I made a portable propane fire pit

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > I made a portable propane fire pit

Sous Videodrome: Apr 9, 2020

I live in Washington and I go camping. These days there's usually burn bans during the later part of the season. That's fine, camping is still fun either way. A set of string lights can light up a campsite nicely. But a fire is just more fun. And during all but the most serious burn bans propane fire pits are still allowed. I looked at commercially available firepits and they are all pretty big. I wanted something smaller because I don't have much extra space in the car. So I made a propane fire pit that can run off of the small 1 lb cooking bottles. It was a fun little project. With an alternate hose and and pressure regulator the same setup can hook to the larger 5lb or 5 gallon propane tanks too. It ended up being a pretty simple and rewarding project.

The gas valve that connects to the propane bottle
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08P4PR6JQ/

The adapter to connect the gas valve to the gas hose
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001HOSYOC/

The hose to run the gas from the bottle to the firepit. I got braided steel for durability.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FC7KCJD

Air mixer nozzle. This pulls air into the gas so it will actually ignite. The firepit won't work without one.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HYVM5VD/

The cute little 6" burner
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08B13W9R1/

Burners are available in multiple sizes. Like I said, I wanted something small so I went with the 6" one. It's still capable of 90,000 btu if you can put enough gas through it.

And the firepit itself. In this case, a stainless steel salad bowl with a hammered finish.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07WJWCWJY/

Filling:
You have a lot of different options for what to fill a firepit with. There's lava rocks, glass beads, ceramic skulls, etc. My wife thought the skulls were cool,

but in the end we opted for fake logs. Reviews said this set looked good but was way smaller than people wanted. That sounded perfect for this project.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GSVCLZ4

Some materials could rest directly on the burner without interfering with it. But the fake logs will choke off the flames, so they need to be raised up a bit. I got a stainless steel grate to hold them up off the burner surface.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078KL8SQL/

The build was pretty simple. The most complicated part was fabricating the stand. I imagine if you look around you could find one pre-made, but I had some 1/4" steel wire laying around so I just welded one myself.

Measure the size of the hole needed in the firepit
The mixing valve needs a 7/8" hole. So I bought a 7/8" drill bit. I used a punch to mark the center of the bowl and then with a bit of tap magic cutting oil I was able to drill through the bowl with a hand drill.

Hole drilled.

Mixer valve poking through.
Test fit the burner on the mixing valve

Screw the burner base onto the valve.

And screw the burner onto that.

With the burner screwed onto the mixing valve there's some play beneath the pit bowl. I wanted this held securely in place so I picked up some washers at the hardware store.

These were called '7/8" machine bushings' but any steel washer of the right size would work.

Tightened up nicely.
The stand
With the burner and the mixing valve mounted on the bowl I could measure how much clearance I wanted from the stand/legs.

The mixing valve extends about 2 inches below the bottom of the bowl. So I wanted about 3 inches of ground clearance with the bowl in the stand.

The stand is just a metal circle roughly the size of the bowl. The legs are pieces of steel wire 4.5" long. They are welded on at a slight angle. That gives a height of around 4 inches. With the bowl sitting in the stand there's about 3 inches of clearance which is enough for the mixing valve to hang below the fire pit and not hit the ground.
Bent and welded up:

And painted with high-temp grill paint:
Assemble it
Firepit in the stand.
Valve goes on the bottle, adapter goes on the valve

Hose goes on the adapter and hooks to the mixing valve.
Test burn
It works great. I only lost a little bit of arm hair lighting it the first time. You need the valve open just enough to hear the gas coming out, open too far and it'll be vigorous. I got a long barbecue igniter for later lighting.
Grate and logs
I used a small section of steel tube to make a spacer that would stand the grate off from the burner surface.

Measure the burner arms

Measure the grate

Use a drill press to make holes in the tube

Cut it on the bandsaw

Roughly finished

Then I ground down the holes to fit and painted it with high temp grill paint.
[This shot looks kind of like an ELO album cover

And set the grill in place

The 'logs' really are tiny.

Logs in place

With the grate over the burner we can set the logs in place without choking off the flame. If you wanted to use glass beads instead you wouldn't need the grate, afaik.
Here it is burning with the logs
Carrying cases
We have our camping gear pretty self contained. I wanted the fire pit to pack up easily but also to be stylish. The ceramic logs are fragile so I got a cheap hard sided foam case for them.

All tucked in

I looked for round containers and decided on a vintage hat case for the fire pit itself.

Fits nicely inside

Made in China at some point?

And packed up

The fire pit, the valves, hose and the alternate hose for the larger reusable propane canisters all fit in the hat case. I cut some styrofoam to keep it from rattling around. It's a pretty slick setup. It gets over 3 hours of burn time from one of the little 1lb cans which is enough fire for an evening. We plan to usually use the alternate hose with the refillable 5 lb can and avoid the waste of the disposable cans, but it's fun having the whole thing so compact.

And here it is burning with the logs on it at night

# ? Sep 1, 2021 23:35

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# ? May 5, 2024 05:29

poeticoddity: Jan 14, 2007; "How nice - to feel nothing and still get full credit for being alive." - Kurt Vonnegut Jr. - Slaughterhouse Five

Very cool and nicely done.
Flame King makes a refillable 1lb propane bottle (there's a kit that comes with a stand and valve or you can get the bottles individually) if you want to reduce waste but keep the compact form factor.
How could you possibly pass up on the skulls? Especially if you could carry them around in a briefcase.

# ? Sep 2, 2021 05:20

Sous Videodrome: Apr 9, 2020

Thanks! Yeah, I probably will get one of the refillable 1 lb bottles next season. And a set of the skulls for halloween :black101:

# ? Sep 5, 2021 17:59

ColdPie: Jun 9, 2006

Holy hell that skulls picture is awesome, hahaha. You have to try it.

Cool project, good thinking on the carrying case.

# ? Sep 5, 2021 23:46

babyeatingpsychopath: Oct 28, 2000; Forum Veteran

Sous Videodrome posted:

Thanks! Yeah, I probably will get one of the refillable 1 lb bottles next season. And a set of the skulls for halloween

My dog has been stealing the lava rocks out of my little fire pit. Can you link to the skulls?

# ? Sep 7, 2021 07:48

Sous Videodrome: Apr 9, 2020

Sure! The first one is the picture from above, the other one has some different options.

https://www.amazon.com/Imitated-Reusable-Halloween-Fireproof-Fireplaces/dp/B09D7NTX8V/

https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Pit-Fireproof-Decoration-Fireplaces/dp/B07H4WW932/

# ? Sep 8, 2021 20:07

Slugworth: Feb 18, 2001; If two grown men can't make a pervert happy for a few minutes in order to watch a film about zombies, then maybe we should all just move to Iran!

babyeatingpsychopath posted:

My dog has been stealing the lava rocks out of my little fire pit. Can you link to the skulls?

Is he afraid of skeletons?

# ? Sep 9, 2021 00:02

babyeatingpsychopath: Oct 28, 2000; Forum Veteran

Slugworth posted:

Is he afraid of skeletons?

Not particularly, but I think it's way better to find little round skulls lying around instead of pointy rocks.

# ? Oct 6, 2021 01:26

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# ? May 5, 2024 05:29

Sous Videodrome: Apr 9, 2020

babyeatingpsychopath posted:

Not particularly, but I think it's way better to find little round skulls lying around instead of pointy rocks.

hahaha

# ? Oct 7, 2021 15:23

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > I made a portable propane fire pit