This afternoon I went with D&L on the long, unpleasant…
…trip to the amazingly well-located county landfill.
Seriously, never has such a godforsaken chunk of wasteland been put to a more fitting purpose.
I usually tag along to give them a hand with the heavy stuff. This time I had an ulterior motive. The guy who runs the scales and takes the money has a side hustle…
I don’t know where he gets them, but over the past few years he has become an amazingly reliable source for burn barrels. I needed to replace the one at Ian’s place, which finally fell completely apart. The trick, I have found, is to get one with a lid and obsessively put the lid on between uses. If the ashes don’t get wet, the barrel is a lot slower about rotting away on the bottom.
I wasn’t surprised that there were barrels to be had, but I still expected to go away empty handed because the price would surely have skyrocketed out of reach like everything else. Instead, it went down! And not just a little. That one right there cost me $25, ten bucks less than the one I got for the Lair two years ago.
cherish themoment
“If the ashes don’t get wet, the barrel is a lot slower about rotting away on the bottom.” As we all know from sad experience, a rotting bottom is a bad thing. I’ll tell my landlord; he gets about three year out of one. It probably doesn’t help that I put several .223 rounds through it. For ventilation, y’know.
A few minutes of YouTube University shows a guy who has a pretty trick burn barrel. The cuts and stuff looked pretty intelligent. If you have a compressor you can get a cheap panel cutter from Harbor Freight that will just slice a 1/8″ kerf out. Ear protection is a thing. Some cinder blocks to get it off the dirt and you can make it last.
IDK how much it would be for one with the clamp on lid around here, but just a regular barrel is usually ten bucks. Here is around Longview Texas.
That barrel was discounted because it had radio active sludge in it.😬 A lid make a huge difference in longevity as well as having it up off the ground an blocks or bricks as NP has already stated. When you can’t find a steel lid Gemplers sells plastic drum covers that last longer than the drum does fyi.
Even in inflationary times, the laws of supply and demand still function (as imperfectly as always).
Wet wood ashes turn to Lye that is very corrosive. Paper and cardboard is still wood. I empty my barrel every time I use it .
Wouldn’t it save time and money over the long run to make the barrel with native rocks, or even just concrete?
The little things in life, like the condition and/or maintenance of burn barrels, should be mindless things that just work.
Do you not have a shop vac?
You need a shop vac.
I’m guessing the local landfill is now requiring a surcharge on items which may have been used to store materials not good for the water table. So lower the cost to get rid of them faster.
Thanks to all for adding input in lengthening life of burn barrel. Our home version is an old roll of galvanized 1×2 wire where we burn our sensitive materials mail. Open design and a brisk wind takes care of that handily. Done maybe two – three times a year.
“Radioactive sludge”? How do you know this?
Just a bit of humor Anon nothing more.