The Impossible Fire pit Tornado 

Backyard scientist: I'm scared of commitment. Inner voice: oh wait, I'm married

I've thought about this project a lot also. It's a tough one to figure out. I've also played with making a desktop fire tornado that uses a candle. Tougher than it sounds.

The coolest Florida man is back

I've built loads of these over the years and you were really close a few times, but move on from one design to a different one far too quickly. The slatted type will do it, but the gaps need to be tiny (2mm or less) if you're making it that high. The top ring also needs to have a smaller hole to concentrate the exhaust because all the versions you made had far too low backpressure to sustain a tornado effectively. The simplest way to make one is to cut the drum into 4 parts and overlap them in a spiral, and then cap it with a piece that has a hole 1/2 the diameter. If you go up to 8 pieces it can give a tighter tornado effect, but the tolerances are much tighter and the gaps need to be much smaller.

"I'm jealous of California because they're *lit*!" "I'm scared of commitment." "Epic welding montage!" Dude you're a meme lord lmao

Years ago without that plasma cutter, that project would've taken forever. Great job!

awesome florida man scientist back at it again

3020: DIY fire pit black hole!

“Number two, they’re 400 bucks for a fire pit. Four hundred dollars for a fire pit. that’s pretty ridiculous, which is why I decided to buy 400 dollars of steel to try to make my own.” this is why I love his channel.

whoever is reading this comment may his her parents live long for 100 years ameen

6:54 Backyard Scientist: challenges everybody to make their own fire tornadoes California: no! God please NO!

"California is lit" Australia: I felt that

This man is the definition of chaotic neutral Edit: Chaotic Good

Mark Rober and Science Bob used a ton of fans for making a really cool fire tornado.

“Everything changed when the fire nation attacked”

Alternate title: Florida man makes giant vortex of fire from scraps of metal

Me: goes to park with blowtorch Uk: nah everythings wet and is always wet

Him says he has to put 64 pins on it My brain: a stack of pins

"California is lit" hits hard for me. my house was burned down in the creek fire and we had to find another place to live. keep in mind that I'd been living in that house my entire life. #MountainStrong

Does anyone else get nervous when Kevin starts playing with fire? I keep thinking today's the day he catches himself on fire.

How many times did he say "fire tornado"? Can someone count?

3:31 drops blowtorch right next to a gallon of propane

Backyard scientist- I'm scared of commitment Girlfriend-looks at hand no sht

Thumbnail: he's a Firebender 🔥

If it's any consolation, fire whirls are incredibly rare and typically last only a few seconds. The fact that you were able to create one at all was impressive.

I built a 'Vortex Incinerator' several years ago. It was like a vertical jet engine with a chimney. The base was a 55 gallon drum burner with a shielded axle in the center, it had a grate in the bottom where fresh air entered. Under the grate was a many vaned fan attached to the axle to spin away the ash if it didn't blow up and out. Up above, the axle had large helix vanes inside a chimney to provide motive force. There was a space between the burner and the chimney to load wood and see fire and the lower part of the chimney had a funnel shroud to concentrate the fire up the chimney. It was all made of scrap metal. The bearings were pins in cup and a large tripod held up the top of the chimney. It worked spectacularly once, the burner drum got red hot and glowed in spiral waves and the axle spun nicely, then the axle got red hot at the top and bent. And that was that. Too many moving parts of junk to last. Then it was art.

California is lit! Yea man we have the BEST gender reveal party’s! You should come and join us sometime.

If he accidentally caught the ground on fire “Florida man sets fire to local neighborhood”

"Eh, I didn't need that arm hair anyways"

i give you prop on the " just be a man, grab the hot metal and move it, WITH YOUR BARE HANDS!" 1:30

I live in Cali and everyday seems like “get lung caner in two days” simulator

5:40 - then why don't you add a fresh-air intake at the bottom of the fire pit, to make sure a lot of oxygen gets in at the base of the flames?

Life before quarantine: Oh a backyard scientist video Life in quarantine: BaCk YaRd scientists video👀

can we talk about the hard work he did?

