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SO – after (I think it’s been) 3 months …

The Fire Table build is complete.

Why 3 months? Well …

1. I have a day job – only worked on it about 1 day a week for a few hours each
2. I built it 3 times – at least the top (polished concrete – 1st attempt was way too thick, 2nd attempt it bent while setting). The base was just once, but I took it slow while doing the top. The top was agony, I will tell you. Not only doing it 3 times, but the final one was quite a few weekends of grinding and polishing. It was brutal work – even with me buying new tools to make it easier. Very messy to polish.
3. The videos you can find (that inspired me) on YouTube were ridiculous. The videos were 20 minutes-ish each … very deceptive. Made it seem like this would be a weekend project. I curse them all to this day.
4. A lot of ‘trial and error’. For example, hooking up the gas took me many hours based on just little things. I learned what a thermocouple is and the science of heat measurement w/volts and degrees. Not things the videos really shared.
5. I couldn’t count how many visits to Home Depot/Lowe’s/Ace I had – if I had to ballpark, I’d say (2-3 times a day x 13 weekends … 40-ish?).
6. Overall spend … tough to say, too. But a beast like this would run about $1500. I probably spent about $4-500 in raw materials. Plus, of course, my time. But in the end, to me, projects like this are worth it as I come out so much more wise on all involved. For example – if you look at the base … that really didn’t take long as I was using the knowledge acquired by other builds and woodwork and tools that I have acquired. I guess you’d say I’m getting better at this stuff. But man that top was brutal!

Looking forward to using once fall starts kicking in. Next step will be purchasing a wireless projector system (there are ones now that have 4-5 hours charges and can connect directly to YouTube TV) so we can watch games outside in the courtyard.