Did I buy the Wrong 55 gallon drums?

[flatwacker]

Hi guys, 

I'm about to build my first smoker and am going to do it out of 3 55 gallon drums, I picked up some cheap used food storage drums for $10 a pop. the drums held glycerine. Its a simple polyol (sugar alcohol) compound. My worry is that after removing removing the tops I came to find out the drums are painted inside with im guessing is a non toxic paint to not allow the alcohol to come in contact with the medal of the drum. I have no idea what the paints name is and at what temp it will fail and I don't want start building my smoker just to find out I made a poison smoker.   

any insight would be great. 

Here are pics of the drums. 

vCPB4Uk.jpg

• flatwacker
• Feb 23, 2016

rV8mVnm.jpg

• flatwacker
• Feb 23, 2016

 

[travisty]

If it was me, i'd either sand blast it out, wire brush it out, or I've seen others who just burnt it out, by burning some fuel in there for half a day.

I would think since it stored food it is okay, but might only be stable at room temps, and could (or likely is) be harmful if burned.

Most welding shops will have a sand blaster, ive taken things in to a local one and they charged me $10-$20 bucks for a sheet of metal about the size of a barrel.

 

[dirtsailor2003]

That's not paint it's an epoxy coating. It is toxic when burnt. If you can get it sand blasted go that route. The stuff is tough as nails. If not get yourself a good respirator and grind it out. The 60 grit abrasive disc on an angle grinder works great. You do not want to breath the dust so be careful.

I had the same thing in my last one. I took it to tje powder coat shop and had them blast it inside and out. Then I had them coat the exterior with high temp powder coating. Total cost was $75, $25 to blast.

 

[HalfSmoked]

First

to Smf glad to have you on board. Not sure what maybe in the drums as far as paint goes but would try burning out first if you going to 20 to 30 a barrel to get sand blasted just as well buy new barrels. Hope you get it worked out.

 

[HalfSmoked]

I missed dirtsailors post  he was posting same time I was and I would go with his wisdom.

 

[flatwacker]

Thanks for the insight guys. I'll give the powder coating shops a call tomorrow when they are open and find out a cost. I don't know what new ones go for but looking on the interwebs it looks like $100 a barrel. 

 

[dirtsailor2003]

That's about right for steel ones. Stainless even more. Then you have to pay for shipping too.

It's really hard to find a used non-lined drum.

My two cents. My UDS lives outdoors 24-7. Besides dust and grime from rain etc, the PC finish on the outside still looks new. The $75 I paid to have it done was worth it for me.

All PC shops should have a sand blaster too. I do metal art and they charge me anywhere from $15-$75 to blast, $25-$200 to coat depending on what it is, how many colors and how big.