“I told you” - that sounded confident

Makes my day whenever BackyardScientist uploads

"I still challenge anybody to try to make their own fire tornado..." *no no no please no don't*

5:48 turn it on 0.25x

My fire pit is a hole in the dirt.

The low production value makes this channel extremely watchable (I know that sounded sarcastic, it's not). Stuff like this is what makes me really like the internet. That and Bee Movie memes.

What a pleasant surprise in my sub box mid day. That intro was great as always.

Kinda looked like you was building a turbine engine with all those fins! Another great video! Also, I want to thank you, I just finished building my own fire fountain! Absolutely awesome! It really surprises people that come by and see it.

Dust devils are caused by unevenly heated air. @ 3:16 you can see the effect of the heated air column reaching about 20m with a simple set up. It should be possible to engineer dust devils and even wind given the right atmospheric conditions and enough heat in larger columns; so a couple more barrels and more gas.

You’re giving Colin Furze a run for his steel fabrication. Interesting video.

Seller: will you like to buy a fire pit for $400? Backyard scientist: thats too expensive Seller: will you like to buy steel for $400? Backyard scientist: Take my money

2:08 hope your girlfriend doesn't watch this video!

The backyard sure gets more scientific with a fire in tornado form, awesome stuff.

Hey backyard scientist do it with glass and while your cutting the glass it has to be wet so it dosent break instantly

This guys backyard is the only place where you can play with fire and not destroy the environment at the same time

"here in Florida, if I try to start a fire, I cant!" *starts fire*

Add 3' high temp glass offset half cylinders on top of the solo stove - will look amazing

Backyard scientist: you can't make a constant fire tornado. Mark Rober: hold my beer

You are the nerdiest looking metal worker I've seen and that is awesome! When I contracted in Afghanistan and working out all the time I got pretty big and nobody believed that I was actually working on my aerospace engineering degree. Muscle heads can't be smart. lol I love people that shatter stereotypes. Great video!

The Backyard Scientist today :- I didn't need those arm hairs anyway. The Backyard Scientist next video :- I didn't need those arms anyway.

"Ok, I'm seeing some circular rotation". Yes, I am a tautology pedant.

Maybe if the inflow was channeled in a few longish tubes to store up some directional momentum instead of swirling past a sharp orifice/slit into the chamber that could be creating unwanted eddy currents and drag losses. Also some more height proportional to width on the chamber might help to increase draw and feedback.

I cut holes around the bottom of a 55 gal drum,it created a good vortex ,used it to burn papers which are usually labor intensive. Nothing but a little bit of ash was left. I installed a chimney on the lid. Sucked good!

0:44 buying stuff to diy intead of paying a factory to make it for you. Awesome! LOL seriously love the attitude

I've been watching since 2015 the fire sword. I love this channel❤

Very interesting - thinking about all of the work that you had to do for this very short 7 minute video. Yikes. Thanks for sharing.

I was craving a good dose of Backyard Scientist.

fire tornado to kevin =fun me=global warming

You know what's cool fire tornadoes -backyard scientists

Hey guys backyard scientists here! And today I will try to power my WiFi with a single lemon and we are going to see if we can upload this video with it.

Yes this is exactly what we need right now in california

*WHEN I SAW THE THUMNAIL I THOUGHT HE WAS FIREBENDING*

I like how other channels are like "don't try this at home" and his vids are always like "try and make a fire tornado bigger than mine, and if you do I wanna see!"

For some reason I thought this said “Fire Potato Pit”

Fire is literally glowing smoke.

There is a way to make a giant fire tornado! You just need 10 giant fans and put them at an angle around the fire but make sure they don’t blow out the fire mark rober’s video on the devil’s toothpaste has a clip of a giant fire tornado

4:49 "and then beat this thing into submission"🤣 lol

I imagine anyone who successfully achieves a fire tornado in their backyard will probably need a new house!

0:30 I didn't blink, haha! Yeah! I totally didn't blink here...

