How to Make a Fire-Pit Barrel
- 1). Measure up 6 inches from the bottom of your wine barrel. Draw a grease pencil line around the barrel at this point. Firmly push your electric handsaw blade into the line and draw it slowly around the grease line to cut away the bottom of the barrel. This gives the barrel a broader base and makes it easier to seat in the ground later.
- 2). Dig a hole in your fire-pit location about 12 inches deep and 4 or 5 inches wider than the widest point in your barrel. For a barrel 36 inches wide at its widest point, your hole must be about 41 inches wide.
- 3). Slide the barrel into the hole. Slide a washing machine drum or tractor rim into the barrel to act as a heat insulator. Both items are large, hollow, steel cylinders. Either one should fit easily into a large wooden barrel; the lip of either item should sit on the barrel's rim.
- 4). Fill in the gaps around the outside of your barrel with soil. Pack the soil down firmly. If desired, you can disguise the seam between the soil and the bottom of your barrel with large stones. This gives the pit an extra rustic touch and helps keep it in place.
- 5). Fill the bottom 4 inches of your fire pit with small gravel. Pour sand in on top of that and stir the gravel gently with your hands so the sand gets into the cracks. Add enough sand to create a 3-inch layer on top of the gravel.
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