God bless you, sir. this economy has hit me hard, but I ran with your idea, I added a fourth leg. I went past the secondary combustion and created a 3rd combustion section which almost makes the burn cycle smokeless. I burned off all the paint on the barrel and added high-heat paint. thus keeping the barrel looking sharp. since I started selling them 6 months ago, I've managed to catch up financially and feed my children. I can only say god bless you, sir!
Myself and my 90-year-old dad built a barrel following your instructions. The legs were structurally unsound, so I cut them off and replaced them with three outside mounted steel plates and we added handles on the sides to ease of moving the barrel around safely before and after use. The thing is awesome, we've named ours, "The Dragons Breath!" it incinerates whatever we throw at it. Thanks for your video and the chance to do a project with my retired sheet metal worker father.
We just built the same design and find smaller twigs and stuff just fall through to the bottom where it becomes slow burning and smokes a lot, often not even burning completely. How are you dealing with the ash catching at the bottom?
Written instructions based on the video: Parts needed • two steel drums (same size) • angle grinder with cut off wheels • drill with 1/8th inch bit and #4 step unibit • template material (rigid plastic or metal) • sharpie • Tape measurer • Optional oil for drilling • Jigsaw and metal blades • Sheet metal screws. Inside drum 1. 5 inches from the seam, draw a solid line 2. 1 inch further from the seam, draw a dashed line 3. Use an angle grinder with a cut off wheel. Cut the middle section at the seam and the solid line 4. Ratchet strap the center to hold it 5. Cut the top and bottom sections of the side of the barrel (at seam and solid marker line) 6. Cut through the rim at the seam 7. Cut through the rim at the dash line, across the bottom of the rim to the solid line, and across the rim at the solid line (leaving a one-inch section with side wall and no rim) 8. Cut off the entire capped end of the drum (including the rim) 9. Ratchet drum with tabbed edge on the inside. 10. Fasten drum together with a few self-tapping screws from the outside in (maybe three or four total). 11. Once secure, screw it together every few inches from the inside out. Remove the original screws and put them from the inside out also. 12. Use the angle grinder to cut off the excess screw from the outside. Leave a few threads so it doesn’t unhinge itself. 13. Flip it over, with rim side up. 14. Using a 3.5-inch square template, beginning at the seam, draw squares under the rim and label the squares 1-18. The seam area will not be marked. 15. #6, #12, #18 cut the sides and the bottom (not the rim part). a. Cut just a little bit into the rim from the inside out to allow you to fold them up. b. Bend them in an all the way up. c. Use plyers to fold in the sides of the three tabs to make sturdy legs. From the top, they should look like be C’s, with the hump facing out. 16. Cut the bottom, left hand side, and top (under the rim) of the even numbers. Gently fold these in a little past 90 degrees 17. Flip over and stand on the legs. 18. Draw two lines around the unrimmed top. One 1.5 inches from top, one 3 inches from top. 19. Draw vertical lines from the 1.5 inch line to the top. Cut the vertical lines with grinder. Take off the outside edge of the double layer section. 20. Gently fold the tabs in (can use plyers if you want). 21. Drill a 1/8 hole in the 3-inch line, at the middle point of the tab above. 22. Use the unibit #4 to drill those holes out. (oil can help)
Outer barrel 1. With open edge facing up, put one line at 1.5 and one at 3 inches around the drum. 2. Use 1.5-inch square template to draw vertical lines on the 1.5 to rim area. 3. Use the 1.5-inch square template to draw vertical lines staggered from the last lines, in between the 1.5 and 3 inch horizontal lines. 4. Use 1/8 th drill bit to draw pilot holes for each, then use the #4 unibit to drill those holes out. 5. Flip it over so closed end is up. 6. Mark out a circle the size of the diameter of the inner barrel (likely 20 inches if it is a standard barrel, but check). 7. Drill a hole with the #4 unibit, then use a jigsaw to cut out the hole. (Save the disc). Assembly 1. Put the outer drum over the top of the inner drum, with the holes on the bottom of the outer drum. It should seat, with the outer drum possibly resting on the sheet metal screw in the seam. It should seat between the bent tabs and the holes in the smaller barrel. 2. Use one fastener per leg to screw the inner and outer barrels together. 3. The disc saved from the outer barrel. a. Remove about ¾ inch from the outside edge using jigsaw. b. Draw 8 solid pie lines c. Draw 8 dashed lines between the solid lines. d. Draw a ring ¾ inch further in from edge. e. Use unibit to drill a hole at the inside solid line and solid pie line. f. Draw a 4-inch diameter circle in the middle. g. Use unibit to drill a hole at the solid pie line and the 4 inch circle line intersection. (8 total, in line with the ones drilled previously) h. Using Jigsaw, cut from unibit holes to the dash lines on the left and from inner to outer unibit hole i. Use plyers to bend the tabs up, will look like fan blades. j. Put it in the barrel, with the folded tabs down.
Wow. I would have been daunted by the instructions if I had not seen the video first. But great analysis anyway. I've printed them out for when i build mine.
Built the burn barrel this week and it works like a charm. We made one modification which is obvious, but still may be worth mentioning: We found that the legs were very flimsy so we folded them inward and rested the barrel on cinderblocks that rest on their sides so that the cinder block cutouts allow air to flow freely from the outside to the underside of the (elevated) barrel.
Please any one tell me whether this burn barrel can be made an incinerator by adding it with petrol and compressed air because I am working on a petrol incinerator. By the way my name is Anil Kumar Singh and I am working in Indian Institute Of Technology Kanpur, India.
because cinder blocks can sometimes have trapped moisture that can make them explode I would recommend fire bricks instead, but yeah brick feet seem like a good idea
We need more Dads like this guy who take time to show their kids how to make things and how things work. Great burn barrel too, I'll be making one soon.
I built my burn barrel last fall. I built a dolly into mine. Scabbed an axle on to it from an old yard trailer and used some tubular steel remnant for the handle. I don't like a burn barrel laying out in my yard all the time. I researched building it more efficient to burn faster but didn't come up with much. I saw the smokeless fire pits but couldn't figure out how to build it into a burn barrel easily. Well done.
