Custom Steel Fire Pit

This fire pit design was a spontaneous project I came up with to use a few large sheets of 1/8” steel I had in my shop. This fire pit is from a single piece of 35x35 steel - cut into its “puzzle pieces” with a plasma torch, and MIG welded into its final shape. This project turned out to be a GREAT proof of concept for a backyard fire pit - the fins that support the body of the assembly are slightly pointed at the bottom and this allows them to anchor into the ground and have the whole thing be very secure and resistant to any sort of tipping.

This pit is absolutely perfect for summer or autumn nights, entertaining in the backyard with friends! Here’s how I made it….

Step one was to do a little geometry and figure out how much material to remove from each corner.

The removed pieces eventually were welded back onto the fire pit to act as its feet.

Once the pieces of steel were cut, it was time to clean and lay them out and tack up the final shape.

When working with metal, it’s virtually always going to be best to tack your pieces together before running full beads. This allows you to see the final fit-up and any issues you may run into before fully committing to big welds that will be extremely difficult to undo.

After tacking the piece together with small welds, I found everything fit together well, despite being plasma cut by hand!

I ran full MIG weld beads at each seam of the body of the fire pit for a couple of reasons: first, to make the form as rigid and resistant to warping from the head of any fire it will hold, and second, to prevent hot ash from finding its way out of the fire pit and onto someone’s foot! I was able to weld the “fins” on with a few short weld beads, and still have them be extremely strong and able to take a beating!