Burning barrel or incinerator

[IA Roy]

How do you get rid of burnable trash and keep the trash from blowing around before it is burned? Over the years, I have cut open a couple of 500 gallon tanks and several 275 gallon fuel oil tanks. Several I have made doors on to keep everything in. My current one has a door and I added an electric fan to feed the flames. this one does a good job, essentially turning it into an incinerator.
The common problem is that they don't last very long. At most 2 to 3 years. What can you recommend that can be used that will last longer without being too expensive? I have another 275 gallon fuel tank that I can convert, but would like to keep my eyes open to collect something for the project after next. Thanks, Roy

 

[Dean]

I've used a 55 gal drum with air holes punched in it near the bottom to allow draft but you are correct that they do not last more than a few years.

If you can find a stainless steel drum you will likely not need another one.

Dean

 

[Billy NY]

I find a 55 gallon drum with the bottom removed, (3) 3" holes or slightly larger, works great. I placed 3 granite stones under it to elevate it more for air space, concrete block and similar don't like the heat, maybe 3 fire brick would be best. The air seems to really rush in, its like a blast furnace at times. Ash clean up is easy enough, move the barrel and shovel into the loader bucket, take to where ever you dump it. I have a lid for the drum, sometimes I may want to add more burnables, or wait for the wind to be right etc. so I can keep it dry if I want. I like the set up as once its going, you can burn things without a smoldering or billowing smoke. Papers are a mess, it will snow ash all over, so I try and be careful with that, not let those pile up too much, usually just old bills or mail, all news paper and glossy paper like magazines, catalogs, go to the recycle bin across the road, makes that easy, those I do not recommend burning, unless enclosed, messy, have to keep stoking the fire to get a thick pile of it to burn, even if you mix wood in for some coals.

 

[Wile E]

I got 2 suggestions.

1. Dig a hole and have a fire pit.

2. Get metal garbage cans and just throw the stuff in there and torch it. Then put the lid on and let it smolder. That is what I do in the winter, in the summer I use the fire pit.

 

[danmcdonald]

I use a 55gal.drum with holes that I use my 22cal.to make. I don't keep unburned garbage in it besides blowing away I would have varmints getting into it. I use a self starting torch to lite it. Empty drum when half full.

 

[Welding man]

In my state you would get a hefty fine any way you choose to do it. It's against the law to burn trash period.

 

[Little Ed]

Some time around 1995 I had acces to a sheet metal roller and some pieces of 18 gauge 304 stainless steel. I cut and rolled and welded them into a burn barrel the size of a 55 gal drum, with 4 1 1/2 x 8 holes coming up from the bottom lip. The bottom has about a dozen 1" holes in it. When I build a fire in it, it will really roar. It really sets up a swirl to the flames, if you don't let it build up more than a few inches of residue. It will also get to glowing bright orange. The constant heating and cooling caused fatigue cracks to form after about ten years, and it is looking pretty rough now, almost cracked in two, between the vent slots. Hope to make it another year, but no longer have access to sheet metal fab tools, so will have to go back to the old steel barrels. It discolored at the first firing, but it has retained a sort of gun metal blue since then.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

There is a good reason for not to brun trash. Most trash has plastics in it, when burned produce cancer causing chemicals. Even burning leafs you get 4 different cancer causing chemicals.

 

[gtractorfan]

I use a 55 gal drum the same way, both ends removed and up on 3 fire bricks and also have a lid. With the last barrel I bent the two barrel ends to mostly fit the barrel diameter and used them to line the bottom of the barrel to help save the barrel a bit. I have a weathervane nearby to tell me when the wind's favorable for burning. Barrels last 2 to 3 years for me.

 

[redtom]

I cut both ends out of a drum. Burn 6 or 8 holes around bottom about 1/3 way up. Shove rods through to hold up trash. dig hole. Place over hole. burned trash falls through. Hole full, move to new hole.

 

[Billy NY]

They seem to last awhile for me, but its comical when they go when using them. The previous one went with some wood in it, heavy to one side, started listing and crinkling up, turned into a leaner!

One of the reasons I use one is to save room in the refuse service container, anything that is paper, cardboard that does not get recycled when its not being used to start a fire in the wood stove. I look at the big pond at the bottom of the hill to check wind, when its right the start up smoke won't bother anyone, barrel will burn cleanly soon after, very little smoke or soot. Some people have no common sense and its because of those that are not considerate, this practice can be a nuisance to others, become outlawed like it has and was mentioned.

