This is the welding unit I chose to help me stitch pieces of steel into one. It's a great unit - can pump out up to 225 amps AC ( fully welding 3/8" thick steel with that kinda heat ) and up to 165 amps DC. With the DC option, you can weld other metals like aluminum. I picked up this bad boy along with all the accessories I could think of, and a handy little book on welding. After that, it was a quick trip to the steel yard to pick up about 150 pounds of scrap steel to learn with.

I also have various hand and power tools to efficiently manipulate the steel. There's a 4.5" DeWalt angle grinder down there, as well as a DeWalt reciprocating saw ( Saws-all ). I've got my old drill in there as well. In the drawers are all kinds of c-clamps, wire brushes, measuring tools, etc.

This is my bench grinder. I custom built that stand for it. I'll say this - if you're going to start working on metals in your garage, the bench grinder should be one of your first purchases after the welder and your angle grinder. It makes sizing up pieces a breeze, and doubles as a great tool to sharpen the lawnmower blade. Buy the biggest, baddest one you can find.

This beast is my chop saw. It is enormously useful. I can cut just about anything with steel walls up to 3/8" thick or so. And with this tool, I'm able to make perfect angle cuts easily. It's a 15 amp motor spinning a 14" abrasive disk. All of the 4x2 steel tube was cut with this baby, and I got all pieces within a sixteenth of an inch.

This is a "Central Machinery" brand drill press I picked up at Harbor Freight Tools for $189. If you know anything about drill presses, you'll know that is a dirt cheap price. Needless to say, between the price and the "brand", I was a bit leery about picking it up. I decided to give it a try, though, and let me say - I am extremely happy with it so far. I used a dial indicator and measured spindle runout at 0.001". She sports a 1.5 HP ( !! ) motor spinning a set of pulleys allowing for 200-4000rpm at the bit. She's got a 3 1/8" plunge and a nice, large table. I know she's not the best press by any stretch, but for $189, you can't beat her. Period. To get into the same range with a better known brand, you'll be spending around $800 or more, and prolly paying freight to get it to your house. I just picked mine up at the store and was drilling within an hour of getting home. That 6" cross slide on my table was from HFT as well. If you buy a drill press, make sure to buy a good cross slide at the same time. You'll want it, I promise.

You can see a few other tools in that picture as well. On the top shelf there, you can see my dial indicator, a nice Crafstman H.S.S. standard tap and die set, my dial calipers and various cutting/drilling oils. The second shelf holds various drilling tools and a nice 100+ piece drill bit set I picked up at HFT. $39.99 and they're titanium coated H.S.S. bits. I've used a few and been quite pleased with how they're holding up. And the set includes every size from about a needle up to 1/2", in 1/64" increments. A set like this is a must-have for drilling and tapping.

This is a custom welding table I made as soon as I felt comfortable enough with my welding skills to try it. I quickly tired of welding on the floor, so I came up with this design to get the pieces at a comfortable working level, and at the same time provide ample locations to clamps the pieces down. The entire unit is carefully measured angle iron ( 1.5"x1/8 ), and the top surface is four feet wide and two feet deep. Since it's all angle iron, you can easily clamp to anything on the table. Since there are gaps between the cross members, you can safely weld, cut, grind, drill and generally work the steel without worrying about the workbench. The table is perfectly level, and the top rests at about 33", if I recall correctly.

I was at the steel yard one day, and noticed this huge, black monstrosity in the yard. Upon closer examination, I realized it was an old HEB breads display stand. The top shelving would cantilever forward on a large table with wheels. Well, I didn't need the silly display shelving, so I knocked the pins out of the hinges and pushed the shelving off. What I was left with is what you see there. An extremely sturdy, perfect condition workbench with locking casters. I got it at scrap steel prices ( $0.20 / pound ), so the table ended up about $20 or so. I'm prolly going to attach some 3/4" MDF to the top at some point, along with a good vice and my anvil. But for now, it's a great work surface.

There in the corner is my foldable 2 ton shop crane. It's a standard A-frame crane, and can hoist up to about 8 feet. And yes, I also picked this guy up at HFT. Was on sale for $150 - how could I pass it up? Besides - I needed something to move the tank around while I worked on it, and built the frame. When you buy a crane, spring for a folding unit like this one - it takes up a lot less space when folded.

I know I keep saying "you have to buy this first!", but really, unless you like steel splinters shooting pains through your foot, you're going to want to invest in a good shop vac. This guy by Ridgid is fantastic. It can suck up just about anything, has a huge 16 gallon container and converts easily into a blower if you need it. And it's not very loud to boot. Highly recommended - I bought mine at Home Depot for $100. Go buy yours now. I'll wait.

Note the fire extinguisher! Everyone needs at least one of these in their garage - and easily accessible.

