Beer keg fire pit

I have had this old MT beer keg for over 30 years, using it as a step into part of my shed, always thinking I was going to make one of those kool keg fuel tanks. Never happened as they don't lend themselves very well to Land Rover design. So it sat and since I was using it and it wasn't taking up much space I let it be.

   Then while watching videos on cooking in Australia; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUeWRnIFYw0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5434lTcxfw     I saw how they had buried the firepit and used a piece of metal culvert for a fire break. Thank you Auntie Junie and Roy!

Here in the States there is lots of open land called BLM land, for Bureau of Land Management, a branch of the Federal Gubment. On that land and some places in the National Forest you can camp anywhere but you can not have a fire outside of an existing fire ring(campsite) or make a new fire ring. It is to cut down on wildfires and unsightly fire rings and black patches of ground willy nilly everywhere.   With this kegpit I can contain my fire and not leave a black patch and makes it easy to collect my ashes for "Leave no trace".

   I went to bed that night and while my mind was kinda still and focused I realized I could cut up my ol keg and it would have the same effect. I got up the next morning and set out to see if it was workable.

   My keg would not give me the wind break height I really desired because I figured I could make 2 of them if I split it right. Using painters tape and real paint I marked out my cut and with my last 1/16' cutting wheel on my angle grinder began to see how far I could get. Sizing up the shape I decided to bisect the hole in the side, it appeared to be over an inch thick and my cut-off wheel wouldn't go thru it.

 It took every cutting tool I have to finish cutting the keg apart. I started with the angle grinder, went to my jigsaw and it broke the blade holding lever, I used my Dremel tool with its tine cut-off wheel, but to get thru the thick hole in the side I resorted to my saber saw with an 18 tooth blade. Doing it again I go for the cut-off wheel to start and then right to the saber saw for the rest. But then I don't have a plasma cutter.....

Typically for me I got so involved I didn't take any pics of the above action. I did however wind up with this;

One side was the bottom

The other the top with the fill/vent tube, which I removed

side view

I could have gone for a taller wind break but at the expense of a shallower fire pit. Here's my first trial fire. It gave plenty of heat and though it was a windy day I didn't have ashes or embers blowing around.

The ashes just sat there after the fire died out.

 I had the idea that I could cook on it either with a grill or a camp/dutch oven. I had purposely cut the keg so there would be a rim around it to hold a grill. This turned out to be 16" diameter. I can only find existing grills in 14.5", 18" or 22". So I think I will have some internal brackets welded to hold a 14.5" grill. My welder won't do stainless so I have to send it out.

   But, I noticed that the fill material at the side hole was aluminum and that fell into my plan to make a crane and use the Kegpit for cooking with a Dutch/Camp oven. First I had to get a Camp Oven....I was going to wait and find one at a yard sale or fleamarket, but I decided that I wanted the smaller size. When talking with a local retailer they said they can't keep the 10" ovens in stock. I wanted an 8"(2qt) for just me and maybe 1 other.
When my Lodge camp oven came in I first sized up the positioning for it in the kegpit.

I marked and centerpunched the location to drill.

And step drilled it out to 5/16", one thing that I thought I had compensated enough for was the arc for the inside of the side hole it was farther than I estimated and made my hole shorter than I wanted.

I used my vise and devised a way to make a dent(?) in the end of my crane and proceeded to bend some 5/16" rod and with some careful guessing I got the dent somewhat centered.

The crane is free to pivot

Testing the fit with the camp oven

The legs on the camp oven didn't clear the side and at first I was just going to let it go, but it bothered me. Here is the crane painted with high temp silver paint..

So I made a 1" taller crane

Now the camp oven can swing out from the fire. It can swing some 120° easily without tipping. I painted the second crane and here it a pic showing the difference.

Now as long as the aluminum doesn't melt out............... I was just looking at the text and pictures, I wonder if I need to add a brace on the angle of the crane? Maybe when it gets hot it might want to bend? Perhaps a double bar arm....