I formulated my burn barrel style like this way back when I worked at the lumber yard, same like how many others like us that did the same LOL ! Some days in the winter were so dead, no deliveries, no work in the mill at times, we got paid for the day, was a low pay job, so we'd get a barrel and burn scraps to keep warm outside sometimes, poke a few holes, hmm burns faster, take a bottom out raise it up, blast furnace hmmm... interesting. I think it was worse to have nothing to do for the day than anything, most times I'd find work in the mill, glazing shop, others would be drinking or goofing off around a burn barrel!

 

[johnlobb]

Swmbo came home with a cast iron chiminea years ago and it is great for burning papers and cardboard and leaves. It has a screen that goes over the opening that keeps things under control. I have to replace the 4' of 6" chimney about every 3 years.

 

[Pops1532]

(quoted from post at 18:09:30 01/18/14) I got 2 suggestions.

1. Dig a hole and have a fire pit.

2. Get metal garbage cans and just throw the stuff in there and torch it. Then put the lid on and let it smolder. That is what I do in the winter, in the summer I use the fire pit.

If you're burning anything other than paper or wood you best not be burning in a pit. A guy near here burned some plastic in a pit along with some scrap wood. By the time the EPA and Corps of Engineers got done with him he had to pay $36,000 in fines plus the cost of clean up.

A neighbor keeps a smoldering fire going in his garbage can rather than taking the lid off and letting it burn. I'm upwind so it doesn't bother me but the guy downwind is ready to take a baseball bat to him.

 

[Bob]

There's a guy like that near here... has something smoldering 24/7-365.

Straw bales, spoiled hay, leaves, trees, garbage, always SOMETHING!

 

[tomNE]

I got a piece of drainage tube from the county that they had cut off. made a screen from angle iron and pressed metal. works great and never burns out!

 

[farmerwithmutt]

watch out nieghbor had burn barrel got a letter from dnr. i use wood stove and only burn paper cardboard other burnables.worked at a church they had a nice brick burner top like oven with steel door on top grate in middle open on bottom also had incenterator in school basically brick coloum with dump doors on both floors kids loved to drop bullets in i wonder what would happen if they did that today

 

[Brian G. NY]

I used to poke holes all around the bottom of a 55 gallon burn barrel with a pick axe for air entry.
Unfortunately New York has banned them and since I have an encon officer living only a half mile away, I don't use one any longer.

 

[showcrop]

Here in NH it's been illegal maybe thirty years. I stack papers in old milk crates, then and take them to the transfer station every other week. It takes us two weeks to fill a milk crate.

 

[Wile E]

What is funny is that it legal to smoke cigarettes but, you cant burn garbage. Oh Wait! The gubbermint makes money off of people smoking so that is okay.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

Where I live, it's not legal to smoke in most public places. Yet the exhaust from a diesel can smoke up the air, so follow the money. Diesel exhaust is many time worse than cigarettes.
Railroad workers lung cancer

 

[Dusty MI]

I also use a 55 gal. barrel with both ends removed. Take a couple of cement blocks lay flat with cores horizontal, lay a 2x2 heavy expanded metal on the blocks, barrel on top of that and another piece of expanded metal on top of barrel. Keep the inside of barrel clean, and don't let the ashes pile up against the grate/expanded metal.
That lasts many years.
It's OK to use something like that to burn, but need a permit to have an open fire.

Dusty

 

[tiresntracks]

I just can't buy the thing about diesel exhaust being that bad for you. About 75% of the people that I know or am related to have run diesel tractors or logging equipment, some of them for their whole lives. The only ones that have lung problems are the ones that smoked. I know that your brother has lung problems that you believe were caused by diesel smoke. He must have worked in some unusual conditions, like being in a confined area with diesel smoke.
As far as burn barrels go, I agree that burning plastic in them is a bad thing. If people would only burn paper and cardboard, they would be fine, but people always want to bend the rules. The only way to solve the problem is to ban them completely.

 

[Pops1532]

(quoted from post at 21:19:06 01/18/14) There's a guy like that near here... has something smoldering 24/7-365.

Straw bales, spoiled hay, leaves, trees, garbage, always SOMETHING!

I live in a rural subdivision. I have another neighbor, actually two neighbors that are related and live next door to each other that smolder yard waste. One of them owns the vacant lot next to me. They pile their grass clippings up and try to burn them while they're green. It usually takes 2-3 weeks for the pile to smolder away. By then they're catching their grass clippings again so they can start another stinking smoldering pile. The son (in his 50's)uses gasoline to start his fires. I've seen him dumping gas out of a 5 gallon gas can on a smoldering fire trying to get it to actually burn.

The neighbor I mentioned before that always has a smoldering trash fire is thought to be trying to burn adult diapers.

Yet another neighbor runs an auto repair shop out of his garage. I don't mind that but he occasionally burns plastic or rubber car parts.

