I Built A Smokeless Fire Pit With Foam And Concrete That Actually Works

You know what I love is sitting around a camp

fire

with your family, but you know what can really ruin it is the smoke and I'm going to fix that and I did three years ago when I

built

this, the first DIY

smokeless

camp

fire

.

built

on YouTube, but I don't like it anymore, so I'm going to remake it just like the Romans would do it using

concrete

. Welcome to Hackman. I was originally going to build the

concrete

form for this fire pit out of wood, but then it happened. Me, but then I realized it wasn't. Everyone likes to work with wood and I would feel obligated to keep a large wooden mold for many years.

I can build it out of XPS

foam

and throw it away freely when I'm done. I know I'm going to be 16 tall but I need the circumference, my diameter is 52. I multiply that time Pi which is 3.14. I reach 163 and 1/4 of these pieces measure 96 long, 96 67 and a/4. so I'm going to need to join together a 96 inch piece and a 67 and 1/4 inch piece. I went ahead and cut out this extra piece that I'm going to use as a sort of repair plate, you could call it uh whatever you want. I made the original

smokeless

firebox when I built the molds for the top.

I used regular spray contact adhesive and you have to be very careful because it will eat through the

foam

, but I have since found this 3M 78 and it is specifically for Styrofoam and

works

like a champ. I used it every time I built the camper, so that's what we're going to use if your foam sheets have that clear plastic coating on top, make sure you remove it like I did before, otherwise that's you know? Does it affect how well it is maintained? I think it probably would have been a good idea if I had tried this and found out if it really worked before I decided to start filming, but hey, you're on this journey.

It's going to work with me. I have no idea how normal contact cement is. By the way, you just have to let each piece you sprayed dry until it becomes slightly tacky and then you can put them together. I did it the other way around, luckily. We can take it apart again and turn it around so everything is on the right side. Now we just need to add an extra layer around the outside for extra strength and the good thing is that after that big mishap we're probably done having problems and that's how it should be.

Surely after that mishap we shouldn't have any more problems and everything should be smooth sailing thanks to my tbec tape. Use masking tape if you want. It finally dawned on me when I realized it. Hey, I have to make a smaller circle to fit inside that big one and if I had a problem with that, how am I going to make this work? My friend's warmth is the answer. Using the heat gun I was able to get this to bend and really hold it in shape. better a red collar, you didn't think it would work please, I mean it's amazing what some ratchet straps will do for you and they're not going anywhere, it will last through the whole process, these will be my air holes. and these are 2 inch tubes.

I

actually

thought about all this and bought it, check it out. I went out and bought a new hole saw so I could get the pipe through nice and easy and then like an idiot I put the ratchet straps on first. They're just wedged in there, but they'll be fine. I also put some rebar down and some wooden stakes to help maintain the shape of the circle. I leveled everything and then staked around the outside of the perimeter circle so I'm on the inside on the inside Perimeter outside on the outside now I'm putting in some rebar stakes to add strength to the fire pit.

This bottle is filled with vegetable oil and this will be my release agent. Look at all that concrete. My back is screaming in anticipation, except today old Uncle Hax has a trick up his sleeve, feel free to mix this by hand or use, you know, one of those little traditional cement mixers, but I have to tell you that this cement mixer Mud is incredibly amazing mud. Mixer claims his machine is twice as fast as mixing by hand. I think they are full of nonsense because this thing is easily four times as fast, it seems to come out of there slowly and you think how could it work well but I can barely keep up, this saved us an incredible amount of time combined with a strong wife, you can tackle almost any project you want with this, I mean it's probably one of my favorite tools I've acquired in the last few years, it runs on an electric motor so I pulled out a bank of batteries and plugged it in to make things super simple , all you have to do is drop the bags on top, the mud mixer mixes it automatically, has a -in hose so I can rinse my hands, rinse the Mud Mixer when the project is done and hey, if you're interested, I will put a link in the description of Mud Mixer.

I don't have an affiliate link, but they do. send me this machine, so thanks to them I have many concrete projects on the way. I use a saw or a reciprocating saw if you feel like it, lift everyone up to vibrate the concrete and bring the bubbles to the top before we continue, let's talk about it. Some vital elements are crucial to the success of a smokeless campfire. A fire has specific needs for fuel and oxygen. In the case of a campfire, wood serves as fuel, but why does smoke come out? Have you ever seen a vehicle belching thick, black smoke from its exhaust?

This happens when the fuel to air ratio is unbalanced. The engine is getting too much fuel and not enough air, so the black smoke coming out of the exhaust is unburned fuel. Similarly, a campfire produces smoke due to incomplete combustion. A smokeless campfire

works

differently. however, it has an exterior chamber that allows fresh air to enter from low exterior vents and overheat as it rises. Hot air now escapes through the top holes around the top perimeter of the smokeless brazier, creating secondary combustion that consumes the unburned fuel. or smoke now the holes in the bottom also let air in to feed the fire now one component that most people overlook is the top ring that directs the air flow over the fire and I mentioned it in my video three ago years, so we want to make sure that we pay attention to all of those aspects to make sure that we have the most successful experience with a smokeless fire pit.

