How to make skewers with your own hands

Today, kebab lovers are presented with a wide range of skewers of various sizes and shapes. Those who want to enjoy the taste of fried meat can purchase ready-made products that they like. Those who like to craft and want to save money can make skewers with their own hands. If you have the necessary material, tools and skills, this work will not be difficult to cope with. The article contains information on how to make skewers at home.

Where should I start?

Before you start making skewers with your own hands, you need to decide how long they will be. The optimal size is 700 mm. After taking the necessary measurements and applying the required marks on the stainless steel wire, it can be cut into separate parts using a chisel and a hammer. In order for the piece to have a pointed end, it is advisable to immediately cut at an angle.

When making stainless steel skewers, the master must take into account the fact that stores are supplied with wire with high levels of hardness and elasticity. It will be much more convenient to work with the material by reducing these indicators. To do this, already chopped pieces of wire must be placed in a specially made fire and wait until they become red-hot. Then, using pliers, the hot pieces should be removed from the fire and left in the air. Cooled wire will be softer and more pliable. According to reviews from craftsmen, working with such material is much more comfortable.

Herringbone

Against the background of the listed devices, making a Christmas tree turned out to be the most difficult. The reason is simple - if you just cook everything, then washing it will be inconvenient and traumatic. It was necessary to come up with something collapsible and practical. This is what I ended up doing:

took a good old thick steel pot, cut off the ears and sanded the walls;
welded a stand made of thick rod to the center;
I attached three rings to the stand and sanded the transitions.

I noticed that many people suggested screwing or welding the “branches”.

Source kaminsochi.ru

I came across an option with a stand made of a threaded rod. Such options did not seem practical to me. Therefore, I limited myself to removable skewers of three pins. In order to thread them one by one on the rod, I provided holes and locking rings of different diameters. The rotation of such “branches” will not confuse anyone. The only inconvenience may be the even distribution of the weight of the cooked vegetables or meat. But everything will be easy to wash.

In this form, an amateur master shares his experience of making a tandoor on his own from scrap materials, starting from the foundation:

Second phase

At this stage, a small anvil is used in the work. The essence of the procedure is to splash the already cooled pieces of steel wire with a hammer and give them the desired shape. In this case, you should leave 100 mm on one edge. The steel strips obtained in this way must have the same thickness up to 3 mm. The untouched 100 mm edge of the strip must be folded into a ring (an exception is the case when a craftsman makes skewers with a wooden handle).

From this place you need to step back 50 mm and use pliers to make a small spiral of half a turn. In order for pieces of meat to be threaded onto a homemade skewer without any problems, its second end must be sharp. You can sharpen it using a sharpening machine or an emery wheel. To avoid injury when using the product, it is advisable not to sharpen the end of the skewer very much.

Manual and electric drive

Let's look at the differences, pros and cons.

Easy to use, difficult to break anything;
Easy to do.

Requires constant attention from the cook and skills in working with a spit are required; Physically expensive (after all, frying time is several hours).

Removes the need for the cook to be at the spit and there is no fatigue from its rotation;
The rotation is uniform and the meat cooks better;
You can select the desired rotation speed and easily maintain it.

This is a complex mechanism and not everyone can make it on their own;
Drive elements are expensive;
The design is more “gentle” than a manual drive;
Requires a source of energy.

Products with handles

Skewers with a wooden handle are quite popular among consumers. In such products, one end does not need to be bent into a ring. Instead, the end of the skewer will be capped with a wooden handle. Many craftsmen recommend using acacia to make a handle. To work, you will need a lathe on which wooden blanks will be processed.

The handle is considered ready if it is equipped with a special hole for a skewer. This hole is made by drilling. In this case, the length of the handle and its diameter should be less than that of the steel strip. The handle is placed on the skewer after it has gone through the hardening procedure. To ensure that the handle sits firmly, many craftsmen use special crimp rings.

Purchased electric drive

For those who are not comfortable with technology, it will be easier to purchase a ready-made drive in a store. This approach eliminates difficulties; moreover, a purchased electric drive is often equipped with a proprietary battery.