NEXT DAY

Well, I just took some leftover 5/16" rod and bent one end and cut the other to fit and welded it up. It's Ugly, but it works. Hopefully will help prevent a catastrophe.

Test fit;

painted;

28.2.19 today it stopped raining long enough to try my Kegger pit and camp oven out. I just did a simple meal for lunch and it came out great! Watch the video to see how it went!

The final piece to the puzzle is done! after making lunch yesterday and feeling, well, successful, I went to the hardware store and bought a 17" grill, just the grill, you know the part that holds the coals for a 22" Weber BBQ.
   Once home I set about fitting it to the inside of my kegger where there is a ring around the keg. The ring is 16" so I had to cut the circumference ring on the grill fit it to the kegger and then tack weld on the  rest of the grill. Once it was tack welded I laid it flat and finished welding the straight bars and cleaned it up. Man I wish I had a TIG welder.......

Anywho it fits and should work good as a grill over the fire/coals.

Looking at it from the side;

So I have been pondering how to travel with this sooty beast. Comparatively it has a large footprint of about 19-20".  Since mine has the 2 holes in the bottom I figured I could make use of those.

What I didn't want was this thing sticking up on top of the roof rack or protruding like a wart from the side. I tried to figure out how I could attach it to my bike rack on the back or the spare tire mount, but it is too large.

What I wound up with was a pedestal I made from 2 old jackstands welded together the right length. Both ends were ground flat as I could get them with my angle grinder and a flapdisc. On one end I drilled and tapped 2 holes the right placement for matching the holes in the kegger.

After careful placement and measuring this was welded to the tongue of my trailer.

Now the firepit is outside and easy access.

The bad is where do I put the grill and I need a wrench to take it off/put it on, but so will a thief.

On the + side it makes a good bell!

24 Mar 2019, update;

Used it!

Works great. Plus I learned 2 things about it.

1) pain in the ass to line up the bolt holes to remount. So I decided to make some studs and weld them in. It is complicated by the fact that I can't get to the underside to weld in the studs and had to do it from the side. On one hole it was easy as I just enlarged the side hole to 3/16", cleaned up the threads and ran the stud in and welded it on. Then I ground the weld flat so the kegger would sit flush.
   On the second stud, which I made both studs out of 3/8"-24 bolts, I used my dremel tool to make a side hole thru which I then welded.

While it still takes some fiddling it is an easier mounting option.

2) When mounted on the trailer the kegger collects water when it rains. So I used my dremel and a cutoff wheel to make 4 holes in the bottom for drainage. Two can be seen in the above photo and the other 2 are in the outer section, seen below.

Now to figger out the grill mount......

Update May 17 2019.

Well I'm still working on the grill mount, I wish I had a stainless grill...., but I did get something done!

I added some short legs.

Now it sits about 4" above the ground, enough to get your toes under in cold weather.  ;^) I'm looking for some tubing to make some longer legs to just slide over these. Once again welded on by Daren at Arc-Tec.

Now the fuel can mount interfered with the kegger mounting. In the pic you can see that the 1 bolt lined up but that the other one closer to the body did not.

The cross brace just kept the kegger too far out.

So the crossbar had to go. Short work for the jigsaw. And ......viola!

I made a plastic spacer for the nuts.

Now it is on!

Update; 22 May 2019

 I scrounged around and found 3 drag link-tie rod pieces and found that they fit perfectly over the welded on legs. Then I spent some time and effort to make them all the same length. I won't bore you with the details but it had it's moments....

Here is a trial fit;

I had to heat the welded on legs and line them up to be a better tripod configuration as 1 was slanted to the side and 1 was too vertical. Once satisfied that the angles were all good I drilled and tapped 1/4-20 holes in the new legs as the kegger was kinda wobblie and set screws would tighten it up, or so I thought.

The bolts are too hard to tighten enough by hand so I am going with some 1/4-20 eyebolts. I am going to have to get 3 the same size.

And the final look;

This brings the grill up to IIRC 32" off the ground.