I used the drum out of our old washing machine. No cutting, no drilling necessary. Just build a brick pit, slot the drum in, and lift it out to clean. Perfect.
Use a carbide hole saw when you drill into stainless. Also, when drilling metal you want your drill spinning slowly but you want a lot of pressure. It allows the hole saw to cut chips out rather than burning a hole.
@Ashmeed Mohamed you would have to make sure they are stainless rated. Also, a knockout set like that is probably going to be around $1k and a lot slower than carbide hole saws. (I'm an electrician and have used both)
Learning from your design, I used the Mainstays Stainless Steel 8 Quart Multi-Cooker Stock pot with Lid from Walmart (cost $14.98). I only need to drill holes 2" from the bottom of the main pot, then put the steamer on top. With 6 cups of wood pellets, the fire was last for 1 hour.
Did you have to make a steel wall to create a draft for the smoke less effect? I think a steamer has most of the work done. But it can't easily make a draft.
you can make mini versions of this with different size food cans. It's a great way to get the hang of the concept and all you need is some recycling, a hole punch and some tin snips, or a swiss army knife. Even ones made with standard food cans will throw out enough heat to cook for one person on, and only needs twigs or pinecones for fuel. That being said, now I have a place with a garden I would love to make one this kind of size for chilling around on summer evenings
For deburring the holes get a flap wheel instead of a hard stone disk. They're made from layers of sanding paper and work much better on ragged metal like you had from the step drill. Usually around $4 dollars at Harbor Freight or a Big Box store.
Knowing full well that you are very talented, i still would like to offer a couple of tips. When filing, especially a hard material like stainless, you only want to make forward strokes. Drawing a file backwards can flatten the grooves. Secondly…the next time you need to punch a big hole in metal like this, you may want to consider a knockout puller that makes holes for electrical fittings.
I appreciate your interest and desire to do things in a more "green" manner. I built a melting forge a few years back and followed the same principals. In doing so I found that the stainless pots at my local walmart were all made in china. Not exactly the greenest option available. Instead I scoured my local re-use centre until I found the sizes I needed. So instead of using dirty stainless steel made in china and then shipped all the way over here, burning oil the whole way, I used domestically made stainless that was easily 30 years old and had already served a long life before I gave it a second one. It's great to do something as simple as saving the aluminium shavings to properly recycle them but we can do even better by being more choosy about our initial starting materials.
Yeah, all the go green hypocrisy while using ALL Chinese products and tools killed me. The project was a cool idea that I've had for a long time. However, I'd execute it completely differently, this was done poorly.
@Shadrach Ummm the cell phone or computer you're using to watch this and type your comment used more oil and carbon than it did for him to get that pot lol. Talk about hypocrisy 😒 🙄 😑
Thanks for the feedback guys. Especially that I look for some old pots to make this project. I did go out and find some for my video today. Although, I think the one of the pots I found at Goodwill was never used, relatively new and I can't be sure where it was made. My initial video focused on the creation of a sustainable firepit, even though I did source materials from not the most sustainable source. I do agree that both parts of this process can be made sustainably, the creation and the sourcing. Thanks for your input on this. Thanks for watching.
Great build! For drilling holes in SS, use slower speeds & lots of pressure & cutting fluid. Also, they make a hole saw that has carbide teeth, there expensive but work amazing at going through SS!
I just use an old clothes washer tub as a smokeless fire pit. They have all the hole pre drilled burns smokeless and it is perfect size for camping. It sucks on air from the sides through all of the holes. You can see jets of flame form as it re burns the smoke vapors and burns clean after a few minutes.
This is what I use as well , you can usually find a metal scrapper and buy a tub less than $20 from him , mine do seem to rust through after about a year but they are cheap
I get my washer tub from the side of the road , when people throw out old used appliances to the curb for someone else to take....fridge shelves make a great cooking grill , haul the scrap to the metal recycling place and they pay you for it💲💲 double win 👍 👍 🇨🇦
If you grab another pot drill holes in it. Then wrap it around the bottom air holes. Your stove will have an adjustable flame. A ring binder handle will help you move the flame adjuster around.
I’ve made burn barrels. Tryyto be thrifty using harbor freight step bit’s also, bought Brand name bit much much easier. Irwin brand middle of the road price, surprised how long it lasted. Love the videos ! Thanks
The only thing I would add are lock washers on your nuts and bolts because I have made some things like this and the expanding and contracting from heating and cooling caused things to work loose and want to fall apart without constantly keeping things tightened until I added lock washers which stopped the problem for the most part. Otherwise double up your nuts and tighten them down on each other works good too
9:13 With just the tools you had, I’d have used the hole saw bit to drill a hole in the middle of the wood (you used to punch a deeper divet with the screw) at the end. Being the the step bit was smaller, the wood would have made a surface to press against, stopping the pot from deflecting, leading to a cleaner (no punch out on the inside) and cooler cut. With the step bit having a surface to fight against, it would have cut away more material instead of heating it and pushing it inside. Just my 2c 😁 The design is quite nice, I really like it.
Hi Bjorn. I think this concept would work just as well at the 50-gallon drum size. You’d just need bigger logs. :-) I may have to try that. Thank you for watching.
SS drums are expensive, but it would be nice if you could find cheap surplus ones. I saw a regular steel 55 gallon drum version that worked well but of course it's going to rust out pretty quick.
Excellent tip on the tinktube, been a contractor for over 30 years and have not seen this brand. I see a step-bit as a go-to as well, yours looks like a big box store or harbor freight one (same quality really). When I stepped up to a Milwauki step-bit it was a game changer.
Great to see that more people care about recycling even of small amounts of metal. I thought I'm the only idiot who picks up every nail and put it in the metal recycling ;-) Many greetings from Germany
Guten tag, mein freund. I do the same with the nails and bolts I find along the roadside. Lots of energy went into mining and refining. Much less needed to recycle it into something new. The small efforts add up. Thank you for watching.