Structurally, the magazine drive is an ordinary attachment that can be easily attached to any flat surface. The drive can be powered by batteries, however, the rotation speed will be minimal. Devices are available equipped with a speed controller.

There are ready-made grills with electric drive available for sale. The meat is fried from a filament on vertically positioned skewers, the juice and fat flow into the provided recesses. The taste of shish kebab fried from a heating element is really different from meat cooked over a fire, but you can use such a device even in a city apartment.

Types of skewers for barbecue

Despite the fact that today many people prefer barbecue, the grill remains the most popular type of fireplace in which food is fried outdoors. And to cook on the grill you need certain devices, which are usually called skewers. So what is a skewer? This is a long strip with a certain cross-section and dimensions. Various products are strung on it for cooking over an open flame or coals.

You can make skewers with your own hands from steel or wood. Plastic and non-ferrous metals are not suitable for skewer, as they release harmful substances when heated. Before you make a skewer, you need to decide on its configuration.

The general structure of this product is as follows:

A plank that has a certain cross-section. It can be round, oval or rectangular. Some people make the bar in the form of a spiral along the entire length.
Pointed tip. It should be sharp enough to pierce raw meat, but not so sharp that it hurts your hand if pressed hard. To prevent the tip from piercing the backpack, sew a durable cover for the skewers.
Pen. The handles of the skewers should be comfortable and safe from burns. To avoid getting burned, the handle is covered with wooden pads. When choosing a tree, you need to focus on species with a fine-fiber composition.
Stand for skewer. Such a device can easily be made independently from wire or a sheet of stainless steel.

Even if the housewife has sewn a cover from a durable tarpaulin, this is not a guarantee that the sharp edges of the products will not pierce the cover or backpack. It is advisable to make a tube for skewers with your own hands. The material can be plywood, plastic or sheet iron.

Before you start your own production of barbecue accessories with your own hands, sew covers and make tubes, you need to decide what sizes future products will have. The required quantity is determined by the distance between the skewers on the grill that will be optimal for quality cooking. The optimal distance is considered to be 10 cm. This gap between the skewers allows you to fry any food efficiently and evenly. To calculate how many skewers are required for a picnic, you need to divide its length by 10 and multiply by 2 in order to prepare the next portion while the first set is on the table.

Let's consider how to choose a skewers for shish kebab, based on the properties of the materials and manufacturing features.

Tools

In this article we will talk about improving a regular barbecue. To do this yourself, you need the following tools:

electric motor;
electric drill;
Bulgarian;
drive pulley;
drive belt, you can use a bicycle chain, but in this case there will be sprockets instead of pulleys;
gears (their number is equal to the number of skewers).

For example, a motor from a windshield washer device in a car or a drive for rotating wipers is used as a motor. In principle, any similar 12 V motor will do, no matter left or right rotation.

If you use a 220 V motor, the electric grill will not be as mobile, and there will also be a risk of electric shock. The rotation speed will also be too high. The 12 V motor is powered even from a small motorcycle battery. Gears can be purchased at the store or cut out from stainless steel yourself.

Wire products

You can make skewers from wire even in the field and without electricity. For work, you can use the contents of a hiking backpack or a set of tools from your car.

roulette;
hammer;
chisel;
pliers;
file;
steel wire 6-8 mm;
anvil (iron block or granite cobblestone).

The work is carried out in the following sequence:

Using a hammer and chisel, wire blanks 70 cm long are cut. Cutting is carried out at an angle of 30-45º.
The wire is placed in the fire, you need to wait until it is red hot.
The pieces are taken out of the fire one by one and placed on the anvil. They are given a flat shape by strong blows of a hammer. The 10 cm long edges remain round.
The end of the wire is curled into a ring, this will be the handle. At a distance of 5 cm from it, a spiral is wound with pliers. The workpieces are processed with a file, all irregularities and sharp fragments are removed.
The wire is again heated red-hot and lowered into the water. This procedure is called hardening. The metal becomes strong, hard and elastic.