Here's the tank which forms the enclosure for the pit. This is an old 250 gallon propane tank which could not be used to store propane any more due to a pretty severe rust spot. I obtained the tank from a local propane shop for $37. It's 3/16" thick steel, over 7' long, 30" in diameter and weighs in at about 550 pounds. It's spray-painted with the phrase "No Good", and has an arrow painted to the rust spot.

You can see the 4x2 rectangular tubing there on the ground, as well as my 8" 600 lb rated swivel casters.

This is the other side of the tank. Looks about the same, amazingly enough. :)

Here's where the rusted hole used to be. :) I cut out a large chunk of the tank, then patched it with some scrap steel. After welding it together, I ground down the welds to make a nice, smooth surface. The finished product is almost undetectable as a repair job.

This is the tank plate, with manufacturer information, size, etc. Made in Dallas, Tx.

This is a better shot of the 4x2's that are to be used to support the tank. That's 3/16" thick steel, 20 feet of it total. Also is a shot of the casters. These casters are 8" diameter swiveling cast iron wheels, with rubber treads, and each one can support up to 600 pounds. I got them from Grainger for about $30 apiece. Here is a link to the specific casters.

Here's some more steel. Various pieces I've collected while working on different projects. The square tube stuff is used a bit on the frame, to connect the two uprights lengthwise and provide rigidity to the frame. I also used that flat iron piece ( 1/2" thick by 4" wide ) to create some triangular supports as you'll see in later pictures.

This is some of my ever-growing pile of scrap steel. I use bits of it for various projects, as well as for welding practice. You can see that I have a little bit of everything - all the better for practicing. And at $0.20 a pound from the steel yards, why not?

Here's a close-up of one of the casters, with my fabricated backing plate already bolted on. More on those in the following pics.

When figuring out how I was going to attach the casters to the frame, I decided that using regular nuts/washers would be a pain, as you would have to get the wrench inside the tube to hold the nut as you tightened the bolt. So, I picked up some 1/2" thick flat iron that was 4" wide and drilled 4 holes in it. Then I tapped the holes and this is the result. It's a custom-made backing plate which fits inside the 4x2 and provides far more strength than simple nuts/washers and is easy to bolt in to, since there's no nut to try and hold. So far, I've been extremely pleased with the results.

All four casters with their custom backing plates attached, waiting for me to finish the frame.

The backing plates are 4" wide, and so are the 4x2 pieces. I knew I would need to trim my backing plates to fit inside the 4x2's, so here's where I was doing the trimming. It was a quick and easy trim using my DeWalt angle grinder with a cut-off wheel. This pic shows me half way through cutting one of the plates.

Here are two of the finished backing plates, trimmed and ready to be inserted into the 4x2's for bolting the casters on.

A quick snapshot of one of the backing plates fitted in place inside a 4x2.

Here I'm in the process of drilling out the 4 holes for the bolts that hold the casters on to the bottom legs.

One completed lower leg, with the casters temporarily attached.

Here are both lower legs, fitted with their casters and awaiting further welding. These guys are exactly 44" long, which allows for a nice, safe wide base for the tank, making it very difficult to accidently tip.

These four pieces are the vertical risers in the frame. These guys are precisely 5" tall, and give the extra vertical rise needed to place the pit cooking surface at a comfortable height of roughly 35". Also 4x2.

I have carefully fit up and braced the locations for the vertical risers on the lower legs. The "outside" walls of the risers are exactly 13" from the ends of the legs, leaving exactly 14" of space between the risers. Magnetic fingers rock.

Forgot to take intermediate pictures. :) This is the finished result of welding the vertical risers in place, and then welding the upper brace, which is where the tank bolts on. See the next picture. This was done for both legs.

Again, got too excited working and forgot to take intermediate pics. What you're looking at here is one of those leg units with the 2 bolt holes drilled. These holes line up with the "feet" on the bottom of the tank so that I can just bolt the tank on to my frame.

Here's the basic frame, welded together. What I did was to bolt on the two legs to the tank, and then carefully fit the 1.5" cross members. Then, I removed the legs and welded everything together. This made it to where the bolt holes all lined up perfectly once the frame was complete.

Here's a close-up of one of the braces I welded onto the frame. I used the 1/2" thick plate and cut small triangles out of it, then carefully fit them up to each vertical riser. This provides rigidity lengthwise along the frame, so that the bolts from the tanks to the legs are not under so much strain.

Bum, bum, BUM! Here's the completed frame. You can see that I've finished welding in the 4 support triangles, and that the tank is bolted on.

Here's a close-up of one of the leg units.

Here's the other leg unit.

Here's a snapshot of the bolt that attached the tank to the frame. In these pictures, I'm using cheap-o grade 2 bolts from Home Depot. I'm replacing all bolts and associated hardware with stainless steel this afternoon.

Side view of the leg. You can see the bolt going through the 4x2. Admire that welding! :)

Just another angle from the end of the tank, mounted on frame.

Here's the completed tank and frame assembly. The next steps will be cenetered around the pit itself. Cutting the doors, welding handles, attaching smokestacks, installing grates, etc.