I have been wanting to cut one down and use it for panning gold. Bring samples home and pan them in my leisure. Fill it with water on a suitable stand and go to work.

 

I've seen kits where you can turn them into wood/coal burning stoves. If you are handy enough & have the right scrap parts laying around, you could probably build one without buying a kit.

 

Cut them off at the ring (or shorter to fit under low clearance vehicles) to use as drain/drip pans. Put the plugs back in and you can get two per barrel.

 

Make some drums?

 

In Nam, we filled them with dirt and used them for blast barriers, usually backed by sand bags tho. They will stop a pretty powerful bullet. Oh yeah, we used them for fougasse, too. Very effective with the right ingredients. LOL Oh, and we burned poop in them too.

 

Crafters can use the sheet metal for just about anything. Signs, yard ornaments, wind turbines & weather vanes for the roof. Just a few ideas. Need to think outside the box. :thumb: This is where a small plasma cutter and a welder would come in handy.


One barrel:

Cut ends out,
split down the side,
flatten out sheets.

 

Sheet metal roof came to mind

 

Drums can be used to make charcoal. Instructions available on line.

 

Build a pontoon. Add a valve stem from a tubeless tire so you can pressurize them. I didn't add the valve and sealed my barrels in the sun on a 100 degree day. When they hit the cool water they cooled off and started to crush themself.


Cut the top off add a chimney on the side near the top and a door on the other side in the middle. You now have a cooker. You can put a grill grate on it. You can put a pig pot on it to make maple syrup or heat large amounts of water. You can put a disk blade on it and have a huge wok. You can put a 8 in section of another barrel at an angle on it an use it to dry wild rice or parch grain or turn syrup into sugar.

Wood stoves/trash burner/charcoal maker.

Kiln for pottery or making lime.

gasafier.

Body of a fuel still.

Storage for used oil for an oil dripper system on a wood stove.

General protected storage.

Compost bin.

Sawdust toilet.

Food smoaker.

Grill

Truck bed tool box.

Source of sheet metal.

I find a it is very easy, and clean if done with care, to remove the top and bottom with a cold chisel and hammer.

Buried caches.

 

Use a 24” x 48” piece of plywood and two drums, to make a work top, with 100 gallons of storage underneath.

 

Cut the rings of, flatten them out. Engineered metal roofing. Im trying to find the pictures I've seen of a cabin I've seen roofed with these


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Now THAT is an interesting idea!! [emoji41][emoji1303]

 

I've also seen people use them as a kind of pontoon on ATV's.

 

If you use them for a container Garden, you can grow more food than
if you plant directly in the ground. You can cut them either of 2 ways to
do this.

 

A 55 gallon drum is also a DOT approved fuel container for transportation. States have their own laws, but as a general rule, 2 drums of fuel is 110 gallons, under the 119 gallon limit that may be imposed.

There may be other requirements for labeling and fire extinguishers. But the bottom line is that it's an approved fuel container.

 

I have a wet weather creek on the property that I wanted to cross at two points. So I made culverts. I cut the ends out of 4 barrels and screwed them together in line with some scrap metal laying around. Roll into ditch and dumped in some quickcrete. Tossed in some scrap rebar and stones and covered with dirt. When they eventually rust away, hopefully I will still have a concrete tube. I drive my truck across and they hold it fine so far.
I have seen barrels used to hold a fence post in areas that are to hard to dig deep. Barrel in a foot deep hole and a post set and filled with dirt and rocks against the side. Fence pull tight against the barrel and barbed wire on the post.

 

Cut the top off, put it next to a shelf or fence-top and drop some grain in the bottom and it will accumulate trapped rats and mice. We discovered this accidentally with a plastic trash can, which they chewed through to escape. Replaced it with a metal can, and we catch a few every day.

I've been needing something for efficient long-term storage of livestock feed, so if it were me, I'd join a few together and make rodent-proof silos.

 

Just now went to Pinterest and searched 55 gallon drum ideas. There are enough projects to keep the best DIYer busy for nearly an eon. There is everything from wood stoves to furniture to planters to bike racks and countless other projects.

 

I say play them as a drum for Jimmy Buffet concerts. Wasting away again in Margaritaville and all that. LOL

 

I have used them for a septic tank system in remote areas when I was mining.

Just set them up with two drums for the septic tank and add a leach line.

I would run the black water line from my RV to the system and use it during the summer when I was there.

No having to run to town to drain the tank.

 

Another great idea (not discounting the others [emoji4])
May be a good option for a bathroom in my shed.

 

I’ve had four on the north and east walls of an attached greenhouse fir 40 yrs. On top of them is horse panel to hold plants and allow the sun to warm the barrels. No heat in there. Despite negative night temps they moderate the temp. to above 40*, closer to 50* actually.

 

I have plastic barrels I get from the farm I work on. Metal would be heavier,
but maybe you could use them for storage.

I use hoses to irrigate my container garden. End of fall I roll up my hoses and
put them in a barrel. My barrels have rope handles on them, by drilling holes
and putting rope through the holes.

I know a guy who also has access to metal barrels. He has a barrel in front of
his house on it with a sign, Metal barrels for sale. People buy them, who need them.

If you buy a pickup full of mulch and fill your pickup with barrels, (with handles)
then the loader fills the barrels full of mulch, it takes half the time
to unload the pickup by dragging the barrels out. If your **** strong you can
do this with gravel also.

Once you get the barrel of mulch out of your trailer, or pickup, you can move
it around with a hand cart, and dump it. I use this trick with 5 gallon buckets also.

You can put one in your garden, drill holes in it and use it for composting.

 

They are a good height for a bench. I have several sitting around my yard. Put some dirt in them for weight (Wyoming wind). Level up two bbls with a wooden twoby top. I fasten the tops to the bbls if I'm going to put a vice on it.

 

At the farm they cut barrels in half and add handles. These can hold corn
for baiting deer.

Once they kill a deer, they put one of these half barrels under it while they skin
and cut off the meat. Then the rest goes into the half barrel to be dumped out and buried.

These barrels they use are plastic, but I would guess you could use metal also
even though they are heavy.

 

Have 3 plastic ones in my small garage,1 holds all the yard tools with long handles,1 holds fishing rods and nets,1 holds scrap lumber,pipes,rebar,stakes,etc.

So basically storage that is neat,easy to see/use,and saves space.

 

Metal 55 gallon drums:

-I didn't see Burn Barrel. Punch holes in bottom and a few more mid-way up, burn debris or whatever.
-Stump Burner. remove top and bottom, cut a hole in the bottom, add kindling, charcoal whatever. once the fire is established use a fan or leaf blower in the bottom hole to make it a blast furnace. I've seen people burn away a modest stump in a couple of hours.

Plastic HDPE drums:

-Firewood storage. Cut top off and use it horizontally, or use it vertically and cut opening in the side of the barrel.

- Heavy duty Trash Can. Cut top off, drill some holes and tie ropes for handles. Construction companies use these to haul debris, for example.

-animal watering. cut in half use top and bottom, or cut lengthwise and make a trough.

 

I have seen them turned into miniature train cars for kids at fairs and carnivals pulled buy a lawn mower or a golf cart converted into a train engine.