# Firearms and Shooting > Projects and Home Builds >  Building a spit roaster

## Tristan

Hey guys! Now I've come up with a great idea to slowly put together my own spit roaster, now who has made one if anyone, and if so what did you use for the gas set up, motor to turn the beast etc, I've got many ideas running through my head but the more the merrier, I don't want to be a life savings build just built on a budget by built well so far I'm thinking just a folded bottom section 1400Lx600Wx500-550H more hight so I can fit flame tammers in the bottom and something to direct dripping fat into a container to aid cleaning lid will be around 400 high it's more the motor and gas set up I need ideas for

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## Maca49

Para flex motor gearbox if you can find an old one, getting it to revolve at a slow RPM 1-4 revs per minute is hard without money, money makes it easy, or lots of chains and sprockets, motor and gearbox.

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## veitnamcam

The motors on little jap import trucks that fold the deck sides in an out are perfect.
Or a windscreen wiper motor and some v belt pulleys

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## 308

I've got a mate that has one built out of the two sides of a 44gallon drum split down the length
LPG Gas burner, removable drip tray, 12v stepdown motor which can run off a car battery or a cellphone charger type plug (so it can travel if need be).
A whole lamb feeds about 30-35 people

He's a party guy so it suits him well but it's not the sort of thing he uses every day

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## striker

the old man has one, a piece of ex dairy factory stainless aircon duct 800 dia, running a vat stirrer motor through a 90degree reduction gearbox. 4 rpm. lpg gas burner tube
its still the best design of the spits ive seen, it was built nearly 27 years ago

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## john m

Been using this one for about 30 yrs. Burn wood in the drum and take out the embers that fall through the mesh. Just under 1 RPM.

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## veitnamcam

Only improvement to make is 12v motor to run anywhere, tho I guess you could use an inverter?

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## P38

Tristan

44ga Steel drums (200L for you young fellas) make bloody good spit roasters.

Go visit the local scrap metal man and they will sort you out the steel you may need for bugger all.

Buy a cast iron gas ring from the warehouse or any of the Chinese clearance shops or see if you can get a cheap BBQ off trade me and use the burners out of that.

If you've got a lid on your spit roaster then the gas ring or burners, only need to be located down one end of the drum so the meat cooks by convection heat rather than direct heat.

A windscreen wiper motor  from the wreckers and a the gears off an old 10 speed bike will provide the power. 

Check this vid out to get the idea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z5HejWjd1k

Cheers
Pete

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## Tui4Me

Hi Tristan, I'm slowly managing to build one in between many other little projects..

I'm going for more of a portable roaster type cooker that will not have a drive to rotate the meat.

Its 400mm x 400mm x 700mm long and designed to take x2 full size oven trays so you can have a tray of Veges on one side and say a big roast pork on the other side.

You could also take the trays off and lay down a large rolled roast or fill it up with chickens or smaller roasts.

Whilst its always nice to have a pig or a whole animal on a spit 95% of the time I'm feeding 4 to 10 people so wanted something easy to clean and portable to do this.

I've made the gas burner by cutting the end off a 1" stainless steel burner from Mitre 10mega (x2for $30) and welding a 1" stainless tube extension onto the end of it. All you have to do then is to follow the existing hole pattern down the length of the extension and cap off the end.

The great thing about this is that the in-feed end of burner has the proper air regulator adjustment and venturi so it's very easy to get it burning blue and hot after extending it.

For a larger cooker you could look at using somemthing like stainless steel box section with an inverted angle iron section that sits inside it. The purpose of this is to evenly disperse the gas along its length so the flame is burning evenly. The burner sits on a 45 deg and slots are cut in the top corner of the box section. The ends are sealed and the gas is fed into the burner by using a .9mm mig welding tip. You have to drill holes in the cap plate under the in feed to allow oxygen to suck into the burner and this will be a bit hit and miss until you manage to get the correct gas/oxygen mix. 

There are some good online sites in NZ that supply gas and BBQ components. I've seen one that sells spare parts for large commercial roasters including drives and burners you you maybe able to just purchase the parts and make your own body and lid yourself if you don't have the setup to be able to fiddle around with a gas burner.

Good Luck!

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## Dundee

Had a feed from this one. :Grin:

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## striker

the other type of spit to look at is an argie, south african style etc meat rack at 45deg over embers cook one side turn once, seems to work well

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## Tommy

> The motors on little jap import trucks that fold the deck sides in an out are perfect.
> Or a windscreen wiper motor and some v belt pulleys


I've whacked a few of these together for mates. Last one used a selection of pulleys off a d21 terrano, a Nissan pulsar wiper motor and an oil drum. A car battery doesn't quite have the legs to do an entire roast, but if you put a charger on it it works a treat. 