I've watched dozens, if not hundreds of How To videos...and Your instruction is Hands Down THE BEST I have Ever seen or heard. The simplicity of instruction, and narration is Spot On. Outstanding Job
What I enjoyed the most about your video, was hearing you tell you children Multiple times throughout the video you love them. And you can hear it out your voice. Your awesome.
Built one this afternoon. Overall works great. First tip is buy the hole saw with carbide teeth at Harbor Freight. It's $20 and lot faster than the cone bit. Use high temp paint on all cut surfaces, but I am in Florida where everything rusts. Thanks for the design.
A good quality step bit is what worked for me. There is a steep learning curve, but after a half doz holes, you leardcthe correct pressure to drill thru and when to let up. After that I was drilling 6-8 holes a minute, and that was slow. But you have to put the time in to learn what pressure is the magic point.
@@wg8304 carbide tipped hole saws (look near electrical tools, they're used to cut into electrical panels and boxes) will nearly cut, but use heavy, steady pressure and a little lube, like used motor oil. This carbide teeth are brittle, so they'll stay sharp for a long time, but will break easily if they chatter or get hung up
Pro tip: Before you cut the bottom out of the second barrel you can draw all your lines, drill your holes and make your "propellor" cuts, and THEN cut the bottom out. It will be easier than cutting it out after. Also, consider adding a grate in the bottom of the finished burn barrel to better support the wieght of the burn material and not just relying on the thin metal of the "propellor." This will have the added benifit of prolonging the propellors lifespan and avoiding burn through. Congratulations on an excellent presentation by the way!
Yeah logs will just bend those things easily. I think that's what my Dad and I did when we built it. Right now outs is all rusted out lol. We hardly cover it when it rains
We just built this and definitely had to close up some of those fins to stop things falling straight through. It didn't stop it and it also caused the vortex to not form as well. So yeah, we are looking at what to use as a grate for the bottom and also potentially place the whole barrel in a bowl shaped fire pit to stop whatever does fall through from flying away burning embers to nearby trees or us.
Well if there was an award for the best presentation and innovation, you won it! I recently had a go at building one and failed miserably. Your video not only inspired me to build your version but you also sold a dewalt jigsaw. So Thankyou for sharing your talent and skill. I live in London and the locals get kind of hissy when it comes to smoke. Many thanks
I made one my own way.. still lasting in a wet environment. One barrel, made a stand for it to keep it off the ground so the bottom doesn’t rot out. Next I made 3 sets of 2 cut outs 3”x1” along the bottom. After that I made a grating to keep the bottom clean and allow air flow to the fire. Set that at about 3” off the bottom of the barrel. Made that grating removable for easy cleaning. The bottom of my barrel is not open like yours so I don’t have a mess on the floor. I just dump the ashes in a hole when it comes time to do so. Last about 7 or 8 years in NY state.
I made this two days ago by following your instructions exactly. The only change I made was not using self tapping screws. I have a mig welder so I welded it back together. GREAT idea and GREAT video! Thank you!
Please any one tell me whether this burn barrel can be made an incinerator by adding it with petrol and compressed air because I am working on a petrol incinerator. By the way my name is Anil Kumar Singh and I am working in Indian Institute Of Technology Kanpur, India.
Honestly i didnt expect such a well explained and wholesome video from a burn barrel tutorial but you did a great job explaining all the steps! Got a new project for this weekend thank you!
I noticed you burned through a lot of cutting wheels. Diablo makes a diamond tipped cutting wheel that lasts a really long time. I skirt mobile homes and used to used about 5-8 discs per hone. I’m on the same Diablo wheel for my 4th home.
For a second I thought you made it out of cardboard to test it out 🙃. If there's a commercial version of this I'd like that, I think making this would need more patience than I'm capable of, so that's probably why I'd be inclined to make one out of cardboard 😀
Just a tip. Burning just cardboard won't fully achieve what this is for. For it to work properly you need the inside barrel wall to get extremely hot. That's what causes the secondary combustion. Small smokeless fire pits take about 15 minutes of adequate fire to reach "smokeless" so a barrel this size probably takes about 30 minutes.
@@SweetMooch Trust me on this - when I burned cardboard it blistered the paint off the barrel in just a few minutes! Only trouble I have with burning cardboard is the ash is clogging up the air coming in the bottom. So I only burn one or two loads at a time, then let it cool and clear away the ash.
@@SweetMooch I used to live in a cabin that had a device called " blazing shower" for it's sole source of domestic hot water. It was simply a length of half inch copper tube lining the inside of stovepipe. It was hooked up to a pacariously mounted tank in the loft. It was pretty worthless but might have been the stove which was a Ben Franklin. You could burn a hot fire all night and still have a mediocre shower the next morning. I didn't install it but it looked right for the thermosyphon to work but it just didn't. The only thing it did is prevent the headache you could get from the freezing cold water in winter. I have seen old cook stoves that heated water and they had steel pipes right in the firebox where they were exposed to direct flame. Since the pipes were in the stove pipe the only way to get a shower warm enough to wash your hair was to have a partner feeding that wood stove with bone dry finely split hard wood. Or you could burn waxed cardboard cut into 3" strips and folded in to a triangle shaped tube. You could get a decent shower out of a couple banana boxes as long as you had an assistant keeping that fire fed so the Flames were going way up the stove pipe.(does anyone know why my Samsung won't let me write certain words without capitals?) Anyways, cardboard is capable of burning pretty hot but it needs lots of air. Maybe you're overstuffing or your cardboard is moist?
Greetings from the U.K. we just made a burn barrel using your nicely detailed instructions. Works a treat, thanks for putting this video together and sharing it.
What I like about this video so much is the video work and the combined commentary were really well edited to make it simple to follow, not long drawn out pieces for real time footage. It condensed a length process into something practical and safe with plain common sense regards safety etc.(Loved the comment about making a burn barrel and not a clock) And how he got George Clooney to do the voice over is a testament to the guys persuasiveness . Well done. Yeah it was inspiring to watch and to learn. 100/100. Looking forward to more instruction... I'm lovin' it. SOnnie T.
