Need some “engineering” advice mid project
Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2018 10:32 pm
I’m building a fire pit ring for the backyard out of 14 gauge steel. It’s two rings rolled so they can be the inner and outer circumference and a ‘donut’ for the top. I’ll add a gas fire element and some glass rock to the top.
I have two questions
1: I tacked small sections as I worked the rolled pieces around the top ‘donut’. Do I need to go back and fill in the voids without welding? It will be outside but I’ll do a rust treatment and seal it. Nothing needs to be water right once I seal it. I just don’t know if it’s a structural or cosmetic issue.
2: knowing that I’ll be doing a rust and seal treatment, do I need to do anything to deal with the blue tint and minimal scaling on the outside? I welded the inside.
3: I plan to put feet on the inner ring and, for ventilation purposes, elevate it up 2” or so. Knowing that the weight of the rocks will be over the inner rings feet, is the outer ring heavy enough to sag and pull that too ‘donut’? It’s 17” tall and the ring is 7” wide with an OD of 37.5”. If it’s likely to sag up could add some inner bracing to ‘marry the two together’
Thanks in advance for all of the amazing input from this forum.
I have two questions
1: I tacked small sections as I worked the rolled pieces around the top ‘donut’. Do I need to go back and fill in the voids without welding? It will be outside but I’ll do a rust treatment and seal it. Nothing needs to be water right once I seal it. I just don’t know if it’s a structural or cosmetic issue.
2: knowing that I’ll be doing a rust and seal treatment, do I need to do anything to deal with the blue tint and minimal scaling on the outside? I welded the inside.
3: I plan to put feet on the inner ring and, for ventilation purposes, elevate it up 2” or so. Knowing that the weight of the rocks will be over the inner rings feet, is the outer ring heavy enough to sag and pull that too ‘donut’? It’s 17” tall and the ring is 7” wide with an OD of 37.5”. If it’s likely to sag up could add some inner bracing to ‘marry the two together’
Thanks in advance for all of the amazing input from this forum.