Looking at building at UDS and have a question

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morairtym

Newbie
Original poster
May 14, 2015
3
10
I'm thinking about Making an UDS or getting a WSM.

So my next door neighbor/Uncle has some steal drums for sale $8

We set one aside that looks like it stored some type of water based paint in it. They seem to be made of a rather thick gauge steel, and had a red lining on the inside that would need to be removed. Here is a picture of the top of the drum.  So if I clean out the inside and torch off the paint/liner inside and out would it be safe to turn into a smoker?  If not he has some older thinner ones, they have rust on them and used to hold Butanone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butanone  and don't appear to have any lining on the inside but is most likely just clear.

I don't have a torch to remove the paint should I one or will a pallet fire in the drum do a good job?

 
 
A pallet fire will get most of it out. Use a grinder with a wire wheel to get the rest out.

I used mineral sprits, that took the rest off.
 
Butanone is highly flamable so if you were to rinse the drum well then burn it out you should have no trace of it left. The liners will come out with a good pallet fire and some time with the grinder but it adds a lot of man hours to your build (and some frustration). Also, I would recommend one with a removable lid over having to cut the drum open. 
 
Yea the one with the liner has a removable lid, where the one that held Butanone had the top cut off.

I think I'll go ahead and buy the one in the picture and do a pallet burn in it after I clean it out with the hose.

I don't think I'll get to much done on it over the next week other then making a big fire in it and start work on scrubbing it out.

My only concern was people talk about food grade drums and was not sure if this one would be safe but from what your telling me I should be fine.
 
Once you burn it out, or sand blast and are down to bare metal, you are fine. Be prepar d to paint the exterior with hug temp paint. The drum will start to rust quickly.
 
Carefull cutting the lid off. Lotsa People die every year from drum explosions. Rinse and flush well before cutting sparks and fumes go boom
 
Have you looked into getting it sandblasted? I found a guy that was going to do it for $60 but I opted to burn it out instead. During the course of grinding the liner off the inside I started regretting not blasting it.
 
I was going to try to keep cost down on round one.  If I knew some one with a sand blaster or a place that did it, and it did not cost to much I also have a boat I paint striped 4 years ago that looks like crap that I would also have it done to.

Also I cant believe the lack of common sense that some people have. It would be interesting to see a YouTube video of an exploding drum under the section Darwin awards.
 
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