Personal Fire Pit

This instructable will show you how to make your own personal fire pit. I give the credit/inspiration of this project to Karen who posted instructions on how to make one.

This is my go at making one.

The flame may look small in the pictures but it is actually a good size flame. Watch the video to see how the fire pit works.

Planter - One with a somewhat wide square rim (you could use a round planter if you did not want the glass, or if you found an open glass cylinder that worked).

4 glass planes - These can be found a Home Depot at different sizes that you can cut to fit your planter, or you can ask a hardware store such as ACE to cut the glass to your desired size (which I did).

Some type of grating - I used Expanded Metal from Home Depot.

Some type of rock to cover the grating - I used polished Mexican beach pebbles. They can usually be purchased from your local landscaping nursery (mine were $1/pound).

Gel fire place fuel - Make sure this is NOT the cooking fuel. You want the gel fuel for fireplaces.

Marine silicone (silicone sealant) - Home Depot

Coffee can or some other tin can

Hack saw

Dremel

Bench grinder

Razor blade

Find a planter as I described in the Materials and Tools section.

Take one of your glass panes and place it on a sturdy flat surface. Add silicone along the one edge of the glass pane. Take a second glass pane and place its edge into the silicone. Hold it in place then use an item such as a piece of wood to keep it upright until the silicone dries. Do this on the opposite edge of the first glass pane with a third pane of glass. See the image above.

Once the two silicone edges dry, bring the three panes upright and add silicone to the to two remaining edges. Grab your fourth pane of glass and attach it to form a box. You may also use an object such as a piece of wood to keep this piece of glass upright until the silicone dries.

Do not worry when the silicone spreads out after placing the glass on it. It can be removed with a razor blade once it dries.

If you have a deep planter, like I did, a coffee or tin can will allow you to raise the height of the gel fuel canister. I cut my coffee can so that when the gel fuel can sits on top, it sits just below the grating.

I also added small black rocks to the inside of the planter to surround the coffee can in order to add some stability. You can buy small bags of rocks at a craft store such as Michaels or you can just pick out smaller Mexican beach pebbles in you want. I used a combination of both.

Cut the metal grating to fit inside the glass box and rest on the lip of the planter. I marked the grating with a marker and then cut the shape using a hacksaw. This can also be done using a dremel with a metal disc-cutting blade attached.

Once I had cut the grating to shape, I placed it on the planter and then placed the glass box on as well to see how the grating fit inside of the glass box. The grating was not fitting into the glass box, so I used a grinder to grind along the edges of the grating. Periodically I would check to see if it fit inside of the glass box. Just keep grinding the edges until the grating fits but make sure it still rests on the inside edges of the planter. I also smooth the edges out with the wire wheel of my bench grinder.

After cutting the outer edge of the grating, I also cut a square out of the center and attached it to rings to make a latch. This allows you to remove the fuel canister more easily when it runs out. I placed the fuel can inside and placed the grid on top. I marked a square around the outer edge of the can and then cut this shape with my dremel. Again I smoothed this out with the wire wheel on my bench grinder. The rings I used are small rings used to make jewelry.

Once you have made the glass box, place the grating on your planter and then place the glass box on top. Make sure that the grating fits inside of the glass box and is still able to rest on the inner ledge of the planter. When you are happy with how the glass box and grating sit, remove the grating and use the silicone sealant to attach the glass box to the planter. I placed silicone on the rim of the glass box and then placed it on the planter. After placing it on the planter, I added more silicone to fill in any gaps.

Add your rocks. Once finished, you can now use your own personal homemade fire pit. Enjoy and thanks for viewing.