This is the campfire ring I'm going to use. It's the same type I used three years ago on my first smokeless fire pit build. I like this one for several reasons: it's the cheapest you can get, it's 12 inches tall unlike a lot of them they're 10 tall and it has this ring around the top that starts to create that top ring that the rim As I mentioned before, it costs 30% more than it did 3 years ago, but concrete is twice as expensive as it was 3 years ago, so I guess it's not terrible. I don't know what you call these things a soft tape measure. a flexible tape, I don't know, is what I'm using and I'm going to mark every 3 inches around the top of this fire pit where I want to drill a hole that I showed you a few years ago if you don't have one of these flexible tapes that you can

actually

just wrap blue tape around the fire ring, take it off and then take all the measurements there, then you can put the tape back on the fire ring and you will have exactly where you want each hole to be drilled, which will be a hole 1 and 8 inches, and I'm using this Milwaukee step drill bit.

I love these step bits for this and the Milwaukee ones work better, they stay sharp longer for me, a little nervous. about taking it away from CU. I'm not sure if I vibrated it enough to fill it all in really well. It's one of those things that hits you at like 3:00 in the morning. I did it well? Am I smart enough? Am I good enough? Oh friend, no, I don't feel like I haven't been a slave. Oh man, okay, you can see here where the mixture was too dry and that's my fault because I didn't want it to have too much water.

What you can do with concrete is put too much water in it, so I tried to let it dry, but then I didn't shake it enough for it to come together and make it all a little soft as is. Up here, the good thing is that's the look that Kim wants, she wants that aged look, right, Kim, yeah, I like the AG look, okay, but you know, that's your lesson, make sure you rock the concrete just fine, however, I can still take some concrete and smooth this out and it should be fine. I'm going to make the top molds with this XPS foam as well.

You will see here. I have made a compass that is just a straight piece of wood. I have drilled a hole in it. for one nail and then my two diameters will be 53 and 1/2 28 1/2, so my two radii are 26 and 3/4 and 14 and 1/4 inches away from that nail. I drew this square. I have it here in this corner, this is the way I like to do it that way. I have a perfectly square corner to work with for the base of these molds. I used inch and a half thick XPS foam when I made it in the In the past I used the/in just like I'm going to use it for the sides and it works perfectly fine.

I just thought this would give it some extra strength. Now I'm cutting 4 into tall pieces to wrap around the sides and that's because I want them to be 2 and 1/2 inches thick overall, as you can see once again. I just applied the 3m78 adhesive to each piece, let it dry and now I have to assemble everything and cut it square. I use some. Quickly apply caulk to the corners just to make sure no water comes out of the concrete and to make the corners a little more rounded if you want a smooth finish skip this step but this is a trick we used to use when I worked in the concrete business. precast concrete about 25 years ago, you take a little bit of baking soda, you add a little bit of water to it, you crumble it, you mix it and you want it to be where it falls apart, but it still sticks really well and then you bring it in. bring out your inner chimpanzee it just goes crazy I think they like to throw underhanded, but you know you do what works for you, you want to make sure that when you hit this thing it splashes a little bit, you just don't want clumps, you want nice. of a snow look for added resistance.

I would like to add some rebar to this but I don't want to put in half a rebar and no one near me sold quarin rebar so I went and bought some quarter inch twine and this doubles. pretty easy, so I'm going to bend it into shape and then I'm just going to cut it out with these bolt cutters and it'll sit there. It's been raining for a few days but I finally got a break in the Rain and I'm going to pour this on our back porch in case it starts raining again, much to Kim's dismay, unfortunately that means I have to go old school in this, not Mud Mixer, I'm the Mud Mixer, take that, thank you now if you did. use the baking soda method make sure you don't just dump the concrete mix in here you want to put it on top of the baking soda and then you want to squish it gently yeah squish gently smos put it in those corners.

Okay, not like you did in the campfire genie with the form half filled out. I went ahead and added the entire thread which is not to be confused with the spark that brings the Transformers to life. While I was mixing some concrete, I went ahead and grabbed some more. I took it out into a small container and filled in these spots that were bad in the fire pit where I didn't have the concrete wet enough. It's great if you can use it without any additives, but obviously when you buy the mix it's going to have the additive, but it's not a big deal.

I just rubbed it on there and then took a damp sponge, like you would work with tiles and went over it and when it dries it will look the same as the Rest close enough 24 hours later, you should really let them sit for 2 days in the mold before trying to remove them , but you already know the tube. I have to do it through the tube. What can I say? I have to get these things. Oh, so you know what I didn't put. I forgot to put the vegetables. I also forgot to put vegetable oil in it.

Don't forget your vegetable oil. Don't eat that crap, even though it's bad for you. Can't. I think I did that, naturally I completely forgot. I could have been here a while ago of course, the real reason I did it this way was because I like to show you what not to do. I think that's the best way to teach. You really know, it's through if I intentionally make a mistake and show you what you don't want to do, I mean, I think that helps you, you know, I do this because I care and because I'm stupid, for three hours I've had some nice things. good brain farts in my time, some really stinky, this might be one of my top five here, forgetting to put the mold release aka vegetable table oil in these molds, however they finally came out, now I'm just rinsing them off and taking the styrofoam.

With everything dry, I can go ahead and start assembling the entire fire pit. Now I'm not leveling anything here. I'm just making sure the inner ring is level with the outer ring. Then I'll go ahead andIt stains this whole fire pit, but for now I just want to put it together and test everything now. Whenever you use one of these smokeless fire pits, it is important that you get it very hot and that the sides get hot if you build up a little. The fire on this isn't going to work after about 15 to 20 minutes, the sides are nice and hot and it's working as it should and you'll notice I have a lot of wood in there.

I built a monster fire here. Don't light a small fire guys, I'm not done with this fire pit yet and I have even bigger plans for this entire fire pit patio. I'll put that video here when it comes out, but until then, something just as amazing will do. Go there now, I just have to figure out where I can store this hate to throw away.