Thread: Petrol fumes in old 44 gal. drum

I was taught to do it with a hammer and a cold chisel.

Hi Ratbag, I have NO idea how to do this, BUT, if it were mine I would stand the drum on its base, fill it with water till overflowing & friction cut the top off. The theory being that if it was full of water it wouldn't have any residue fuel or fumes to ignite. I have posted this not to advise you how you should do it, but to see what replies/comments that I ignite.
Cheers,
Tinkera
( a long way from the Sth. island Oz.)

Hi Bryan, That's one way I wouldn't do it. Steel hammer, Steel Cold chisel, Steel drum, ALL good sparking materials.
Cheers,
Tinkera.

This topic came up yesterday in a mate's workshop, up at the Weipa mine site in the 70's they fabricated a kind of can opener device driven in at first with a hammer: I can see if I can get a sketch of one next week. The contractors had a guy there who was an old school lead fill using panel beater, my friend and several others watched this guy from a safe distance as he soldered the cracked filling tube back onto an old Dodge truck using an oxy acetylene torch, a stick of solder and a block of sal ammoniac flux. The secret was to fill the fuel tank up to the brim with petrol and leave the cap on with it's vented hole. I still have trouble seeing how he didn't ignite the vapours but he was out in the open when doing this and apparently had done so "Hundreds of time" in the panel beating shop. The fuel tank was a cylinder shape mounted on it's side so i guess there was no air pockets inside.

The topic came up after another guy mentioned building a fire in an old diesel drum with a ring of holes punched around the bottom: it roared like a jet engine once it got hot and the diesel and kero covering the wood got warm enough, shooting flames high into the sky.

Yep, hammer and cold chisel around the rim. Just like a big can opener, safe but a bit noisy.

Before incinerators were banned in SA we regularly replaced the old burnt out 44's and that's how we did it.

Yes the old guy had the right idea. Filling the tank with petrol is one way to get rid of the vapours (which are the explosive bit) if you can't/don't want to use water.

He He the best one I've ever done was when I was going to use an old AC electric motor off of a chlorine pump that was so corroded the armature was binding on the field windings due to the rust.

No worries, a quick spray with WD40 to loosen things up and try it out.

Kabooooom. A blue flame about a foot long shot out the end of the motor reminiscent of those war time movies you see of buzz bomb rockets getting ready to take off.

The internal motor switch was obviously arcing a bit and it ignited the WD40 fumes.

The motor still ran OK after, but it was something I could do without.

Rob



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Heat + oxygen + fuel = BANG. Deplete the oxygen supply by filling the tank with carbon monoxide (exhaust gas), old panel beaters trick. Still dangerous though.

Fill it with water, I'd then use a hammer and chisel.
For the vacuum cleaner idea you need one that blows not sucks! You can also use a compressed air line. The theory being that if you blow enough air in you keep the mixer(if any) to low to ignite, not a theory that I've been willing to test.


carbon monoxide? Isn't that flammable? (though in current car exhasts I'm lead to believe there isnt much anyway).
CO2?
Stuart

Use an air chisel on a compressor. Did a drum filled with water, drilled a hole with a battery drill so chisel could get a hold on. Still alive now. LOL

DD

Originally Posted by tinkera

Hi Bryan, That's one way I wouldn't do it. Steel hammer, Steel Cold chisel, Steel drum, ALL good sparking materials.
Cheers,
Tinkera.

Would a brass hammer be any better? Can't really see the chisel sparking against the drum, but who knows...?

Originally Posted by Stustoys

Fill it with water, I'd then use a hammer and chisel.
For the vacuum cleaner idea you need one that blows not sucks! You can also use a compressed air line. The theory being that if you blow enough air in you keep the mixer(if any) to low to ignite, not a theory that I've been willing to test.

Stuart

Don't try that one - it's fraught with danger

My father was a motor mechanic and they tried a similar trick repairing a fuel tank out of a Holden in the back lane behind the garage once.

It's all OK until you get flashback into the tank - yep- sure did. The tank tore itself open and flew about 40 feet through the air, luckily away from the four (now white faced) mechanics carrying out the operation.

Needless to say the mechanic that came up with that bright idea was not a popular fellow for a while after that.

There was guy in the UK press very recently that killed himself cutting open an empty 44 drum with an angle grinder to make a barbecue - bad idea.

Always fill the tank with water and try to leave all caps/vents open if there is any flash risk. It may waste a bit of water and require drying out after, but it is 100% perfectly safe from explosion.

Rob

I bring home the empty oil 44`s from work all the time.They are great for putting the lathe sworf and metal off cuts into. Can easly be moved around the garage and loaded onto the ute to go to the scrap yard.

I put a cup of dish washing liquid (or truck wash) into them with about 40 litres of water. I roll it around the backyard after work for about a week. Drain out that water then put another 40 litres of water and cut the top off.

When I do an old fuel drum after the first wash I usually fill it untill its a couple of inches from the top. Never all the way to the top. That is so the grinder blade does not fling water everywhere.

Thank you all for your timely and effective advice.

Ten minutes vigorous work with a cold chisel and the job's done!

What a fountain of wisdom there is in this forum! I wouldnt've thought of this method in a month of Sundays.

Now I can safely light it up to remove any remaining residues before cutting the fire-hole.

Ooops you're quite right, I mean't carbon dioxide (CO2). Carbon monoxide (CO) is what cars produce in the internal combustion process, the CO is then converted into CO2 by the car's catalytic converter. CO2 is not flamable (used in fire extinguishers) and that is what is emitted from the tail pipe: Slip of the oxides! If you exhaust a cars exhaust gas (CO2) into the container, it displaces the oxygen so the fuel won't ignite.

Originally Posted by tongleh

Ooops you're quite right, I mean't carbon dioxide (CO2). Carbon monoxide (CO) is what cars produce in the internal combustion process, the CO is then converted into CO2 by the car's catalytic converter. CO2 is not flamable (used in fire extinguishers) and that is what is emitted from the tail pipe: Slip of the oxides! If you exhaust a cars exhaust gas (CO2) into the container, it displaces the oxygen so the fuel won't ignite.

Hi Tongleh, I think you will find that even with the late model cars, CO is still produced from their exhaust in quantities. I have attended many suicides both successful and attempted using the car exhaust method. It still works even with the latest Volvo. The CO sensor on our gas detector can vouch for that!

Cheers,

Simon