Gifted a broken #7

[Barry]

hi,
A friend gave me his old #7.
for the most part its in good shape as far as I can tell.
there were a few tiles off and a few loose.
during the move. many more tiles fell off. and the bed below some is very soft.
The vent cap was seized. trying to loosen it, the cap itself more or less exploded in my hands. Spare Tiles!!!
i'll cast a new one and put a different tile on it as I cannot find the 1" red tiles that cover this #7 and I don't much care if it doesn't match.

my question:
is the threaded rod of the original tile made of stainless?
should I reuse it after cleaning it up with a Die or make a new one?

[fishtail-99]

I think you can reuse it if you constantly maintain it. However, I believe that the Komodo Kamado company has worked with K owners in the past to fix problems like this and install one of their vastly superior tops on an old K. Of course, if you have the patience of a saint, you could risk your money and try to order one of RJ's new tops.

[Barry]

I'm not going to invest lots of money into this. Certainly shipping alone for a new top would be quite a lot. I'm in Canada.
i'll simply cast a new top out of hand mixed concrete. I'll probably use some marble tiles from HD. only need a couple 12 inch sheets of them.

i'll go out and get some thinset today. to reset the tiles.
I'll regrout and seal it with something to keep moisture out of the grout which should stop the tiles from coming loose again.

[Barry]

its not looking good.
I started removing the loose sheeting below the tiles.
below that the concrete is literally crumbling below the tiles. lots more tiles came off too, then more concrete...
I ended up pulling off quite a lot of the top and in some places it is dangerously thin. I'll be using some concrete premix to "patch" it.

[fishtail-99]

Got any photos of the damage?

[duck833]

Free is a pretty high price for a POS K on the edge of death.

Good luck with this POS, I think you will be in a constant fix phase with your Kooker. I personally would rather spend my time on something other than fixing a K all the time. I used a sledgehammer on my #9 and got it out of my backyard.

I have a BGE now that cooks well, looks good and needs no repair.

[Barry]

I'll take some tomorrow.

[Admin]

Try Rutland's furnace cement if you can find some-- it will patch the concrete and adhere tiles well.

For a larger tile job, Home Depot carries an acrylic tile adhesive that works great for the long term. It's in the grout section. You retile with the adhesive, and then grout over that with your desired color.

If you can replace Kamado's top bolt I would - I don't believe they are stainless and will likely rust up again given a chance.

As a freebie, it's definitely worth putting a little work into.

Good luck.
_________________
Don't Be A Richard

[Barry]

[img] http://picasaweb.google.ca/lh/photo/HXO1Xf7QTrgY4bcN6D4rpQ?feat=direct link [/img]

there are other images there as well.

does this rutlands fill large voids?
I don't think I can get this in Canada. at least I've never seen it.

[fishtail-99]

Wow! I wonder when this one was made. What a failure!

[Barry]

I was told it was purchased in 2004 and shipped to Canada from Mexico.
Canadian winters can be harsh. so any water that gets in cracks will cause lot of havoc.
I cannot see this thing maintaining integrity unless I can get some quality concrete in there.
I'm afraid to dig out more that is loose, cause there is some, because it will completely disintegrate.

[Unbelievable]

I can't see or find the picture.

[Gerard]

I can't get the image to display either but here's a working link:

http://picasaweb.google.ca/lh/photo/HXO1Xf7QTrgY4bcN6D4rpQ?feat=d%20ir ectlink

Admin, this is worthy of entry into the Hall of Shame.

[Barry]

http://picasaweb.google.ca/BarryBeadman/Kamado#5458936236126339282

I have a few pictures put up there.
including the busted up cap.
the inside and the grills look fine.
so I'll rebuild it. so looking for the best stuff to use to do that.

[Gerard]

That's the worst I recall seeing - and that's saying a lot. Yep, I agree that you shouldn't invest much in it.

Almost looks like he made that one in layers. Maybe inner layer of cement and an out layer of plaster.