I did something similar (although much less complex) towards the end of burning being allowed in my city. Nobody knew I was burning anything, unless they saw the jet of flame shooting out of the top. Never made nearly as much smoke as a small charcoal grill, and to be honest, sometimes I'd throw some garlic and onion powder into the fire to drive the neighbors crazy, wondering who was cooking out :D
I put a hole about 8" off the bottom of my barrel. About 2.5-3" in diameter. Just big enough to slide a piece of steel pipe in that also fits neatly around the tube of my leaf blower. I put a loose piece of steel plate on top of the barrel that I can adjust. With the leaf blower just a bit above idle it will burn all of our household refuse and baby diapers, with zero smoke once it starts to get hot. I adjust the plate steel on top to leave about a 10-15% open slot. At night the sides will glow bright red because it gets so hot. Sounds a bit like a rocket when it gets going. Like I said it will burn all of our household refuse and diapers with zero smoke and leaves a very small amount of ash afterwards.
RoadFarmer - man i hope you're still on this one. i love this idea. can i ask a quick question? did you do this to just a normal barrel or did you build this type & then add the leaf blower adapter? you said it's pretty smokeless but is that cuz its this type WITH the blower or can i just add your mod to a normal barrel? i'm an outfitter in alaska & we have a small incinerator but i'd like something a little more mobile. thanks heaps in advance:)
Love the design on this burn barrel. I built one about a year ago which is about half the height using some old tractor wheels, same diameter as the 55 gal. drums. I have an ash collection pit underneath about 14 inches deep. Once everything gets proper air flow the whole pit glows bright red, in fact it gets so hot I have started using the pit as an impromptu blast furnace for casting (aluminum only), and forge for steel and iron. Keep in mind, I'm no expert, just a guy with a welder, and a lot of scrap metal to build with.
For forty years I've been fabricating things out of steel/metal. I'm constantly looking for ways to improve/educate myself. This is a great video on explaining the obvious then taking the time to educate others (like me). At the start I'm watching thinking why has he started to cut in the centre of the barrel, then he gets the strap. Now what, I'm thinking, and as soon as we see him wrapping it around the barrel it's plainly obvious. Too obvious, it's to stop the steel spring and the 1" notch in the rim obvious but so simple to most it's not. Great video. Thank you for taking the time.
I have made four of these for the family. On one burn barrel I used a lid for a bottom and raised the barrel so I would not have to drill all those holes on the outside barrel. Plus seven fire pits same basic method. They all work great.Thanks you are amazing.
This is great. I live in a country with no refuse collection where almost everyone burns (I should say smoulders) their rubbish. I'll be adding one to my yard and discussing a more robust build with a thermal blanket filled twin layered outer shell to increase the internal heat with our local government for public use. Hopefully reduce some of the localised pollution. Thank you awesome stuff! Plus from what we see here a man with a heart of pure joy.
The addition of the thermal blanket will stop the air rising between the two barrels and exiting at the top- thus stopping the secondary burn. Your burn barrel will then smoke.
@@rowanshole why not read my comment again then apologise. It reads 'a thermal blanket filled twin layered outer shell'. The void between the inner and outer is not obstructed. Reducing the heat loss from the outer shell will in fact increase the draw in the void. As well as keep the whole thing much safer. You could use thermal refactoried bricks as the outer shell but that would require a master tradesman in masonary as myself to construct and be very costly. 😁 Having one welded up out of mild steel plate is much cheaper Comprehen what you read before replying is good advise.
I really liked how you showed you can build something practical, and useful, without a fancy workbench or fancy tools. Though the step bit was pretty key to this project, and you referenced it perfectly in the video. "We all have something to gain by inspiring each other" -- this should be the tagline for TH-cam. I would bet on the ideas and success of 10,000 "backyard engineers" vs 50 highly paid engineers.
Backyard engineering is the best (IMO) driver for engineering talent. People who become engineers only because they were told they ought to because they were good at math or for the salaries don't often make good problem solvers. Again, IMO, YMMV.
That's what I was thinking. How many engineers would it take to create this cleaner burning barrel and how long? 😃 By the time he was on the bottom of the barrel I stopped, he'll have already come up w/ a new one.
Thanks for your easy to follow instructions they say where there's smoke there's fire . Not this time fire no smoke now when I burn my next girlfriend's stuff she can't follow the smoke . So I can sit down and drink a beer and burn and relax.
When I was a kid, everyone had what were called an "ash-can" which was a barrel in which people burned their trash. They were very smoky and hard to keep going, and the trash was never completely burned. Great improvement on the old ash-can design and a lot of fun! The amazing thing about this is that the space between walls has a much greater vertical length than the Solo Stove allowing longer exposure time for the air rising to be super heated, expand, and then come out the holes at the top hotter and at a higher velocity for a more efficient burn! The only improvement I could think of, would to create a system where the air coming in from underneath could also be heated before entry into the burn chamber as the Solo stove does by routing the air through a hole in the bottom which then comes around the ash pan! But you can't argue with success!
Freakin' brilliant. This is basically the exact way a jet turbine combustor works, secondary air injection for clean combustion, and it keeps the outside cooler for safety. Really solid work! Thanks.
It's called a woodgas burner. In this case a barrel. The gases that don't burn the 1st time has oxygen reintroduced to cause a 2nd burn. . That's the reason normal burn barrels smoke. Lack of oxygen
This is the same principle as AIR injection in late 70s and 80s engines. More efficient catalytic converters took over, and I'm not aware of any current production engines utilizing the tech. The diesel particle filters function more like an afterburner by comparison.
This is another reason why these platforms are important. This just awesome! Thank you for you and your families work putting your abilities out there, I’ll definitely be following ypur technique:(
One enhancement I would make is use the top 3 inches or so of another barrel as an ash trap under the barrel. Often when burning stuff there are nails and whatnot so having it all contained in a pan helps clean those up and it also gives you an instant container to haul the ashes away.
