Patio Chimera Stand

Hot Air

The sales pitch says that when lit a Chimera adds atmosphere and warmth to your garden. Well in my experience it does do the former but very little of the latter. Depending on the wood it can add a lot of smoke too ! The 25mm thick clay is a very good insulator and so most of the heat goes up the chimney - the only radiant heat comes from the front opening. I advise that you 1/3 fill it with sand so that as many of the glowing embers will radiate their heat as much as possible. This also protects the base from the extremes of the heat at the centre of the fire. Always warm these up slowly to prevent a ruinous crack.

Anyway if you have one it’s sometimes nice to move them a little closer to you or move them elsewhere so the smoke doesn’t blow over you or your guests. However once hot you cannot grab one to move it but you could put it on wheels.. 

Tied Feet

If you have paid extra for the stand then this can be put on it’s own steerable trolley. I made an equilateral triangle using a minimum of 45mm thick timber with 22mm lap joints at each corner.

I roughened up and primed and painted the wrought iron stand knowing that it wasn’t going to be repainted again for a long time. The lower ends of the legs may not be welded perfectly into an equilateral so you will have to experiment with the best fit and then rout a slot to hold the curved feet in.

The feet must then be braced with an metal or hardwood retainer (see left and right).

I used relatively cheap wheels because I happened to have them. I’d suggest that they look better being all black. To avoid the ‘shopping trolley effect’ two of the corners need fixed wheels. I made the wheel fixings on a bandsaw - the grain of the wood should be vertical or diagonal to cope with a force sideways to the wheels (left picture).

Tow Bar & Steer

The third corner is more complex to allow steering (green arrows right). It an upturned frustrum with a tight slot for the Tow Bar Shaft  surmounted by a large polythene washer from a plastic milk bottle to reduce friction (it can be lubricated with a little oil).

The Tow Bar Handle can get trodden on so I put a hinge in it (below).

Resting The Tow Bar Handle Horizontal

When not in use the Tow Bar Handle can hinge up but it’s nice when it doesn’t droop down onto the ground. Whether you do this or not this raising Handle will have a square ended slot cut into it to accept the Steering Shaft (see shaded blue far right) and of course the Steering Shaft will need the corner cut off to allow it to be raised. However if you leave 10mm of flat face at the end of it (shaded cyan far right) it will act as a rest when the handle is lowered. The blue face will rest on the cyan face. Very easy to do.

The way to get this just right is not to drill the hole through the Steering Shaft until you’ve go the Handle in exactly the right horizontal position (and even up a bit to allow for slop in the hole).

Carefully drill through, countersink and Bob’s your uncle !

Now give the whole thing two licks of your favourite wood preserver.

Stand & Deliver

Enjoy the simple pleasures !

Wheelie Good

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