Thread: How to make a 58-1/2 gallon oil drum (learn from his mistakes)

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This was over on HAMB & my jaw dropped when I seen the pictures, The person in this post was about to cut the top off a 55 gallon drum w/a plasma cutter.

PLEASE be carefull......joe

....ll I can say is (1) DUMB and (2) happy he wasn't hurt worse then that.

yup. no telling what kind of chemicals were in the drum.... B4 we built an incinerator pit in my back yard. I cut the tops out of the barrals with a stick welder. always filled them up 1/2 way with water b4 doing it.. most of the chemicals that were in the barrals were not flamable anyway ( my dad knew what they held as he got them from the company he worked for at the time ) and for them to meet the waste requirements so they could even sit outside, they needed to be washed out anyway.

Good example of learning the hard way, thankfully for him not as hard as it could have been. The notion of "oil not working that way" is kinda silly. It's still a hydrocarbon, the same stuff gasoline and diesel fuel is, just a heavier molecular weight. Given the right conditions, enough heat to vaporize it, and you've got a combustible.

Just an aside, if you want a 55 gal burn barrel/garbage can, try to find a grease drum, they have a removable top held on by a band clamp. No cutting required (though perhaps some messy cleanup depending on how clean you need it )

I saw that too on the HAMB..........Wow, he really got burned bad, but was lucky to be alive. My Dad told me a story when I was a kid about two friends of his who were chiseling on a Model A gas tank to get it out and it blew up and killed one guy and badly hurt the other one.

This stuff can kill or hurt us badly if we aren't careful and think ahead.

Don

That's a painful lesson to learn. Kurt

Originally Posted by Matt167

yup. no telling what kind of chemicals were in the drum.... B4 we built an incinerator pit in my back yard. I cut the tops out of the barrals with a stick welder. always filled them up 1/2 way with water b4 doing it.. most of the chemicals that were in the barrals were not flamable anyway ( my dad knew what they held as he got them from the company he worked for at the time ) and for them to meet the waste requirements so they could even sit outside, they needed to be washed out anyway.

Matt, in my youth a welding instructor was talking about welding on gas tanks. He said filling a gas tank with water and welding on it only meant that you would die WET !!!

Originally Posted by HWORRELL

Matt, in my youth a welding instructor was talking about welding on gas tanks. He said filling a gas tank with water and welding on it only meant that you would die WET !!!

I know, theoreticlly it could raise the flammable gasses up in the barral making them more likely to ignite... but these were washed out chemical barrals. my dad knew the contents and there properties because he worked with them all day long. they were the base chemicals for a lot of skin care products..

Put dry ice in the barrel first. As the dry ice returns to a vapor (carbon dioxide), it displaces the air (20% oxygen) in the drum and you cannot get ignition because there is no oxygen to support ignition.

The lesson is . . . never cut a drum unless you know EXACTLY what you're doing, and . . . never take anyone else's word for what was in it.

That barrel, even if he chissled it out and it didn't blow up on him.. was going to be used for a burn barrel. with an open flame and somthing that combustable.. it would have ignited the flamable contents in someones face by the first trash bag lit

Makes 35 bucks for a new one ,with removable lid seem cheap now.............

Years ago I knew a guy who would repair leaking car fuel tanks by welding them up, but he made you bring him the car with a completely full fuel tank. He said the vapors are what exploded, not the gas, so he wanted it totally full.

While he was doing my car I went to lunch................waaaaaaaaaaaay down the street from his shop.

Don

What I never seem to understand is how you can get totally messed up and still have presense of mind to take pictures of the injury and what happend.

I think I'd be more inclined to blame someone else for the misfortune. haha

Originally Posted by bentwings

I think I'd be more inclined to blame someone else for the misfortune. haha

When the guy dropped off the barrel, I made mention of using a hammer and chisel, and he replied that he always uses a cutting torch. Being pressed for time (who isn’t these days) I thought the next best thing would be to use my plasma cutter. I am normally a stickler for being safe, and I guess the cutting torch statement and my haste clouded my better judgment. Regardless of what someone else had told me, I am still responsible for my own actions, and it was my responsibility to insure these actions were safe. Trying to blame someone else removes all personal accountability, and increases the likelihood of future occurrences of a similar nature.

Originally Posted by bentwings

What I never seem to understand is how you can get totally messed up and still have presense of mind to take pictures of the injury and what happend.

I feel blessed to be able to walk, talk, and in a few days, to be able to return to my shop and work on some cars. However unfortunate and stupid as my actions were, I have always seen events such as these as life lessons. I know there are persons, perhaps such as yourself, who know all and have nothing else to learn. Judging from your statements, it would appear you would never be heard from in a similar situation, as you would still be looking for someone to blame. Myself, I’d rather man up and admit my mistake in the hopes that it would prevent someone else a similar or worse fate. So yes, I had presence of mind to go outside with second degree burns and take pictures of the barrel and then take pictures of my injuries in order that it would serve as a vivid reminder for anyone who may find themselves in a similar stupid attempt. Your disparaging remarks serve little more than a discouragement for anyone else that may post such life lessons for others to learn from as well. I guess we’re just cut from a different mold.