Everyone in the neighborhood pretty much hates those !#$!@#$% for stinking up the neighborhood.

 

[JD Seller]

I just take a 4 x 8 piece of expanded metal and roll it into a circle. It then wire the ends together with #9 wire. I use 10 gauge wire. They usually last several years. Things burn well in them because of all the air that the fire can get.

 

[notjustair]

I burn our trash in a 55 gallon drum. I use two old BBQ grill grates welded together across the top. I put the lid on it the next morning so I don't get a bunch of rain water in it.

There isn't any problem here with a burn barrel. Neighbor uses the pit silo as a dump and burns it off a couple times a year.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

If you don't believe me ask someone who has worked on the railroad. Railroad workers call it blue lung.

For 50 years people didn't believe smoking caused cancer.

My uncle was a farmer all his life, until he died from lung cancer. He never smoked.

You can believe anything you want. Put your head in a cloud of diesel exhaust and inhale.

 

[tiresntracks]

There are lots of people that died from lung cancer that didn't smoke or run diesel powered equipment, so that probably doesn't prove that diesel smoke killed your uncle.
Railroad workers would probably get a pretty high dose of diesel smoke in a long tunnel. Almost anything is bad for you if you ingest too much of it, even water.
I guess this is just one of my pet peeves. Every day "scientists" find something new that is bad for us. Some of it really is and some of it is not. It used to be when they said something was bad for us, we could believe it 90% of the time. Now it seems that a lot of scientists have other agendas that influence their findings. I all ends up costing us money.

 

[IH2444]

(quoted from post at 00:21:34 01/19/14) There are lots of people that died from lung cancer that didn't smoke or run diesel powered equipment, so that probably doesn't prove that diesel smoke killed your uncle.
Railroad workers would probably get a pretty high dose of diesel smoke in a long tunnel. Almost anything is bad for you if you ingest too much of it, even water.
I guess this is just one of my pet peeves. Every day "scientists" find something new that is bad for us. Some of it really is and some of it is not. It used to be when they said something was bad for us, we could believe it 90% of the time. Now it seems that a lot of scientists have other agendas that influence their findings. I all ends up costing us money.

Birth is the root cause of all deaths.
Stop having babies and people will eventually stop dying.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

So it's all about money?

Diesel exhaust, also called diesel smoke or diesel fumes is a chemical mixture containing literally hundreds of compounds such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), benzene, and many other compounds that can cause cancer. Many of these individual particulates are known carcinogens, and have been known cancer-causing agents for over 30 years.

You sound like you workED for the cigarette companies 50 years ago. Cigarettes don't cause cancer. Prove cigarettes cause cancer. It's a well known fact there are carcinogens in diesel exhaust and you want someone to prove to you they KILL PEOPLE.

BELIEVE WHAT YOU WANT. I WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH DIESEL EXHAUST. I WANT CLEAN AIR IN MY LUNGS. Go to China if you want polluted air.

 

[Dean]

"So it's all about money?"

You betcha. In this case government grants.

Dean

 

[Geo-TH,In]

I went to town for lunch today and was behind what may have been a Grayhound bus. It stopped at the RR crossing, so I figured it had to be some kind of a bus carrying people like a grayhound.

It was a diesel pusher coach. I was amazed, it didn't put out black exhaust when it took off. It didn't stink. What is wrong with the engine? Is it Government regulations? Why can't the rest of the diesels clean up their act? NO BLACK EXHAUST, NO SMELL!!
George

 

[tiresntracks]

If you think there is no odor, you must have been upwind from it. The smell that comes out of a catalyst and a DPF smells nothing like diesel smoke, but it smells bad.
I'm sure that injecting urea into a hot catalyst is perfectly safe and produces air that is absolutely pure.
Like you said, believe what you want.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

We were down wind, no black smoke especially when it left the RR crosssing, no smell. Why aren't all diesels this clean? All the trucks I see leave a large black cloud?

So, is possible for diesels to clean up their act and not go out of business?

 

[showcrop]

George, I can't imagine what planet you have been on for the last ten years to not know anything about all the new requirements for clean exhaust from diesels. All the new diesels have a tank separate from the fuel that needs to be filled maybe every eight fuel fills with caustic to clean out the exhaust. A few weeks ago I backed into the pile at the quarry next to a 2013 Mack. I couldn't help but notice that the inside of the exhaust pipe was just as clean as the outside due to the exhaust scrubber that is mandated for it. If you feel so strongly about air pollution you need to take any and all vehicles that you own to the CRUSHER in order to insure that they don't put out another gram of pollution and purchase all new vehicles with the latest and best pollution controls THIS WEEK. Failure to do so shows that you are no better than those running the ten year old locomotives.