The 55 gallon steel drum is a standard container. What can be made from the metal and or the drum?

For instance the 55 forge,

the parts pan, storage containers, or other items posted on the site. As a storage container, a 55 gallon drum holds about 400 pounds of coal. The smaller grease drums can be filled with sand to make a heavy anvil stand.

 

What are some other ideas on how to recycle the 55 gallon drum?

Edited March 13, 201511 yr by Glenn

I filled mine about 2/3 full with concrete, sunk some heavy angle in it and used it to support my leg vise. Once things warm up will use the top for a slack tub (heavy angle is painted). Now it works well as a stable, but still re-locatable vise mount.

W/clamp on lid: Bulk storage for solids, coal or ? . . . Charcoal retort. Tumbler.

Oil, etc. drum: Barrel stove, heat exchanger (stack robber) (see pic), Fire pit, outdoor fire place. anchor for docs, moorage, etc. Cable stays for towers, fences, etc. block piles for decks, towers, etc. Floats for docks piers, etc. Sheet steel stock. On and on, imagination and tools are the only limit.

Frosty The Lucky.

Greetings all,

I know it sounds all together to simple but...  I use one for torch cutting to contain the Sparks in the shop..  A couple of angle irons on top to hold the material,  Keeps the Sparks out of your shoes also,  

Forge on and make beautiful things

Jim

Cut it top to bottom remove both ends and use the sheet metal for whatever you need. 

Rich

steel drums, shop walls, post vise stand, coal storage

Smokers, BBQ grills, stock watering tubs/troughfts, feeders, patio fireplaces, trailer fenders, water walls (for your green house) burn barrels, chairs, drain pans, planters, axzilery water/fuel tanks, was tubs/sinks...

..... trailer fenders, ...

​Hey, I've seen a couple of those!  Whatever works, works!  Drums are stronger than most of the fenders on the new trailers by a long shot.  You can barely prop a cold beer on the skimpy things without bending them.

Makes nice sheet metal for roses.   Made a 45 gal drum forge and had the disk off the bottom to play with,  Was something else but it eludes me right now.

Nice rose and forging work!  Carries recycling to the max.  I'll think of that piece of work next time I see an old steel drum. 

Man you make NICE roses!

Frosty The Lucky.

Use a ring as a small fire pit.  Place around small stumps.   Make fire and burn away the stump. 

Cut holes at the bottom end and they make excellent "furnaces" for burning twigs and branches from the garden. The fire is contained and it is easier to burn moist wood since it is being dried as it sinks down to the burning zone at the bottom. Three holes 2"x6" are enough. Do not cut the piece away. Cut the hole at the bottom and sides and bend inwards. That helps a little in keeping the air supply open.

If you put a small srum filled with wood upside down in the middle you have made yourself a charcoal maker.

Göte

   

For my burn barrels I depend both ends and use a 22.5" wheel with 3 legs. I prefer old split rims as they are now obsolete but the thicker steel and the legs keeping the air cumming up order the fire makes I'd roar like a jet. When the bottom edge burns out, just flip the drum.

I use mine for slack water. During winter months, I drop in an electric stock tank heater.

Many moons ago, some horshoers carried coal forges on their traveling rig. I had a pickup where I cut a hole in the barrel bottom for a firepot and another hole in the truck bed for same firepot. Ashes went to the ground. The top of the barrel had an 8" D hole fixed for a short length of stove pipe.

Edited March 14, 201511 yr by Frank Turley

Short stock scraps, store on their sides. Drip pans ( cut short). No frills BBK (hinge top).  Truck repair, fill with sand and place plates across the top (USN USMC repair depot). Parts cleaners, field kitchen sinks, cleaning stations, cut in half and add hot water. Latrine burn barrels (add DFM and burn while occasionally storing as required ) . Solar hot water heaters, paint black, leave in sun and connect with plastic pipe, add drums as required for volume. Long term storage, add parts and fill with oil or preservative, note requires a sealable lid. There is a lot of square footage in sheet steel in a drum. Cut up the drum and use the  sheet stock for whatever project you are undertaking ( shinnies, siding doublets etc) . The possibilities are endless and generally after the drums are empty they go to scrap , more trouble to handle than they are worth. In the 3rd world they do all sorts of inventive things with empty drums. 

Peter

Besides burn barrels and charcoal makers, cut down burn pit for the kids. Cut up, it became the table on my forge (does that make it technically a 55 forge?) Charcoal, coal, and stock containers. Water container. Anything I need random sheet metal for. Barrels for training my wife's beloved hooved animals. Crude musical instruments. Ginormous table legs. Impromptu kiddie ride (NOT parent approved).

Oh yeah. And they make dandy torsos for giant barrel man sculptures, but I haven't actually made any of my own yet.

Hung from springs they make good bucking horse simulators. A barrel bellows is a topless barrel filled with water with a smaller one open end down in it. Add flap valves and hose to the inner barrel and it produces a nice steady blast. A lift lever raises it and the intake valve lets air in.

Before I salvaged a 10' length of 24" culvert to use for an incinerator I used burn barrels. I really liked how they performed when I put 4 ea. 2-3" x 4-6" three sided tabs evenly spaced around the sides. They were oriented vertically with the same hinge side. I only opened them so the tab had a gap or maybe 1 1/2" so they directed the intake air in a vortex in the drum. cleanest burning burn barrels I've ever seen if I could only convince people to NOT throw bottles and cans in it.

Frosty The Lucky.

The most creative use for a barrel that i've seen was done by a friend of mine, the picture below tells the whole story

 

Frosty, try knocking both heads out of a 55 gallon drum and placing it on cinder blocks to get it 8-12 inches off the ground. Add combustible material and fire. It will suck air in at the bottom and burn very well. If you want to burn almost smokeless, knock the heads out of a second drum and place it on top of the first one.  NOW you have a burner.

Glenn, I'll have to tell my neighbor about that one.

I've tried similar Glenn and the vortex burn barrel beat the stuffins out of them. I didn't mention it before I bent the tab inward.

We've had two dry winters in a row I haven't lit a trash fire since last time it was raining, the transfer station is only 7 miles from here and no way to I'm going to be THAT guy by starting a forest fire.

Frosty The Lucky.

Frosty,

Do you have pics? I'm having trouble getting my mental image of your vortex bb clear.