Were Building a Fire pit

We use the tub from an old washing machine. Put legs on it, make a fire in it, with the holes the fire sparkles like fireflies, very pretty, plus you get instant heat. With a ground fire, the first hour or more is spent heating the ground.
Also the "fire machine" as we call it is easy to move anywhere, and if a wind comes up too much you can just cover the tub with a metal trash can lid, so you don't have to worry about sparks blowing around.
Also you can buy a round grill from Home Depot to fit right over the top to grill on.

They are very popular with our friends! The new neighbors from "the city" that I thought would want something fancier were asking how to go about making one, so we made them one for their anniversary present. Painted it with stove black They made it the "centerpiece" of their new patio!

Dead washing machines are at the dumps, just take out the tub!

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You can't ride, til you get on....

I can't imagine a six foot fire pit! Ours is just a 3-foot steel ring. It works great for cooking or for campfires.

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This is the government the Founding Fathers warned us about.....

We have been using and old Weber kettle grill.
Picked it up of the curb. legs were rusty, so just took them off, set it in a shallow hole, surrounded it with rocks, took of the grill and lit it up!

When it burns down to coals, you can use the grill for cooking, and when you're done. just put the top on and it goes out.
Price free.

Yea! and it don't taste as good as popcorn either!



My firepit is a oven box out of a electric range that has been buried in the ground. I used the inside panel off the oven door for the lid. I place whatever food that I'm gonna bake inside the box, place the lid on top, and then build a wood fire on top of the lid. You can't place a whole hog in it but you can sure place a shoulder or ham in it. I also put a big ole pot of ham and pinto beans in it and keep the fire going all day while I do yard work and at the end of the day supper is ready. Works great!

Wow all the replies.

If I could I’d twinkle my nose and every one that wanted one would have just what they wanted, I would, I really would.

Yeah, I know about exploding rocks I’ll be careful.

It doesn’t have to be a pit, its just what I want. I plan to cook in it too.

Big Rockpile:
Now that’s what I’m talking about that is what I see in my minds eye when I think Fire pit.

Muskrat:
Great tip. I will defiantly keep this in mind when I build the next one that will be primarily cooking/heating water to butcher chickens ect…. Thanks so much.

Bbuddy:
That is a Great Idea I may have to make one. I’ll defiantly snag the next old washer I see lol.

Thanks for all the wonderful Ideas and sharing.
I did a lot of researching today.
I think the average all around all purpose pit should be no deeper than 2-3 feet. I’ll go with a happy medium and go 2 1/2 foot deep.

We didn’t make it out to work on the pit till after 4pm. Was cooler and lots of shade by that time.
Continued to till and remove dirt. We have it about 18 inches deep now will finish the depth tomorrow evening. Then we’ll be ready to start the rock work. The dog thinks we dug it for him lol. Our old three legged boxer plops himself right down in it lays down and looks as if saying thanks mom sure is cool down here lol.

Callie (granddaughter) absolutely loves the dirt pit so much that I may have to make her one in her yard (fenced off part of yard for her to play safely, but not as deep of course). Only dig it out about 6 inches down then till the dickens out to the dirt make it soft and powdery for playing in. She’ll be disappointed when the rock work begins

We dug up a batch of snake eggs never done this before they were white and kinda fused all together. Kinda strange looking we inspected them well as we had never see any before. They were just on the edge of the perimeter where the tiller just opened the pocket they were in as to expose them. We didn’t see them at fist, the cat Sassy was sitting on the edge swatting poking at them caught our attention. I have no idea what kind of snake eggs they are but put them back in some dirt I had put in a hole out away from the house.
We still haven’t hit any big rocks or small ones for that matter man what luck there. Nothing but good ol black dirt.

I will try to get some pics of the work in progress but am not promising ok. My rechargeable batteries are dying/dead and regular batteries are costly.

I loved all the comments and info thanks everyone.

Rose

I prefer above ground rings to pits for cooking. That keyhole version that Muskrat suggests is a winner. The wide concrete rim looks great. The main problem with pits IMO is the hazard factor. I've pulled folks out of them before and it's not pretty. Usually the accident happens when someone backs up to the fire and looses their balance or there's some monkey business going on. It can happen so fast.