DCB Episode 8 - Outdoor Firepit

[LECS-Chad]

Firepit this... Firepit that... Round, Square, Octagon!!! AAAHHHH...

So I'm tired of all the same firepits/places cloggin up the social media and making my creative gerbil sad. I scoured the internet for a different design and found a few that I liked and a lot I didn't. Then thought about the ambiance that a firepit brings to "your" place and felt I would think around the fire instead of what is in it.

Bring on the shapes!

This is the build of materials we used for this project.

Equipment:

• Torchmate 4800 w/ FlexCut 125
• PowerMig 210 MP Multiprocess Welder
• Angle grinder
• Hi Temp Paint

Material used: (total)

• (1) 4' x 8' 11 ga. HRPO

Geometric shapes have been used for a lot of things and I thought for this project would be great for the shadows of the fire to display a show. So finding geometric shapes and VECTORIZING them into a usable file was easy and getting them into the design took a little WELDING in the TMCAD to fit into my firepit design.



Once I determined the overall size of the firepit ( 24" wide, 36" tall, 20" deep) I was able to get the shapes into the areas with the most impact. Nice part was the top fitting inside the wood opening. I sequenced the part to make sure it cut the top out prior to the rest of the design.



The bottom tray was mocked up with some thinner material to verify the angles and broken apart for welding purposes.




Unfortunately we were not able to light this bad boy up in the shop for photos. Once we get this thing outside we will provide the "action" photos along with the shadows it will create.

Fire it up!

Chad

 

[Mike Pennington]

Another Great project.
Thanks
Mike

 

[Larry Cameron]

Hi guys, I think you do a great job of creating new items for us all to make and appreciate the effort in providing the files and pics and photos, videos using the new cnc machines. A+++

BUT I noticed that if you zoom in on your new Firepit, the cutting is less than satisfactory to say the least. The pierce points are very noticeable and the cutting of a lot of the cuts are actually terribly crooked and not even or smooth cut.
The pierce points could have been better placed to hide the divot.
Some of the cuts are just shocking looking at the pic included.
Don't get me wrong as I am one of your biggest fans and supporters but guys, the motion control is requiring some work to smooth out the cuts. This is not good advertising of your product.
Please let me know your thoughts.

Larry Cameron

 

[LECS-Chad]

Hi guys, I think you do a great job of creating new items for us all to make and appreciate the effort in providing the files and pics and photos, videos using the new cnc machines. A+++

BUT I noticed that if you zoom in on your new Firepit, the cutting is less than satisfactory to say the least. The pierce points are very noticeable and the cutting of a lot of the cuts are actually terribly crooked and not even or smooth cut.
The pierce points could have been better placed to hide the divot.
Some of the cuts are just shocking looking at the pic included.
Don't get me wrong as I am one of your biggest fans and supporters but guys, the motion control is requiring some work to smooth out the cuts. This is not good advertising of your product.
Please let me know your thoughts.

Larry CameronView attachment 1503

Good for you to notice but there is a lot of thought that go into these designs and being an "cut quality" person I can appreciate your observation.

As the "circular" design I used didn't have the most perfect shapes and did have some variation for each piece. Not one of them was a "set up" shape. Plus being the average size around .5" tall I created a ONLINE tool path for the smaller sizes as there wasn't a lead in to be had in them anyway.




But also the variation of the pieces was kind of the point for this as its an artsy fire pit... so perfect shapes wasn't in the agenda.

The other design I used was a nice smooth output along with straighter lines.



So all in all the "look" of the fire pit came out as I expected and my creative gerbil won the race for this design.

Thanks again for your input on this.

 

[sldrummer]

Clean, unique design. Good Job!

 

[Cypress]

That is awesome.

 

[tuff7018]

Great Build!! My students are already to get started first thing in the morning to make a couple of these. They asked if you had the file for the shop chairs seen in your video? They thought those were cool as well.

 

[Larry Cameron]

Good for you to notice but there is a lot of thought that go into these designs and being an "cut quality" person I can appreciate your observation.

As the "circular" design I used didn't have the most perfect shapes and did have some variation for each piece. Not one of them was a "set up" shape. Plus being the average size around .5" tall I created a ONLINE tool path for the smaller sizes as there wasn't a lead in to be had in them anyway.

View attachment 1504
View attachment 1507

But also the variation of the pieces was kind of the point for this as its an artsy fire pit... so perfect shapes wasn't in the agenda.

The other design I used was a nice smooth output along with straighter lines.

View attachment 1506

So all in all the "look" of the fire pit came out as I expected and my creative gerbil won the race for this design.

Thanks again for your input on this.

Ahhhh I see. Thanks for clarifying the design. I give my un-needed check of approval.
And once again, great project and appreciation for all you guys and girls and Lincoln/Torchmate.

Cheers
Larry Cameron

 

[Larry Cameron]

Good for you to notice but there is a lot of thought that go into these designs and being an "cut quality" person I can appreciate your observation.

As the "circular" design I used didn't have the most perfect shapes and did have some variation for each piece. Not one of them was a "set up" shape. Plus being the average size around .5" tall I created a ONLINE tool path for the smaller sizes as there wasn't a lead in to be had in them anyway.

View attachment 1504
View attachment 1507

But also the variation of the pieces was kind of the point for this as its an artsy fire pit... so perfect shapes wasn't in the agenda.

The other design I used was a nice smooth output along with straighter lines.

View attachment 1506

So all in all the "look" of the fire pit came out as I expected and my creative gerbil won the race for this design.

Thanks again for your input on this.

1 more quick question.
I was under the impression from Torchmate that we should use a 90Degree lead in vs the Arc. I notice you use the arc lead-in. Any particular reason?

Larry Cameron

 

[Kchoghead]

I use a 45 degree leadin but sometimes have divots on the back of the piece

 

[LECS-Chad]

Im a big ARC leadin person. Easing the head into the cut path makes me feel a little better than doing a straight line/hard movement.

 

[LECS Mark]

Great Build!! My students are already to get started first thing in the morning to make a couple of these. They asked if you had the file for the shop chairs seen in your video? They thought those were cool as well.

Make sure you post pictures of your finished projects! We'd love to see how you do them.

 

[2CUTS2GO]

Nice job, I will be making one Thanks for project.

 

[Littleman]

Is there a file or build for the stools seen in project 8.

Fire pit looks good.

 

[LECS-Chad]

Is there a file or build for the stools seen in project 8.

Fire pit looks good.

Stools are pretty much the same thing...

 

[ryan.k]

Hey guys, I just tried cutting this out with my 4800. I received an error code about half way through cutting the design (40 minutes worth of cutting). the error comes up as "limit exceeded in Z". I clicked "OK" then "run job" to restart where it left off but it went back to the beginning! anything you can tell me to fix this error?

thanks,
Ryan

 

[Schutte]

Couple of my advanced students completed this project using our 4x4 torchmate. Was donated to a local family for a raffle for cancer patient.

 

[LECS-Chad]

That is a great design along with all of the customization options for the designs. Great work. keep them coming.

 

[EERCO]

Just learning.... what tips and settings were used for this project Chad?

 

[LECS-Chad]

Just learning.... what tips and settings were used for this project Chad?

45 amp with the FC 125.