You don't need another barrel: Just cut 3" off one of the barrels before starting. The completed barrel winds up 3" shorter overall but you save material. The 3" ring off the second barrel might be useful too.
@@rafaelallenblock True. I guess it depends on how many barrels a person has laying around and how they want to go about it. I like the one barrel idea. More efficient use of resources.
Please any one tell me whether this burn barrel can be made an incinerator by adding it with petrol and compressed air because I am working on a petrol incinerator. By the way my name is Anil Kumar Singh and I am working in Indian Institute Of Technology Kanpur, India.
Best part is with your son with a big smile looking at the camera at the end of the video. I'll have to give this project a try. I have the technology and a couple of barrels.
Clear, concise and well informed. This is easily the most valuable tutorial I have come across in my seemingly endless pursuit of learning how to best execute a smokeless burn barrel properly. Hats off to you, good sir!
Can't believe i just sat here and watched this entire video and loved it! I don't even need one of those, but I want to go out and build one. Great job.
Except for the last piece when he was working on the ground using the jigsaw. That part would have screwed up my back for a month! But same here, I felt like making one without the need for one.
@@kenh9508 Honestly, this seems very over-engineered. There are quite a few ways to make it much simpler and not much worse if not just as efficient. For example, you could do away with the inner barrel, on the bottom make those fins on which you rest the grate in your video, then drill a row of holes near the top like you did to the inside barrel, then use a crowbar or some long metal pipe to bend the metal to guide the air inside the barrel. Or instead of the holes near the top, you could cut fins like those which hold the crate, but have less space between them, and have them cut to have the uncut part alternate from towards the top of the barrel and towards the bottom of the barrel, then angle them to guide the outside air inside (bend outwards those connected from the top like an A shape, and bend inwards those connected from the bottom like a V shape), to allow the air to mix with the hot gases, for an efficient second burn.
@@SapioiT the whole point of the inner barrel is to route air to the rim for secondary burning, this is why it's smokeless, if you omit the inner barrel it won't work
@@andyb7963 Actually, it doesn't matter that much if the air comes from the bottom of the barrel, or from the sides of the barrel. If you have inwards-pointing holes, ideally slightly angled clockwise or coutnerclockwise, then you would still route air to the rim for the secondary burning. The funnel part is meant to help mix the air and increase the pressure (which, in term, increases the temperature), for the secondary burning to take place. You could use a longer funnel, if you think hose angled air intake holes (which have to be angled upwards towards the inside of the barrel), to make it more likely for the secondary burn to happen. Do look up how a "vortex stove" works, or how a "vortex rocket stove" works (which can be made from a barrel, too).
Your little gardener bringing you a carrot that is so cute. My daughter was by my side every gardening season from the time she was 2 until today. She is coming down to spend the weekend with me and her mom so we can plant this years garden. I absolutely loved your video I could watch a lot of videos like this one. Thank you for taking us along with you and God Bless your channel it's great to see good wholesome content on TH-cam.
I love this! I want to use a barrel to cook outdoors. In Mexico, they use this with a flat disc on top to use as a comal to make tortillas or a flat surface to put a pot on. I recently saw a video where she had also added a middle portion that she used as an oven complete with a door. She still had the top she could use to cook on while using the middle as an oven, brilliant!!!
Please any one tell me whether this burn barrel can be made an incinerator by adding it with petrol and compressed air because I am working on a petrol incinerator. By the way my name is Anil Kumar Singh and I am working in Indian Institute Of Technology Kanpur, India.
@@iitkaks6 Only fuel I use is a cup of diesel to get a fire going, the trash dose the rest, it's a burn barrel not a trash refinery burning medical waste.
This is a brilliant lesson! I love that you don't need to hear yourself speak the way so many other DIY video hosts seem to. This is a killer build that don't require welding or any special skills. Even ham-handed knuckleheads like me can do this. I'm genuinely excited to build my own.
I just bought a metal trashcan for this purpose. Making a burn barrel to burn larger items such as branches and some non-recyclable cardboard(food contaminated). But this video will definitely help me build it to make it burn cleaner and more efficiently. Thank You.
I'm already imagining a scaled-down version for my little garden. Yard waste collection stopped in our area so I tried to discreetly burn the little bit I had, but a couple handfuls of magnolia leaves on my firepit makes it look like I'm trying to send smoke signals! Thanks for sharing your design!
@@fallingleaveskungfu It's down to space versus quantity of leaves really. My "lawn" is 20'x40' with a small magnolia. Mulching too many of the leaves only adds to the thatch that I rake out twice a year. A compost can would be full in a week and take a while to do its thing. Even if I could compost it all, I wouldn't have anywhere to put it except maybe the park behind my house.
Nicely designed, drawn & explained. I wondered when someone would scale up the smokeless fire pit principle to a 55 gal barrel size. The preheating of the air between the inner & outer walls contributes significantly to the smoke reduction as well as the excellent air drafting, swirling & multiple air mix points with the rising hot gasses/smoke. Well done & worth copying.
Ive been doing this for years. Mine produces mass amounts of charcoal and is continuous fed. Note fire off the Pyrolysis gases much lower and heat the inside hopper much more efficient than this design. th-cam.com/video/VzGpIGQiv-8/w-d-xo.html
Just uploaded the tutorial. This is my kit but it can be DIY'ed use the vid and the one here to grasp the concepts and just build it. This is the same basic concept of what this guy is doing here but Im capping off the fuel hopper and igniting the pyrolysis gases lower to apply that heat to the fuel in the hopper. th-cam.com/video/7p6Y4ezjRBI/w-d-xo.html
Amazing! ... Minimal tools needed, abundant raw material, every step makes sense, and is easily doable. The final outcome is exactly what I was looking for. Love it.
