Hi everyone, I am brand new to this site and this is my first post. The site looks very informative and I am looking forward to taking full advantage of your cooking knowledge. For now I am a member without an Egg. I am waiting until spring (early May) to make the purchase because I am also trying to afford some RV remodeling in the next few months too. As a motivator to commit to an egg purchase, I decided to build my table first and started on that in December. I am almost done with it, except for the tabletop. I need to do a lot of sanding on it, cut a hole and assemble it to my rolling base. Since I don't yet have an egg, that is where I am turning to all of you for some advice. I don't want to cut the hole too big, but since the top is going to be wood I don't want to be someone posting months down the road showing pictures of my burned table. So I do want a little clearance. Maybe between 1/4 and 3/8 all around? What gap do you recommend? Please soak in my info below and let me know if you have some advice to share.
Table is a rolling table. I have mounted a paver stone to set the egg on. The measured distance from the paver stone top surface to the underside of the table top is 15.5". The table top is 5/8" thick. I am going to be purchasing a Large Egg, and am planning to also buy the table nest to allow more airflow.
I assume I probably could have mounted the stone lower but it cuts into the size of a shelf I have build under the egg. Much lower and the shelf would have only been good for thin items like pizza stone, grills etc. I wanted it tall enough for a box to store coal in as well as the flat items.
Would I be better off to leave my table top unattached, finish it all except the hole and wait for the egg? How have you guys done it? Cut the hole to a recommended size, or put the egg in the table without the top and take real measurements?
Also, how have you cut your holes? Router? Jigsaw? Free hand or some kind of hole guide? I want it to look nice, but am by no means a master woodworker.
Thanks early, Jeff
Oh, one more thing about posting on here. I am sure I will find out soon enough, but do you get email notifications when someone replies to a post?