Sources for steel drums

LBrown59 · Jan 16, 2005

I used to get all the free steel 55 gal. steel drums I wanted from the factory where my brother worked till he retired 3 years ago.
I use them for trash burning barrels.
Still have 5 or 6 stored in my pole barn for future use.

If you inquire and look around you should find them free someplace.

rswyan · Jan 16, 2005

( It was OK but nothing to brag about. I left the bungs in and tried to regulate the airflow with the dampers in the door. I found that it was difficult if not impossible to shut down the air and slow the fire, but it did heat quickly and knock the chill off in the shop. )

Did you have the unit with the gasketed door or the one without ?

( It seems to me that your approach with the smaller drum as your firebox will make it somewhat slower to heat up. )

That's basically true - I also got the optional kit for the second barrel on top - this should allow fairly fast heat from the top 55 while the outside of the bottom unit is still heating up. Our shed is 32 x 28 with an 8' insulated drywall ceiling - so it's not all that big - makes wonder whether I'll be cooking myself out of the building. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif The walls are uninsulated block though - it tends to take quite a bit to get the chill out of the building when it's cold out.

( No more trouble than they are to assemble, and as cheap as used drums are I believe that I'd just fabricate me a grate to hold my wood off the bottom of the drum and plan on redoing it in a few years. )

Yeah .... that might well be the easiest and most economical way to go. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

rswyan · Jan 16, 2005

( Don't think the drum inside of a drum ( if I under stood correctly) is going to be worth the extra work. )

It may not be. If it's going to be alot of extra expense or hassle I'll probably skip it.

( I heated my shop 32 x 40 with one of those double drum heaters for about 12 winters before I decide to put in central because I needed the space. )

I'll actually gain a little bit of usable floor space over the wood furnace that's in there now, mainly due to the fact that the outlet is on the top of the barrel and it's on the back of the wood furnace. It will move it about 12" closer to the wall (which fortunately is concrete block)

( I made the kit myself. drums come in two thickness. )

Searching online so far the only thing I have seen is 16 and 18 gauge - neither of which seems very heavy.

( I put a layer of fire brick in the bottom of the barrel and up the side as high as they stay up without falling.and across the back, I didn't mortar them, just put them in dry. I had the damper in the stove pipe. and a small one in the back near the bottom and a large about 4" in the door. )

I've thought about firebrick as well. Sand is probably cheaper but then there is the added cost of the second barrel plus the extra work involved. The kit I got came with a damper included on the outlet and a pair of draft controls on the ash clean out door. I already had a damper in the chimney with the wood furnace, but it will go with it down to the house.

( I made a grate out of 3/4 in bar stock with enough room so I could rake the ashes out. )

Yeah that would be very useful as well - the way the kit I have is there are two doors - a large one for loading and a smaller one for below it for cleanout. The wood furnace that's up there now has a pull-out ash pan in it which is real nice - everything just falls through the grate and into the pan - just pull it out and empty it.

( As I found out the hard way when I first was learning how to used it. I shut down a roaring fire too quick, and she blew the stove pipes off. I had her red lots of times, but that set of drums lasted the whole 12 years. )

Bet that was exciting /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif That's pretty impressive on the lifespan of the drums.

( The last two years I added an oil drip to it. )

This is something I'm also interesting in doing - I'm using a 55 gallon drum to accumulate oil from oil changes on equipment - probably have 20 - 30 gallons at the moment. I don't have to heat the shed every day - only when I'm up there working in it. I doubt that I would ever accumulate enough oil to be able to heat entirely with it, but as a supplement to wood it would be good. And it would save from me from having to haul the used oil somewhere to dispose of it properly. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

rswyan · Jan 16, 2005

garry,

( Matalics Recycling in Wooster sels them for $3.00 each. )

Thanks - just read an article on them in the Wooster Daily Record - besides the drums (they might even have stainless drums), it's looks like it would be an interesting place to stop by and scope out.

rswyan · Jan 16, 2005

( I have used the double barrel stove set-up for many years in my shop with excellent results. One thing that I did when installing the stove was to cut the chimney pipe hole near the front side of the top barrel at a 2-3 o-clock position so the hot smoke from the bottom barrel has to travel a longer path and then down a bit before exiting to the chimney pipe. )

Glad to hear you got good results. One of the things I was thinking about doing with the "30 inside a 55" idea was to cut an outlet hole at the top rear of the 30 gal drum, but then cut the outlet hole for the first 55 the 30 is in, at the top front of the first 55. This would make the exhuast travel to to the rear initially and then back to the front of the bottom unit. From there the exhaust would connect to the top drum (at the the front) and travel to the rear before entering the chimney.

This should cause better heat distribution over the entire volume and it will allow me to use the exisisting chimney pipe - which is fairly close to my wall - maybe 3' out. Due to my chimney location, if the chimney connected towards the front of the second barrel, the rear of the stove would be more or less touching the outside wall of the building - if it didn't run into the wall first. The chimney is centered in 4' area between the personnel entry door and the overhead door - you can see the overhead door in the image of the existing wood furnance - it's to the right and behind - the personnel entry door is just out of frame on the left. So I'm even limited as far as making it connect to the side of barrel at a 2 o'clock position (an idea that I like, BTW) - I can't move the stove side to side much. I might be able to run a short length of tube (3" or 4") down inside of the outlet of the top barrel and achieve a similar result though.