Some years ago we camped at an Rv park in the Santa Cruz mtns of Calif. For fire pits, this park had fabricated their fire pits out of the tub used in old washing machines. These tubs have holes punched into them top to bottom. The first thing I noticed after lighting my fire was, NO SMOKE! It worked SO well that I acquired an old washing machine tub, put 4 legs on it and we hauled around with us as we traveled. It was the BOMB!! Until after many many fires, the metal fatigued & the thing fell apart. !
I used an old dryer tub for a while. It had a ceramic coating on it that I *could not* remove for the life of me. Sure made welding the legs on tricky, but it kept it mostly rust free for years of use.
That's awesome. I would suggest saving the end off the first barrel (and leaving an inch or two side to it) and then use that as a top of lid for when not in use and it will keep the rain/snow out. 👍
My mom and I made followed this tutorial and it worked out great! Got an acre lot and was able to get all the yard debris burned up 100x faster than normal with no smoke!
Awesome man, now take the ash, put it a 5 gallon bucket with non chlorinated water, add leaf mold and a tablespoon of seasalt, give it between 15 day to a year or more, then use a 10 to one delusion for potassium fertilizer. Thats a Jadam, Korean natural farming method I learned. To make plant specific fertilizers change the ash part of that recipe to chopped grass and cuttings from the plant you intend to fertilize. Personally I couldn't find leaf mold in my woods, so I use my Homemade compost.
I saw this video, several year ago, when i need idea for smokeless burning. Then i remember to rewatch it because i think i could make it now. But WOW, i found that this video has been benefiting so many people in this world. May the good things you shared turn back to you as every goodness in your life. Thank You, Sir.
Great video with good clear instructions, nice work. I have been using this design on a smaller scale for over 15 years as a cook stove. It uses food tins commonly found here in Australia and if I stop the burn at the right time also produces charcoal I can either cook with again later or use in the garden as biochar.
Awesome idea! I knew that a taller fire pit worked better than a shallow one for the smokeless design but I never even thought about a burn barrel. Brilliant 👊
But I think a very shallow wide one is much, much more entertaining. People like to stare down at an actual fire and they need to see the person sitting across from them. They won't hang out for a beer if they are staring at the side of a barrel. So there's still research and development to do here! Let's get to work!
As someone's neighbor I'd sure appreciate this. Around where I live people seem to just use piles and its often the smoke blows around to my house and is really irritating. I'm sure some people are illegally burning things they shouldn't ever be burning, like trash and old furniture and tvs and stuff like that (which I vehemently oppose). But for people burning clean wood and sticks from cleaning there yard this would help improve air quality.
I know this isn't the best way to get rid of mosquitoes, but I made me a smoker by putting a 5gal bucket inside another,with some air vents cut in the bottom,made a handle from a tree branch wedged inside the bucket handles so I could move it while working in my garden. It's a huge garden and I store my rainwater next to the garden in a few places,also there is a farmers canal flowing next to me so there are plenty of mosquitoes. I will throw some green weeds on top of the fire to produce the smoke to rid my work area of mosquitoes.One day I had so much smoke it looked like a dense fog was setting in and some passerby called the Fire Dept. When they showed up,put the lid on,they didn't know where it was coming from.Just a bit of humor. Nice video btw,very cool.
Easy to follow, clear instructions. I love the idea of turning one barrel bottom into a turbine style grate and using some of the inner barrel flaps for integrated stands. Already knew the basic design idea from creating small & simple wood gas burners / hobo stoves for camping or bushcraft out of used food or paint cans. Looking forward to try out your approach on the next one I make as it solves grate and stands using simply what you already get from the 2 barrels. Also guess the turbine grate (lots of directed airflow, likely causing the air to create a small tornado inside the barrel ) and the burn chamber's upper rim tapered inwards like a jet exhaust will increase performance.
Just stumbled upon this. Great video, great design. My family has always burned our flammable garbage as opposed to using trash pickup services. After becoming more environmentally conscious I have started eliminating as much plastics from that group as possible so that it's mostly paper and cardboard products. Our setup is more of a pit, but now I am looking at this and am inspired to put the same technique to use on a bigger scale for a pit.
I wish I’d seen your tutorial earlier - had a bunch of old, but sensitive, documents to burn. I used the old gas grill my neighbor gave me; it eventually got the job done, but it wasn’t pretty. Very well thought out, and well presented. Thanks for sharing
I've done the same thing on a small scale with tin cans, with my son 'helping'. Then we'd have fun burning sticks and pine cones in them, watching the jets burn the smoke. Very nice job upsizing this to a piece of useful gear.
I wonder if this thing “roars” like the wood gas/ hobo stove you build with the paint can. Im going to build one of these, but i want to experiment with less holes at the top to see if i can get the “swirly flames” effect”. That would keep drunk people around the fire entertained.
@@tuloko16 you don't want drunk people around one of these! it's not someone might get hurt someone WILL get hurt ,BADLY. It will burn branches as fast as you can put them in there once it's going
I did this tin can thing too. You can get swirling flames by poking a screwdriver in the secondary air holes and jerking it sideways, all in the same direction, making rudimentary air scoops. This mixes the fuel and air more and causes an even cleaner combustion. And it looks cool 😉
*I liked the way that you worked in the entire process. It was systemetic, organised and pre-planned. Enjoyed it. Loved it.* Actually, everybody works but everyone does not do in proper way.
I love this! Been planning to make a burn barrel for ages. Even got two barrels ready + an ancient water heater chamber. But, could never quite figure out how to attack it. Seen the ones with angled holes/flaps for air intake, but they do not in reality work that great. Was thinking to make a top with an intake for air from an airblower for secondary combustion, but it all got to advanced in the end. So, actually, what i love the most about this, is that you managed to make a super advanced, high functioning design, but completely without involving more advanced techniques like welding etc. ANYONE can do this, with some time and patience, with completely ordinary tools.
Thanks for this. We burn yard waste in our rural town much of the summer...generating much smoke..NOT ANY LONGER! Thank you! Additionally one could make 3 of these (shorter) using two barrels much like you did and use them as fire pits.
