Reclaimed Fire Pit Transformed into Coffee Table

I had an old rusty fire pit that has been well used over the years. I figured instead of tossing it, I’d try my hand at turning it into something I needed.

In order to try and make this a reclaimed and recycle project,  I’m using some wood that was sourced from a firewood pile. This is some rough walnut from a local gun stock manufacture. The main board measure 7 ft long, 9″ wide and 1″ thick.

A few passes through the planer

Reveals grain that I will have no trouble making good use of!

The fire pit base measures 32″ in diameter so in order to give me room to play I cut all the walnut to 36″ in length.

That was done at the table saw with my large crosscut sled.

I was a little short on walnut, so I grabbed the last piece of hard maple in the shop. The maple was originally purchased for my Drunken Cutting Boards.

On to the glue up. I’m a fan of asymmetrical design, and ended up picking this layout.  Those affected by OCD, look away!

I added some wood glue and good clamping pressure and left it overnight.

Next day I came back out to the shop and cleaned up the joints and leveled the panel out.

There are loads of ways to cut circles out. Routers, jig saws or even the table saw! For me, I like the band saw method. First step is to locate the center of the board

Drill a small hole where you will place an axis of some sort. Here I’m using a 13/64″ shelf pin as the axis around which the piece will spin.
I use my 13/64″ bit and drill about 3/4 of the way through the board from the bottom side.

The circle is cut at the band saw with my “super fancy” circle cutting jig. It’s just a board, clamped to the table with some holes drilled in it. A 34″ circle means you need a 17″ radius.

• Line up the pin with the hole that is the correct distance from the blade
• Turn on the band saw
• Slowly spin the table top around
• Circle!

I had some gaps and defects in these boards and I wanted to fill those holes in order to give the surface a nice uniform look.  I mixed up some 5 minute epoxy and some black pigment and patched as needed.

While I waited for the epoxy to dry I spray painted my base. The color is Ivory Silk.

I might have sprayed my toenails…

The last thing to do on the top was sand it smooth and add a finish. I used three coasts of water base wipe on poly

I then drilled out some elongated screw holes in the base to allow for seasonal wood movement of the top

And attached it with 4 screws.

It’s now a comfortable, yet rustic coffee table for my patio room. I’m more than pleased with it. I’m also happy to have reclaimed some trash and made of use again.

Thanks for looking!

Author: Peter Brown