I spent my 4th of July finishing up a fire pit for my backyard. It’s 3/16 plate and 14 gauge 1″ tube. The firepit is 38″ square and almost exactly 150lb. I had planned to paint it but I really liked how it looked halfway through removing mill scale with muriatic acid. I sprayed it with VHT flameproof clear coat in order to preserve the look. Hopefully that holds up to firewood.

This was my first time working with plate. Automotive projects for a sub 2000lb car tend to be light weight. My normal tools were not up to the task. I don’t have a compressor, 220v, or a plasma cutter in my shop. I ended up cutting all the plate out with a jigsaw and a 5 pack of blades. My 135 amp import mig welder on maximum settings can’t do 3/16 plate and after a few inches of continuous weld at max power it trips my 20 amp breaker. The machine also seems to stop welding well after about 10 minutes, the arc is unstable, as if the settings have all been changed. I think its overheating or just not putting out the amperage it needs to.