mountain'o firerings

[superoverenginered]

It was a good day to make some firerings..lol

[Dennis]

It would be a better day when you sell them all!! Good Work

[comeoutswingin]

They look great! What size material is that and how much are you selling them for?

[elkriverfab]

Thats one heck of a firering stack!!!!!!

What do you use to bend them? and at what angle?

I cut a bunch out the other day and I need to finish them.

Thanks.

[superoverenginered]

I am cutting them out of some 7ga(gr50 high xtend) drop we have laying around.....I brake them at 60 deg....I sell them for right at 100bux a piece...thanks guys...

[akpilot]

Those are very nice!!! I wish I lived closer to you, the steel would cost way more than that here. How high do you make them?

[elkriverfab]

akpilot........

I bet your steel is high in Alaska.

I bet it's one of those "we have to ship it in products"
Than they raise the price of everything to cover transport cost.

I have wondered.......Are there any steel mills in Alaska?

[akpilot]

Elkriverfab: No steel mills here, the last steel I bought (4x8 14ga $106.00)had KOREA stamped on it, it was terrible it acted like it had hard spots or something. In areas of the sheet I couldn't pierce it with my TD cut master 82 set 50amps.

[wrenchhead]

I know you have already had a few questions. If you dont mind I have a couple more. I really want to cut some fire rings just cant seem to figure out the size of everything. What length is each panel? What is the total size (side to side) when finshed? How deep do you make them? Lastly what do you think would be the thinest gauge you would use? Sorry for all the questions.

[elkriverfab]

I know what you are talking about.
Monday I was cutting some 14 ga. and I had to scrap most of the sheet because of poor quality metal.

I know it sounds crazy but it has been happening a lot.
I put a different sheet on from another steel yard and it cut fine (same thickness).

I am going to find a better place to buy metal this coming Monday, it is getting to expensive junking my new materials.

Problem is, they are all selling the crap steel.

I noticed it went from a few problems once in a while to almost every sheet.
There must be a lot of impurities being melted down in the sheets.

Look at it this way......If the steel is getting real bad just think what's being put into all the food and other stuff being made over there.

The other day there was a news documentary on how polluted the shrimp, seafood and fish being imported from places like Vietnam, china and places like that.

Not going to rant and rave about it but it is something to really look at.

A few years ago I tried something.
I wanted to fill my freezer with food I either hunted or caught.

I hunted deer, elk and antelope.
Caught all the fish I ate.....Trout, catfish and crappie.

For an entire year I ate only what I butchered.
All my vegetables I got at a local farmers market.

For that entire year I never had a cold, got sick or felt bad in any way.
It was worth it for sure. Not easy but worth doing.

Just something I wanted to share.

[superoverenginered]

I know you have already had a few questions. If you dont mind I have a couple more. I really want to cut some fire rings just cant seem to figure out the size of everything. What length is each panel? What is the total size (side to side) when finshed? How deep do you make them? Lastly what do you think would be the thinest gauge you would use? Sorry for all the questions.

I believe its like 62 inches or so long(dont kno right off hand without looking)....they are 12 inches high..and make an inner diameter circle of 36 inches...and I would say the thinnest would prolly be 14ga..I know like cabellas and bass pro places like that make them out of really thin stuff like 18 ga but thats to thin if you ask me......thats my 2 cents

[mdwalker]

Thicker is always better on the fire rings. Your only limitations with going thicker is weight & cost............and obviously having the equipment to bend them. The thinner they are the more likely they are to warp or get bent with logs being dropped on them. As far as being able to bend them, you can cut them in flat sections and weld them together. Just depends on how compact and portable you want them to be. For round ones if you know the diameter you want the ring you can multiply pi (3.14) x diameter to get the circumference or total length of material you would need. Example for a 36" diameter ring you would multiply 36" x 3.14 = 130.04". Don't forget to add extra length if you want the sections to overlap to bolt together. For a regular (all sides are equal in length) hexagon or 6 sided fire ring like the ones pictured the sides are equal to 1/2 the diameter. The diameter on a hexagon is measured from one corner through the center to the oposite corner. So a fire ring that is 36" in diameter would have sides that are 18" long.

[pony]

Has anyone made any 'collapsable' fire rings, maybe for easy storage, or shipping, or 'weld free'.
I had an idea that the panels could simple clip together instead of being welded or bolted. Its not going to look as refined.
This is my very quick and crudely drawn idea (not to scale in any way).
idea one, clip together with overlapping edges:

idea.jpg (14.7 KiB) Viewed 6036 times

idea.jpg (14.7 KiB) Viewed 6036 times

idea 2 requires you bend the interlocking edges to 60 degrees, and creates a piece that doesn't have protruding edges where the panels meet:

idea2.jpg (14.7 KiB) Viewed 6036 times

idea2.jpg (14.7 KiB) Viewed 6036 times

Reasonable ideas, or the ramblings of a crazy Englishman?

[twicecustom]

I would think to make one with about 3 "locking tabs" the bunch you have might warp and make it difficult to take apart after it has been used, If you made 3 spaced apart that would be better and easier to take apart and put together I would think.

[mdwalker]

I thought I posted this comment earlier but I didn't see it so maybe it didn't send. I wander how it would work to cut each panel and then attach them together with piano hinges? Then they could be folded up for transport or shipping. If anybody tries it let us know how it worked out.

[Metal Lee]

What you could do is use round pipe and round solid stock as pins that way you could pull the pins and have seperate panels, the pins could also extend down through the base to make it more sturdy. Stay away from bending all together and cut each panel indevidualy..

That's 10 cents.

[wrenchhead]

Thanks for the inf I will be tring some of these very soon.

[akicemom]

Just passing through on this forum and caught this post. If looking for steel in Alaska, there is a company that sells high quality steel from lower 48 steel mills. No foreign steel is accepted. Branches in Fairbanks and Kenai, with the main branch in Anchorage. Their name is "Alaska Steel". Never had any issues with them, and sales people are great to deal with. Hope this helps.