Using an old Kettle as a fire pit?


 
Kyle in Woodstock said:
Sand in the bottom of the bowl, or under the bowl? Seems like if you put it in the bottom of bowl you would have to keep adding more after you cleaned out old ash
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On the bottom, I do that on all my metal fire pits. Ash is lite so it's pretty easy to scoop out with a flat shaped fireplace shovel.

Tim
 
I have an old pretty worn out bowl from a 26" kettle. No lid for it. You think the bowl would hold up if I kept it outside in the elements with no lid? Occasionally using it as a fire pit.
Or should I try to make some sort of lid out of scrap wood to keep it somewhat covered when not in use?
 
Kyle in Woodstock said:
I have an old pretty worn out bowl from a 26" kettle. No lid for it. You think the bowl would hold up if I kept it outside in the elements with no lid? Occasionally using it as a fire pit.
Or should I try to make some sort of lid out of scrap wood to keep it somewhat covered when not in use?
Click to expand...

I don't know why it wouldn't hold up. The inside is porcelain enameled just like the lid and the elements don't kill kettles. Not in my experience, anyway. I'd leave the vents open so water doesn't sit in it, but otherwise I wouldn't think it would be a problem.
 
MikeLucky said:
I don't know why it wouldn't hold up. The inside is porcelain enameled just like the lid and the elements don't kill kettles. Not in my experience, anyway. I'd leave the vents open so water doesn't sit in it, but otherwise I wouldn't think it would be a problem.
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That's what I was thinking too. I'm actually taking the one touch blades completely off so I think I'll be good. Going to keep the worn out charcoal grate for that bowl hanging on a hook under the deck when I'm not using it. Figured it might help keep the grate from rusting completely out
 
Kyle in Woodstock said:
I have an old pretty worn out bowl from a 26" kettle. No lid for it. You think the bowl would hold up if I kept it outside in the elements with no lid? Occasionally using it as a fire pit.
Or should I try to make some sort of lid out of scrap wood to keep it somewhat covered when not in use?
Click to expand...
Just how worn out is it? If it's a vintage 26" it might still have life as a restoration project.
 
Brad Olson said:
Just how worn out is it? If it's a vintage 26" it might still have life as a restoration project.
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It's 9 years old, has a lot of "crazing"... Think that's the right word... basically the outside of the kettle has some pretty bad burn through and is cracking the porcelain. Before I put it outside I'm going to sand and high temp paint the bad areas. Going to surround it with landscape bricks so no one will notice anyways.
Weber sent me a replacement bowl, just want to put the old bowl to good use.
 
For those of you that have built a firepit out of an old kettle....

If you surrounded your old kettle with landscaping bricks, did you leave a space somewhere on the bottom row of bricks to help with air flow?
I havent set mine in its final position, but did quickly throw some bricks around the kettle. I spaced the bricks really far apart, doesn't look good but it did a fine job burning a bunch of old leaves and branches this weekend.

I also put some bigger rocks under the bottom of the kettle....didn't want to have it resting on dirt. Was thinking I should make some really short legs out of copper pipe or something like that.....maybe 6" or shorter to get it off the ground.
 
Finally got it done. Cut about 3-3.5 inches off the bottom of one leg and then cut the other two to match. Bought end caps at Home Depot.

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Took off the ash catcher. And, it's a fantastic fire pit.
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I did same thing, but cut legs even shorter. I surrounded the kettle with the some landscaping bricks too. I'll try to post some pictures later this week.

You kept the charcoal grate in there, right? You just let the ashes fall to the ground?
 
I've been using my Smokey Joe Platinum as both a grill and a firepit for years. After I finish up a cook I take off the cooking grate and put on some firewood.

The lid is great for directing heat toward my wife and I as we sit around the fire. I'll take it off if we have company so everyone gathered around gets a view of the fire. At the end of the evening I close the lid to extinguish it.

After years of use the kettle still looks great.
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Kyle in Woodstock said:
Might be better to try and find some kind of tubing at Home Depot the same diameter as the legs and cut that to size and use as fire pit legs...then at least you'll have the original legs to throw back on if you ever wanted to convert back to a cooker.

I'll be doing this probably sometime this spring/summer after I've procured a cheap older kettle to play with.
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I read a post where a guy used shower curtain rod cheap and if made a mistake easy to redo he cut his at 20 inches I think.
 
Kevin L (NKY) said:
I read a post where a guy used shower curtain rod cheap and if made a mistake easy to redo he cut his at 20 inches I think.
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i actually just used a wooden dowel rod, was like $4. even if the legs burn up somehow no bug deal.... i have some landscaping brick surrounding the kettle, works pretty well
 
So burned some scrap wood today. Pretty sure my leg brackets broke off. They were very loose and in bad shape to begin with. Think I'll just throw some gravel under the bowl and do it that way....until I find a better bowl to use

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I just put mine together. Now we wait until September to fire it up. It's going to be in the 80's in the evenings until then.

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Very nice, I’m going to do this. I want to do some S’mores with the kids in the backyard, I’m going to use my old green kettle, not sure about chopping it down as I like the idea of the ash catcher still being on.

Any suggestions? Can I lower it by trimming some off the top of the legs and keep the ash catcher?
 
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So just looked at the old boy, it’s an old one touch gold and I’m thinking about starting with 6” off the top legs, can’t see any reason this wouldn’t work. Am I missing any math? Shouldn’t 6” off each leg keep everything level? Do you think the wheels would burn?
thanks again for any help. May do this this weekend.
Such a great way to re-use something that I probably would never use to grill.
 
Bruno said:
So just looked at the old boy, it’s an old one touch gold and I’m thinking about starting with 6” off the top legs, can’t see any reason this wouldn’t work. Am I missing any math? Shouldn’t 6” off each leg keep everything level? Do you think the wheels would burn?
thanks again for any help. May do this this weekend.
Such a great way to re-use something that I probably would never use to grill.
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You won't be able to use the wheels and wire grate from the bottom when you cut the legs down. Take one leg and cut it down, then use it as a template for the other two. Make sure to hold them together at the top and cut off the bottom. One leg is shorter than the other two so make sure the cut is measured from the top.
 
MikeLucky said:
You won't be able to use the wheels and wire grate from the bottom when you cut the legs down. Take one leg and cut it down, then use it as a template for the other two. Make sure to hold them together at the top and cut off the bottom. One leg is shorter than the other two so make sure the cut is measured from the top.
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Thanks, well give our first go at it as it is then, see if the boys can see enough fire and they should have no problem reaching with there S’mores sticks. The kettle sits pretty low as it is, which is why I switched to a master built.
 
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