A real man’s rotisserie

This summer, Adam helped me roast a whole pig on a home-made rotisserie.  Being an engineer, and having virtually infinite construction resources (his dad’s house), he talked to me about how a “real” rotisserie might be built.  I secured a budget to do a lamb roast for my birthday and before I knew it we’re at his dad’s house building a metal frame rotisserie. 

In the process, I learned how to weld (by which I mean I tried it a few times and whined about how difficult it was.)  Honestly, welding was a little more difficult than I thought.  I was figuring it was like the big boy version of soldering.  Not really.  Metals are melting and sparks are flying. 

The first time, I wore polyester running pants.  BIG MISTAKE.  Polyester does very little in protecting you against molten metal.  The second time, I wised up and wore jeans.  However, one time I felt a warmness crawl up my leg.  I lifted up my mask to find that my pants was on fire.  Apparently, molten metal must have jumped onto the frayed cuffs… and there were flaming licking up the inside of my leg.   It was awkward a bit awkward stamping it out with my other foot, but between Adam and I, we were able to put me out without any injury.  Perhaps due to that incident (or my pure incompetence in welding), I didn’t really volunteer too much to be the welder.

Adam’s dad’s garage had just about every tool imaginable and an endless pile of metal.  The motors and gears used are likely overkill, but this rotisserie can probably roast some big animals.  Excited to try it out with the lamb (which should be like nothing for this machine…)