You'll need to sweep the torch over the fitting as well as the tube to get them both hot enough, and you want to remove the torch before applying the solder. You want to heat the joint until you can place the solder rod at the seam and the solder easily melts and is sucked into the joint by capillary action. Fit all your cleaned and fluxed pieces together and break out your torch. Then, apply flux paste to the now clean tube end and fitting.
You are looking for nice clean shiny metal. The basics of soldering copper fittings is that you first clean the outside of the end of the tube to be inserted into a fitting with a special wire brush or emery paper as well as the inside of the fitting. The burner needs to be gas tight, so good joints are important there, while the stand just needs to be strong, not gas tight so is a good place to practice.
#Build a propane fire pit how to#
I'm not going to go into detail on how to solder copper fittings, but if you are not confident in soldering then please start with the stand so you can get better in time for the burner. Lastly, you should cut 4-6" sections of the 1/4" copper tubing that will end up being bent over the rim of the pot to serve as a retaining mechanism for the pot in the stand. This bendable tubing is not strong so don't try to use it as a foot rest. I put mine inside since there wasn't enough tube for putting it outside and I didn't want anyone to step on the lower tube. You can have the lower circle inside or outside of the legs. Take the 1/2" bendable tube and construct a circle by carefully bending it until it is at the size you want. With the arcs, Ts and legs dry fit, make an estimate as to how big your lower circle will be. The increased size of the T fittings makes a snug fit all the way around difficult, but you can increase the number of contact points by straightening the arcs so that the arcs touch the pot at their midpoints. You may need to bend the arcs or shorten them so that the assembly grips the pot well. Once the three legs and arcs are cut you can start dry fitting the pieces together to test for proper fit. Use the tubing cutter or hacksaw to cut the pipe to length. I didn't want it to be tall and top heavy. I cut mine to about 13" to keep the fire pit rim about 16" off the ground. With a 5' section of 3/4" pipe you can make each leg up to 20" long. You'll also want to decide how tall you want the fire pit to be. If your pot has a rim or lip it might be a good idea to make the circle just big enough to allow the pot to rest its rim on the copper circle. When you get a good match, use the tubing cutter to cut 3 equal arc-length segments that when mated into the T's encircle the pot snugly. Use the natural coil of the bendable 1/2" tubing and gently and slowly increase or decrease the curvature to match your flower pot. The first and hardest parts will be making the 3 arcs that encompass the flower pot and mate with the 3/4" to 1/2" T's. I didn't take a lot of pictures during the build process so I've mocked up some CAD to let you see how the parts go together. Using 4 legs is less desirable since it will most likely rock back and forth on uneven or even surfaces. The design of my stand is based on a 3 legged stool configuration with a ring around the top and bottom for stability and strength. Depending on the size and shape of your flower pot you may have to alter the presented design somewhat, but the following should serve as a decent guide. The first step is to build the stand to hold the flower pot.
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