Don't forget to put a rack in up top if it's enclosed, baked potatoes nom nom nom

Makes me hungry just thinking about it.

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## muzza

use an old cast iron bath , lots of them lying around in paddocks

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## veitnamcam

If using over a fire(the best way) using a universal joint or cv joint allows you to pick up the non drive end and swivel it away from the fire for carving and heat can be adjusted if some fool puts to much wood on  :Wink:

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## Tommy

> If using over a fire(the best way) using a universal joint or cv joint allows you to pick up the non drive end and swivel it away from the fire for carving and heat can be adjusted if some fool puts to much wood on


That is bloody smart. Awesomely, I just happen to have pulled a prop shaft out of Subaru, how convinient. Project for next weekend

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## ChrisF

Old school

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## Friwi

Hi,
One feature I thought about you could put on your roast spit is as follow:
Where the fat drip down to, is getting a little pump to recirculate it and spray it back on top of the carcass.
A similar thing would be to have a sort of a long ladle , with the handle stuck into the carcass , and as the spit turns, the ladle would pick up the fat/ gravy at the bottom and as it goes up during the revolution spread the gravy over the carcass, it would keep the meat moist and tasty :-) ( delete the word cholesterol from your dictionary !)

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## Barefoot

> If using over a fire(the best way) using a universal joint or cv joint allows you to pick up the non drive end and swivel it away from the fire for carving and heat can be adjusted if some fool puts to much wood on


Use a long side front cruiser axle perhaps? About the only thing an 80series is useful for  :Wink:

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## john m

And sometimes just a little bit of meat.

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## john m

Attachment 33144

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## 308

Always a good point




> Care with using 44-gallon drums, the contents can soak into the steel and write off your hard work.  Give em' a good burn to sear the crap out before the meat goes on...

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## Nibblet

> Use a long side front cruiser axle perhaps? About the only thing an 80series is useful for


Amacock.

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## veitnamcam

> Use a long side front cruiser axle perhaps? About the only thing an 80series is useful for


No way.., have you seen the price of cruiser parts! ?

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## Nibblet

> No way.., have you seen the price of cruiser parts! ?


They are cheap from aussie, I had to replace a few due to user error

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## veitnamcam

Not as cheap as hilux parts from aussie  :Omg:

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## Nibblet

Yeah but who would buy one of those?!

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## veitnamcam

Me

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## Tommy

I always fancied making one driven by water. Hopper/bucket thing and a variable drip through a tap turning a water wheel made out of $1.99 ladles from the warehouse. Just for shits and giggles. Suppose once the spit and everything else is built you can power it with whatever you like via a 3/8 drive off the end of the shaft

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## screamO

I would love to try like this (photos from Al Browns book, Stoked)


Looks bloody good

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## veitnamcam

Hung in a chimney ?

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## BRADS

> Hung in a chimney ?


Dry well?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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## screamO

It's an old kiln built back in the 1960s and works much like a pizza oven by the looks of it.

I don't know what they look like or what they used them for?

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## veitnamcam

like a massive oven

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## kotuku

> I would love to try like this (photos from Al Browns book, Stoked)
> 
> 
> Looks bloody good


 not from the pigs POV it bloody dont .worst case of heat stroke ive ever seen! :Oh Noes:

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## Tristan

so ive wipped up some plans and given them to a mate at the engineer shop, yes its not something that will be used every day, as for the smaller roasts i got a rotisserie on my bbq, but when ever we have a large family gathering its normally to late to hire a spit, so i thought id look into what it would sting me to build one, every man needs to keep busy from time to time and the mind never seams to stop with ideas, so at least im giving the idea a nudge, and honestly i cant see anything better then the aroma of a large spit cooking away then left over Shepherds pie hmmmm tasty!! i have a photo of one we used a couple of years ago for xmas and sorta going from that idea, i got a 44 gallon drum from work but im thinking if you got a mutton to wack on there things would be a bit tight, gotta have it stretched out, so going a little bigger

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## stretch

> I would love to try like this (photos from Al Browns book, Stoked)
> Looks bloody good


Looks like a Tandoori Oven

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## duck-kila

About 2or3 xmas back " The Shed Magazine" has a Article on how to make a Spit and a Keg cooker with all the details.Great mag for ideas and to look at what others are doing.

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## 308

I've put this image up before but it appears relevant

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