Lets talk firepits

Almost everything so far has pertained to wood pits. Any thoughts specifically IRT natural gas?

Lots of talk online about repurposing the inner stainless steel drum from a washing machine as a fire pit. 

In reply to lotusseven7 (Forum Supporter) :

That works as long as you put it on something, they're not very well balanced. My neighbor uses a steel rim to sit the drum on. 

I usually just make a circle and build a fire. Doesn't cost anything does a great job. 

lotusseven7 (Forum Supporter) said:

If I saw this before buying a breeo, I would have saved a good chunk of money. That's a great one. 

lotusseven7 (Forum Supporter) said:

Huh, I like that! How do you think someone could mix it with say, a little pergola or outdoor seating area?

How hot does galvanized metal need to get before it gives off cancerous gasses?  Or is some additional chemical reaction when welding that makes it really dangerous?

I have done it.  In my youth.   Everyone in the sensible world says not to.    Now, I tend to grind the top layer off first.   But, don't listen to me.  It's not healthy.

ProDarwin said:

How hot does galvanized metal need to get before it gives off cancerous gasses?  Or is some additional chemical reaction when welding that makes it really dangerous?

At 1742 degrees zinc burns. I'm guessing around there. 

ProDarwin said:

How hot does galvanized metal need to get before it gives off cancerous gasses?  Or is some additional chemical reaction when welding that makes it really dangerous?

Big difference between outside with wind and an enclosed space, but my galvanized fire ring stayed galvanized exactly one fire, and is now a rust colored ring. 

I'm beginning to think I may have a different definition of bonfire than the people in this thread and the people buying those fancy rings. We've crumbled block, regularly melt glass bottles and beer cans, and have melted through the cheaper "cast iron" pits like they were made from plastic. 

Well, I've been doing chiminea's, campfires, and fire pits in our backyard for over twenty years. I do it for ambience, not heat. If it gets too cold and the fire isn't keeping me warm, I either put on a heavier garment or go inside and light the wood burning fireplace in our living room. Here's a pic from last summer on a nice balmy evening in our back yard. I can say that there was a hullava lot of heat coming off this fire. But the ambient temp was probably in the sixties. The pit was made from simple concrete pink wall stones purchased at HD. They've all cracked because of extreme heat. It's been in place for about ten years and it works for me:

And here's what we do when it's too cold outside for the fire pit. It's the wood burning fireplace in our living room. (Charlie the beagle courtesy of our son):

Are you sure you're not Joe Pera? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trfHP5LHVNY

We have dinner in my yard every Sunday with about 10 to 15 people, and admittedly our whole setup is about as hodgepodge as you can get. It's been working, but now there's a rust hole in the bottom of the fire pit (a cheap Amazon/Home Depot one). Lotusseven7's solution looks pretty renter-friendly...

I have 3. 

A little 24" smokeless deal that's going on the new porch. 

A 40" ring that came from TSC that has gotten a lot of use. 

The third is a giant area in the back acre that will get 500-600lbs of wood twice a year and light up the sky for miles. 

I am that neighbor. 

Here's a picture that I found of a very interesting  piece. My first thought was fire pit and the interesting marks I'd eventually have on the outside of both legs! 
 

In reply to lotusseven7 (Forum Supporter) :

Is that AI or did someone get a bunch of reject bolts from the factory, most of them have no threads or mangled threads. The heads have no marking on them and a bunch of the heads are misshaped. Also I bet that is heavy AF.

Likely AI, but if I had access to the hardware, I'd give it a shot. 

Let's clarify something:

Bonfires are quite big.






We seem to be talking about smaller fires in this thread. I've been using a single ring of landscape stones to keep the fire from spreading, and I burn hardwoods. It's generally hot enough to melt aluminum and get glass soft, but the efficiency of the burn isn't great, especially if you point the leaf blower at it. Then it gets *really* hot and goes through wood like crazy. More things will melt in that situation, and a large brake rotor will glow quite nicely. I'm debating building a bit of a higher fire area using a more insulated type of brick, fashioning a top for it and turning it into a furnace to melt down some of the aluminum and other metals sitting in the scrap bin.

In reply to Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) :

A friend of mine has a large fire ring and he buried a 4" duct under it from about ten feet outside the ring. Get a good fire going and then add the leaf blower to the duct. It gets real hot, real quick.