From bath to bonfire…

Here’s a very quick thing I did this weekend!

I’ve finally had a much-needed new bath fitted in my bathroom, and had left the old one in the garden awaiting cutting up into manageable pieces prior to disposal. In addition to the main fibreglass and chipboard construction the bath had two framework legs with levelling screws on, which I had removed ‘just in case they would come in useful sometime for something!?’

My much-beloved copper half-cistern and dustbin lid garden bonfire (see below) has always been in need of some steadying legs – it currently works by simply  resting on the ground on top of an old saucepan or on old bits of wood, which has always made it a bit precarious to say the least!

Bonfire burner in its existing form

I realised my discarded bath legs may be just the thing? With a bit of judicious drilling and bolting I fixed the two bath legs into a cross shape, and then attached the slightly too small dustbin lid (which upturned forms the base of the bonfire) in a suspended arrangement between them using some longer coach bolts. Instantly, a more secure, self-levelling bonfire support! 

The tops of the legs were a bit too long, so I cut them half way through with my trusty angle grinder (the best tool in the world for absolutely any task!) and bent them inwards slightly to help hold the copper burner part in position (it’s always just been free to wobble around on the dustbin lid before – again, none too safe!)

I’m not sure I like the look of these bent legs much, but will give it a good test burn and see how I feel in a bit / after some usage. The alternative is maybe to fashion some funky looking sculptural arms from copper pipe etc that I could simply slip over the top of the legs – not as functional, but might look nicer when the fire is going.

Finally, I realised how worn the whole copper burner part is looking after several years of really intense heat. The copper has gone incredibly soft and malleable, and it occurred to me that rather than the slightly functional / straight appearance of the top rim, I could maybe cut a nice shape or filigree into it (again not as functional,  but I can imagine it looking really cool when alight). The last shot of the photos below shows a trial go at this, using my trusty arc welder to simply burn a spattering of holes through the copper… Not sure this completely works, but I’ll try a few different things and see how it goes.

Hopefully the photos below illustrate the whole process in order a bit better. . .

Here's the old bath, lying majestically in the garden, sans legs, awaiting disposal!

Legs from the bath (I've already bolted them together in this shot)

Legs in their new cross-shape

With the upturned dustbin lid bolted in place

With the copper burner in place and legs folded in to secure

Close-up of trial decoration of burner lip