r/mining • u/Popular_Speed5838 • Aug 25 '25
Australia The neighbour got me a “fire pit” from the local coal mines. It’ll need to be dug in like his with some sandstone seating blocks around it, but with that done it’ll be pretty awesome.
The local pub has
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u/Obaldes Aug 25 '25
Nice backyard btw:)
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u/Popular_Speed5838 Aug 25 '25
Thankyou. It’ll be a bit more organised and nice soon, if it ever stops raining for more than a day. The slab directly behind the pit is for a 3x2.2 colourbond chicken coop and the slab up to the far right (behind the metal sheets near the clothesline) is for a 3x3 shed.
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u/calgeobar Aug 25 '25
Our brand was Wemco. Used these a lot for firepits in western Canada in the eighties. Very prized to have one in your back yard back then. Stainless steel so they didn't rust. Worked great.
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u/Unseen-metalhead351 Aug 25 '25
You’ll haft to open it up a bit. They can be roaring on the inside and stone cold outside.
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u/Effective-Tour-656 Aug 28 '25
Haft?
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u/Unseen-metalhead351 Aug 28 '25
Australian for have to
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u/Effective-Tour-656 Aug 28 '25
Haha, yeah, I'm Australian, and I've never seen it. But I get it. I thought you might literally spell it like we say it.
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u/colin_1_ Aug 25 '25
Those make the BEST fire pits! They're usually stainless steel too.
We used to cut them and make two fire pits from them. Sink them a foot in the ground. I remember there being a long waiting list of people at the mine wanting one.
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u/sachel85 Aug 25 '25
what did it come off of?
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u/Popular_Speed5838 Aug 25 '25
I’m not sure, I’m not in the mines but they’re common. You see them around town, lots of people use them as fire pits. Apparently there’s a couple of sizes. The metal forklift skids on the bottom are welded on for transport, the bottom plate is bolted on but they’ll all be removed, mainly to reduce weight for when I place and level it.
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Aug 25 '25
Even though it looks like there should be sufficient air flow in the gaps for a fire pit, many people still have to cut some 'windows' out of the sides to make it more effective.
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u/unclewombie Aug 25 '25
My mate has exact same. He welded on some grills and cooks on his, he also has this chain thing and hangs meat to smoke or slowly cook or something - dunno but it tastes fuckin good!
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u/vtminer78 Aug 25 '25
My buddy has one that we tried and TBH, they suck for anything more than a pretty flame. Most of the heat goes straight up. Even the pretty flame part is iffy. It's hard to get air to the bottom of the fire unless you install a blower and piping.
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u/Popular_Speed5838 Aug 26 '25
I’ve seen them working. You need ventilation from the side or bottom. Side in my case as it will be filled at least halfway with sand. A particularly wide put appeals to me, a particularly deep one not so much.
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u/Sweaty-Measurement-7 Aug 25 '25
Well someone’s going to be looking for a new home when this thing has a meltdown
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u/Popular_Speed5838 Aug 26 '25
Funnily enough, we have a new build in an old part of town because the old house burned down. Not us, it was years back.
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u/Leonydas13 Aug 26 '25
If you leave it raised, you can fit a sweet grill rack that swivels over it. I had a friend when I was younger who had a rock crusher bowl like this as a fire pit, and he’d built a swivelling rack on one side of it, that could hold a hot plate. We cooked ribs on it. This would’ve been about 10 or more years ago, and I still remember those ribs.
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u/Popular_Speed5838 Aug 26 '25
I was thinking that I’d fit a volume of sand large enough to cook a piglet and sides NZ Hangi style. It’d be easy enough to shovel out some sand and putting the heating rocks/stones in on the morning of. I’ve only seen it done with pigs in the ground but scaling down I think a piglet would work.
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u/Lonely_Tell4988 Aug 26 '25
That’s huge… hours of fun
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u/Popular_Speed5838 Aug 26 '25
Apparently the one at the pub doesn’t go out once they light it at the start of the season, they just stoke it up each day until the weather gets warmer.
