In every construction job, there's always some scrap left behind by workers. Such happened right after we had our garden pergola and the garden gate arch fabricated. Some of the scrap metal have been used to make a rain water barrel platform to elevate the rain barrel. But still a piece of tubular metal pipe scrap remained. This pipe was a little over 4 feet.
Rather than still keep this piece of scrap to rust and rot away somewhere outside the house, I thought of utilizing the scrap piece for raising our garden and yard waste incinerator off the ground. Doing so, will provide air vents when yard trash is being burned, thus facilitating the incineration.
Garden and Yard Trash Incinerator with No Air Vents
Previously, when garden or yard trash is burned, I had to occasionally raise the pile of rubbish that is burned inside the incinerator. I do so by poking the end of a rod or stick underneath the burning pile and then raise the pile up. This is to provide some air circulation under all the burning yard trash. Other than the open top, the incinerator didn't have air vents anywhere else. The volume of trash on top simply collapses and douses he ongoing fire, stopping the incineration.
Support Blocks as Air Vents for the Incinerator
The incinerator is made of concrete. It's thick, a bit tall and very heavy. Rather than making holes to provide vents and encourage aid air circulation, I thought of creating a a gap for air under the incinerator. Supporting the garden incinerator with rocks may work but they're too uneven to make the setup adequately stable.
How to Fabricate the Support Blocks for Air Vents
For the support blocks that were fabricated, scraps of metal tubular pipe were used. I was lucky to have some workers cut the thick pipe and provide the concrete mix. You'll only need 2 support blocks, but will see several blocks made in the procedure below. I had no other use for the scrap metal other than for support blocks for future applications.
It is entirely optional to paint the support blocks. But since I had excess paint and not all blocks will be used for this project, I decided to put a coat of paint on all the blocks. This will prevent rusting on the other block pieces that will not be used.
Materials
- Metal Tubular Pipe - 2" x 4" (rectangular), 12" long - 2 pieces
- Concrete Mix - Sand, Cement, Water
- Rust Converter
- Paint
- Paintbrush
- Trowel
- Flat file
- Sandpaper
- With a flat file, file away the burrs that appear on the edges of the cut metal tubular pipe pieces.
- Position the cut pipe pieces on one end so they stand vertically. With a trowel, scoop wet concrete mix and fill each of the pieces. Do not overfill. Scrape off excess concrete mix at the top with the flat edge of the trowel.
- Allow the concrete mix to dry and cure. When the concrete has completely dried, you'll see a very even and flat concrete surface on the other end when the pieces are overturned .
- When the concrete as dried and cured, use a medium grit sandpaper to remove thick rust and excess dried concrete. There's no need to remove all rust.
- With a paintbrush, apply rust converter on all rust spots. Let the rust converter dry overnight.
- Paint all sides of the support block pieces.
- Allow the paint on the pieces to dry thoroughly. Notice some uneven surfaces of the concrete after the pieces have been painted.
- To position the support blocks under the incinerator, ensure the ground is even and as flat as possible.
Rock one side of the incinerator to insert and position one support block under the edge of the incinerator. Do the same for the other support block.
(See Part 3 for the continuation of this article)
Go ahead, post your comment below!