Yeah man you were my hero putting granddad's oil on the jig saw cut line. As you've likely had commented, stainless likes it's loving slow. My dad and brother were installing security bars on gas pumps for a client. They went though so many drill bits. There were going through sheet stainless. Unfortunately they had a corded drill they used at twice the speed of light, I'd imagine. One day my brother said they had one pump to do but Dad was busy with all the tools. I worked alone with my own business. I said i could go by with my step bit and cordless DeWalt. My brother said he doubted the cordless could do it but we could see. On speed one my step bit crawled right through the sheet like it was nothing much to his but not my surprise! Yeah it takes some lessons but you'll learn slow gets you all you want from stainless with just one new bit and a little oil out of respect. Ha. Great job making you're own stuff! Feels good, doesn't it!?
It does feel good to make stuff! Thank you for the cool story. I learned a lot from the comments on this video. I’m still teachable. Lol. Thank you for watching and for the excellent feedback.
Make sure any metal you use for fire pits or anything similar is NOT galvanized. That is use UNGALVANIZED metal only. When galvanized metal gets hot, it gives off toxic Zinc fumes.
Spray the outside of one side of the pots with high temp flat black paint, and it will radiate out heat much better on that one side. The flat black (or other color) has less "emmissivity" so radiates much more heat where you might want it on a cold day. Rather than polished chrome color.
Welcome back Tom. This was a nice video. Great way to repurpose scrap tinktube pieces into another project. Infinite adaptation. I’m sure you can find a circular wire grill to cover the opening. In future, when drilling into flexible metals, the wooden base is a better idea. Use the hole saw to drill a 1”+ hole in the 2x4. Place pot over the hole and allow the wood to support the sides while you perforate the metal. You need to add toes to your “Eyes and Ears” mantra. Just trying to keep you safe out there. Wishing you and your family another blessed week, gentle autumn weather and restful evenings. Peace brother
GreenShortz DIY, while I don't give a damn about the environment I can definitely see that you know what you are doing. Changing to the Step Bit was the right call. Thank you for the video.
Not sure if you know this but typically, when you cut or drill stainless steel you use water as a lubricant. The water absorbs and dissipates the heat and makes cutting or drilling easier and faster.
@@jereasons yeah. It was a trick I learned from an ol’timer metal worker/ machinist. He told me when cutting other types of steel you can use cutting oil or an emulsified coolant. (The coolant typically used with CRC machines.) for the record, I’m not an expert but have learned a lot over the years working in facilities maintenance. So hope this helps.
FYI No hi RPM’s with stainless… Toss the uni-bit. Use cutting oil and your hole saw. Pulse the drill on & off, go slow as not to heat up the stainless steel. It will go through like butter after a few slow turns.
Great to see you back! Amazing what the right tools in the best shape can help you accomplish! This project is above my tools and skill limit, but I enjoyed watching. I figure, eventually, when I understand the concepts...then maybe I can build something of my own.
I made a burn pit 20 inch X 20 inch . Out of a SS washing machine tub. Kind of smokeless, used it two times. It's shiny stainless but has turned a golden anodised brown color due to the heat. It was free. Pre drilled. It is lightweight. And I'm adding a drop-in round grate ( cast iron) to act as an ash tray
@@missingremote4388 That really sounds great! This truly expands my thoughts about how I can have a safe and useful place outdoors to burn and cook and such. Thanks for your comment. I'm going to explore what kinds of material I have around that could serve this purpose.
@@missingremote4388 Quick question: do you use this above ground, or is it pitted into the ground? Some people use the turn burn "pit" to refer to above ground units.
@RL M it is above ground. Totally unmodified. Straight out of my own washing machine . Ex-wash machine. I WILL make you a youtube video / after I get my 'drop-in Grate' . I do make videos on youtube.. but it's been 2 years or more since I posted one. Thanks
Could you try and test one optimization? One of the things I've learned is that shiny surfaces are not good at radiating heat; the more dull and non-reflective a surface is, the better it is at radiating thermal energy. For this reason, if you rough up the inner and outer surface of both pots (for example, with sand blasting) and then spray paint all but the inner surface of the inner pot with heat resistant black paint, your smokeless fire pit will become much more effective at radiating heat from the fire, making it more effective at warming the folks sitting around it. Otherwise, most of the heat just rises up and away as hot gases, with minimal heat radiating to the people around it. I'd like to see what you think of this optimization. I would like even more to see it tested side-by-side with what you did in this video, as a test of whether or not this optimization is worth doing.
That is an interesting supposition. I will say that the stove does radiate pretty well, although a lot of heat is flowing upward. My initial thought is that the radiant heat has a lot to do with the mass of the metal. I see how a reflective surface might bounce back some of the heat carried by the light. The main challenge to the radiance of the stove is the air channel between to two pots. The faster the airflow, the more efficient the stove, but the less it radiates outward. Given that this element of the design is key for the clean burn, radiant heat might always come second. However, it is pleasantly warm sitting by the stove now and not smokey. I’m happy with that. Thank you for your feedback. Thank you for watching.
Great idea! The company Dancook has even built a smoker with this principle of air supply. I have one of these and it doesn't use half the charcoal that it would otherwise. I think this oven would then have to be similarly economical. Greetings from good, old Germany 🙂
Guten tag! Ich spreche ein bissien Deutsch. :-) I studied two years of German in high school (der Gymnasium). Thank you for sharing your experience. Thank you for watching.
That's a very nice looking fire, and very neat job. I want to ask something if I may, if you put some sort of pan or wok holder on the top and use it like a stove, will it disrupt the airflow and making the fire smoke?
I have made quite a few gasifier camp stoves in the past, just not quite as big. From my experience putting a pot holder does restrict airflow a bit depending on how high it is. I'm guessing maybe 1 FT. above the above the top of the stove would be ok . It will probably still smoke a bit but would probably still work.
