking about. If the exterior of your egg gets even close to 500 degrees F then you have a real problem and chances are that your table would be in flames before the paint would degrade.
  • RRP
    RRP Posts: 25,880
    Good luck, guy. Guess I'm skeptical that the dome stays under 500 during a searing 700 to 800° burn off. Just doesn't even stand to reason.
    Re-gasketing America one yard at a time.
  • WileECoyote
    WileECoyote Posts: 516
    I already had my egg up over 700 for several hours on multiple occasions. The paint looks fine as you can see in the pics. I have a digital laser infrared thermometer and will be checking the exterior surface temps of the egg for some other testing which I have planned, but remember that the dome thermometer is inside the egg close to the top vent air flow where there will be more heat, so it is fully logical for the temp to drop a good bit on the other side of the thick ceramic egg. If this weren't true then you wouldn't need the egg at all - you could just set the lump directly on the table and light it up. Fireplaces work on the same concept - the firebrick prevents the heat of the fire from reaching the surrounding building materials and burning your house down. Your bricks and walls might get warm near the fireplace but they aren't even close to the inside temp of the fire.
  • WileECoyote
    WileECoyote Posts: 516
    I cooked some pizza on the egg today at lunch and decided to test out a nuclear burn just to see if the paint would hold up. I cleaned the egg, filled the firebox very full into the fire ring, lit it with isopropyl alcohol, and left the vent wide open with the top off. I went inside to prep the pizza and got distracted by some other work so it was out there burning away for about 90 minutes. When I went back out the temp gauge was burried way past 750 and the ash pit was bright orange inside. I switched to my new Tel Tru gauge and it read about 850 but I haven't calibrated it yet and I think it is pretty low since it rests at 1000 when it is not in use at 70 degrees room temp. So I would estimate the actual dome temp to be about 1000-1100 which is the hottest I have ever run at.

    At this extreme temp I was worried about burning or shrinking my new gasket which was steaming from the heat. The adhesive was still a bit new and I thought maybe I would burn it off. I was also a little worried since I hadn't planned to run the egg so hot for so long unattended since my table is still pretty new and I don't want to take chances. Nothing was on fire so I ran up to the workshop and got my infrared thermometer. In my hurry I was only able to find the small cheap unit and it has a low max temp range. I got readings of 85-110 from the bottom of the firebrick and the parts of the table closest to the egg. The bottom few inches of the side of the egg ranged from 160-225 but as soon as I tried to take a reading above the draft door then my cheap thermometer would max out and display the error symbol. So I don't know how hot the top half of the egg was during this burn but it was definitely hotter than 225. I will measure it again with my higher gauge over the next few weeks and report back.

    The good news is that my table and the paint job stood up just fine, not a mark on anything. I just hope it stays that way.
  • i don't have a table and i wouldn't paint my eggs. but by all means, you can. enjoy
  • WileECoyote
    WileECoyote Posts: 516
    Update on the issue of the exterior egg temps:

    I found my laser thermometer and did some more tests with the egg sitting inside my new table on top of the split firebrick and BGE feet as shown in the photos above. I had the egg up to 550 degrees F and it had been cooking for about 2.5 hours when I took some exterior measurements on the surface of the egg and surrounding table materials. Here are the results which show the range of readings based on 3-5 samples in each area. Outside temperature was 60 degrees F.

    Bottom of the egg base (as close as I could get to the center by shooting in from the front side): 170-200

    Lower sides of the egg base (bottom rim to the top of the draft door): 200-240

    Middle sides of the egg base (from the draft door to the spring band): 240-260

    Bottom of the egg dome (from the spring band to the temp gauge): 260-280

    Top of the egg dome (from the temp gauge to the top vent): 280-300

    Top of the firebrick directly under the egg (as close as I could get to the center by shooting in from the front side): 170-190

    Bottom of the firebrick directly under the egg (as close as I could get to the center by shooting in from the front side): 100-110

    Middle wooden 2x4 support rail (directly under the firebrick and egg base): 70-80

