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Im on fire!!! 
yet another project off the backburner and finished at last.
This is my fire pit and is a proven design, having given the prototype to my mate last year.
Fire pits address many issues and requirements especially in todays outdoor climate where the more traditional camp fire is frowned upon by various groups.
With the fire pit you instantly have a very much contained fire source for cooking, warmth and sinking a few coldies by with your mates. These pits allow you to enjoy your camp fire with minimal impact on the camp surroundings and enviroment (aka keep the greenies happy
) whislt also helping to conserve dwindling firewood supplies as they use very little fuel. It also is great in that it recycles old out of date gas cylinders, which god knows, would probally cover Bondi Beach many times over if delegated to landfill.
They also work extremely well with other types of fuel sources such as heat beads. Quite simply, you will need one or two old 9 kg gas cylinders and I stress, its very important that they NO LONGER contain LPG.
This DIY project is presented for your undertaking and at your own risk and I take no responsibilty should anything go wrong (ie explosions of the magnitude in China lol)
Seriously, it is very safe providing you use some common sense and degas the cylinder properly. Firstly make 100% sure cylinder is empty by opening the valve in a safe area free of any ignition source. If you can leave it open for few days, all the better. Next step is to backfill the cylinder with water and this is time consuming as you need to let the air escape as the water goes in thru the valve. If you can, remove the valve body completely but they can sometimes be tight. Again, leave the cylinder FULL of water for a week then drain it and you should be fine to cut it open.
Before cutting it, work out how high you need it, in my case, I built two, a high unit (excellent for camp ovens) plus a standard low unit. Sit the tank on flat surface and simply mark your height with a ruller at numerous spots around the circumfrence and apply a strip of tape along your marks to help cut straight. Then mark out a ring of air holes in the bottom (inside of the base stand) and drill them, I drilled 8mm and 5mm alterntively around the bottom. Then keeping in mind the level of your fire pit mesh inside, markout two rows of air holes about 40mm above the mesh level (first row 40mm above, second row 65mm) Drill these out also. I done the bottom row 8mm, upper row 5mm. As these cylinders tend to have a higher carbon content than mild steel, you will find drilling easier if you do small pilot holes first. The mesh floor/grate inside the pit sits about 35mm from the bottom dome and is about 250mm in diameter. I find it best to weld a small bit of pipe dead centre under the mesh to help support it as it does get pretty damn hot. Weld your mesh in place. I used perforated mesh but use what ever takes your fancy.
Then comes the holes for your removable support pins. With the high unit, I made it dual purpose, ie lower pin support holes that ideally hold a 4.5 quart camp oven plus the upper row of pin support holes for generally cooking purposes. With the standard hieght unit, you only need a row of pin support holes at the top. Drill these holes to 10mm. I did 10mm as the support pins I used are 3/8 stainless pipe which incidently are perfect as they never seem to bend which can happen with pins made of solid rod. Anyway, the hole size in your unit will be determined by what ever you choose to use for your pins, just make the holes that little bit bigger to allow easy insertion of your pins.
You will find, if your lucky as I was, that the two fire pits will nestle inside each other providing you can find two different brands, this makes it great for storage in the vehicle when not in use, otherwise if they are identical, they still sit atop of each other pretty well, ideally a milk crate is perfect for moving them around. Finish them off with either a pair of lugs, eyelets or simply a pair holes near the top on the centre line. These are handy in moving the firepit with hooks/camp oven hook (even when lit) around the camp or for tieing them down on the roof rack etc.
Once all your holes are done, clean all welds, deburr the holes and If you wish to paint it with heat proof paint, you will need to strip or burn off the old paint first. Apply the heat proof paint and cure it as per instructions. No doubt someone,s gunna look at the pictures and say why is'nt the fire in the pits ....but thats only the fire pits sitting above our much larger fire pit in the backyard so the paint can be cured properly.
So there you have it, a great little project that costs very little and will give you years of use. These pits are honestly quite light, they offer built in wind breaks, no matter what direction the wind comes from. They are sturdy and will last a long time and as you can imagine, reasonablly safe with young kids around. You will find they produce excellent heat when cooking with the camp oven, you only need the layer of coals in the pit and before you know it, that leg of lamb will be eaten with relish. The concept of these pits is fantastic for camp oven cooking as not only have you got a well contained heat source at the base, but also a constant stream of heat up the sides.
Trust you enjoyed this DIY, dont be afraid to give it a go. It will prove to be one of your best bits of camp gear in your kit.