I did something similar when making a rocket stove from a coffee tin. I printed out the pattern for the holes on sheets of paper pasted on to the surface of the tin as a template for perfectly spaced and even sized holes. I also had to punch a pilot dent with a nail and then drill successively larger holes. Since my surface was covered with holes, I had to support the inside with wooden 2x4's in order to stop bending and misshaping the stove. The correct way to punch those holes will be with a hydraulic punch but that was outside of my scope of operations. The alternative to your brackets would be to find any metal pipe that will fit snugly between the two chambers and cut that into 1½" segments riveted from the outside of the outer chamber on the bottom and sides of the outer chamber (3 on the side and 2 on the bottom) allowing the inner chamber to slide into place with a little play to allow for warping and expansion when hot. For a pot-stand I would take a standard diamond-shaped metal grid cut to size to cover the top and with L-brackets attached on the edges to stop it from sliding off. I would make second grid that will become greasy by placing meat and sausages directly on for grilling. If you cut thicker logs to less than 3" stumps you can get some coals going for even-burn cooking though charcoal will also work. You might want to experiment with a system where you can slide in a removable radiator of copper tubing between the two layers to create a hot-water system when camping. To set your stove on fire you might want to experiment with cotton balls covered in petroleum jelly (vaseline) where you can light the ball and drop it onto your tinder comprising of leaves, twigs and paper crumpled into balls. You can store fire-starter cotton balls in a jar that is stored inside of your stove when not in use. I have been regularly using that stove using ethanol-based gel-fuel (similar to Covid hand sanitiser) for the past fifteen years. The fuel is placed in an empty tuna can suspended on a wire platform about a third from the bottom of the tin. Alternate fuels I have experimented with where alcohol spirits and diesel or paraffin into a tuna tin filled with sand to regulate the burn.
maybe make the opening smaller on top, add smaller pieces of wood and light it from above, the wood should not keep burning itself but it should create lot of gasses, that are sucked into the outer shell heated and rise and mix with air and light the gas again on the top. works perfect with wood pellets.. you will get only flames from the top if it works perfect. but for pellets the holes are now to big, you could add some Stainless mesh to make holes smaller
I just saw this video that says clay can be made insulative by mixing in little grains of charcoal, the size of pebbles. When the clay is fired its charcoal burns up, leaving behind air gaps. About 30% of the mix should be charcoal, and another 30% ceramic powder.
Thank you for sharing. It looks good. The solo stove has holes at the top for a secondary burn. May I ask why you chose not to add the holes at the top?
Your design and detail is wonderful. The tools and the approach to using them is wonderful also. Now with all the video you are presenting like most people can make this item. I think most people will not be in a position to make one of these. So taht gets me to this question. Where can I purchase one please tell me>>>>>
I think either would work. I think outside would be easier to set up. Inside would be more efficient. A coil on top might be even better, but if it ever lost water, could melt. An interesting idea. Thank you for watching.
Idea: Drill ventilation holes in the inner pot close to the bottom. Before cutting out the bottom from the outer pot - drill first many ventilation holes. Add 3-4 bolts as spacers. After use it as removable bottom in the inner pot to improve and even the supply of oxygen 8). Thank you. TY
Greetings! I've watched over 25 DIY videos on this but yours I keep coming back to as a guide. In the last 2 weeks I've built a few of these at various sizes. Each build gets better. Being smokeless has been achieved. I'm not happy with the build though. Getting ready to go now with a 20l oil tin and a 15l stainless steel stock pot. What would you improve on doing this again? Specifics will be greatly appreciated! Give thanks for the video. It created a firey passion in me for creating such beautiful art.
Cool! I’m happy you were inspired to make some fire. Fire in itself is a beautiful thing! Two things to think about that might improve performance. The more narrow the space between your two pots/tins, the hotter the secondary air can get and the better the secondary burn. I also think a ring of holes around the inside top would work better than the 2cm air gap I left all around. I did that to save work, but the holes will serve better as jets, forcing the air deeper into the center of the fire. I’ve seen this on others’ projects. I need to try that on my own. Good luck with your projects. Let me know what works for you. Thank you for watching.
If you have a grinder, and a cutting wheel, you can sharpen the cutting edge of your stepdrill after burning it up. You will get a bit more life out of it before it is junk. Better than recycling, is resharpening. I saw a video where a ceramic sparkplug was used as a friction drill, heating the metal to red and forcing the metal out of the way to form a hole. This leaves a very heavy sharp burr, which can be removed by grinding, or is good to tap threads into, due to the longer threaded length.
Great tutorial/DIY experiment! I appreciate you learning as you go and showing us the little things. Now what brings me here is I've missed having a fire pit for years, but I have two steel containers with handles from Home Depot about 3' diameter at the opening that narrows maybe 10 degrees slope. I bought them ~6 years ago to try growing some peppers in a semi-mobile container, but I didn't have success with the one I tested as a planter, so I'm hoping to combine the two into a DIY smokeless socializing fire setup outside my apartment. As far as the physics goes, is the upper lip that bends inward and overlaps the inner diameter barrel crucial to the formula?
Very nice design and video. My only suggestion is to add metal brackets so that an external handle can be used to move if necessary. Also, I like to cook on my stove, so I added three vertical legs on top the fire pit to be used as a spacer for my wok or any cooking pan to fit on. Works great!
The ones I've made, I've used as top down fires meaning, stacking/piling what you going to burn and lighting the top. if you light bottom and dump on top your going either have smoke or raging fire.
Maybe a cone type chimney baking the top about half the size would create more draw from the bottom, and would ignite the gasses more and be much more efficient.
As others have stated, drill slow with lots of pressure for metals. Those step bits are incredible for debuting holes. Drill your hole then hit it from the back with the step bit.
