Even with these restrictions, our family still loves to sit around an evening fire. But we didn’t want to spend a small fortune on a pre-manufactured fire pit or a contractor built unit. We were also not sure where we might permanently want the pit located. So we needed something we could take down and move to a different spot without a lot of trouble or expense..
Fortunately, while cruising the isles of Home Depot recently, we saw concrete tree rings on sale for $2 a section. We borrowed a tape measure and quickly determined the rings might make a dandy low cost fire pit that would incorporate a small Weber grill (which we already owned) as an inner firepot, allowing a very controlled burn and positive air shut off to extinguish the fire when we were ready to call it a night.
Weber Smokey Joe Portable charcoal grill or equivalent 14" diameter grill. ($30 new)
4 sections of 14" inside diameter concrete tree ring ($2 to $3 each = $8 to $12 total)
6 sections of 24" inside diameter concrete tree ring ($2 to $3 each = $12 to $18 total)
2 cubic feet of small stones, pebbles, road gravel or decorative rock ($0 to $20 depending on how fancy)
Total cost $50 to $80 depending on your taste in stones.
Step 1: Step 1 Constructing the inner ring.
The trick to turning tree rings into a decent looking fire pit is to make the ring two sections tall by turning the fluted top sections upside down so they interlock with the fluted bottom sections. The first photo shows what the 14" tree ring sections look like when you buy them from the store and the second photo shows them stacked. They don’t fit perfectly but the small air gaps look sort of decorative in my estimation and are barely noticeable once the unit is being used.
Step 2: Step 2 - Adding an outer ring.
Note that the 24" outer rings have a very convenient tab type locking design. One end of each section has a tab and the other end has a slot. This helps a great deal to stabilize the rings when they are stacked two high.