I Perfected The DIY Smokeless Fire Pit That Works

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I like that a life insurance company saw one of your videos and said "This, this is the perfect place to find people who should have life insurance."

In the event you were ever curious how an aerospace engineer would approach this, here's my input. Naturally step 1 would be to review all available material, thus I watched your previous two videos. 😁 Step 2, address where the smoke comes from. This being a process where fire is involved and relatively simple, it's incomplete combustion of the chosen fuel (wood, waste products, yard refuse, etc.). To knock it up a notch, you can go hog wild with calculations based on the dimensions of your 'combustor' (inner/outer diameter, height and material tolerances) to figure out not only optimal burn temperature, but also to know precisely how much air your fire could optimally consume to provide the most complete consumption of fuel and air mix. Since that's rather tedious, let's just optimize for three feet and essentially unlimited volume at standard atmospheric pressure (14.7psi at sea level). Leaving an air gap between your exterior material and inner combustion ring, (two inches for this diameter should be plenty) your primary holes (largest at 3-4" above ground level) could be up to a convenient hole size drill, let's say 2", spaced equally apart around the base diameter. Moving up to midpoint on your inner combustor (called secondary air here) reduce hole size by 1/2" and increase space between the holes by the same measurement. If you are so inclined to torture yourself, you can run a third ring near the top, two inches from the rim, and reduce your hole size by half of your secondary selection, spaced in equal measurement to this tertiary dimension drill size and run two rows in full circumference, slightly offset of one another. You can also save a fair amount of work as well as tool fatigue and just cut vertical slats with an angle grinder in length equal to what the final dimensions would be of the two combined rows top to bottom. End result, a completely passive method of air control to burn an extremely hot inner ring of fire and death to any would-be fuel leaving no remaining source of smoke. Small caveat, the further away you are from sea level geographically, available atmospheric oxygen naturally reduces at higher elevation, i.e., your holes need to be larger. 😉 On coatings for the metal ring, the ceramic-containing spray paints found in hardware and automotive stores work fine so long as your follow the application directions stringently. Longish story shortish, there's normally several application steps with heat cycles in between at given durations and min/max temperature variations that allow the coating to cure correctly. If you're in a hurray for a dinner party, one of the best natural coatings from nature is simply a carbon barrier, which can be achieved by slathering on a combustible, sticky fuel (for instance a mix of lamp oil/kerosene and lard). Set it ablaze and let the charred outer crust burn all the way to the metal. If you have the time, scrape off the first coat's flaky bits and repeat. If your primary fuel for your firepit is going to be wood, this will happen over time anyway, but this 'primer' is a great way to jumpstart the process.

When you clean up those metal drill shavings you should use a big magnet (Neodymium) with some plastic wrapped around it. Just pick up all the shavings and pull off the plastic over your waste basket. I have granddaughters that don't seem to know what shoes are for and this really helps to get rid of the shavings. Great video.

Ever since a friend forwarded me your Smokeless Fir Pit a year ago, it has been a dream to make it. I am not very hand it and it felt like a huge task. You made the directions so easy. I finished it a week ago. It took me 4 hours to do. Last night we built a huge fire. It was perfect. It is the first outdoor fire I have made where I did not smell like a campfire. I am blown away. Thank you so much Haxman!

I actually recently built a fire pit. I used bricks and put a gap in between each one of the base layer. I may eventually add an inner ring, but so far it's working great! awesome video as usual!

Your sister and brother n law had firepit envy. Now steps in the good brother. I've seen far to many estranged siblings and family, im rather glad to see such a good example. Driving 2 hours one way 3 times for a fire pit for the simple pleasure of doing something for a sibling is special.

Stumbled upon your content tonight and I couldn’t be happier. Very informative, detailed, and easy to watch/follow along… keep up the great content 👍🏻

Thank you! I followed your plan with some mods. Works well. I used lava rock on the bottom, that allows a little air to come from the bottom of the ring. The fires light a lot faster that way. I also cut trapezoids out of rectangular 10" flat piece pavers, that fit like a key on the top. Peace, my brother

It's kinda nice to see somebody else fail at measuring and having a project get blown up. Everytime it happens it's so discouraging--especially when it's like a 2 hour trip both ways. Cool to see the finished product after all that! Thanks for posting the whole thing and not editing that out!

I used these videos to make my smokeless firepit and it turned out perfect. 😊

I'm using you're fire pit video series as the model for perfecting mine. Thank you for sharing!

Did mine like this after I watched your first smokeless pit video a couple years ago with that black ring and later made a wood lid (my wife was inspired by a Pinterest post)to cover it for from the weather. Very happy with it. Thanks for the know how and inspiration! Get that fire burning👍🏻 🔥

you can wrap that magnetic broom with a paper towel or rag or something and not have to deal with picking off all the little bits of steel shavings from the drilling.

I was glad to see that you used the top caps that you made. It just cleans up that whole look. Great Job.

Great series of videos. Also I wanted to pass on an idea my neighbor had for great homemade fire starters. Start will an cardboard egg carton then fill it with melted paraffin. Cut into individual sections and what you have is basically a candle. When pouring the paraffin put the top of the egg carton underneath as it will leak.I use these and they work great. Try this and if you like the way they work maby make a video to share the idea with your viewers.Thanks for the videos and have a great day.

My wife and I just built our own Smokeless fire pit because we were inspired by videos just like yours. We also used a 36 inch steel insert but we went with a square design. You are definitely right when you say you have to make a fire that "fills" the entire pit to get the proper heating for the secondary burn. Great design! Great aesthetic! We love ours. Thanks for the inspiration 😁

This video series has been some serious firepit goals. Definitely going to be my framework when I go to replace mine down the line.

I place a patio stone in my fireplace, that way It gives me a 2 inch elevation if it recently rained and when cleaning out the pit, I am not scooping up a bunch of small stones. Keep making great videos.

One year update…..THIS THING KICKS ASS! Lol. Definitely a great DIY project and backyard addition. One thing to keep in mind, the larger you make this, the more wood you’ll need. I went with a 36inch ring. Great size. But for the “smokeless” feature to work you MUST get the ring hot. This takes time. And wood. But once it’s going, man it’s magic!