To cook food on the grill using a cauldron, you definitely need a special holder. It can be purchased at a specialty store.
Industrial devices for cauldrons are quite reliable, durable, easy to use and affordable.
Or you can do it yourself. In this case, tools and materials can be improvised objects, old buckets, pipes or remnants of fittings.
Many samples of factory devices can serve as an excellent example for making an analogue with your own hands.
Types of stands for cauldrons
Cauldrons for cooking are most often presented in the form of cast iron cookware in the form of a hemisphere.
Kazan is a cast cauldron. Its distinctive feature is its semicircular bottom, which does not allow it to be installed on the hearth without a special supporting device - a tripod.
Due to their structure, they are inconvenient to install on an open fire. Therefore, special stands were invented. They come in several types.
If you have a certain list of tools and materials, you can do it yourself.
Tagan on three legs
The tagan is a metal structure that consists of a small ring and three long legs.
The stand for the cauldron has varieties - depending on the material and place of use - on the grill, fire or stove.
The cauldron is installed in such a way that the legs rest firmly on the ground at an angle, and the cauldron itself is located above the fire in a ring.
The legs of the three-legged stand are installed in the form of a cone. An equal distance is maintained between them, which is an important factor determining the degree of stability of the structure.
Tagan on four legs
A tagan on four legs has a similar structure and operating mechanism. This design can be produced in disassembled form. Thus, you can adjust the length of the legs, and even the ring itself to hold cauldrons of different sizes.
The design of a four-legged stand is similar to that of a tripod. Their only difference from each other is the presence of a quarter support.
Supports for table or stove
A ring with small legs (about 30-50 cm) is called a ring. It is mainly used to hold semicircular dishes over a regular burner.
It can also be a stand for a cauldron on the table.
Support and hook design
Three long legs connected to each other are firmly installed in the ground, and at their intersection there is a hook - this is what the simple design of this cauldron holder looks like.
Instead of a circle on legs, there are models with a hook where the cauldron is hung.
But it will only work if the cookware has an additional handle, by which you can hang it where the grill is located.
A tripod for a cauldron is the most optimal solution for cooking over a fire.
Purchase of industrial accessories for a cauldron
You can purchase all kinds of accessories for a cauldron not only in Moscow, large cities or in reputable trading enterprises, but also on the Internet. The range of such products is very impressive. Always available for sale: simple stands for a cauldron, additional panels for using a barbecue, all kinds of tripods for a cauldron, devices for hanging a cauldron for a fire, and so on.
As a rule, all products offered are made of steel or cast iron, but you can also find solid forged examples
Industrial devices for cauldrons are quite reliable, durable, easy to use and affordable.
In addition, many samples of factory devices can serve as an excellent example for making an analogue with your own hands.
Naturally, it is unlikely that it will be possible to repeat the cast-iron version of anything, but an excellent tripod for a cauldron with your own hands from metal can be made independently.
Let's look at some simple devices for a cauldron that you can easily make yourself.
How to choose a stand for a cauldron
The choice of a stand for a cauldron depends on several factors:
- the environment where the cooking will take place;
- stand material;
- volume of the ring.
For example, stands made of cast iron, although they hold the fire temperature well, are very heavy. Therefore, they are more suitable for stationary use.
Such stands are used at home for cooking dishes in cast iron over electric stoves or in home blast furnaces.
The best option for lovers of picnics in nature are steel and aluminum stands. They are much lighter than cast iron and are not inferior to them in reliability. Therefore, they are more convenient to transport.
They are easy to move, but it is not recommended to place a heavy cast-iron cauldron on such a stand.
Important! When choosing a stand, regardless of the type and material, it is necessary to constantly compare the diameter of the cauldron and the ring of the structure. The latter should be slightly narrower than the dishes so that they are firmly supported by weight.
Features of a tripod for a cauldron on a fire: choice depending on the size of the cauldron
When it comes to cooking in a cauldron over a fire, you need to keep in mind many nuances. For example, flames easily stain the walls of dishes, leaving behind ingrained soot. This means that the pot and the stand for the cauldron will be dirty - it’s better to immediately consider how to fold such dishes after the weekend is over. Taking into account such difficulties and in order to create the most mobile support, a model has been developed in which the cauldron is hung on a hook. In this case, the volume of the existing cauldron is not important, but what is important is the presence of holes on the handles of the cauldron, where wire can be threaded for hanging dishes.
