Solar Powered Pig Roaster

by ivan_stephens

23K8920

Intro: Solar Powered Pig Roaster

So this year I turn thirty years old. For my 18th birthday I was in the Army and in basic training. So no big celebration instead I got rolled left and right in the mud all day. My next big birthday I turned 21 and i was in Iraq. This was during OIF 1 so I hadn't even had a shower in 4 months. So no trip to the bar to get my first beer. I was thinking a 30th birthday bash sounded good. What better way to throw a party than roasting a whole hog over some coals with some good friends and family.

STEP 1: Metal

I started looking al over the internet and found many plans but nothing looked good. There were some nice rigs out there but they were several thousand dollars. I was told to just use some old jack stands but that not my style. So off to the metal store I went. Here is what I bought

24ft of 1 ¼ inch square tubing

24ft of 1½  inch square tubing

12ft 1” rod

4 cast iron stars

I knew I wanted something I could take apart and store easily. I wanted to use as many free or junk parts I could to build this project. I have a great friend Casey Henson who is incredibly bright and had several gearmotors and bearings left over from an old job.  He brought me a big pile of parts that were going to be scraped. We talked for hours about this bouncing ideas off one another, and finally came up with a plan. I drew it out in windows paint, the only drawing system I have.

STEP 2:

We took my drawings from paintbrush and started cutting some metal. A friend from work, Chet Brown was recruited to do the welding. He is a far better welder than I will ever be. I also had a friend of mine Zach Harrison grinding and de-burring the parts before welding. We used a metal chop saw and cut the parts. Then we took out the mig welder and carefully aligned all the parts for welding. The parts went together well.  I really haven’t detailed the plans in this Instructables to well because thats not the way I work. I prefer to build things based on how they look good to me. Also I dont know what materials you may come across. almost every part other than the metal was recycled. I made a motor mount out of a old leaf spring bolt plate. It worked perfect and I used 4” hose clamps to hold the motor in place.

STEP 3: Bearings and Sprocket

Bearings; again a gift from Casey. To mount them we welded a bolts to a peace of tubing and bolted them on, It works great.
The large sprocket is a 60T bought this from from northern tools and the small 9T was from Pervis Industries. Both cost about $15. on the large sprocket we welded on a 1" cuppling that would slip over the spit rod.  This got me down to about 2.5 rpm which is a great speed to roast a hog. I built the entire mount system on the 1 1/2 square tubbing so i could slide it over the main stands that are 1 1/4 square tubbing. I drilled a hole in the mount and welded a nut to the tube. Then, using a bolt you could move the pig up or down to control the heat. On my motor mount I added a bottle opener for my beer.

STEP 4: Fire Pit

It was time to build the fire pit. We cut some 6” C-Purlin connectors to 48 inch length and welded three of them together. We then boxed them in and cut some expanded metal for the coals to lay on. I have never worked with C-Purlin connectors before but will again.  They are cheap and strong. I then welded two stars to the box and a Texas cutout I salvaged from an old trailer hitch. I’m from Texas and it what’s we do. We added two 1 ½ tubing to the side of the box and added a nut and bolt so we could have a second way to adjust the heat.

STEP 5: Powering

The motor I got for turning the pig operated off of 12V. I started thinking of multiple crazy ways of powering it. I finally decided  to go simple and hook it up to my truck battery. I wasn’t sure how long the motor would turn so I went to Harbor Freight and bought a $15 solar panel. This turned to work out great. The pig cooked for almost 7 hours and never even slowed down.

STEP 6: Spit Rod

The spit rod was easy take a 1" rod and shove it through the pig. We made some forks that would hold the pig in place with a few cupplings and some metal of an old piece of furniture. They turned out perfect.

STEP 7: The Pig

The pig we bought was natural, local and delicious. I will detail the cooking process in a future article. It took about 7 hours, 60lbs of mesquite lump charcoal and around 48 Shiner Bock, Ruby Redbird Beers. It was the perfect birthday and I am blessed to have great friends and family to spend it with. Thank you for taking time to read my article.

20 Comments

Kdemon 11 years ago

You could add a parabolic mirrored trough to the bottom and make it 100% solar, but then the mirrored trough would get covered in grease, what about a Fresnel lens from a couple of old Big Screen TVs, you could cook that pig like an ant under a magnified glass.

rimar2000 10 years ago

Two screens does not make one screen bigger, because its focus will be always separated. To cook a pig with a parabola you need a VERY BIG one, some meters diameter.

ivan_stephens 11 years ago

maybe next time, sounds like a good idea to me

epierce 11 years ago

Drool!! Wish I was allowed to have a BBQ at my apartment!! Very cool way to work your spit!

burnok100 11 years ago

Roast Pig = 100 votes...!
Nice contraption you got there...!
You should visit the Philippines. We call our roast pork "Lechon"

diy_bloke 11 years ago

Kalami, masarap! stuffed with herbs and impaled on a bamboo pole. Linamnam!

CDHenson 11 years ago

It was a blast celebrating your birthday. And building the roaster. I am blessed to have a such a great brother in Christ

philmcm 11 years ago

Adding my thoughts, very well done instructable, thanks. And thanks for your service protecting me and my family. CDHenson, if Ivan is your Brother in Christ then you're both mine too. Thanks again.

thingy 11 years ago

Don't forget to have a beer and take a couple of showers on your birthday to make up for old times.

rocklocker 11 years ago

Thanks for a great instructable and THANK YOU for your service to our country.

nanosec12 11 years ago

Double up on both of these comments. I really appreciate your service, and am glad you were able to celebrate your 30th with family and friends. Thank You

paganwonder 11 years ago

Best 'ible. The back story rocks.

hhenson2011 11 years ago

This was one awesome roaster! Ivan did an awesome job and the pig was mighty tasty!!!!

bigJakeK 11 years ago

Amazing time, and amazing engineering. Proud of you bro, and blessed to have friends like you all to celebrate with. Clearly the most win-worthy invention out there.

mstephens57 11 years ago

That's my boy, I'm so proud of you son. The pig was DELICIOUS, melt in your mouth delicious. It was the funnest 30th party ever. The biggest blessing was seeing Ivan surrounded by so many friends n family that trully love him. Mom

Vika84 11 years ago

Looks great and delicious! 5 stars and a vote from me :-)