44 Gallon Drum Oven

[david s]

for anyone intending to duplicate this idea be VERY careful when cutting the drum in half. Quite a lot of people have been killed when cutting 44 gallon drums as the small amount of oil creates volatile fumes which can ignite creating a bomb. You must wash the drum copiously with detergent and water to remove any oil residue.

[brickie in oz]

The first think they say in a boiler making apprenticeship is, dont weld empty drums of any kind.

[david s]

The sparks generated from a cutting disk are also enough to ignite it.

[nissanneill]

It's interesting as you go through life, you meet many different types of people who are tradespeople and masters of their games.
One such person I met is a welder who specialised in welding aluminium truck diesel tanks that had been damaged or worn thin under their holding straps.
He showed me what he had learned from an old German welder/engineer how he took out every plug and screw-in fitting, hooked the tank up to a good compressed air supply (15 -20 cfm) and then commenced welding. As the welding progressed, you could see the diesel fumes rapidly escaping through the filler(s) and outlets.
The explosive situation occurs when those fumes are trapped and can't escape but build up to the point where an explosion occurs.
The old German guy also used to used a vacuum cleaner to suck out the fumes but all the air passing through a vacuum cleaner pass through the electric motor to cool it with plenty of sparks around the armeture and can easily cause a fire but not necessarily an explosion.
Regardless however, extreme care must be exercised.

Neill

[WoodchuckDad]

You can get a new drum for about 60 bucks.