What Can You Do With A 50Gal. Drum?

[VashTheStampede]

We use these big 50Gal. drums, may be 55Gal. not totally sure, filled with Super Clean Industrial Degreaser to clean our shop. As per every two weeks, we've completely drained the drum, so it's just sitting outside right now, empty, waiting to be thrown away.

I was wondering if any of you could come up with some good ideas on what to do with one of these drums, other than chuck it. I was thinking, maybe a huge resevoir *shrug*.

~RT~

[Daovonnaex]

Originally posted by RedneckTech
We use these big 50Gal. drums, may be 55Gal. not totally sure, filled with Super Clean Industrial Degreaser to clean our shop. As per every two weeks, we've completely drained the drum, so it's just sitting outside right now, empty, waiting to be thrown away.

I was wondering if any of you could come up with some good ideas on what to do with one of these drums, other than chuck it. I was thinking, maybe a huge resevoir *shrug*.

~RT~ What would you use that resevoir for? A Cray supercomputer? I would suggest packing it with RDX, but that's just me.

[VashTheStampede]

Originally posted by Daovonnaex
What would you use that resevoir for? A Cray supercomputer? I would suggest packing it with RDX, but that's just me.

One drop of water boils faster than a 1 gallon of water, correct? So in theory, your water will stay a few degrees cooler if you have more of it.

RDX?

~RT~

[CreePinG_DeatH]

RDX?? LOL >> Mushroom cloud smiley goes here<<

[Daovonnaex]

Originally posted by RedneckTech


One drop of water boils faster than a 1 gallon of water, correct? So in theory, your water will stay a few degrees cooler if you have more of it.

RDX?

~RT~ RDX is a somewhat unstable high-explosive that's 150% the strength of TNT and very easy to manufacture.

[BrianCapps]

Build a computer in the center of the barrel and mod 2 huge fans in either end. Viola! Wind Tunnel Computer.

Just a thought :cool:

[RoadWarrior]

Wrap it with 2ft of rockwool, put a 5inch thick slug of copper on the bottom and cut slots that exactly slide over your DIMMs AGP etc, and shape the bottom to contact your chipset and CPU, lard on the thermal grease, apply your killa bitz to it, then just load it up with snow every February..... :D

Road Warrior

[RedDeathDrinker]

Keep it half full of water, and rig a shower head at the top as an evaporative cooler..........

[docJ]

If you have the space for it, use it for a large resevoir. 50 gal of water would take 132 min for every 1C rise from amb temp at 100 watts heat input. This asumes that no heat is being dissipated by the surface of the drum.

[Christoph]

Use it to refill a bong cooler using the chicken method. (not the sacrifice. I'll post back when I have time to find the link.)

[Crazy Jayhawk]

Get a bunch of them, weld 'em together, and you'll have a nice boat just like the ones on Junkyard Wars! :cool:

[Daovonnaex]

Fill it with heavy lead weights and your least favorite person, then weld it shut and throw it into the ocean. You could also simply leave it anywhere, because the welds should be airtight, meaning the person would eventually asphyxiate.

[KLowD9x]

Put an 18 inch speaker on the front, and have a battery and an amp inside, and drill a small hole and put an input jack in it, viola! a really loud subwoofer!

[ol' man]

Originally posted by RedneckTech
We use these big 50Gal. drums, may be 55Gal. not totally sure, filled with Super Clean Industrial Degreaser to clean our shop. As per every two weeks, we've completely drained the drum, so it's just sitting outside right now, empty, waiting to be thrown away.

I was wondering if any of you could come up with some good ideas on what to do with one of these drums, other than chuck it. I was thinking, maybe a huge resevoir *shrug*.