Early mans where you at

This is how you flex on all the neighborhood grill dads and their inferior basic fire pits

The Backyard Scientist: I can’t figure it out but I promote you all to try. Rober: fans.

I think you were on to something with your revelation that you need jets of air around the top. It's definitely possible. You have all the heat energy you need to move air up and out at a high velocity. I think it's a question of optimizing the efficiency of the heat exchange and the aerodynamics of ducting for the air from the bottom, through the heat exchange section, and out through the jets. From my experience with dust collection, air needs smooth curves to maintain pressure and velocity through ducting. Perhaps try round pipe with smooth bends. Arrange them vertically around the inside edge of the pit and bent gently towards almost horizontal at the top to create your vortex. The greater surface area of the pipe would exchange more heat and the smooth race track curves inside the pipe would help the air reach peak velocities.

You seriously have to flex on us Californians like that. One ember could end up burning thousands of akers and you can use a blowtorch in you back yard?!?!?

Oof that opening joke is gonna have some burn to it for anyone currently homeless or burying a cooked relative in ol' Cali

The words "fire tornado" have lost all meaning in my mind now.

The Phaeno in Wolfsburg, Germany has an indoor Fire Tornado that does not have moving parts. I think they burn Petroleum and there are four pillars blowing air at the flame to spin it around. I thing you can see it on their website, or just look on yt

i have an awesome idea, try connecting dysyl fans, bladeless, connect a few together to see how far the flame would travel in the fans.

The whole pit needs to be a venturi with the top of the pit acting almost like a nozzle to speed the flame up and draw it above the pit

That welding montage do be lookin EPICCCC!!!!

"And because I'm scared of commitment" and the girlfriend is missing? :/

He only posts like once a month, but it’s totally worth it.

I used this trick to form a "dancing fire snake", with a coconut, burning gasoline, and my hands to redirect a conveniently constant air current at the beach, it looked like firebending.

3:45 "The first design threw a lot of ash around and it wasn't exactly smokeless. The second design made a smokeless fire tornado." You get less smoke from burning propane than from burning wooden orange boxes? You don't say!

Judging from the thumbnail, yes.

This video was really well edited in my opinion

Lugging around a cord of wood instead of lugging around a tank of propane. Brilliant!

I told a joke a at a funeral, nobody laughed but guy was dead

Pal please dont stop what you are doing, dont delete the older videos and such! I want my future children to watch and learn from them:| Anyway I love your content, and your attitude so much. I hope you are fine and having a great day!:)

That's triangular rotation, brah.

Dude you are living out my fantasy!! I want to make a fire pit/tornado to maybe 1) have the tornado tend to direct the smoke straight up and away 2) be dope to look at 3) maybe achieve really good combustion. Then, I am looking for a 'Tensile tarp structure' that I can A) raise, B) lower for when not in use, and C) close off more if its windy. Smoke would exit a hole in the center, which would also be the highest point. Back to the hearth: what if you had a series of steel pipes in a spiral that would feed air into a large steel bowl that contains the burning wood. Cold air, which is heavier, begins orbiting the fire and gases, which stay in the center because they are lighter.... producing a swirl. My summer project!!!

'Just wait, it's not going to spread.' Famous last words.

Alike to coiling copper tube around fire to make a water heater... perhaps multiple individual coils set to discharge the heated air at a high velocity three inches below the top flange of the fire pit would make the tornado. I'd also try dampeners. One for the bottom intake and one for the coils so you can manipulate the amount of unburnt fuel from the lower fire before it hits the second burn, and the dampened on the second burn air so you can get the pit very hot before opening meaning higher velocity. It would have dampeners as moving parts, but this could also be a design test where you may make some observations to how much dampening is required when the fire is burning efficiently. This could then be used to build one without the dampeners based on the flow restrictions found when you had dampeners, if it works at all.

1:52 I love the design of that shirt so much omg

You should have patented this first. Now all those 400 dollar fire pits are going to steal your design lol. I would hahaha. Freakin awesome and brilliant idea. I love this channel

Nice to know this principle of fire building!