This is a gasification stove or fire. I built one similar to it using an old drier drum and a smaller inner pot. Mine had the inner drum up against the underside of the outer drum, and about 50 smaller holes around the top of the inner drum two inches down. Because so much air could get into it, when it roared it ROARED!!! And because of the inner dynamics of the drier drum, the flames travelled in a circular motion. It also chugged like a steam train when it got really hot, lol. You can also build a smaller version of this that will fit in a backpack using an old dog food can and, or an old can of beans or corn.
This type of vessel is great for getting a fire burning, but I’ve wondered if it really does provide much warmth for cold weather camping and such. You’re is shorts and t-shirt in this video, so what do you think? Can you determine whether it’s enough of a heat source for cold weather?
That is an excellent question. I will say that it does radiate heat fairly well, but again that’s in shorts weather. I’d estimate that a good bit more heat goes up instead of out due to the airflow, which is key to this design. To make it more radiant, I think I’d need to add more mass to sink some heat into. That is an interesting design challenge. You’ve got me thinking. Stay tuned. :-)
to make metal like that easier to drill you should have used the wooden board for support it would have kept the metal from flexing and provided a backstop, just screw down some sacrificial wood to the top of the good board drill a couple holes, it would also make the hole saw bit work better on the pot, although you can still use the step bit if you wanted to, then when the wood looses structural integrity, take off the sacrificial wood and screw another piece of scrap wood to the good board.
Nice!!! Have fun with your build. What I learned from making this video (from commenters), was slower drilling speeds and higher pressure work best on the stainless. Thank you for watching.
It would be nice to make it ADJUSTABLE for firesize. Raising or lowering the upper pot would restrain the intake air, AND the secondary air flow. Maybe making the flame size adjustable. Curious to see. Thanks.
I used the drum out of our old washing machine. No cutting, no drilling necessary. Just build a brick pit, slot the drum in, and lift it out to clean. Perfect.
Sounds great! I'll have to try this. Thank you for watching.
This comment completely misses the size and portability of this project
@@mikesmith-bt6um It's an alternative.
@haraldtheyounger5504 not a small portable alternative....
@@mikesmith-bt6um And? Why the obsession?
Use a carbide hole saw when you drill into stainless. Also, when drilling metal you want your drill spinning slowly but you want a lot of pressure. It allows the hole saw to cut chips out rather than burning a hole.
Thank for the tip! Thank you for watching.
How about a knockout punch? The kind used on electrical panels?
@Ashmeed Mohamed you would have to make sure they are stainless rated. Also, a knockout set like that is probably going to be around $1k and a lot slower than carbide hole saws. (I'm an electrician and have used both)
Absolutely correct 😊
Great ideas, the top leave a gap?
Learning from your design, I used the Mainstays Stainless Steel 8 Quart Multi-Cooker Stock pot with Lid from Walmart (cost $14.98). I only need to drill holes 2" from the bottom of the main pot, then put the steamer on top. With 6 cups of wood pellets, the fire was last for 1 hour.
@jen1762 The cooker pot which I used has 2 pots and the small pot inside has a lot oh holes on it.
Did you have to make a steel wall to create a draft for the smoke less effect?
I think a steamer has most of the work done. But it can't easily make a draft.
The handles you took off the small pot would make a great pot stand!
That’s a good idea!
excellent idea
you can make mini versions of this with different size food cans. It's a great way to get the hang of the concept and all you need is some recycling, a hole punch and some tin snips, or a swiss army knife. Even ones made with standard food cans will throw out enough heat to cook for one person on, and only needs twigs or pinecones for fuel. That being said, now I have a place with a garden I would love to make one this kind of size for chilling around on summer evenings
I’ve made a few gasifying stoves from the soup cans. I plan to make a regular rocket stove soon as well. Thank you for watching.
Great vid, very creative. Appreciate you showing all the impediments you encountered along the way and how you got around them.
Thank you, I'm watching from Papua New Guinea and I am very happy
For deburring the holes get a flap wheel instead of a hard stone disk. They're made from layers of sanding paper and work much better on ragged metal like you had from the step drill. Usually around $4 dollars at Harbor Freight or a Big Box store.
Knowing full well that you are very talented, i still would like to offer a couple of tips. When filing, especially a hard material like stainless, you only want to make forward strokes. Drawing a file backwards can flatten the grooves. Secondly…the next time you need to punch a big hole in metal like this, you may want to consider a knockout puller that makes holes for electrical fittings.
We have something similar in our backyard, using the stainless steel drum from a washing machine. Works fantastic!
Cool. Great idea! Thank you for watching.
I appreciate your interest and desire to do things in a more "green" manner. I built a melting forge a few years back and followed the same principals. In doing so I found that the stainless pots at my local walmart were all made in china. Not exactly the greenest option available. Instead I scoured my local re-use centre until I found the sizes I needed. So instead of using dirty stainless steel made in china and then shipped all the way over here, burning oil the whole way, I used domestically made stainless that was easily 30 years old and had already served a long life before I gave it a second one. It's great to do something as simple as saving the aluminium shavings to properly recycle them but we can do even better by being more choosy about our initial starting materials.
Yeah, all the go green hypocrisy while using ALL Chinese products and tools killed me. The project was a cool idea that I've had for a long time. However, I'd execute it completely differently, this was done poorly.
Ummm the cell phone or computer you're using to watch this and type your comment used more oil and carbon than it did for him to get that pot lol
@Shadrach Ummm the cell phone or computer you're using to watch this and type your comment used more oil and carbon than it did for him to get that pot lol. Talk about hypocrisy 😒 🙄 😑
@@timsolomon8352 I'm not the one talking about recycling and going green. I'm literally talking about him talking about it. Are you dense?
Thanks for the feedback guys. Especially that I look for some old pots to make this project. I did go out and find some for my video today. Although, I think the one of the pots I found at Goodwill was never used, relatively new and I can't be sure where it was made. My initial video focused on the creation of a sustainable firepit, even though I did source materials from not the most sustainable source. I do agree that both parts of this process can be made sustainably, the creation and the sourcing. Thanks for your input on this. Thanks for watching.