Another type of stand, which involves installing a cauldron on a base with a tripod, requires more careful selection. The volume of the existing cauldron is important here - dishes for 3 and 12 liters will have different diameters. An ideal stand for a cauldron should have exactly the same diameter as the dishes themselves - otherwise the structure will be unstable or there is a danger that the cauldron will fall through.
How to make a stove from a pipe
You can make such a stand yourself from a metal pipe. Due to the fact that its design is quite simple. A cauldron stove consists of a long cylinder, at the bottom of which there is a grate, two holes for supplying firewood and at the very top several petals for holding the cauldron.
An alternative and more sophisticated support product is a portable stove.
It was made in such a way that all the heat emanating from the fire was concentrated inside the walls of the stove cylinder. And it made the cauldron with food heat up faster.
The advantage of the stove over other cauldron stands lies in its design.
Materials and tools
Materials
- A piece of pipe with thick walls for the cylindrical part of the furnace. Approximately 100 cm.
- Narrower chimney pipe. Approximately 12 - 13 cm.
- Metal corners for the arms and legs of the structure. There is no specific size. It all depends on convenience.
- Metal grate.
Bulgarian.
Tools
- Bulgarian;
- drill;
- welding machine;
- hammer;
- building level.
Welding machine.
Important! According to safety precautions, when working with a welding machine, the master must have gloves, goggles and a mask to protect exposed skin.
Creating a Project
The process of creating a stand for a cauldron with your own hands in the form of a stove comes down to three main steps:
- preparatory part;
- creating a design drawing;
- assembly of all parts.
When creating a drawing, it is necessary to accurately indicate the length and number of grates for the bottom of the furnace, as well as calculate the size of additional elements such as handles, legs, the size of the firebox window, etc.
Drawing of a stove made from a pipe.
DIY assembly
When all the elements of the furnace are assembled and prepared, the assembly stage of the product begins. To do this, according to the drawing, you must first mark on the pipe all the holes that will be cut using a grinder, as well as the petals for installing the pot.
Important! To cut out holes for the chimney and firebox, it is better to use circles of different diameters to make the cuts more accurate.
Furnace assembly.
The following actions are carried out using a welding machine. With its help the chimney is welded. It should be installed at an angle of 45 degrees. Next, a door is made for the hole where the coals will be poured, and additional elements in the form of legs and handles are mounted.
In the end, if the structure has successfully passed through the first baptism of fire, namely the firebox, then it can be coated with fire-resistant paint and left to dry.
Cooking in a cauldron on a homemade stove.
Possible difficulties
At the assembly stage, some difficulties may arise that were not taken into account at the time of creation of the project, namely:
- quality of materials;
- is the metal of the pipe suitable for cooking;
- weight of the structure;
- distortion of the shape of structures under the influence of high temperatures, etc.
It is necessary to test the oven.
The finished stove is coated with fireproof paint.
All of them can be eliminated with the help of a preliminary test of all metal structures. Several options of pipes are taken, made of different materials (cast iron, aluminum or steel) and each of them is checked using a welding machine. The material that retains heat best and is not very heavy will be chosen as the basis.
If not one of the metals passes the test, then perhaps the problem lies in the welding machine itself and its current strength.
A stove for a cauldron purchased in a store.
Homemade products
An excellent stand for a cauldron with your own hands can be made from many available materials. Let's look at some of the simplest options.
Using pipe sections or simple metal rings
A convenient stand or tripod for a cauldron with your own hands can be easily obtained from a piece of pipe, or made from a metal ring. Even a hoop from a small wooden barrel will do. The main condition is that the cauldron must be securely fixed in such a device, and this is achieved only if it fits into the metal ring by approximately 2/3 of its diameter.
Such structures can be entirely welded from any rolled metal, but it is much more practical to make them collapsible
The legs of the device can be fastened with clamps or in welded bushings. It is much easier to attach the legs to flat rings that are cut from a pipe. To do this, a pair of holes for bolts and nuts are drilled in the ring and in the flat legs of the device. In such cases, it is advisable to make legs of different lengths. When using long legs, you will get an excellent tripod for a cauldron for a fire, and with short legs, this design will serve as a reliable stand.
We use a scrap of metal barrel
A scrap of metal barrel and several pieces of fittings make a good stand for a cauldron with your own hands.
This simplest design has a number of specific advantages:
- There are absolutely no scarce materials.
- The open top design makes it easy to add firewood.
- The product, closed on the sides, ensures heat accumulation directly under the bottom of the cauldron, since the heat of the fire does not dissipate to the sides.
