Outdoor Firepit Table

here I have a Firepit table that ill be breaking down for you. i will say that for the contest garbage to treasure. the materials used here arent your ordinary kinds that most people just have lying around but besides the gas flame element this table can be put together out of garbage... so to speak. I'm also gonna state that I do not know why my photos are uploading upside down i even went to my gallery and saved same photos but turned them upside down there, and still comes out wrong here sorry about this

and lastly this project was a team effort of 3 guys... i cannot weld to save my life so the welding areas of this are outside my pay grade

materials here are all going to be depending on how big you want to make you Firepit this one here is just a little under 5 feet at the shortest point its an octagon but with two varying sizes as opposed to equal lengths all the way around. and about 6 feet at its longest. we used 14 ga steel rectangular Tubing, 3 Inch x 1 Inch Sides and 1"x1" steel square tubing. this will be the platform for the rest of the table. again material amounts will be based on the size you wish your pit to be overall. our 4 longer pcs were cut to be 4ft and the 4 short ones at 2 feet.

for the wood we used old siding from our shop that we re-purposed for these type of projects. we came to learn that using that old siding gave the wood a nice natural aged look but was still in great shape to use on this pit.

the hardest part of the material list is the metal drum used for the bottom. we got a great deal on some feild drum rollers and thats what we used. those generally arent cheap but in our case an old boy farmer happened to have some collecting rust. you wanna use a heavier base and box steel not only for durability but for weight so the pit can't easily be blown over. basically itd take atleast a small nader to blow this one over.
will need to have a good or decent working mig welder. and someone who can make them welds not only perty but functional.
one part that isnt garbage is the stainless steel drop in fire pan. i didnt get pics of that part of the install so i included pics from Amazon of that and the other few parts needed for the flame portion of the build.
will need a grinder with flapwheels to polish up the steel tubing after welded up.
some isopropyl alcohol for cleaning steel.. (not 100% necessary)
clear coat spray paint
sander
stain (we used) ebony black and aged grey i believe it was called by minwax
cutting torch or something sturdy enough to cut two small holes in the base. we used an oxy acetylene torch. due to the drums thickness drilling holes in it woulda taken an unnecessary amount of time to do and harder on your tools... basically if you got the tools to work smarter and not harder i highly recommend doing so.

as ive mentioned having a working knowledge of not only welding and other steel work but good solid knowledge on measurements and cutting not only wood but steel is pretty much a must. knowledge on welders, torches, band saws specifically made for steel cuts, drills, grinders is also a must. now the luxury of having all these tools at your disposal is most definitely a bonus. but i believe not having something like that steel bandsaw wont make this an impossible task. you can use grinders with cutting wheels or acetylene torch but cleaning that up and making the proper cuts that way not impossible but not ideal. again i didnt weld any of it due to my lack of skills but i was cut man for the steel and also for the wood.

we started out by measuring the rectangular box steel for our siding of the pits top but also the skeleton holding the of the rest together. the cut pieces were welded together then the smaller 1"x1" steel tubing was carefully measured so that when its cut and welded in place it can also serve as a surface to mount the wooden pieces to.. then everything that has been done thus far with the metal is to be polished with a grinder equipped with flapwheels. can not specifically remember the grit on those flapwheels. but once everything is clean we took the isopropyl alcohol and cleaned it up real nice then applied one coat of clear coat spray paint to bring the metal to life and really shine. also protects against rusting again and im sorry about sounding like a broken record but how you specifically choose your table design greatly affects the measurements and cuts. and all the placements of the planks of wood. which one wants to install and make sure the install of every plank is uniform and sturdy any weak spots and you risk breakage possibly someone getting hurt.

now time for the steel top's skeleton to be mounted on the base. the drums we have are extremely heavy takes two people to move it around minus rolling them. but these bases have already two cross sections welded in them that served as mounting areas for their previous job and again now conveniently serve the same purpose for the top of this table. six half inch diameter bolts roughly 3 inches long were used to bolt the table top to the base. depending on what you use for the base you will need to make sure you can securely fasten the top to it. and like this one this project now weighs roughly 300 to 350lbs. also with this base the natural rust that is on it is exactly the look we wanted. we however did a light once over with the flapwheels to get rid of any lose rust and any sharp edges. Once the top is mounted we made two cuts in the base. one for the gas line to feed into and one for the straight quarter turn gas valve to fit into..

now the wooden top of this pit mentioned before was re purposed wood siding taken off our shop after a recent remodeling and to the boss mans surprise was not thrown away. alot of people dont realize that some of the coolest looking wood projects come from re used wood especially barn wood. the aged wood gives it that added pizzaz depending on what your doing new fresh wood just cant match. im stating an obvious there but i know there are some people that may not have taken that into account. anyways we sanded down the wood planks get rid of any sliver hazards and unwanted dirts. we also specifically cut piecs to have as much character as we could. knots are a plus as long as they arent falling out or in any other way a structural weakness. even old saw cuts from the mill will sometimes stain beautifully. if you look closely at the one picture that piece of wood was stained all in ebony black but the way the wood took the stain is in my best words the awesomeness of awesome lol.ive seen some cool things in wood working and far more fancier but that particular plank of wood is my favorite in the world. better than the pit itself.... almost lol those were stained then and urethaned prior to being cut. and each cut was almost on a pattern. but little imperfections with the whole unit made cutting them uniformly not possible. so although similar in sizes they are all custom cut per the design. and make sure you have a way of noting that down. if you cut all the pieces first and install them all together. like frame work they were cut in an order to be installed in that order. we used square carpenter's pencils to space the gaps in the wood.

and finally with a drill you wanna pre-drill the holes into the wood going through the steel framing. and some good clamps are wanted here to make sure the wood dont move around while pre drilling. then we used self tapping metal screws to anchor the wood in. when pre drilling use a smaller bit than what the screws are because depending on the metal those self tappers arent exactly self tapping.... easily anyways so smaller drill bit will ensure the screws still get an effective bite into the steel. Now make sure to install these screws uniform and not just hap hazard. Remember functionality is definitely key but how it looks too at these stages is vital too.

Here is that step that actually requires something brand new and not garbage, that is the stainless steel fire pan. They can be a bit spendy and they come in different sizes so i recommend doing some smart shopping here.

I know some of y'all here can find something similar to this part at the dump and make it work. But I'm saying buy brand new because this part needs to be in perfect working order and dealing with gas and possible explosions and injury or even deaths that can result from faulty old parts just isn't a smart way to cap this build off with.
The install on this pan was so simple that when I went to the restroom the one guy already had it installed by time I got back out. One of the holes drilled into the base from earlier has to match up with the gas shut off valve in order to hold it securely in place and then its also bolted in place just dont over tighten and damage the valve. Couple quick gas line attachments will finish this project off. If doing this outside on lets say the back deck we recommend having local gas company come and install a outside gas line with quick attach coupler makes firing this pit up not only easy but safely too. Can detach when not in use and get rid of any accidental gas line tripping..

to finish off Amazon also has treated broken glass that you put into the flames pan that specifically made to be re heated over and over again adds a really cool cherry on top to an awesome build