[ADHDan]

Does anyone have a lead on where I can find a free or cheap fiber drum for a DC separator in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area? Anything from 20-40 gallon would be fine; 55 gallon would probably be too big for my shop. I found one person selling them for $15 on Craigslist, but he only sells in packs of three or more; otherwise, I'm looking at spending at least $45 on Amazon for a new drum.

I don't really care if it's used, since it's just going to be for dust collection. Does anyone have suggestions as to businesses that give away drums that otherwise would just be recycled?

 

[chrisstef]

Dan - I know that we use a ton of fiber drums for the disposal of asbestos waste at work. Maybe try your local asbestos contractor. They've probably got a supplier.

 

[marcuscraft]

I bought one of my drums from midway container in st paul. Maybe worth giving them a ring. There is another place on the NW side of town, can't remember it for the life of me though. I'll dig through my emails when I have a few minutes at home.

 

[ADHDan]

I found one of these for free: a 4' tall, 22" diameter fiber drum used for transporting fluorescent lights. Only potential issue: it has a "slide-on" fiber lid, not a locking metal lid.

If I put a rubber gasket or thin line of silicone/rubber seal around the bottom of the base where the lid slides on, and/or use a big band clamp to get a tight seal, do you think this will suffice? Or do I need to reinforce the lid somehow, maybe with a plywood or hardboard circle glued underneath the lid?

Also, I did call Midway Containers. They were very helpful, but unfortunately they said that they did not have any fiber drums; just plastic and metal drums, and only a small selection with lids (most were fully sealed, i.e. single pieces of plastic with bungs).

 

[marcuscraft]

You might be fine since the force is trying to suck down the lid. For free, worth playing with I suppose. I'll see if I can track down the other barrel place in town.

 

[ADHDan]

That'd be great, thanks! I would imagine this thing is pretty sturdy, and if it looks like the lid is being crushed I can probably find a way to reinforce it. I'd love to find one of the steel-lidded fiber drums, so if you can track down that other place I'd really appreciate it.

 

[rrww]

Just in case you don't find any you can get them from ULINE but I think they may have moved just over the boarder into WI from the the cities. They have 5 - 75 gallon fiber drums, all new and the prices don't hurt to bad, if you don't have to ship.

Good Luck

 

[marcuscraft]

Here is the other place I was thinking about:

http://www.containerexperts.com/fiber-drums.html

I only spoke with them over the phone. I think that generally they only deal with large whole sale buyers, so they werent the most friendly to me, but were willing to sell just one drum.

I ended up buying from this guy though:

http://pickleboy.com/home.html

I dont believe he had any fiber drums, just some nice 55 gallon plastic drums.

 

[ADHDan]

Thanks Marcus, I'll check with them. I'm also going to call some bakeries, because I think they get big bags of flour and other goods delivered in those drums - and the flour comes in sealed bags, so the drums don't need to be cleaned out. I'm also asking my parents to check with their respective hospitals to see if they have any drums with the locking steel lids (my dad is a physician, my mom a former medical social worker). I've also asked the facilities team at my office to check with their contractors (janitorial, mostly) to see if they have any of those locking-lid drums.

In the meantime, I did get a big drum delivered to me by a guy who recycles fluorescent lights. It doesn't have a locking lid, but it did let me rig up this thing, which should work for a while. The drum was actually way too big, but I was able to cut it down by setting my table saw to 1/8", holding the drum against the fence, and rolling it around the blade. The lid doesn't seal airtight, but I'm going to wrap duct tape around the base to widen it a hair and then use a long hose clamp to tighten the drum lid. I ran it last night as-is and it did a passable job; caught some dust in the DC bag, but most of it went into the drum.

 

[marcuscraft]

Looks good, Dan. I have an Oneida mini gorilla and a separate set up much like yours with a 55 gallon barrel with a locking lid…both still end up with a bit of dust in the bag, so you're probably good to go.

 

[AlishaB]

My company often has used fiber 55 gallon drums with the removable lid that seals back on with the metal ring. It looks like this is an older post but if you ever need these again, feel free to call me and ask. These drums once stored glue (like elmers glue) but some did have liners etc. Some did not and there is a small film of glue dried around the inside of the drums but if it is just for dust waste it should be no big deal. Company is American Chemical, Inc. Minneapolis. MN Phone number and address available on Google