- Significant savings in firewood.
- High fire safety.
To make such a complex stand you will need:
- A metal barrel with a capacity of approximately 200 liters.
- Bulgarian.
- Any fittings with a diameter of min = 14 mm.
- Welding machine.
Manufacturing process:
Barbecue oven with cauldron
- The barrel is cut in half or 1/3 of its upper part is cut off. The option is chosen completely arbitrarily.
- The cut off top will serve as the base of the structure, and it is installed directly on the fire.
- A pair of holes are cut or drilled in the lower part of this cut fragment of the barrel, which will ensure an optimal combustion mode for the fire.
- A triangle in the shape of the letter “A” is formed from segments of reinforcement. It is necessary to achieve such internal dimensions that the cauldron fits tightly into this kind of stand. The figure created from the reinforcement must be welded.
- If the proposed option from reinforcement seems too primitive, then the stand can be made in a rectangular shape or in the form of a circle with welded crossbars.
- An even better option will be if you select replacement hobs from an old stove.
Collapsible tripod made from simple materials
An excellent do-it-yourself tripod for a cauldron is made from a common mounting “din-rail”. The design is extremely lightweight and consists of a minimum of common parts.
An approximate version of the product is shown in the photo:
Need to purchase:
- Direct mounting rail. You will need 6 pieces of 50 cm each.
- The wire is soft - about 0.6 meters.
- Mounting nuts and screws included – 6 pairs. It is advisable to use wing nuts, as they will speed up the process of assembling and disassembling the device.
- Metal chain for hanging a vessel.
- Any metal hook.
Device assembly process:
- Three sections of future tripod legs are folded into a tripod pyramid.
- At the junction points, holes for fasteners are drilled, and the pyramid is fastened with wire. The result was a miniature tripod. Its height is approximately 0.5 meters.
- Then the lower parts of the legs of the future tripod are attached and holes are drilled for the mounting bolts.
- Next, the lower parts of the rack legs must be joined to the upper ones and secured with bolts and nuts.
- The assembled complete structure is checked for strength and a chain with a hook is fixed in its upper part.
- The work is done. Do-it-yourself tripod for a cauldron - completely made.
- Using similar technology, you can make a more complex fire structure for several culinary devices. An approximate view of such a product is shown in the top photo on the right. Naturally, some additional materials will be required, since the “din rail” is clearly not suitable for the crossbar.
A popular stand option is made from car rims.
Car rim stand
An excellent stable stand for a cauldron can be made from the most ordinary car wheels. To do this you need:
- Place the disk so that the side with the mounting holes is at the top.
- 2/3 of the height of the cauldron is measured, and a circle is drawn with chalk.
- Next, the diameter of the drawn line is calculated, and a hole is cut in the disk, the diameter of which is equal to the calculations obtained.
- The stable stand is ready.
- If you weld the legs to the bottom of such a converted disk, you will get a good campfire variation of a tripod. But it is better to use such a tripod only in the countryside, since the weight of the entire welded structure will be very impressive.
- In addition, it should be noted that a pair of such disks makes a very compact and decent stove for a cauldron.
Here is a short overview of the designs of stands and tripods for cauldrons.
Design Features
The design of the stand directly depends on the cauldron itself, which can have a flat or round bottom and vary in size and weight. This explains the division of support into the following types:
- A traditional tripod-tagan, which is a circle into which a cauldron is lowered, and three legs extending from the circle at a slight angle. This design is simple, stable and reliable, and the stands themselves can be monolithic or collapsible. The latter is convenient to take on a hike.
- Podkazannik – a square design with a round hole on top, used on the grill.
- A miniature stand used to stabilize a round cauldron on a gas stove or table.
- Suspended structure - can be made in the form of three metal guides connected to each other at the top. A hook is mounted at the top, on which the cauldron is suspended over the fire. This tripod is suitable for using different sized cookware.
A correctly placed tripod makes cooking convenient, and it is important to follow the rules for using the product:
- It is necessary to consider the possibility of access to fire and coal in order to regulate the heating of the container.
- The weight of a filled cauldron is quite large. If a fire is lit on damp or frozen soil, then under the influence of temperature its density may change, the legs will go into the ground and the tripod will change its inclination. A design without a suspension system can even topple the boiler due to the shifted center of gravity. In order to avoid troubles, you need to place pieces of board under the legs in advance or weld small plates to them.
- You should not place the legs of the product in a fire, since heating the metal can cause its deformation, and touching a hot part will lead to burns.