I got myself a barrel a couple of years ago that I meant to use as a burn barrel. When I picked it up I happened to get two of them. They’re still just sitting there, behind my barn. But NOW I know what I’ll use both of then for, and finally get me that burn barrel! Thank you! 😁
Very good system. I used your video to make one. Finally, we were needing to use it due to bad weather preventing the trash service from pickup. What we learned: -the optimum amount of burned trash bags before emptying it out is six -keep either a pit to dump the residual or heavy duty 55-gallon trash bags to contain the residual until normal trash pickup is resumed -the long nosed grill lighters work well to get the fire going without accelerant -bottles and metal objects will be left as residual, so make sure to wear good gloves when emptying it out Thank you for the excellent design idea.
Four legs are better than 3. Look at the leg and vent panels before cutting. Number 18 for me ended on the seam. Best to over lap inner drum seam with area not cut. Think about it you’ll get it. After I made it I thought having two 3/8 x 4” bolts sticking out of the outer barrel close to the top would help move it to the location and aid if it ever needs moving. When this incinerator is running the flame can reach 3-4 feet above the can if loaded. Even with only 1 foot of burning material the barrel generates a lot of swirling air flow which throws a lot of 1/2” ash into the air. The burn is very complete and I do not notice hot embers but lots of floating ash, not an issue in a farm or backyard away from the house by say 50 plus feet. This is a fun project and personally rewarding to complete and watch it work. I used a carbide Lenox 1” hole saw with a paint cap of used oil to dip and drill, no pilot hole needed and it goes very fast no preplanned spacing needed other than line 1:5 & 3” guides. 1/2” starter holes and a Jig saw with a Bosch metal blade went through everything like butter well maybe a bit harder. A harbor Frieght rolling magnet was a incredible at clean up making life easy. Everything is razor sharp so his advice and directions will save a cut, I made out injury free. It was mentioned on another video post. You do not want to do this with a flannel shirt, the guy had to throw his away. All the cut metal especially from the grinder will stick to flannel. I used a welding jacket but any smooth long sleeve cotton should do fine. Polyester can melt from grinding sparks. When screwing the legs a quick trigger bar clamp is awesome. Enjoy your project, very rewarding.
very good points. do you know if you used the thinner type barrel? i know when i bought my barrewly i had the option of the thinner and thicker one. i got the thicker one and its been hell to cut with jig saw and step bit and bending the tabs inward for the inneer barrel by hand was not possible. i went thru 3 metal cut off wheels.
@@warrenpeas I used a standard DOT oil drum with bung holes. Which should be the thicker barrel. I used a Bosch metal blade, I have used cheaper blades and they dull very fast. I also poured oil in front of my blade. I did not use a step bit, I used a carbide tipped lenox 1” hole saw and dipped it in used oil before each hole. Oil really helps and expensive bits, so I use oil to give them longer life. Both tools are still good to go. I am impressed with the Bosch jig saw blade. Now the fins and legs I cut with a professional cut off disk on an angle grinder. It was worn down about 50%. No oil on the cutoff wheel. Best of luck. Lots of satisfaction when it’s finished.
@@Twichery ha ha ha yes they are already lost one leg. Thinking about a cast iron set of legs. I move my barrel often. Still the best burn barrel I have ever made. It is awesome to load and watch.
"We're building a burn barrel, not a clock." My OCD doesn't care. Wonderful video! Getting some Grant Thompson vibes (may he rest in peace) which is a good thing!
OCD is great in finish carpentry, but in backyard engineering it tends to slow progress. Trust me, I know from experience. I suffer from the perfectionism gene myself.
@@rollingsteady3107 oh, I get it... I could spend a week building a burn barrel. The holes must be evenly spaced so that the fire-nado spins just perfectly.
Excellent video. Clear instructions without the fluff. I got a little concerned when you were cutting towards yourself with the jigsaw but no harm done. Respect.
You could always do all the drilling and cutting of your grate while before cutting it out of the barrel to be at chest height rather than working on the ground
Very well done video and instructional commentary. Great project, I just completed my build and it works Great. Did a side by side test and it's quite impressive. The old barrel with just holes in the sides was still smoking and barely burning when this new smokeless barrel had finished burning. Thank you. I plan to add an ash catching tray under it.
"We're building a burn barrel, not a clock." That needs a t-shirt. Or a frame in my shop. :-) What a well-designed improvement on a common yard item! Thanks for showing a way to make a difference.
You sir taught us how to build an item most of us didn't know of yet try to accomplish ourselves....but the message at your conclusion was an unexpected gem....god bless you n your family for the informative step by step instruction for a cleaner and efficient product that is two fold.....burns up all sorts of trash and avoid almost all immitted pollution into our air .... genius and impressive.....thank you sir.
You can use reflected heat to increase the combustion temperature of the smoke: Make a lid - ideally conical - with central hole 1/9th the area of the combined ventilation holes. If you tab the lid's hole you can attach an old paint tin with its bottom cut off for a chimney. Why 1/9th? Fireplace chimneys used to be 1/9th of the area of the opening.
yeah i agree adding a chimney would make this burn better with less smoke, however you would need something to allow you access to add wood while it burned
I built it according to your instructions and it is freaking amazing! After filling it up with smaller branches as well as larger pieces of wood it goes from being lit to a roaring fire within 3 minutes. Once it is going it draws in tons of fresh air and sounds like it has big fan or jet built in! At this point even wet/rotten wood is combusted instantly and what little smoke is produced stays clear. My only recommendation is to not use this in dry areas where a wildfire could break out easily as it can throw tons of embers that rain down depending on how hot it is burning and the type of wood used. Overall 5/5 would highly recommend!
Just ran across your channel and as a welder/fabricator for over 4 decades, although I am a bit of a perfectionist, I am impressed with what you've shared..I been wanting to put together a "burn barrel" and you've inspired me to finally put one together. I will be trying a few different ideas and we'll see how mine turns out in comparison to yours.. Thumbs up, thanks for sharing and showing your cute kids.. Be well! Razor!