~RT~

Dude this is your man. Bladerunner! This is from last summer and it is funny cause I am ol' man there too and I was talking about using dry ice to cool my computer and a couple people kinda laughed at it there but low and behold I have got my celery to 1800+ MHz with it:D

ANy way check this link. This is what you should do;)

http://discussions.hardwarecentral.com/Forum11/HTML/015688.html

[ol' man]

Here is another one for ya. Another guy who buried his resivoir. Nice cooling.

http://www.fatnfast.com/otherwebs/overclocked/

[VashTheStampede]

I like the wind tunnel idea, so what's the largest 12V DC fan you can purchase? The diameter, across the top, of the barrel is somewhere between 18"-20" I believe. So maybe an old 20" box fan would work :D. Then at the other end either the same thing reversed for exhaust or a couple 120mm fans for exhaust.

Only problem about the subwoofer idea is the barrel is metal, not enough Dynomat or foam in the world to keep that thing from vibrating. Sort of like mounting a 15" sub and a 500W amp on a thin peice of sheet metal :)

~RT~

[Warlord2]

no go for a giant bong that you wouldnt have to refill for weeks:D

[Grande Juan]

Maybe lay the barrel on its side then mount said computer inside with just the front panel sticking out of what was the bottom of the barrel. Leave the case off the computer then mount a small window type airconditioning unit in the other end. It should be really cool man.:cool:

[KLowD9x]

Ohhh....I was thinking it was a plastic one. IMHO, I dont like the sound of using a 50gal. metal drum for this kind of application, those barrels rust really easy.

[mw521]

Get some copper tubing, yeast and water. It makes a nice still. Won't cool the computer but after you drink some of the product you won't care!:beer:

[ol' man]

Originally posted by KLowD
Ohhh....I was thinking it was a plastic one. IMHO, I dont like the sound of using a 50gal. metal drum for this kind of application, those barrels rust really easy.

That is why you use a corrosion inhibitor. I think a 50 gallon drum would be ideal for this operation especially burried about 2 feet down in the ground like blade does up top. On the outside I owuld goop it up with real good tar. It would take some work but you would see the most stable temps you have ever seen. I think load and idle will be very close when you have a setup like this.

[Über~PhLuBB]

How 'bout a MULTI evaporative cooler? Think. 4 compartments (Created by placing an "X" of sheetmetal down through the center of the barrel). 4 shower heads. 4 small pumps.

Water comes in, is passed through the first shower head, then is pumped into the second chamber, and the second showerhead. Again 2 more times. You might not end up with temps 4 times cooler then a single cooler (I havn't taken a physics class yet, I wouldn't know), but you can bet your temps would be consistent. And you certainly wouldn't have to fill it very often.

There would be a problem with heat migrating between chambers though... Perhaps the separating panels could be shaped thusly, with sawdust or styrofoam chunks between the sheets for insulation.

[CrystalMethod]

Spend every thing you have on upgrades, sell your clothes, and you'll still have something to wear. :D
But the reservoir idea is what I'd use it for. The car wash I used to be a manager at got degreaser, tire dressing, soap, etc... in those drums. Which kind do you hae the metal or plastic ones?

[Christoph]

Nice rendering, Über~PhLuBB. The only problem I have with that idea is that most bong coolers (or evaporative coolers if you prefer) are already extremely effective, often going below ambient. Having four showerheads would mean having at least four pumps, which ups the cost of the system quite a bit.
I suggest that he use two showerheads and divide the barrel in half using whatever turns out to be the best method for separating the two compartments.

As for separating the compartments, I think that he should do something like this; have a 2" gap between the two separating walls and make it so a cross section would look like this:
http://imagehost.auctionwatch.com/preview/id/ideamagnate/fans.png
(the colored arrows represent the airflow)

[ol' man]

I know where I worked this summer we had evaporative coolers that are very large. They are about 40 ft' high and 60" wide. They have little galvanized slots for the H2O to run down i guess it maximizes the cooling affect and the whole thing is supposed to be secret and I am not supposed to be talking about it. I am checking the window now as we speak.

[runs to window]checks around[/runs back]

Nope no black copters or anything but that is how they do it on a grand scale like this. Similar to window blinds but at an 70 deg. angle so the water kinda drips off each slot. You can see the water vapor come up from the top. Never did see their large blowers.