Great build!
For drilling holes in SS, use slower speeds & lots of pressure & cutting fluid.
Also, they make a hole saw that has carbide teeth, there expensive but work amazing at going through SS!
Thanks for the tips! Thank you for watching.
I just use an old clothes washer tub as a smokeless fire pit. They have all the hole pre drilled burns smokeless and it is perfect size for camping. It sucks on air from the sides through all of the holes. You can see jets of flame form as it re burns the smoke vapors and burns clean after a few minutes.
That’s brilliant. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for watching.
This is what I use as well , you can usually find a metal scrapper and buy a tub less than $20 from him , mine do seem to rust through after about a year but they are cheap
I get my washer tub from the side of the road , when people throw out old used appliances to the curb for someone else to take....fridge shelves make a great cooking grill , haul the scrap to the metal recycling place and they pay you for it💲💲 double win 👍 👍 🇨🇦
Throw an old dryer drum around the washer drum. Dryer has the holes in the bottom and generates a vacuum.
If you grab another pot drill holes in it. Then wrap it around the bottom air holes. Your stove will have an adjustable flame. A ring binder handle will help you move the flame adjuster around.
Thank you for the suggestion. Thank you for watching.
What about diameter of holes and numbers of holes and proportion of primary to secondary air to optimise
I’ve made burn barrels. Tryyto be thrifty using harbor freight step bit’s also, bought Brand name bit much much easier. Irwin brand middle of the road price, surprised how long it lasted. Love the videos ! Thanks
The only thing I would add are lock washers on your nuts and bolts because I have made some things like this and the expanding and contracting from heating and cooling caused things to work loose and want to fall apart without constantly keeping things tightened until I added lock washers which stopped the problem for the most part. Otherwise double up your nuts and tighten them down on each other works good too
Thank you for the suggestions. Happy New Year!
9:13 With just the tools you had, I’d have used the hole saw bit to drill a hole in the middle of the wood (you used to punch a deeper divet with the screw) at the end. Being the the step bit was smaller, the wood would have made a surface to press against, stopping the pot from deflecting, leading to a cleaner (no punch out on the inside) and cooler cut. With the step bit having a surface to fight against, it would have cut away more material instead of heating it and pushing it inside. Just my 2c 😁
The design is quite nice, I really like it.
Thanks, Luke. I appreciate the tips and feedback.
Very creative, love the idea. I wonder if this could scale up using a stainless steel 50 gal drum
Hi Bjorn. I think this concept would work just as well at the 50-gallon drum size. You’d just need bigger logs. :-) I may have to try that. Thank you for watching.
Smokeless Burn Barrel
ua-cam.com/video/07P-6gqYg2g/v-deo.html
Smokeless Fire Pit
ua-cam.com/video/DToPhKv2vYM/v-deo.html
SS drums are expensive, but it would be nice if you could find cheap surplus ones. I saw a regular steel 55 gallon drum version that worked well but of course it's going to rust out pretty quick.
There is a vid on here of a guy doing that... watched it the other day!
Excellent tip on the tinktube, been a contractor for over 30 years and have not seen this brand. I see a step-bit as a go-to as well, yours looks like a big box store or harbor freight one (same quality really). When I stepped up to a Milwauki step-bit it was a game changer.
Thank you for the feedback, John. I always appreciate hearing from the pros. Thank you for watching.
I'd use Greenlee hole punches for the holes. They are designed to make holes in electrical boxes and should be able to handle the job easily.
Thanks for the tip. I'll check into that. Thank you for watching.
yes, those hole punches are awesome. the hole is very, very clean too
Great to see that more people care about recycling even of small amounts of metal. I thought I'm the only idiot who picks up every nail and put it in the metal recycling ;-) Many greetings from Germany
Guten tag, mein freund. I do the same with the nails and bolts I find along the roadside. Lots of energy went into mining and refining. Much less needed to recycle it into something new. The small efforts add up. Thank you for watching.
Yeah man you were my hero putting granddad's oil on the jig saw cut line. As you've likely had commented, stainless likes it's loving slow. My dad and brother were installing security bars on gas pumps for a client. They went though so many drill bits. There were going through sheet stainless. Unfortunately they had a corded drill they used at twice the speed of light, I'd imagine. One day my brother said they had one pump to do but Dad was busy with all the tools. I worked alone with my own business. I said i could go by with my step bit and cordless DeWalt. My brother said he doubted the cordless could do it but we could see. On speed one my step bit crawled right through the sheet like it was nothing much to his but not my surprise! Yeah it takes some lessons but you'll learn slow gets you all you want from stainless with just one new bit and a little oil out of respect. Ha. Great job making you're own stuff! Feels good, doesn't it!?
It does feel good to make stuff! Thank you for the cool story. I learned a lot from the comments on this video. I’m still teachable. Lol. Thank you for watching and for the excellent feedback.
Really cool! Love how you try to be green where you can, as well.
Thank you. Little things can add up. Thanks for watching.
Thanks, man. This will be my next father n' son project in the weekend.
I have a stainless steel washer drum… zero cost and works like a champ
Make sure any metal you use for fire pits or anything similar is NOT galvanized. That is use UNGALVANIZED metal only. When galvanized metal gets hot, it gives off toxic Zinc fumes.
Spray the outside of one side of the pots with high temp flat black paint, and it will radiate out heat much better on that one side. The flat black (or other color) has less "emmissivity" so radiates much more heat where you might want it on a cold day. Rather than polished chrome color.
Gary! Excellent suggestion. Thank you! I'm going to do this. Thank you for watching.
Rev the drill when using a hole saw in SS. Don't aim for a high speed cut and use cutting fluid, it keeps the heat down and yr hole saw lasts longer 😁
Thanks for the tip! I appreciate the feedback!