I save all our old cardboard for use as firestarter. It works great - burns real hot and longer than wadded up newspaper.

JD3130 · Jan 17, 2005

RSW
I ran on so much, I didn't say that all in all I was very pleased with mine. It worked better than the store wood stove I had before. I used mostly scraps from my wood shop. I watched for the lineman to cut down cut trees on our road, for a few bucks they would dump their load on my place.
Alley wood is free. Lots of sources for free wood.
I tried the sand first but found it was hard to out clean the ashes. I found a house they were tearing down and ask them for the bricks out of the fireplace. Fire mortar chips off real easy!
When you are looking for the barrels, I from that in most cases food stuffs are in the thin ones. Oil, paint, nasty stuff is in the thick ones. BE SURE and burn out whatever you get, OUTSIDE before you use it. I take a hose and run it from my tractor exhaust into the bung hole of the drum for about 10 minutes before I start cutting, or fill it with water.
JD

fig · Jan 18, 2005

Do you have any chemical companies around you? We do work in some plants here local and the ones that take bulk chemical and put it in drums usually have clean new ones on hand. My 2 cents.

rswyan · Jan 18, 2005

Mark,

( we have soem down at my place that I got at a local auction, I can get a few of the steel 55's with closed lids, but have some used oil debris in them, (usually less than a gallon) from work in "perrysville" we get hydraulic oil and mish coolants in them, )
The oil would no problem - just more fuel to burn /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

( I'm waiting to get 4 or so plastic ones which we get waste water treatment chemicals in which we treat waste water with befor it goes into the river. (forces the clay to drop out faster and then lest the clean water flow over into the creek by binding the clay particals together to form a sandy like substance.) the chemical and sandylike substance drops out in the pond then clean water flows through sand beds to the creek. pretty neat process and water comming out is crystal clear! )
Sounds interesting. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

( anyhwo I could probably get say 4 or 5 of the steel ones if you wanted I think they usually sell them back to the oil delivery co as returns and usually I think there is a 25+ deposit. so I would have to know if that is ok a head of time. )
Yeah - that's what I had to pay when I picked up the two I currently have (one for diesel storage and the other for waste oil) - seems to be the going rate.

( the chemical / oil company is out of medina and I can get the # and name at work for ya which may be closer as perrysville is center south ohio between wooster & mansfield and a bit south... )
Yeah, might be a little closer - Medina is probably 30 minutes or so, Wooster is at least 45 minutes if not a little more. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Let me see if I can come up with some open head drums, if not I may give you a shout. BTW, did you ever have any luck finding a trailer ? (I still look whenever I'm out and about)

rswyan · Jan 18, 2005

JD,

( I ran on so much, I didn't say that all in all I was very pleased with mine. It worked better than the store wood stove I had before. )

Another positive report - that's good to hear - from the reports so far I don't think I'm going to be unhappy with it.

( I used mostly scraps from my wood shop. I watched for the lineman to cut down cut trees on our road, for a few bucks they would dump their load on my place. Alley wood is free. Lots of sources for free wood. )

I don't have a woodshop, but I do have about 8 or so acres of woods, which needs managed (thinned) badly. Between doing selective thinning and just cleaning up the snags that have fallen, I think I'll have enough wood for fuel for both the house and the shop for the next 5 years at least. After that there's always the neighbors /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

( I tried the sand first but found it was hard to out clean the ashes. I found a house they were tearing down and ask them for the bricks out of the fireplace. Fire mortar chips off real easy! )

I imagine that trying to clean the ash and not clean the sand with it would be a pain. The kit I have suggests using sand in the bottom but they don't cover how to keep it from getting mixed in with the ashes as you clean out the stove. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

( I found a house they were tearing down and ask them for the bricks out of the fireplace. Fire mortar chips off real easy! )

Good idea - I'll keep an eye on the paper - there's one section in the classifieds that has all kinds of building materials in it - can pick up some real good deals there if ya pay attention.

( When you are looking for the barrels, I from that in most cases food stuffs are in the thin ones. Oil, paint, nasty stuff is in the thick ones. )

Thanks, that will help narrow down where to look.

( BE SURE and burn out whatever you get, OUTSIDE before you use it. I take a hose and run it from my tractor exhaust into the bung hole of the drum for about 10 minutes before I start cutting, or fill it with water. )

Good point - I was amazed at how much fumes just the two sections of stove pipe I replaced this year put out when I fired the wood furnace initially after replacing them - had to open the overhead door and leave to let it air out.

rswyan · Jan 18, 2005

( A friend had one of the barrel stoves and he would fill the bottom with sand for the wood to burn on, it made the barrel last 10X longer than burning on the metal. Maybe 6" to 8" of sand. )

Yeah, I think I'm going to do some kind of liner - sand or firebrick.

( It is unreal how much heat these stoves put out, you can also weld a 6" pipe through the top barrel and use a fan to move the air through, this works well too. )

I was thinking of just picking up a cheap three speed floor fan - the big square kind and hanging it on the wall about 4' up behind the unit. This would blow warm air out into the rest of shop area, instead of having to rely solely on convection.