The old cinder block fire pit did not work. Whoops! (That’s why I never posted a true DIY). Good thing it was dirt cheap to build.
When we visited T.K. and Jill’s house in Joshua Tree, T.K. gave us a little introduction tutorial class in welding. Now we are putting that new skill to use to rebuild our crappy fire pit. We will build it better, stronger, more metal-y than before.
We bought four 40″ x 20″ sheets of 12 gauge hot rolled steel from Riverside Industrial Metal Supply.
Our new fancy magnets were very useful for holding together the two pieces of steel in order to get them tack welded at a 90 degree angle. Best tool ever.
The first half got spotted in place and it started to look like something…
The metal fire pit will be sunk into the ground with eight cold rolled steel rod supports to hold it square and add strength.
It’s a big metal square!
We added foot long cold rolled steel rods to the corners and in the middle of each panel. They aren’t pretty but they are getting installed underground – so they don’t really need to be.
Installing the larger metal pit where the old cinder block fire pit died it’s horrible death was kind of a pain. Everything got ripped out and a larger, deeper hole had to be dug out. A sledge hammer and plank of wood helped sink it level into the soft soil. In the end we left about 14″ of steel above ground.
BAM! DONE. Indestructible fire pit. I want it to rust up a bit to match the sketch up version:
I think for our first welding project that it turned out really great! It was about $100 for all the material and took us three or so days to put it together with a bit of a learning curve. The Boy ended up doing most of it after falling deeply in love with welding and telling me my welds suck. Good thing, because we have a lot more metal to slap on this house and I’m going to put him to work.
Ready to go for fire! Much, much better.
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56 Comments
This is deeply impressive. So great, looks amazing. Don’t put your feet up on that while it’s hot! You’ll sear your feet off.
Fantastic! It looks like it will hold a much more significant and fun fire than the small cinderblock one.
omg, that black steel is soooooo sexxxxxy. the rusted look is not a personal fave, but I get it. still, I am so loving the sleek black-ness. yum.
Oh, that magnetic thingy is the BomB! Its on my Santa Claus list…..
Yard is looking good.
Yeah, now I’m really impressed. Way to get what you want!
awesomeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hooorraaay, more shots of the boy bending over ! No wait, that wasn’t the topic of this post, was it ?
wow – you take DIY to a whole new level. it looks amazing.
it’s perfect!
Love the anonymity of the Boy.
HELL YES! Did you buy a mig welder? I assume the $100 materials only and not tools? We must discuss more. LOVE it and I know how exciting this milestone is….the edging..planter beds…ooooooh….
It looks great!! Nice work!
RIP cinder block fire pit … you had a good run.
Time to break out the smores!
I am SO peanut butter and jealous.
wow – you guys are unstoppable.
NOW THAT is serious crafting. Not a diy for pussies. That’s why i love you. It looks awesome!
That is impressive! Looks fab!
Love it! So where does one procure a welder?
Holy shit, that looks dynamite!
Beauty, what an upgrade!
Great job on the straight angles. All my welded boxes turned out unfortunately trapezoidal. That boy of yours is a keeper!
how do you clean it out once it is full of ashes?
yard vac? big scooper?
As always you are my hero!
We borrowed the welder and equipment. So thats been great, but we saw the same one at the hardware store for like $100. It’s a little cheap-o unit.
For ashes we just use a shovel and a wheelbarrow, but we never really did that with the last one. We just left them.
Ditto to what everyone else has commented, but in bold!
Congrats! The new pit kicks ass!
That’s really awesome. You did such a nice job. Gotta love sitting around a nice fire.
Love it!!! I have a fire pit, too but it is pretty hideous! You gave me some great ideas. My handy man will be welding soon!
Question. Doesn’t the metal conduct a boatload of heat? As craptacular as the cinder block one was, I would guess that the concrete would absorb more heat than this bad boy — and by bad boy, I mean super sleek and sexy and all around awesome!! I err on the side of being nervous around fire in general, but I’d be a little scared that I’d burn myself on it.
The cement got hella hot. Just like any firepit, you probably don’t want to get real close or touch the pit.
This is so insanely awesome. We want to craft a firepit in our backyard, and I found an awesome DIY one in the new issue of ReadyMade, but it’s nowhere near as good as this. And it’s more of a “barbeque” pit. And it involves a lot of rocks. This one is just perfect.
You guys!!! Gawd. I am such a slacker. I know I say that in, like, every post, but damn…
that is a fantastic fire pit. I took a welding course a few years back- it’s addicting!
hahahahaa…. butt shot.
thanks for the laugh.
super amazing fire pit. jeals.
i love that you are using steel – looks great! just curious, why did the cinder block model fail anyway?
so so cool. i think i need to learn how to weld now! i wanted raised beds made with steel just like this! so cool.
the cinder block didn’t work because the mortar cracked and broke with the heat. It just fell apart.
We asked a couple guys about the high heat and mortar and they all said it was fine. It was not fine.
wow. you should make and sell these. i’m going to nag my father until he shows me how to weld.
so, have you thought of creating your own pool with this newfound skill?
I love it! My husband recently got a welder now he’s a welding fool. One of his first projects was our very contemporary chicken coop. And yes, those fire pits get hot. We’ve got an old washing machine tub fire pit and it got so hot we set the grass on fire in our yard.
fuck me running. that is awesome, you are awesome.
looks great. one suggestion would be to make sure you scrub off all the hand and fingerprints before you let it start rusting. otherwise you’ll have permanent rusted fingerprints that are a bitch to sand off.
Way to class up the fire pit!
Where did you purchase black chairs next to fire pit?
morgan does this shit get hot as fuck? like do small children need (theoretically) to be highly guarded around it?
Amazing! This fire pit would work well in almost any environment. Love your blog.
New to your blog, but love it all. Especially love this! Amazing.
Um, you’re my hero. No really, you’re totally my hero.
Morga, I was just wondering what voltage welder did you use for this project?
Sorry Morgan, I misspelled your name and I meant amp not voltage. Too much cough med will do that.
This is a great design!! Nice job! Live the sketch up drawing too! Glad I’m not the only one who draws my own house using CAD or sketch up!!!!
you know, your fence could do with a paint job to bring this whole yard together. A strong dark or olive….although i like the weathering fence + i like the symmetry thing with the stones, chairs + pit, somehow they’re not being popped enough by each other. what do i know. i’m the one reading YOUR blog for cryin out loud.
Having done both, I can testify that falling on hot metal leaves much more permanent markings than falling on hot stone.
Mortar that will stand up to fire is special stuff, you can’t use the same mortar between the firebricks of a fireplace that you use on the outside common bricks.
Children do better around fire pits that do not have any sharply angled corners. My sisters both have scars on their heads from falling against my parent’s brick hearth as toddlers.
As long as there are no kids, sloppy drunks, or extreme klutzes around, the metal pit will transfer more heat to people around it so it’s better. It will rust away faster than you might think, though; fire always speeds up oxidation of steel. It will look pretty cool in the last stages of rusting away.
That’s the raddest thing I’ve seen in a while, lady. And? I’m completely jealous. Good work – enjoy it!!
Great common sense here. Wish I’d thhogut of that.
@VICTORIA- Those are black IKEA PS VÅGÖ Easy chairs. They also come in pink, white, and yellow.
At $29.99, they’re a steal. They also USED to make a matching footstool, but I think they were discontinued.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00211644/
Love the new fire pit… I’m planning to built a stone fire pit next summer… Can you tell me what went wrong with tour cinder block fire pit ?? Was it a heat problem ? Or a structural problem ??
Thanks !!
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