Welcome back Tom. This was a nice video. Great way to repurpose scrap tinktube pieces into another project. Infinite adaptation. I’m sure you can find a circular wire grill to cover the opening. In future, when drilling into flexible metals, the wooden base is a better idea. Use the hole saw to drill a 1”+ hole in the 2x4. Place pot over the hole and allow the wood to support the sides while you perforate the metal.
You need to add toes to your “Eyes and Ears” mantra. Just trying to keep you safe out there. Wishing you and your family another blessed week, gentle autumn weather and restful evenings. Peace brother
I like the fact you use WHAT YOU HAVE IN THE TOOL SHED, AND SHOW USE YOUR MISTAKES….THATS COOL
Thank you, Herman. Mistakes are important learning opportunities too. I hope to help others avoid them. Thank you for watching.
Awesome build! And I am only teasing when I say nice flip flops safety 3rd. Thanks for sharing.
GreenShortz DIY, while I don't give a damn about the environment I can definitely see that you know what you are doing. Changing to the Step Bit was the right call. Thank you for the video.
Thanks for the feedback and for watching.
For not using precise calculations, it turned out rather well This is going to be one of my next projects. Cheers!
Not sure if you know this but typically, when you cut or drill stainless steel you use water as a lubricant. The water absorbs and dissipates the heat and makes cutting or drilling easier and faster.
Thank you, Andy. I appreciate the knowledge. Thank you for watching.
Water instead of oil?
@@jereasons yeah. It was a trick I learned from an ol’timer metal worker/ machinist. He told me when cutting other types of steel you can use cutting oil or an emulsified coolant. (The coolant typically used with CRC machines.) for the record, I’m not an expert but have learned a lot over the years working in facilities maintenance. So hope this helps.
Maybe a small stream of water onto the work area? I foresee running out of hands for cutting/drilling/cooling/work-holding.
Use milk as a lubricant for drilling and drill slowly with pressure
FYI
No hi RPM’s with stainless…
Toss the uni-bit.
Use cutting oil and your hole saw. Pulse the drill on & off, go slow as not to heat up the stainless steel.
It will go through like butter after a few slow turns.
Great tips. Thanks, Steve. Thank you for watching.
Well done man! Love the legs. Really cool to see it work right off the bat!
Many thanks for going through the trouble to film your work, much appreciated and really grateful
My pleasure! Thank you for watching.
Great to see you back!
Amazing what the right tools in the best shape can help you accomplish!
This project is above my tools and skill limit, but I enjoyed watching. I figure, eventually, when I understand the concepts...then maybe I can build something of my own.
More power to ya! Thank you for watching. :-)
I made a burn pit 20 inch X 20 inch .
Out of a SS washing machine tub.
Kind of smokeless, used it two times. It's shiny stainless but has turned a golden anodised brown color due to the heat.
It was free. Pre drilled. It is lightweight. And I'm adding a drop-in round grate ( cast iron) to act as an ash tray
@@missingremote4388 That really sounds great! This truly expands my thoughts about how I can have a safe and useful place outdoors to burn and cook and such. Thanks for your comment. I'm going to explore what kinds of material I have around that could serve this purpose.
@@missingremote4388 Quick question: do you use this above ground, or is it pitted into the ground? Some people use the turn burn "pit" to refer to above ground units.
@RL M it is above ground. Totally unmodified. Straight out of my own washing machine . Ex-wash machine.
I WILL make you a youtube video / after I get my 'drop-in Grate' . I do make videos on youtube.. but it's been 2 years or more since I posted one. Thanks
Really nice build and it looks like it works really well! Glad to see you back again too.
Ooo! thats a nice looking burner you got there, nice one
I appreciate your way of disposing the debris, see a nice soul cares about environment.
Could you try and test one optimization? One of the things I've learned is that shiny surfaces are not good at radiating heat; the more dull and non-reflective a surface is, the better it is at radiating thermal energy. For this reason, if you rough up the inner and outer surface of both pots (for example, with sand blasting) and then spray paint all but the inner surface of the inner pot with heat resistant black paint, your smokeless fire pit will become much more effective at radiating heat from the fire, making it more effective at warming the folks sitting around it. Otherwise, most of the heat just rises up and away as hot gases, with minimal heat radiating to the people around it.
I'd like to see what you think of this optimization. I would like even more to see it tested side-by-side with what you did in this video, as a test of whether or not this optimization is worth doing.
That is an interesting supposition. I will say that the stove does radiate pretty well, although a lot of heat is flowing upward. My initial thought is that the radiant heat has a lot to do with the mass of the metal. I see how a reflective surface might bounce back some of the heat carried by the light. The main challenge to the radiance of the stove is the air channel between to two pots. The faster the airflow, the more efficient the stove, but the less it radiates outward. Given that this element of the design is key for the clean burn, radiant heat might always come second. However, it is pleasantly warm sitting by the stove now and not smokey. I’m happy with that. Thank you for your feedback. Thank you for watching.
I wonder if you make ice in the pots that you want to drill- adds stability and cooling.
An interesting idea. I bet it would work. Thank you for sharing.
For these sorts of burners (gasifiers) you should use the top down method of lighting them.
Thank you for the tip, Mark. A good reminder.
I like that it's so much smaller than the ones in the stores
I'm looking for something like this that will fit in the jeep when I go camping. Being able to have a small fire and cook on it is great!
I think you go go down in size on this as well, if you needed to. Thank you for watching.
A video worth watching in its entirety. Well Done! Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Amazing how Jurgen Klopp finds time for such trivia while competing in Premier league! Respect.
😂😂😂😂. He has more time now.
Thank you. That was awesome. I am going to make one. Thank you
I was thinking of a grill or pot standoff. I'm gonna try to get mine through second hand sources. I'm almost done with a smaller stove using cans.
Good luck with your build. Thank you for watching.