To prevent the formation of rust, the steel must be subjected to a hardening procedure. The product is soaked in sunflower oil and fired over a fire. When oil burns, an inorganic film is formed that prevents the oxidation of iron.

Let's make a drawing

The next step is to draw up a dimensional drawing. This can be a simple sketch - a hand sketch that simplifies the future product. The main dimensions are the length of the blade and handle. Their precise gluing is not required; tolerances can be 0.5 - 1 cm.

An example of a drawing is shown in the figure. You can specify the size of each part according to your needs. For example, do not create a twisted part or change the shape of the handle. The main thing is that the working area on which the products are strung corresponds to the width of the grill.

Making handles

Having a regular set of household tools, you can make a wide variety of handles for skewers with your own hands. They are made from plastic, metal and wood. However, the first two options are not the best solution. Plastic can melt from high temperatures. The steel plates, despite their presentable appearance, get very hot from the skewer.

It is best to opt for wood. But not all varieties are suitable for pens. It is necessary to use durable hardwood with a fine-grained structure. Larch, oak, beech and acacia are best suited. The overlays are made flat or semicircular. They are attached to the metal with bolts or rivets. Additional fixation is performed with rings made of non-ferrous metal strips.

By making skewers with your own hands, you can easily replenish your home arsenal of accessories for cooking over charcoal at minimal cost.

Advantages and disadvantages

Such automation devices for preparing barbecue have a number of undeniable advantages:

There is no need to perform monotonous routine work, that is, the methodical turning of skewers can be done automatically.
The design is very compact and versatile. It is easily disassembled and assembled into a small tube, which is extremely convenient for transportation. In addition, self-rolling skewers can be easily installed on any grill or barbecue device.
The high quality of the prepared dish is ensured, since continuous and uniform rotation prevents food from burning or one side of the kebabs not being cooked through.
The system is characterized by minimal power consumption. A specially designed low-voltage motor requires just one battery of one and a half volts to operate. A high-quality battery charge is enough for min = 5 hours of continuous operation of the device.
The design is clearly durable and reliable. All its elements are made of stainless steel, which is not afraid of acid marinades, high temperatures and other external influences. In addition, this metal is perfectly washable and perfectly cleansed from all kinds of contaminants.

Possible disadvantages and precautions:

You should not purchase similar products with a gear mechanism made of plastic, since such gears will not withstand even ten cycles of cooking kebabs.
It should be remembered that it is strictly not recommended to use the motor body as a handle, otherwise its breakdown cannot be avoided.
The motor itself should always be kept away from hot coals.

Features of the product device

Essentially, a skewer is a bar made of heat-resistant material of a certain configuration.

a strip whose cross-section can be rectangular, semicircular, or oval. There are spiral and angular options;
the tip of the product is pointed, it allows you to easily pierce a piece of raw meat for stringing;
the handle provides comfort of use, is a loop or is made of wooden pads;
Between the base and the handle there is a spiral section as a limiter-barrier to prevent meat pieces from sliding towards the end of the bar.

There are several types of the barbecue accessory in question, depending on the cross-section:

models with a rectangular cross-section are distinguished by their ease of use: they are easy to place workpieces on; due to their design, such a skewer is stable on the grill and does not turn over spontaneously;
variants of a semicircular section are difficult to fix in the desired position; they turn over depending on the severity of the strung blanks;
corner swords for barbecue provide convenient fixation of semi-finished products and have great operational potential. The disadvantage of the product is the difficulty of care and cleaning;
Spiral models are designed for use in a vertical kebab grill. The shape of the product makes it possible to prevent the pieces from slipping during the barbecue preparation process, but it is not easy to place the meat on the spiral bar.

What do skewers look like?

As an attribute of a barbecue maker, the skewers have a length in accordance with the dimensions of the barbecue. The standard width of the roasting pan varies between 30-40 cm. The parameters of the bar for stringing semi-finished products, including the handle, are 60-70 cm.

