DIY China Box. Anyone made one?

Pete McMiller

Pete McMiller

Well-known member
http://www.lacajachina.com/Barbecue-Grills-s/1.htm

I used a borrowed one a couple of years ago for a buddies party and it was great for a 100# pig. Total cooking time was about 4 hours. Planning a pig roast for this summer and want to build one. Anyone built one or have the plans to build one? Doesn't look too complicated. There aren't any dealers up here to even look at one and the borrowed one is 400 miles north of me.
 
http://www.lacajachina.com/Barbecue-Grills-s/1.htm

I used a borrowed one a couple of years ago for a buddies party and it was great for a 100# pig. Total cooking time was about 4 hours. Planning a pig roast for this summer and want to build one. Anyone built one or have the plans to build one? Doesn't look too complicated. There aren't any dealers up here to even look at one and the borrowed one is 400 miles north of me.
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I have not built one, so no. As you know there isn't much to them.

Since you have used one and are thinking about building one you are obviously convinced of their utility. I was shocked how well they worked. They are their own thing and aren't pit BBQ, but they sure do render a hog well and make a lot of crispy skin.
 
Now that I start looking around the internet it seems I'm not the first guy to want to build one. Lots of plans, suggestions, ideas around BUT if you have done it - any experiences would be appreciated.
 
Yes, they work great. A few buddies and I use one every spring to cook an approx. 40 pound pig on our canoe trip. Takes about 6 hours and 4 bags of charcoal to get the job done. Our box was a little on the larger size, as we just cut up an couple 4x8 sheet of ply.....but could speed up the cooking if we added more heat......

The best part is with this size box and charcoal as the pig cooks inside you can set up racks on top to cook your ribs chicken etc.......
 
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Pete, there is a guy in neighborhood who rents out pig cookers made out of 300 gallon fuel oil drums, lives out on County Highway C if I remember correctly. In high school I belonged to FFA, my annual project was roasting hogs for parties. When I sold the business and went to college, this guy bought all four of my roasters. Now that was a long time ago, but last I heard he was still renting them out.
Good Luck
 
Thanks Andrew, do you remember his name? The difference with the box cooker is that it cooks in half the time and is what draws me to it. That plus it's something I can make myself and is still small enough to be semi portable.
 
We did not line ours with anything, hence the slightly longer cooking times, reason being is we burn the thing before the trip out to reduce the weight we have to carry. My buddy had some large size stainless shelving racks the we put the pig on in the middle of the box. Usually we try to turn it once to get it cooked evenly......not the easiest process but it does work
 
Pete,


I have built a couple. Box lined with tar paper then aluminum. Watch out for galvanized, as I've read some awful stuff about galvanic poisoning. On ours we had someone with a metal press, press a big steel box for the lid where the coals go. tons of them down here. google Cajun microwave
 
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