Cheers Alan
yet another project off the backburner and finished at last.This is my fire pit and is a proven design, having given the prototype to my mate last year.
Fire pits address many issues and requirements especially in todays outdoor climate where the more traditional camp fire is frowned upon by various groups.
With the fire pit you instantly have a very much contained fire source for cooking, warmth and sinking a few coldies by with your mates. These pits allow you to enjoy your camp fire with minimal impact on the camp surroundings and enviroment (aka keep the greenies happy) whislt also helping to conserve dwindling firewood supplies as they use very little fuel. It also is great in that it recycles old out of date gas cylinders, which god knows, would probally cover Bondi Beach many times over if delegated to landfill. They also work extremely well with other types of fuel sources such as heat beads. Quite simply, you will need one or two old 9 kg gas cylinders and I stress, its very important that they NO LONGER contain LPG.
This DIY project is presented for your undertaking and at your own risk and I take no responsibilty should anything go wrong (ie explosions of the magnitude in China lol)
Seriously, it is very safe providing you use some common sense and degas the cylinder properly. Firstly make 100% sure cylinder is empty by opening the valve in a safe area free of any ignition source. If you can leave it open for few days, all the better. Next step is to backfill the cylinder with water and this is time consuming as you need to let the air escape as the water goes in thru the valve. If you can, remove the valve body completely but they can sometimes be tight. Again, leave the cylinder FULL of water for a week then drain it and you should be fine to cut it open.
Before cutting it, work out how high you need it, in my case, I built two, a high unit (excellent for camp ovens) plus a standard low unit. Sit the tank on flat surface and simply mark your height with a ruller at numerous spots around the circumfrence and apply a strip of tape along your marks to help cut straight. Then mark out a ring of air holes in the bottom (inside of the base stand) and drill them, I drilled 8mm and 5mm alterntively around the bottom. Then keeping in mind the level of your fire pit mesh inside, markout two rows of air holes about 40mm above the mesh level (first row 40mm above, second row 65mm) Drill these out also. I done the bottom row 8mm, upper row 5mm. As these cylinders tend to have a higher carbon content than mild steel, you will find drilling easier if you do small pilot holes first. The mesh floor/grate inside the pit sits about 35mm from the bottom dome and is about 250mm in diameter. I find it best to weld a small bit of pipe dead centre under the mesh to help support it as it does get pretty damn hot. Weld your mesh in place. I used perforated mesh but use what ever takes your fancy.
Then comes the holes for your removable support pins. With the high unit, I made it dual purpose, ie lower pin support holes that ideally hold a 4.5 quart camp oven plus the upper row of pin support holes for generally cooking purposes. With the standard hieght unit, you only need a row of pin support holes at the top. Drill these holes to 10mm. I did 10mm as the support pins I used are 3/8 stainless pipe which incidently are perfect as they never seem to bend which can happen with pins made of solid rod. Anyway, the hole size in your unit will be determined by what ever you choose to use for your pins, just make the holes that little bit bigger to allow easy insertion of your pins.
You will find, if your lucky as I was, that the two fire pits will nestle inside each other providing you can find two different brands, this makes it great for storage in the vehicle when not in use, otherwise if they are identical, they still sit atop of each other pretty well, ideally a milk crate is perfect for moving them around. Finish them off with either a pair of lugs, eyelets or simply a pair holes near the top on the centre line. These are handy in moving the firepit with hooks/camp oven hook (even when lit) around the camp or for tieing them down on the roof rack etc.
Once all your holes are done, clean all welds, deburr the holes and If you wish to paint it with heat proof paint, you will need to strip or burn off the old paint first. Apply the heat proof paint and cure it as per instructions. No doubt someone,s gunna look at the pictures and say why is'nt the fire in the pits ....but thats only the fire pits sitting above our much larger fire pit in the backyard so the paint can be cured properly.
So there you have it, a great little project that costs very little and will give you years of use. These pits are honestly quite light, they offer built in wind breaks, no matter what direction the wind comes from. They are sturdy and will last a long time and as you can imagine, reasonablly safe with young kids around. You will find they produce excellent heat when cooking with the camp oven, you only need the layer of coals in the pit and before you know it, that leg of lamb will be eaten with relish. The concept of these pits is fantastic for camp oven cooking as not only have you got a well contained heat source at the base, but also a constant stream of heat up the sides.
Trust you enjoyed this DIY, dont be afraid to give it a go. It will prove to be one of your best bits of camp gear in your kit.
Cheers Alan
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