Great idea! The company Dancook has even built a smoker with this principle of air supply. I have one of these and it doesn't use half the charcoal that it would otherwise. I think this oven would then have to be similarly economical. Greetings from good, old Germany 🙂
Guten tag! Ich spreche ein bissien Deutsch. :-) I studied two years of German in high school (der Gymnasium). Thank you for sharing your experience. Thank you for watching.
Harbor Freight sells a set of punch dies that would make short work of the holes.
That's a very nice looking fire, and very neat job. I want to ask something if I may, if you put some sort of pan or wok holder on the top and use it like a stove, will it disrupt the airflow and making the fire smoke?
I have made quite a few gasifier camp stoves in the past, just not quite as big. From my experience putting a pot holder does restrict airflow a bit depending on how high it is. I'm guessing maybe 1 FT. above the above the top of the stove would be ok . It will probably still smoke a bit but would probably still work.
@@thewoodlandforge9217 that's very helpful, thank you so much
This is awesome, if I wasn’t so lazy I’d make one, but for now I’ll just buy one that is ready to go 😂❤
I did something similar when making a rocket stove from a coffee tin. I printed out the pattern for the holes on sheets of paper pasted on to the surface of the tin as a template for perfectly spaced and even sized holes. I also had to punch a pilot dent with a nail and then drill successively larger holes. Since my surface was covered with holes, I had to support the inside with wooden 2x4's in order to stop bending and misshaping the stove. The correct way to punch those holes will be with a hydraulic punch but that was outside of my scope of operations.
The alternative to your brackets would be to find any metal pipe that will fit snugly between the two chambers and cut that into 1½" segments riveted from the outside of the outer chamber on the bottom and sides of the outer chamber (3 on the side and 2 on the bottom) allowing the inner chamber to slide into place with a little play to allow for warping and expansion when hot.
For a pot-stand I would take a standard diamond-shaped metal grid cut to size to cover the top and with L-brackets attached on the edges to stop it from sliding off. I would make second grid that will become greasy by placing meat and sausages directly on for grilling. If you cut thicker logs to less than 3" stumps you can get some coals going for even-burn cooking though charcoal will also work.
You might want to experiment with a system where you can slide in a removable radiator of copper tubing between the two layers to create a hot-water system when camping.
To set your stove on fire you might want to experiment with cotton balls covered in petroleum jelly (vaseline) where you can light the ball and drop it onto your tinder comprising of leaves, twigs and paper crumpled into balls. You can store fire-starter cotton balls in a jar that is stored inside of your stove when not in use.
I have been regularly using that stove using ethanol-based gel-fuel (similar to Covid hand sanitiser) for the past fifteen years. The fuel is placed in an empty tuna can suspended on a wire platform about a third from the bottom of the tin. Alternate fuels I have experimented with where alcohol spirits and diesel or paraffin into a tuna tin filled with sand to regulate the burn.
Great explanation and tips. Thank you, Casper.
maybe make the opening smaller on top, add smaller pieces of wood and light it from above, the wood should not keep burning itself but it should create lot of gasses, that are sucked into the outer shell heated and rise and mix with air and light the gas again on the top. works perfect with wood pellets.. you will get only flames from the top if it works perfect.
but for pellets the holes are now to big, you could add some Stainless mesh to make holes smaller
This big version .. 🍺🍻great work.. love this ❤🙏👍
Thank you for watching, Nikko. 😀😀😀
@@GreenShortzDIY my pleasure 🙏🙏❤
Instead of step drill, use Greenlee punch. You can rent it from a hardware store
I just saw this video that says clay can be made insulative by mixing in little grains of charcoal, the size of pebbles. When the clay is fired its charcoal burns up, leaving behind air gaps. About 30% of the mix should be charcoal, and another 30% ceramic powder.
That is a very nice cooker and nicely done
Some great food is going to be cooked on that. And good stories and memories.
You got that right! Thank you for watching.
Great stuff. Inspired me tremendously.
Thank you for sharing. It looks good. The solo stove has holes at the top for a secondary burn. May I ask why you chose not to add the holes at the top?
I've heard when drilling hollow containers you can fill them with wet sand i think the holes stay clean
Thanks for the tip. Thank you for watching.
What a fantastic addition to a traditional fireplace to improve efficiency 😃👍
Like it!
Good job.
Carbide bits and cutters are easier to use on stainless.
Thank you for the tips. Thanks for watching.
A slug cutter like electricians use for electrical enclosures would make a tidy job of the big holes in the inner pot
La orana. Will use this in my video today. Thank you for watching.
A DIY Smokeless Fire Pit From Cheap Stainless Steel Pots… love it!
Thank you for watching.
Your design and detail is wonderful. The tools and the approach to using them is wonderful also. Now with all the video you are presenting like most people can make this item. I think most people will not be in a position to make one of these. So taht gets me to this question. Where can I purchase one please tell me>>>>>
Do you think water could be heated up with this thru copper tubing inside or outside the burn chamber?
I think either would work. I think outside would be easier to set up. Inside would be more efficient. A coil on top might be even better, but if it ever lost water, could melt. An interesting idea. Thank you for watching.
Please include green tips! Love them
I can’t help myself. :-)
I knew someone would figure this out sooner or later
Thank you for watching. This still needs some tweaking, but I’m happy with the performance.
Idea: Drill ventilation holes in the inner pot close to the bottom. Before cutting out the bottom from the outer pot - drill first many ventilation holes. Add 3-4 bolts as spacers. After use it as removable bottom in the inner pot to improve and even the supply of oxygen 8). Thank you. TY
Greetings! I've watched over 25 DIY videos on this but yours I keep coming back to as a guide. In the last 2 weeks I've built a few of these at various sizes.
Each build gets better. Being smokeless has been achieved. I'm not happy with the build though. Getting ready to go now with a 20l oil tin and a 15l stainless steel stock pot.
What would you improve on doing this again? Specifics will be greatly appreciated! Give thanks for the video. It created a firey passion in me for creating such beautiful art.
