Need help with black gas pipe

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I am making small fire pits for the boy scouts and want to try something new to elevate them off the ground. I wanted to use a 90 degree elbow welded to the side of the fire pit, making it so we could use short threaded pipe of long threaded pipe to suit the user. My fears are that the elbows are cast, I did grind on it and it makes tiny short tail sparks, redish if I remember right.  If anyone has used these before or has a better idea please let me know. I was wanting the elbows welded to the sides to make the stance a tiny bit wider to try to make it more stable. The ones I am working on now are slightly different then the one I posted under projects and pics. As soon as I catch up I will post a pic or two. Thank YouTomNote to self.......The jacket in the avatar pic is Not for welding....EVER
Reply:I have seen machined elbows for black pipe. Most that I have gotten have been from small hardware stores. I know that I get sched. 80 SS pipe fittings that are machined. These are forged steel elbows.http://www1.mscdirect.com/CGI/N2DRVS...00000052300917Somewhat pricy but if its what you need...I more frequently find machined steel couplings. You could weld these to the side say on a small gusset if you wanted to move it out more.How about a tube with the leg inserted and held by a cross pin?BTW I have a great pie pan dutch oven that the kids would love. If I can find where I put it after I loaned it to my buddy for his kids scout trip, I will post some picts for you.
Reply:Thanks DSW I will check tomorrow at Home Depot. My other thought was to take a rod extender and weld to the side, then take a 5/8 bolt with the head cut off and weld inside of the black pipe. Its alot more work but if I cant find the right fittings then I may try it.I would love to see the dutch oven. What I am making is a large diameter short side fire ring so they can get the coals ready and then set a pan something like a frying pan right on the coals with out tipping sideways. Maybe this is far fetched but sitting here, I think I may look to see it the tappered pipe thread will start and thread part way on a nut. My brain is thinkin that may be just enough to thread a couple turns then get tight.Thanks againNote to self.......The jacket in the avatar pic is Not for welding....EVER
Reply:You could also use a close nipple welded to the fire pit and screw the elbow to that part as well as to the legs.
Reply:Get the steel couplings, that are easily found Cut them in half. Weld them to the side of your fire ring and thread in 90 degree street ells.
Reply:Forged steel couplings are readily available and weld just fine but you won't find them at HD or lumber or hardware stores. Thewelder's Ideal sounds the best to me. I haven't found any steel couplings at HD either, just cast iron.
Reply:I would use Pipe- no threads and just have the legs slide up into the Pipe that is welded to the Pit.After a couple Camping Trips- dirt, moisture, mud, rust and everything else, the threaded pieces will become a PIA to screw in anyway
Reply:HELLO TO ALL,my friend, who is a scout master, ask me if i couldmake some legs for a project.  this was the ends of somesort of tank, about 6 in high, and it was 4 ft in diameter.he wanted everything on the inside. i laid out three holes onthe edge of the tank, and used a hole saw to cut a hole in thebottom, but touching the inside edge. i then welded three 3/4incouplings in the holes, and made three legs out of 3/4 in pipe 12inlong. this was all black iron. he says the rules, you must have the fire pit 1ft off the ground. i did one for him, and he had me do the second one. always happy to do a favor for the scouts.good luck to all.wlbrown
Reply:Ok tom here's the dutch oven I said I would post. It super simple.Materials:3 steel pie pans ( you could use larger cake pans but the handles on the pie pans make good lifting points)2 1"L 5/16" stove bolts. Look like a carriage bolt but with a screw driver slot and no square part on the bolt.2 5/16" wing nuts. SS preferred.3 large 60d nails or 3 short pieces of rebar3 nickelsdisposable alum pie tin.drill a 5/16" hole thru all the handles so that they can be stacked and secured for storage.Drill 2 5/16" holes tru the bottom of 2 of the pans with them stacked back to back. This will make your lid.That is pretty much it for construction.
Reply:Now how to use it, and a simple recipe for a cobbler.Drive the 3 nails in the ground in a triangle formation that the bottom pan will sit on. Place 15 burning charcoal brickettes under the bottom around the nails. The nails keep the coals from directly touching the pan. 9 burning charcoal brickettes will go in the top of the lid.Place 3 nickel in the bottom of the oven. this will keep the alum pan off the bottom and give you an air space.Take your disposable alum pan. In this I put part of a can of pie filling, your favorite flavor, in 1st. then top with a box of dry cake mix. Put a small pat of butter on top of the cake mix. Place this into the bottom pan.Use a pair of welding gloves to lift the lid with the coals. Put the lid on top and cook till the top is golden brown. gloves allow you to see how its cooking and the top pan keeps the ashes out of the oven, well most of them any ways.It has been awhile since I have done this so I may be wrong on the number of charcoal briquettes that works best for heat. You need about 2x as many on the bottom as the top. I can't remember exactly how much goes in the pan as far as ingredients. I would use this and a full size dutch oven so I cant remember how much went in each size. I think the full size dutch oven used 1 can and 1 box to make a cobbler.I have cooked Pizza it this, biscuits, baked apples (you have to slice them up), Pot pies (the frozen store bought ones), and I can't remember what else.As I said before I have seen them made with larger cake pans also. I would add side handles to those.Any questions feel free to ask away. Just some thing this eagle scout picked up in the pacific north west. I had a group of young scouts take 1st prise in cooking at the national jamboree years ago using about 8 of these to do a cooking demonstration.BTW this makes a great backpacking oven.
Reply:Thats great DSW. I dont get to go camping very often since my stepsons real dad goes most of the time. Now I am the first to ruffel feathers when givin the chance but when the kids are involved I lay low as to not set a bad example. But you can bet the next time I do go it will be myself,stepson and a shinny new dutch oven!!!Thanks to all the helpfull tips!! Tonight I used three steel couplings instead of the elbows, making a nice place to store the legs when packing. Just got to screw them in from the top.Now maybe this is a dumb question but last night before posting I welded an elbow on. Then came the thought to grind and check the color of the sparks. I know it was a little late. Anyways I cut that off to use the couplings tonight. Now if it is really cast then when I weld with mig .030 with co2 then it should crack when it cools at a normal rate? (right)?  Is there a chance that it was cast and it just didnt crack? Looking at the piece it looked cast not forged.I just dont know, but am courious because when I cut it off I got alot of red sparks and it looked like a sound weld. Here is a couple pics.Here is a shot of my less then perfect welds.Thanks everyone for the insite.Note to self.......The jacket in the avatar pic is Not for welding....EVER
Reply:Nice work BTW. The fitting may be cast steel rather than cast iron. I have welded non critical iron and not had it crack. I wouldn't trust it for anything that might require safety.Have fun with the oven. I would set it up and try it out before going on the trip so you have an idea how much fits in the pan and how much heat/ time it takes to cook. Pass it along to others. When I did the jamboree I gave each of the kids an oven at the end. You will be able to find an endless number of things to cook in it. How about breakfast buns, height in the oven might be an issue, hmmm.... I always hated most of the stuff we cooked when I was in scouts. Looking back, I wished I had learned more cooking. With all the new grilling books you should be able to eat some really good meals and skip the hotdogs, hamburgers we used to always end up with. If you haven't seen them, Steven Raichlen (BBQ-U) puts out some great books on grilling. I got mine from Cabellas. I can't cook worth a darn but I am trying to learn to grill better.Looking back at your new design, it wouldn't be to hard for you to make a larger dutchoven using the same principles as mine. It wouldn't be as portable but you would be able to cook a larger variety of stuff in it.Last edited by DSW; 04-16-2008 at 11:36 PM.