Craigslist Find

I got this on craigslist - red Weber kettle, old style wood handle, three vents on the bottom instead of the modern "one touch" system with a big handle. As far as I can tell it was made from 1976-1978. That's when I was 6-8 years old, so I like to think of it as the charcoal grill we would have had if my family had some common sense. (I have happy memories of outdoor cooking but also of lots of problems with the cheap cooker and almost non-functional electric charcoal starter. With one of these and a chimney starter there would have been a lot less cursing.)

Cost? $15. I had to do a little sanding and put some tung oil on the handle to make it look nice and protect it, and I removed a little light surface rust here and there, and I went ahead and replaced a couple of key parts like the grills. Luckily Weber hasn't changed their grill dimensions since then so you can just pick that sort of thing up at the local hardware store... that's a sign of a great product, by the way - 35 years later and you can still get parts for it.