    So far these results show that the exterior off the egg does not approach 500 degrees which means that the 500 degree paint should be safe, although I will do more tests soon at nuclear levels just to be sure. It also shows that the split firebrick and BGE feet make an excellent base for the egg since it keeps the heat away from the wooden support rails. Compare this with the 400 degree 2-hour cook that exploded a ceramic tile and burnt my shelf and it is clear that this modification was necessary. I recommend that everyone using tile or wood under their egg check it immediately for signs of charring or hot temperatures during extended usage. This is especially true if you are not using your BGE feet on top of the tile or wood.
  • Squeezy
    Squeezy Posts: 1,102

    So .... 4 years later ... how's the paint holding up?

    BTW ... the gold piant looks very cool !!!

    Never eat anything passed through a window unless you're a seagull ... BGE Lg.
  • texbagger
    texbagger Posts: 90
    edited June 2012
    I'm a Harley guy and have a good friend who is a custom painter.  You just made my imagination take off--Flames, Skulls, a cool tribal design, good lord, the possibilities are endless!  Maybe a Big Red Egg! How about a flying bloodshot eyeball? hahaha
  • Squeezy
    Squeezy Posts: 1,102
    I love it ... go for it!
    Never eat anything passed through a window unless you're a seagull ... BGE Lg.
  • SandBilly
    SandBilly Posts: 227
    With BGE's new "revamped" warranty, i'd be leery.
  • BYS1981
    BYS1981 Posts: 2,533
    Everyone take note this post is from 2008. The warranty was recently changed and before painting you should check with HQ.
  • A muslim, a socialist and an illegal immigrant walk into a bar 

    Blogging: Never before have so many with so little to say said so much to so few.

  • WileECoyote
    WileECoyote Posts: 516

    Has it been 4 years already? Wow. I have been away from this forum for a long while, mostly for other hobbies and some big life events, but I still love and use my eggs. The gold egg is still going strong, the painted finish looks just like the day I first painted it, except for some small spots which have normal grease stains where the daisy wheel dripped down, and a few adhesive marks which were left behind by the digital temperature probe pads that I attached when I did the scientific testing of the exterior egg temps. So my advice would be to paint away, just take care to use the high-heat paint and prep as I recommended above.

    I am not familiar with the "new" warranty - anyone have a quick summary of the changes? Were the changes retroactive to former purchases or only new purchases?

  • BYS1981
    BYS1981 Posts: 2,533
    I believe because it is a lifetime warranty on the egg they're not allowed to change the warranty. That would make the new warranty for new eggs only, anyone with a legal background able to confirm?
  • The Naked Whiz
    The Naked Whiz Posts: 7,777
    BYS1981, I don't think the fact that it is a lifetime warranty is relevant. Any item sold with a warranty, regardless of length, is covered by the warranty the manufacturer provided at the time of the sale. Imagine buying a car thinking you have a 3 year 30,000 mile warranty, and then a week later getting a letter from the manufacturer saying they decided to make it 2 year, 20,000 miles. 
    The Naked Whiz
  • WileECoyote
    WileECoyote Posts: 516

    I just read the warranty page posted on their website. My take was that the coverage has been significantly reduced to < lifetime for various parts which are almost certain to fail sooner and are likely to fail more than once over long periods of time, such as the metal bands, temp probes, plate setters, etc. And they included enough legal lingo and disclaimers in there which will allow them to reject warranty claims for almost any reason, including "improper" or "commercial" use however they choose to define that. So it is no longer an issue of what is legally covered, it is a practical matter to see whether or not they decide to cover various claims in the future. And of course they cover nothing at all if you buy from "unregistered" dealers or you fail to register your egg. Such a shame to see that this once wholesome down-to-earth company continues to become just another large vendor, but I guess that was inevitable due to growth and profit pressures.

    Also such a shame to see that this forum technology is still crappy, and has not switched over to modern forum software such as vBulletin or PHPBB. As I type this out, the text box in my browser is so slow to update I can actually watch the characters draw on the screen, and I need to pause to let it catch up. WTF? Oh well, at least the good forum folks are still around, nice to see you all again.