When you light a fire, a burnt-out area remains on the site, where grass does not grow for a long time. To avoid this, you can make a fire bowl from a sheet of metal. It will also be useful when relaxing outdoors, as it will prevent accidental combustion of dry grass or leaves. It is convenient to extinguish the heat in a bowl by filling it with water. You can lay a barbecue grid on it and cook meat or fish.
Materials and tools:
- metal sheet 120x120 cm 2.1 mm;
- fire resistant paint;
- Bulgarian;
- roulette;
- electric welding;
- hammer;
- anvil or rail;
- drill;
- metalwork clamps.
Welding the bowl
The bowl will be made from a single sheet of metal. It will need to be trimmed and bent in places. On a blank 120x120 cm you need to draw a kind of cross, as in the photo.
Thick lines in the drawing mark the cuts, and thin lines mark the places for bending. To understand the manufacturing process, you can first make a mini model out of paper.
After transferring the drawing to a sheet of metal, you need to cut 4 wedges using a grinder.
Along the fold lines, you will need to cut the sheet to half its thickness to make folding the workpiece easier. Having installed a grinding disc on the angle grinder, you need to correct the edges of the workpiece, preparing them before welding.
Next, the cross is bent along the notches, like the previous paper model. To do this, you can use bench clamps and a board, rest it against the rail and hit it with a hammer, or use other available devices.
After bending the workpiece, you need to weld the inner corners of the bowl. Before this, they will need to be fixed. To do this, the bowl can be tied with ropes.
After fixing the inner corners, you need to bend the outer sides of the bowl to the end. A homemade tool made from reinforcement, as in the photo, will help with this. With its help, the sides of the workpiece can be brought together evenly.
Next you need to weld the remaining corners of the bent bowl. Since tension remains in the places where the metal is bent, it must be cooked very carefully. At the end, the seam is ground to remove scale.
To allow water that gets into it when extinguishing coals or with rain to escape from the bowl, a couple of drainage holes should be drilled in the bottom.
For beauty, it doesn’t hurt to paint the bowl with heat-resistant paint.
This homemade product is much more compact than a barbecue, and the fire in it looks more natural. Although the bowl is not light, it is quite liftable and can easily be transported on picnics. The grate fits well on it. Simply hang the pot over the bowl. You can simply cook food wrapped in foil in its coals. The shape of the bowl allows heat to quickly accumulate, and thanks to the slopes of the walls, all the firewood burns to ash.
Original article in English
