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Would anyone please share their methods, or give me advice on lowering the space-taking element of 55gallon metal barrels? this sledge hammer has done about wore me out after about 10 of these, is there anything easier?
And also, what is the best way to flatten/crush/compress sheet metal tin? just trying to get more in a load rather than have all that emptyweightspace of bulkiness
You can probably get a lot more from your 55 gallon steel barrels by re-purposing them than you can by trying to smash them flat.
There are a lot of people looking for 55 gallon steel drums, matter of fact I know someone in the process of making propane smelting furnaces that uses 55 gallon steel drums. You could also turn them into incinerators.
You might want to check into selling them to someone who might have use or need of them before you spend all that time and labor making them flat for easy transport.
Scott
I've heard a lot bout using vacuum from a gasoline motor, ie your car or pickup, to compress them which obiviously won't work if they got holes in em. You best bet would be cutting both top and bottom using sawzall, torch or whatever and then beating them down with the sledge, or maybe run them over with pickup tire. Aside from building a press those would be your options
This way would be fun!
55 Gallon Steel Drum Implosion - YouTube
throw them out in the cow pasture, they'll be flat in no time ; )
we smash ours with a forklift and a heavy skid, cutting the bottoms and top out would help even with the sledge.
If you don't want to sell them, then fill them with your smaller shred stuff. That will increase your load density. Spending a lot of time flattening them seems counterproductive.
Do you get a lot of them? On a regular basis?
shoot them full of holes first then they crush up nice and easy!
I fill mine with smaller shred and take them when they are all full. Sure is better than toting buckets around for the small stuff.
sell them for burn barrels. Get about $15 ea around here
Seems like alot of work for a little bit of money. My yard won't take them if they are smashed flat because they want to make sure there is no oil or anything toxic in them.
I have seen them turned into rubbish bins.
They used a huge sort of can opener & it cut the drum open around the outside edge of the lid on one end.
It left a bead on the outside edge of the actual drum at one end & the end could be used as the drum lid, as it fitted into & over the top edge of the drum.
a guy over here brings a trailer packed with them. stacked two to three high. gets a good amount of cash and its free from his work.
Since I'm in demolition anyway, I love crushing them with the flat side of my Cat 330 excavator bucket.
run them over with a tractor or just sell on CL as a burn barrel
use what you can to sort material in (one for wire, other copper, aluminum cans, ......) like was aid before fill with small stuff. Go to a farm store and get a kit to make them into wood stoves (about $30 if I remember right) you can make some up in the summer and this fall sell them for 2 or 3 times what you got in them. Number one to remember is they are worth a lot more whole than flat.
I have a machine that is designed to crush 55 gallon drums that I am trying to sell actually. If you give me a call at 860-253-3534 I can give you the specs of the machine as well as some pictures of it.Quote:
Originally Posted by iicekingg