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DIY Project! Make a wicked awesome cedar fire pit & firewood organizer

Hi, and welcome to fire pit season. Crackling weather with cool nights perfect for snugging up to the fire.

Octagons of awesome for the fire pit organizer!

For the fire, you need firewood. And firewood needs a home, right?

I think so. So I made this firewood organizer with off-the-shelf lumber. Here’s how:

I used Real Cedar 2x6x12. I wanted everything in this to be off the shelf and totally make-able at home. All the angles are 22 1/2-degrees. The octagon is made of eight pieces (duh): The shorts are 12-inches, the longs are 20-inches.

Each board is cut with a 22 1/2 – degree angle on each end.

On as flat a surface as possible, arrange the pieces and assemble. To hold everything in place, I use a smaller, 2-inch Spax Multi-Material Screw to snug the pieces up, before bombing in a #10, 3-inch Spax HCR-X. Great trick. I wish I thought of this years ago!

Trick: I used a 2-inch Spax to snug the pieces.

Next, I make what I call the ‘mending plates’. On the table saw, I raise the blade to the top height. I set the fence 3/8-inch away from the blade then send a 2×6 block at least 8-inches long through.

Make the connectors—aka mending plates. Bevel the table saw blade 22 1/2-degrees.

It looks like a little roof. Check out this video: how to make a post cap.

Cutting cool stuff is cool. Always work safely.

Oh-my-Molly how I love sweet miter joints. The 2×6 cedar mending plates we made above are perfect for connecting both layers of this fire pit fantastic-OH!

For the cross-pieces, I ran full-length pieces in a cross-hairs, then filled in with shorts.

Measuring for the shelves.

Fastening shelves from the outside face.

Installing the filler shelves against the full-length shelves.

The feet are 2-ply. The gap on the bottom (these are upside down) enables you to get a blower in there or otherwise clean as needed.

Feet are 20-inches long. An opening in the middle enables cleaning underneath and an air gap.

Because the carpenter in me is part woodworker, I like things to be primo, so I square the feet up and make sure they’re even with each other before I fasten them.

I make sure to square the feet before blowing in some screws.

Screws driven in on an angle are called toe-nails. No joke. It’s a good trick to know how to drive screws at an angle for the best bite!

Angled screws secure the fire pit organizer to the feet.

Totally staged beauty shot. No one keeps firewood in the driveway.

EX-ellent!
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