Fire bowl from a propane tank

RacerX

RacerX

Professional Knucklehead; aka Jeffncs / RacerX
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I've been looking for a fire bowl for a while and finally settled on building what I wanted. My goal was to have something durable, large, and simple. I found a retired propane cylinder at a local fuel oil place. The base was rusted. Otherwise, it was in great shape. This was a vertical tank with the round stand/base and ring to protect the valves. The tank was (forgot to get pre cut pics!) 30" in diameter and ~60" tall.

I didn't want to mess with cutting it myself, so I took out to a local metal fab place to be cut. They received it around noon on Friday, Mar 24. I picked up a nicely sectioned tank around noon on Saturday, Mar 25. The shop cut the tank into four sections: top, bottom and 2 rings. The top and bottom sections have a bowl depth of around 11" each. The rings are 12" tall each.

This afternoon I used soap and water to clean out the oil/gas residue from the tank. I then took them to the car wash to blast them with high pressure, soapy water. These things still smell horribly!!!

The rings are posted in BST to get rid of them. I'm going to make 2 fire pits. One for me. One to sell.

This will be an ongoing thread as I have time to work on it.
 
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Safety moment... wear your PPE. I was wearing eye pro when this cutting disc let loose...granted, it was getting low... the point still stands. Wear your gloves, eyes and ears when working.

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Tanks from the metal shop after cleaning but still stinking!

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This is the top of the tank and destined to be a fire bowl one day.

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fieldgrade said:
I would think one good hot fire would remedy your stinking residue. I've got a firebowl from a propane tank.
Click to expand...

Good suggestion... I'll try to get one going tomorrow... I'll burn in one and stack the others on top of the fire host.
 
Yup, a good, hot fire will get rid of the odor. I built one from a 500 gallon tank a few years back.
 
I'm debating the base right now. I have the option of welding on 2" diameter legs at whatever length I choose or using one of the rings as the base. I'd have to open some vents if I use the ring to release the heat.

The legs will look better in my opinion. The circular base will be easier as it's already made.

Thoughts?
 
Jeffncs said:
I'm debating the base right now. I have the option of welding on 2" diameter legs at whatever length I choose or using one of the rings as the base. I'd have to open some vents if I use the ring to release the heat.

The legs will look better in my opinion. The circular base will be easier as it's already made.

Thoughts?
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Legs. Look better, less airflow issues, and maybe easier to move as legs will be lots lighter
 
Burt Gummer said:
Legs. Look better, less airflow issues, and maybe easier to move as legs will be lots lighter
Click to expand...


Good point as this thing is already 3/16" thick and heavy as it sits. I'm thinking of adding wheels to 2 legs for ease of movement.

I'll have to find something temperature tolerant of course... Maybe I can design a simple cart to fully it out of the way...
 
Jeffncs said:
Good point as this thing is already 3/16" thick and heavy as it sits. I'm thinking of adding wheels to 2 legs for ease of movement.

I'll have to find something temperature tolerant of course... Maybe I can design a simple cart to fully it out of the way...
Click to expand...
I keep an old hand truck in the home shop I salvaged years ago. I use it to move mine when I need to get it out of the way occasionally. Works great. I just park the trucks right next to the bowl, and then stand the bowl on it's side, with the trucks under it and it lies back against the hand truck sort of upside down and I move it to whereever I need to put it.
 
When I need to move mine I just pick it up and move it
 
gunbelt said:
I don't think I believe that.
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Hahaha I have picked it up and moved it. I guess I left out the part above when I was bragging that it sucked
 
Don't get me wrong...I can pick up and carry this beast... However, I'm getting to the age that I don't want to do that anymore!
 
Burt Gummer said:
Hahaha I have picked it up and moved it. I guess I left out the part above when I was bragging that it sucked
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Which is why I get my SIL and his friends to move it for me...lol

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-J120AZ using Tapatalk
 
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Well... I'll apologize in advance... My photographer bailed on me so pics are limited.

I started with the bowl at a total depth of 10". It appeared to be too deep so I trimmed it at the weld line to become a depth of 8 1/2". Perfect... Although I could have had the metal fab place cut it there to start... Lesson learned.
 
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Once the depth was right, I started cleaning off the paint using my angle grinder with a wire wheel. Dirty, dirty job. That paint was really tough to get off. I think there were at least 3 paint layers and primer. Each layer was some sort of thick, heavy duty paint. I could have used a chemical stripper, but didn't want that mess. I could have also had it sand blasted at an additional cost, but I'm cheap.

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Once I was happy with the paint being cleaned off, I mocked up legs using 12" long, 1 1/4" diameter black pipe. I trimmed them down to 10" which seems to be about right.

I found the center of the bowl using some old drafting/engineering tricks I learned from my dad which were improved upon at State.

Once I found center, I calculated equidistant locations for the 4 legs. I measured, remeasured and triple checked before tacking them into place. They were almost perfect when I checked level, so I welded them solid.
 
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The tank walls were about 3/16" thick and wanted a cleaner finish. Using 1/4" bar stock, I worked the bar around the top a little at a time welding as I bent it into position. I then finish welded the round bar stock to the rim. It turned pretty well actually.

I then fabbed two handles using 3/4" square tube for the spacers and 1" square tube for the actual handles.

Here's a pic before finishing the welding and cleaning up the weeks using a flapper wheel.

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Other than paint, I'm going to fab some removable wheels for 2 of the legs to ease moving it around.

I'm thinking of basic black, but I could go with State colors using engine paint... decisions, decisions...
 
Jeffncs said:
Other than paint, I'm going to fab some removable wheels for 2 of the legs to ease moving it around.

I'm thinking of basic black, but I could go with State colors using engine paint... decisions, decisions...
Click to expand...
Don't worry about paint, because after a few good hot fires it will burn off, and as @thrillhill says, it will return to it's "natural state".

The paint doesn't smell too good either, when it gets good an hot.
 
@fieldgrade Should I drill vent/drain holes the bottom? If so, what diameter and how many?

I could fab an ash catcher.
 
Yes to a drain hole.
Check with Thrillhill to see what he drilled his.
 
Thanks guys!
 
As mentioned earier i just did 3 or 4 1/4" or 3/8" holes for drains and it works good ashes don't fall threw and no need for vent. Like everyone else mentioned lots of wood and doubt you can get paint to last.
 
Looking forward to my first fire and drink next to it.
 
Great night for a fire...
 
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