Share
Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @Craezy. It's wonderful to have you join us, and many thanks for your question about building a gas table.
It’s great that you’re thinking about making a Korean-style hotpot table, but there are some important safety and regulatory considerations to keep in mind. In Australia, gas bottle–powered appliances are generally not allowed for indoor use, so if your table is intended for indoor use, it wouldn’t be compliant. Even for outdoor use, having an open flame or heating element so close to combustible materials raises serious safety concerns, particularly if you want storage underneath for utensils or a gas bottle.
Gas bottles must always be stored in a ventilated space, so they can’t simply go in a drawer or enclosed cupboard beneath the stove. Likewise, prefabricated gas stoves aren’t designed to sit on combustible surfaces, so any DIY table would need careful material selection and spacing to avoid fire hazards.
Because of these risks, the safest approach is to look at purpose-made hotpot or gas tables, or use a prefabricated stove on a safe, heat-resistant surface. I realise this might not give you the exact aesthetic you’re after, but it’s difficult to safely provide instructions for building a table with an integrated gas stove and storage underneath. Safety has to come first.
I'd suggest checking out these products: Gasmate Portable BBQ Butane Stove With Dual Safety, Gasmate 2 Burner Portable Camping Stove, Gasmate Butane Stove With Cooking Pan, Gasmate Single Burner Wok Cooker, Gasmate Double Burner Wok Cooker and Gasmate Butane Twin Stove with Hotplate & Pot Set. If you were considering a charcoal option, I really like the look of this Healthy Choice Portable Hibachi Tabletop Grill Dual Charcoal BBQ Chambers.
With any of the above units, provided you had them sitting on a non-combustible material such as compressed cement sheeting, you could then build a storage unit underneath it for utensil storage.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Mitchell
Thanks for clarifying, @Craezy.
Could you please share a bit more detail about exactly what you’d like to build? If you can post a few inspiration images or sketches of the style of hotpot table you’re going for, it’ll help our members better understand your vision and offer more targeted advice. Let me know if you need a hand uploading them.
If you’re thinking of installing a gas or even an electric element into a pre-built box, that’s not something that really comes with established D.I.Y. guidelines. You’d need to refer closely to the manufacturer’s installation instructions for the specific element and build around the required clearances and ventilation. Most elements are designed to be mounted in kitchen benchtops and have strict setbacks for what can be placed beneath or beside them. Purpose-built hotpot tables are generally manufactured and sold as complete units rather than being built from scratch as a D.I.Y. project.
If you can share some more details and images of what you’d like to construct, we’ll be able to give more practical guidance on how to approach it. In terms of alternatives to gas, electric elements would likely be safer since there’s no open flame, but they still need proper ventilation and clearance underneath the table.
Mitchell
Something similar to this
Hi @Craezy,
Thanks for sharing the image. What you’re showing is a purpose-built Korean barbecue or hotpot table, and these are proprietary products made by manufacturers. They go through extensive testing and compliance checks regarding the materials used for the benchtop and the installation of the gas burner. The burner itself is specifically designed for that purpose and isn’t something that’s available in our range.
For a D.I.Y. version, there are too many safety considerations. Insetting a gas burner into a table involves careful design to ensure the surrounding materials aren’t affected by heat, proper ventilation is maintained, and the burner is safely contained. Those tables usually have a metal drop-in bucket to contain the heat from the burner, along with other proprietary parts. Because of all these factors, it’s not something that can be safely replicated as a D.I.Y. project. I’ve never seen anyone build one from scratch safely, so I’m not able to provide guidance on cutting out a table to achieve this.
My advice would be to purchase a purpose-built unit that suits your needs rather than attempting to build one yourself. It will be much safer and ensure the table performs as expected.
Mitchell