When planning to make skewers for the barbecue with your own hands, you should decide on the number of copies. To prepare a tasty, well-fried and smoky kebab, it is important to ensure a distance of 8-10 cm between the slats strung with the preparations. For a standard barbecue 60-80 cm long, you should use a set of swords of 6-8 pieces. If desired, you can make a double set of planks.

Tips and tricks

When the grill is ready, you can start preparing the shish kebab.

In order for the device to serve for a long time and the cooked meat to be tasty, you should take into account safety rules, as well as some rules

The device must be installed on a level place.
Do not install the device too close to trees, bushes or buildings. Do not place flammable objects nearby.
It is worth thoroughly cleaning the skewers and the grill itself after use, and promptly removing accumulated ash.
It is necessary to lubricate metal structures with oil to avoid rust.
Do not leave the operating device unattended.
To avoid burns during cooking, it is correct to use oven mitts or special devices.
To prepare high-quality barbecue, the coals must be properly prepared - they should be red and have a slight ash coating on them.
The shish kebab will turn out more delicious if you use the coals of fruit trees. You can also use birch or oak options, but the coals of coniferous trees will be absolutely unsuitable - the aroma of the meat will be lost.
If you have no experience in preparing coals, then you can simply buy them at the store.
You need to prepare the “right” side dishes and drinks: vegetables, herbs, fresh bread, dry wine (beer and barbecue do not harmonize).

Requirements for manufacturing materials

To properly make skewers with your own hands, it is important to choose the right materials. Homemade versions of the planks are made of metal or wood. Moreover, wood products are used one-time. For the manufacture of metal swords, only food grade stainless steel is used.

Features of stainless steel products:

the material is able to withstand high temperature loads;
the composition is not exposed to moisture and aggressive environments;
The surface is easily cleaned of carbon deposits and food residues.

Also important are material properties such as strength, resistance to deformation under mechanical loads, and elasticity.

Housing protection

A do-it-yourself tandoor cover is needed so that the jug is minimally exposed to natural precipitation. At the same time it covers from dust and debris. I chose thick polyester. It is rough and the color is not attractive, but it is reliable and washes well. I made templates out of paper so that the cape would not dangle. I sewed the blanks with synthetic threads. To make it more convenient to put the pear-shaped bag on the tandoor, I attached a wide zipper with plastic teeth. The bottom was extended by 20 cm to cover the lower part. It turned out well.

Source meatcook.ru

How to make skewers with your own hands?

Homemade swords for barbecue are relevant both in camping conditions and in the country. To make a set for disposable use, branches and twigs from bushes of fruit and berry crops are most often used. In other cases, improvised resources are used in the form of sheet steel or thick wire.

Necessary tools for work

To make a shish kebab skewers from stainless steel sheets, you need the following tools and accessories:

grinder with discs for cutting and grinding;
vice;
file;
pliers;
core;
roulette;
marker.

To make skewers with your own hands you will need a grinder

If you plan to make swords from steel wire, you will need some simple tools:

A device in the form of an iron bar or a strong cobblestone is suitable as an anvil.

Stainless steel skewer

At the initial stage, the dimensions of the workpieces are determined. The standard width of a rectangular bar is 1 cm. At the same time, for kebabs made from large pieces of meat on bones, it is important to make a set of flat skewers 1.5-2 cm wide. The length of the product depends on the planned version of the handle. If a ring/loop is supposed to be at the end of a metal sword, the optimal size is 70-75 cm, taking into account a small spiral between the base and the handle. If the handle is made of wooden plates, the length of the metal blank is about 60 cm.

Marking is carried out: lines with the required parameters for the length and width of the workpieces are drawn on a 3 mm thick stainless steel sheet with a marker.
Cut out the strips along the drawing lines.
The edges are shaped at an angle of 30°.
Next, a sander is used to level the edges and grind down.
The tip is shaped at an acute angle.
Steel strips are heated to high heat in an oven or using a blowtorch, fixed in a vice and wound in a spiral so that the meat does not slide towards the handle.
The handle is made in the form of a loop or decorated with wooden overlays.

Stainless steel skewer

At the final stage, homemade stainless steel kebab swords are polished and washed in a soapy solution. After this, the products are ready for intended use.