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u/OmniiOMEGA Aug 26 '25
How do you clean it? 🤔
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u/Popular_Speed5838 Aug 26 '25
The wife’s toothbrush is the current plan. Honestly though, I’m thinking cleaning it will involve taking a wheelbarrow full of ash/charcoal/sand mixture to the compost heap sometimes.
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u/Acceptable_Land_Grab Aug 26 '25
Seems like people are pointing out the downside of the heat going straight up, the upside to that though is the sides never get really hot. Great for when kids are running around the fire!
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u/Popular_Speed5838 Aug 26 '25
I’d considered kids and safety (grandkids mainly) but not that as a solution. I was actually thinking about things like internally buried earthenware pipes venting from custom holes in the mesh to increase the efficiency. Having heard your opinion I’m thinking that may actually work to keep the heat away from the metal to at least some degree.
Whatever path I choose it will no doubt work a bit differently to what I’ve planned though. I live a life of compromises due to a middling level of man skill competence.
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u/ABigGoy4U Aug 26 '25
I widerally just obtained the exact same thing
Now I have to make penrose pattern pavers to surround it.
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u/Popular_Speed5838 Aug 26 '25
I’m quietly excited about the finished product. It’ll take more hard work than much money to make it all nice and settled in by halfway through summer. The grass covers disturbed ground almost too quickly in summer.
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u/stulti_auri Sep 13 '25
Nice! Even cooler then the stainless carbon screens CIP Mills chew up and spit out
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u/MWAH_dib Aug 25 '25
You gonna put a water drain under it?
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u/Popular_Speed5838 Aug 26 '25
Yep. It’ll be to the front of the back patio area the second picture is taken from where there’s drainage pipe to hook into.
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u/0hip Aug 25 '25
That’s way too big for a suburban backyard. Massive fire risk when you get drunk and see what happens if you fill it all the way.
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u/Popular_Speed5838 Aug 25 '25
She’ll be right. They have them at one of the pubs and no-one’s died yet. I’ll half fill it with sand and half bury it. Dangerous but not horribly so.
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Aug 25 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/scrumplydo Aug 25 '25
I'm just picturing OP's paro mate slumped in a camping chair with a third of a bottle of rum and a fire extinguisher next to him as "designated fire watch"
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u/Popular_Speed5838 Aug 25 '25
I’m almost 50. We get drunk sometimes but not like legless teenagers. It’s just people from pool coming over for a pool night, bbq or whatever, no Corey Worthington parties or anything.
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u/sp0rk_ Australia Aug 25 '25
Come to the Hunter coal mining towns like Muswellbrook and Singleton.
You'll see these in every 3rd back yard1
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u/illblooded Aug 25 '25
Just make sure you fill out your SLAM/TAKE5, have the relevant JSEA/SWMS, follow all TARPS and notify a deputy before use. Oh and remember your PPE and you egress! Enjoy the warmth OP.
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u/EnoughPast6701 Aug 25 '25
That looks like the worst fire pit conceivable
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u/Popular_Speed5838 Aug 25 '25
No vision my friend. On the side it has six mesh square sections going up. Imagine it buried to just below the second top one and the inside filled just below that with sand. Some sandstone blocks around it (a nearby bloke sells at a reasonable price) and a bit of ag-line drainage around it and she’ll be good. It’ll be not far from the back drainage pipes so that’ll be easy.
Also, the skids and bottom plate are being removed, it weighs a stupid amount right now. I promise, it’ll be good in the end.
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u/tom3277 Aug 25 '25
Glad you filling the inside a good way up.
I was looking at that thinking dug into the ground this is a death trap. That would be the first fire pit I’d sit around and stay stone cold sober.
But yeh full up the inside a bit and you fell in you should be pretty sweet to just hop back out minus some skin.
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u/Hadrollo Aug 25 '25
Do yourself a favour, get an all-metal sink drain, bung it in the bottom, connect to a ~2" pipe, and have it come out discretely a few metres away. You want a foot or two of metal piping before you can swap to PVC stormwater pipe, and you want some sort of removable cover that stops rain getting in the other end while allowing airflow.
Once the fire is roaring, this will allow it to draw air up into the middle, making it burn much better. It also helps the initial lighting of the fire, because you can stick an air blower on the inlet to make it hotter.