Nice, Gave me inspiration to make my own design. It is basically the same but I made 3 changes/additions: 1. Air regulation To the bottom of the barrel I added a second layer, made out of the 2nd barrel top. The pattern of holes in both bottom layers are layed out in such a way that I can regulate the air inlet by shifting the top layer in relation to the bottom layer. I can operate the position of the top layer by folding out a piece of metal (made by one of the holes in the layer) through a slot I made into the barrel side 2. Leaving the rim intact I removed the top of both barrels by grinding of the top op the rim until you touch on the welding seam between barrel and top. It makes a nice and clean separation and you end up with two barrel tops and a rim on both sides of the barrel. 3. Stable barrel legs I used the stroke metal that is cut out of te inner barrel to make 3 legs that are attached to the outer barrel. Makes it quite stable. Tnx for the inspiration. brdi
What an amazing instructional video. Simple tools and measurements. You’re a great Instructor! I have watched many videos but not 1 like this. Crystal clear instructions.👍
Love that you tell your kids that you love them so much! One suggestion for the end of the vid would be a time lapse to show the wood piles getting smaller and how much faster your barrel burns. Take care and much love.
Ingenious idea. I recently fonud two two old barrels buried in the garden. They were s little bit rusty but this seems to be O.K. After breakfast I'll empty them and start to work.😁
Thank You for sharing your burn barrel design. It's different from all of the boring burn barrel videos that just drill several holes in one barrel. You take it to a higher level. I built a burn barrel exactly to your video instructions, and I love how well it works. Not only is it smokeless, it burns materials faster and it doesn't have to be touched once it starts burning! I love it. Thanks again for sharing your creativity and ingenuity with the rest of us TH-cam surfers!👍
Please any one tell me whether this burn barrel can be made an incinerator by adding it with petrol and compressed air because I am working on a petrol incinerator. By the way my name is Anil Kumar Singh and I am working in Indian Institute Of Technology Kanpur, India.
@@iitkaks6 I think that the barrel metal would be too thin for what you want to do. However, industrial compressor tanks could work, just find the people that install and work on compressors. 😊
Nice project! I made a much smaller version of this out of tins and used it to cook on during two weeks summer vacation. It worked incredibly well, not in the last place because the beach nearby was full of the tiny, super dry wood fragments that I could use to fuel it.
Sir this is awesome, I am a retired gas and central heating engineer your amazing solution for your burn barrel is achieving the correct stoichiometric air to fuel ratio for a efficient burn. It is a pleasure to see the level of craftsmanship shown. This will be my next project, thank you for sharing this knowledge.
Hi! Thanks for your video. I live in Norway and built the same after your instructions. Just added a fine mesh "chicken-mesh" on top of the "fan" in the bottom to prevent big chunks of coal to fall out. Burns really good and with a minimum of smoke.
Thanks heaps for sharing! We live on a mountain property with endless brush and I built this to start tackling it before forest fire season. Seriously love burning this barrel! Only thing I'm looking into up grading is a different grate in the bottom. I got mine super hot and it has warped. Ace design cheers
We have a "secondary burn" wood stove of excellent design. Therefore, I would delight and benefit from an addendum video explaining the air flow design of this burn barrel. (And your charm shows through and sets a good example of a man.)
I absolutely LOVE it!! I've wanted one of these for years. My husband has made several wood gas stoves out of soup, coffee, paint cans. But could never convince him to make a ginormous one like this. I can do it myself now. Thank you kind Sir. 🙂
Yes, I agree with everyone's assessment below. Excellent instruction. I built one myself, works great!! Speaking of the "grate" in the bottom: I cut and bent my tabs the other way so that it would work with the direction the tabs of the inner barrel are bent.
Pretty ingenious design. I might build one for my friend who has very messy trees that drop sticks and branches all the time. The smoke has always been an issue because the nearby fire department will come if they see even the slightest bit of smoke which is annoying to say the least. Also there’s a downdraft in the valley where he lives which makes the smoke linger Hopefully this should at least cut back on the smoke
Thanks for wasting 26 mins of my life! LOL Incredible job of showing how to build this barrel. As other have commented (probably) -- your free-handing/eye balling lines is better than my "precision" measuring. You are truly a skilled craftsman. The narration was great and the video moved forward at a great pace. Also the overdubbing of the audio post-video allowed for a better listening experience. Thanks again for showing how to build a smokeless burn barrel.
God bless you, sir. this economy has hit me hard, but I ran with your idea, I added a fourth leg. I went past the secondary combustion and created a 3rd combustion section which almost makes the burn cycle smokeless. I burned off all the paint on the barrel and added high-heat paint. thus keeping the barrel looking sharp. since I started selling them 6 months ago, I've managed to catch up financially and feed my children. I can only say god bless you, sir!
Can I buy one? How much are they? Where are you located?
Where are you located and how can i buy one..how much?
Dang !! Now that's my America !!
Same here, I would like to buy one.
do you have any footage of using this 3rd chamber? did you add another barrel?
I got one of those plastic 50 gallon drums and it smokes no matter what I do.
GONE ! TO !! OBLIVION !!
Wait. You're burning stuff in a plastic barrel??
@@IIISWILIII Yeah doesn’t everyone?
🤪
You should probably try to add som old used motoroil or something similiar
Your instruction and attitude are top tier. Nothing to prove, just simple, straight-forward instruction. Well done.
Myself and my 90-year-old dad built a barrel following your instructions. The legs were structurally unsound, so I cut them off and replaced them with three outside mounted steel plates and we added handles on the sides to ease of moving the barrel around safely before and after use. The thing is awesome, we've named ours, "The Dragons Breath!" it incinerates whatever we throw at it. Thanks for your video and the chance to do a project with my retired sheet metal worker father.
Great comment..... I love the updated adaptations
Good ideas!
The legs seem critical.
And you could probably even make handles out of the excess strip he cut off 👍
We just built the same design and find smaller twigs and stuff just fall through to the bottom where it becomes slow burning and smokes a lot, often not even burning completely. How are you dealing with the ash catching at the bottom?