Cool! I’m happy you were inspired to make some fire. Fire in itself is a beautiful thing! Two things to think about that might improve performance. The more narrow the space between your two pots/tins, the hotter the secondary air can get and the better the secondary burn. I also think a ring of holes around the inside top would work better than the 2cm air gap I left all around. I did that to save work, but the holes will serve better as jets, forcing the air deeper into the center of the fire. I’ve seen this on others’ projects. I need to try that on my own. Good luck with your projects. Let me know what works for you. Thank you for watching.
If you paint the outside of the stove with a high temp paint of some kind, it will radiate more IR through.
If you have a grinder, and a cutting wheel, you can sharpen the cutting edge of your stepdrill after burning it up. You will get a bit more life out of it before it is junk. Better than recycling, is resharpening. I saw a video where a ceramic sparkplug was used as a friction drill, heating the metal to red and forcing the metal out of the way to form a hole. This leaves a very heavy sharp burr, which can be removed by grinding, or is good to tap threads into, due to the longer threaded length.
Greats tips, Richard. Thank you. Thanks for watching.
That was a great build and it worked well.
Thank you. Thank you for watching.
Great tutorial/DIY experiment! I appreciate you learning as you go and showing us the little things. Now what brings me here is I've missed having a fire pit for years, but I have two steel containers with handles from Home Depot about 3' diameter at the opening that narrows maybe 10 degrees slope. I bought them ~6 years ago to try growing some peppers in a semi-mobile container, but I didn't have success with the one I tested as a planter, so I'm hoping to combine the two into a DIY smokeless socializing fire setup outside my apartment.
As far as the physics goes, is the upper lip that bends inward and overlaps the inner diameter barrel crucial to the formula?
Always enjoy your videos thanks for all the good ideas❤.God bless you and yours
You are so welcome. Thank you for watching.
Very nice design and video. My only suggestion is to add metal brackets so that an external handle can be used to move if necessary. Also, I like to cook on my stove, so I added three vertical legs on top the fire pit to be used as a spacer for my wok or any cooking pan to fit on. Works great!
Thank for the tip! Thank you for watching.
Yeah maybe just leave the original handles on the outer pot
I'm thinking the grill of a small Weber portable BBQ or similar would fit on top. Placing 3 legs down around pot will stabilize grill.
The ones I've made, I've used as top down fires meaning, stacking/piling what you going to burn and lighting the top. if you light bottom and dump on top your going either have smoke or raging fire.
Nice One i like building stoves myself too👍
Thank you for watching.
It's time for me to buy the stuff to make this.
Been wanting a smokeless fire pit for a while now.
I'm fabricating meself one.
Thanks!
Good luck with your build. Thank you for watching.
ISN'T THAT THE SAME AS A ROCKET STOVE? YOU DID A GREAT JOB. WOULD YOU MAKE ME ONE? THANKS
Very cool project. I might try this one myself
Go for it! Thank you for watching.
Maybe a cone type chimney baking the top about half the size would create more draw from the bottom, and would ignite the gasses more and be much more efficient.
As others have stated, drill slow with lots of pressure for metals. Those step bits are incredible for debuting holes. Drill your hole then hit it from the back with the step bit.
Thank you. I was the opposite of slow. :-) Thank you for watching.
For cleaning up the inside cut on the burnbarrel, I'd just use a flap disc in my grinder.
i wish you put all part list in description of this video! thank you!
Sorry I hadn’t done that. I saw your other comment that said you picked up some pots, so it sounds like you figured it out. Good luck with your build.
Try using low speed on your drill on stainless. Upgrade your bits and water helps to keep cool better than oil. Nice video!!
Thanks for the tip! I appreciate the feedback!
I would have used a knock out punch. They make a real clean cut with minimal effort up to 1/4 inch thick metal
Use the bottom cutout to make a suspended grill top. Could even perforate it.
This looks like it could be turned into a wok burner pretty easily with some kind of wok ring attached to the top.
Usefull for green energi. Sayonara LPG..👍👍👍
This is a gasification stove or fire. I built one similar to it using an old drier drum and a smaller inner pot. Mine had the inner drum up against the underside of the outer drum, and about 50 smaller holes around the top of the inner drum two inches down. Because so much air could get into it, when it roared it ROARED!!! And because of the inner dynamics of the drier drum, the flames travelled in a circular motion. It also chugged like a steam train when it got really hot, lol.
You can also build a smaller version of this that will fit in a backpack using an old dog food can and, or an old can of beans or corn.
Another thought...reattaching handles to bottom sides of lge pot makes for conv carring when cool....
This type of vessel is great for getting a fire burning, but I’ve wondered if it really does provide much warmth for cold weather camping and such. You’re is shorts and t-shirt in this video, so what do you think? Can you determine whether it’s enough of a heat source for cold weather?
That is an excellent question. I will say that it does radiate heat fairly well, but again that’s in shorts weather. I’d estimate that a good bit more heat goes up instead of out due to the airflow, which is key to this design. To make it more radiant, I think I’d need to add more mass to sink some heat into. That is an interesting design challenge. You’ve got me thinking. Stay tuned. :-)
@@GreenShortzDIY I definitely will. I’m excited to see what you come up with for us.
to make metal like that easier to drill you should have used the wooden board for support it would have kept the metal from flexing and provided a backstop, just screw down some sacrificial wood to the top of the good board drill a couple holes, it would also make the hole saw bit work better on the pot, although you can still use the step bit if you wanted to, then when the wood looses structural integrity, take off the sacrificial wood and screw another piece of scrap wood to the good board.
i bout 16qt and 20qt for 49,90 this going to be amazing project!! thank you!!!
Nice!!! Have fun with your build. What I learned from making this video (from commenters), was slower drilling speeds and higher pressure work best on the stainless. Thank you for watching.
It would be nice to make it ADJUSTABLE for firesize. Raising or lowering the upper pot would restrain the intake air, AND the secondary air flow. Maybe making the flame size adjustable.
Curious to see. Thanks.