Wire skewer

To make a set of swords, you will need steel wire Ø6-8 mm, taking into account the length of the swords of 70 cm.

using a chisel and a hammer, prepare the required number of pieces/rods of wire, cut at an angle of 30-45°;
the workpieces are heated red-hot using a fire, gas burner or blowtorch;
Use pliers to take out a hot piece of wire and place it on an anvil for processing;
With strong blows of a hammer on a hot workpiece, a flat-shaped product is formed. The optimal thickness of a skewer made by hand from steel wire is 2-2.5 mm. One end 10 cm long remains round;
the round end is folded into a ring, then, stepping back 5 cm from it, the strip is wound into a spiral by 1-3 turns;
use a file to process the surfaces of the product, removing irregularities and defects;
Next, a hardening process is performed to ensure the strength and elasticity of the metal base. To do this, the workpieces are again heated red-hot and then immersed in water.

The nuances of making handles

For skewers handles, it is appropriate to use hardwood with a fine-fiber structure. The priority is for solutions made of larch, oak, and acacia. Overlays of a semicircular or flat configuration are attached to a metal base using bolts or fixed with rivets. For strength, the structure is sealed with rings made of non-ferrous metal.

If you plan to make a handle from acacia root, the material must be turned on a lathe, as well as the rings for fixation. Holes are made in the handles for a strip of metal blank and their installation is carried out. Next, the linings on the skewers are tightly fixed with a crimp ring.

Author: Maria Sukhorukikh
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Homemade designs

To make your own roller for skewers, you need to purchase some materials and parts for the future device.

Electric motor. So how to find a suitable 1.5 v engine. - quite problematic, you will have to be content with 12 volts. Electric motors from: wipers or power windows of any vehicle, devices with a grill function, cordless drills or screwdrivers, and so on are quite suitable. It would be ideal if the engine is equipped with a gearbox.
Gearbox. You can choose a suitable device of this kind or even make it yourself, but as mentioned above, it is highly advisable to buy an engine with its own gearbox.
Battery. Batteries from motorcycles, children's moving vehicles, or backup power systems for computer devices are quite suitable. They are not only miniature, but also have significant energy intensity.
Stainless steel. Parts of the future design are made from this metal.
Gears and pulleys. These parts are needed to transmit rotation from the engine or a separate gearbox to the skewers.
Chain or pulleys. It is thanks to them that the rotation of the skewers is ensured.
Required tools and fasteners.

The transmission of rotation from the engine to the skewers can be carried out in two ways - gears or pulleys. There is not much difference in these options, and it all depends on your capabilities or desires

A pair of longitudinal plates are cut out of stainless steel, which will serve as the housing of the future drive.
Oval cuts are made in the upper part of the cut plates to accommodate skewers. The cutting distance should not be less than the diameter of the gears or pulleys that ensure the rotation of the skewers.
If you were unable to purchase a ready-made gearbox, you will have to make it yourself. To do this, a small-diameter drive gear is mounted or welded onto the electric motor shaft. The first driven gear should be of the smallest diameter and its tooth ratio to subsequent gears should ensure that the skewers rotate once or twice a minute. This rotation period will ensure maximum quality of fried kebabs.
Next, on the skewers themselves it is necessary to fix the remaining gears, which must have exactly the same diameters and number of teeth.
Then all that remains is to connect all the gears with a chain or, in the case of direct contact of their teeth, simply secure the rotation mechanism inside the housing of the drive that you create yourself.
At the final stage, all the details of the created device are connected together and the system of self-rotating skewers, which were created with your own hands, can be safely used in practice.

These are the nuances that modern self-rolling skewers have and they should certainly become the most favorite way to prepare high-quality kebabs.

Sharpening

For safety reasons, it is best to sharpen the end at the final stage of production.

Cut the blade with a grinder at an angle or on both sides.
We sharpen the cut corners with a grinder and sandpaper;
We remove burrs, chamfers, and grind.

Handmade gift shashlik, handles with animal heads