Thread: Building a spit roaster

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

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.

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 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

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

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.

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

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

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!

Had a feed from this one.

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

Originally Posted by 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

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.

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

Originally Posted by 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

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

Old school