I have been using 55 gallon drums for various things for many years, but never thought much about wall thickness until I got Wayne’s book.
Wayne talks about using heavy wall drums in some places. He also mentioned somewhere not to use a thin wall drum for one component.
So, my questions:
What wall thcknesses are available, and which ones does Wayne use?
Any hints as to where, in general, to go to look for the heavier wall drums?
I did some googling on the subject and the best I could do was to find reference to two thicknesses; 20 gage and 16 gage. Is this what difference that Wayne is talking about? Are there any others?
I know I’ll take my micrometer with me from now on. (Maybe a bathroom scale would be better?
Pete Stanaitis
Hi Pete; We use whats call a hazardess waste drum which is heavy duty. Don’t know about thicknesses available. We get them from a drum manufacturing co. in Zellwood,Florida.F.Y.I. Dan
I think there are two thickness for the drums and as Danny has said if they are the hazmat or salvage drums they should be the heavier ones. The 55 gallon heavier drums will weigh about 50 pounds and the thinner drums about 40 pounds or less.
There are a lot of companies on the internet that sales and ships drums but they are expensive. Also there are a lot of places one can find and buy used drums ( almost like new ) for about ¼ the price but they usually don’t ship the drums, you have to pick them up .
Hello Pete,
I went to my local small family owned scrap yard that will sell scrap (many don’t anymore) and they have both closed and open top drums that they get from Ralston Purina pet food company. The open drums with the top and lock ring sell for $10.00 which seems to be a standard price as Mike Anthony in Michigan told me that’s what he pays also.
TJ