Written instructions based on the video:
Parts needed
• two steel drums (same size)
• angle grinder with cut off wheels
• drill with 1/8th inch bit and #4 step unibit
• template material (rigid plastic or metal)
• sharpie
• Tape measurer
• Optional oil for drilling
• Jigsaw and metal blades
• Sheet metal screws.
Inside drum
1. 5 inches from the seam, draw a solid line
2. 1 inch further from the seam, draw a dashed line
3. Use an angle grinder with a cut off wheel. Cut the middle section at the seam and the solid line
4. Ratchet strap the center to hold it
5. Cut the top and bottom sections of the side of the barrel (at seam and solid marker line)
6. Cut through the rim at the seam
7. Cut through the rim at the dash line, across the bottom of the rim to the solid line, and across the rim at the solid line (leaving a one-inch section with side wall and no rim)
8. Cut off the entire capped end of the drum (including the rim)
9. Ratchet drum with tabbed edge on the inside.
10. Fasten drum together with a few self-tapping screws from the outside in (maybe three or four total).
11. Once secure, screw it together every few inches from the inside out. Remove the original screws and put them from the inside out also.
12. Use the angle grinder to cut off the excess screw from the outside. Leave a few threads so it doesn’t unhinge itself.
13. Flip it over, with rim side up.
14. Using a 3.5-inch square template, beginning at the seam, draw squares under the rim and label the squares 1-18. The seam area will not be marked.
15. #6, #12, #18 cut the sides and the bottom (not the rim part).
a. Cut just a little bit into the rim from the inside out to allow you to fold them up.
b. Bend them in an all the way up.
c. Use plyers to fold in the sides of the three tabs to make sturdy legs. From the top, they should look like be C’s, with the hump facing out.
16. Cut the bottom, left hand side, and top (under the rim) of the even numbers. Gently fold these in a little past 90 degrees
17. Flip over and stand on the legs.
18. Draw two lines around the unrimmed top. One 1.5 inches from top, one 3 inches from top.
19. Draw vertical lines from the 1.5 inch line to the top. Cut the vertical lines with grinder. Take off the outside edge of the double layer section.
20. Gently fold the tabs in (can use plyers if you want).
21. Drill a 1/8 hole in the 3-inch line, at the middle point of the tab above.
22. Use the unibit #4 to drill those holes out. (oil can help)
Outer barrel
1. With open edge facing up, put one line at 1.5 and one at 3 inches around the drum.
2. Use 1.5-inch square template to draw vertical lines on the 1.5 to rim area.
3. Use the 1.5-inch square template to draw vertical lines staggered from the last lines, in between the 1.5 and 3 inch horizontal lines.
4. Use 1/8 th drill bit to draw pilot holes for each, then use the #4 unibit to drill those holes out.
5. Flip it over so closed end is up.
6. Mark out a circle the size of the diameter of the inner barrel (likely 20 inches if it is a standard barrel, but check).
7. Drill a hole with the #4 unibit, then use a jigsaw to cut out the hole. (Save the disc).
Assembly
1. Put the outer drum over the top of the inner drum, with the holes on the bottom of the outer drum. It should seat, with the outer drum possibly resting on the sheet metal screw in the seam. It should seat between the bent tabs and the holes in the smaller barrel.
2. Use one fastener per leg to screw the inner and outer barrels together.
3. The disc saved from the outer barrel.
a. Remove about ¾ inch from the outside edge using jigsaw.
b. Draw 8 solid pie lines
c. Draw 8 dashed lines between the solid lines.
d. Draw a ring ¾ inch further in from edge.
e. Use unibit to drill a hole at the inside solid line and solid pie line.
f. Draw a 4-inch diameter circle in the middle.
g. Use unibit to drill a hole at the solid pie line and the 4 inch circle line intersection. (8 total, in line with the ones drilled previously)
h. Using Jigsaw, cut from unibit holes to the dash lines on the left and from inner to outer unibit hole
i. Use plyers to bend the tabs up, will look like fan blades.
j. Put it in the barrel, with the folded tabs down.
Thanks for writing that out. I did something similar, with screen shots.
thank you for taking time and effort to write it out for us all
Jeez! I'd love to have your time!!
Not all Heroes wear capes. thank you Melanie
Wow. I would have been daunted by the instructions if I had not seen the video first. But great analysis anyway. I've printed them out for when i build mine.
Built the burn barrel this week and it works like a charm. We made one modification which is obvious, but still may be worth mentioning: We found that the legs were very flimsy so we folded them inward and rested the barrel on cinderblocks that rest on their sides so that the cinder block cutouts allow air to flow freely from the outside to the underside of the (elevated) barrel.
Then you did it wrong, now do it again. LOL. Good idea, thanks.
Please any one tell me whether this burn barrel can be made an incinerator by adding it with petrol and compressed air because I am working on a petrol incinerator. By the way my name is Anil Kumar Singh and I am working in Indian Institute Of Technology Kanpur, India.
because cinder blocks can sometimes have trapped moisture that can make them explode I would recommend fire bricks instead, but yeah brick feet seem like a good idea
@@iitkaks6 petrol incinerator is a bad idea, u want to use diesel not petrol. just look on youtube for waste oil burners.
@@iitkaks6 yes absolutely. We added a bit of petrol to get the fire started and it burnt so well and so fast and so clean.
My favorite part of the video was , you having fun with your children. Thanks for giving this world a better chance with great kids.
We need more Dads like this guy who take time to show their kids how to make things and how things work. Great burn barrel too, I'll be making one soon.
I think hes sexy! 😂
I built my burn barrel last fall. I built a dolly into mine. Scabbed an axle on to it from an old yard trailer and used some tubular steel remnant for the handle. I don't like a burn barrel laying out in my yard all the time. I researched building it more efficient to burn faster but didn't come up with much. I saw the smokeless fire pits but couldn't figure out how to build it into a burn barrel easily.
Well done.
Faster burn from drafting, chimney effect. Keep three holes vertically through the burning materials.
I can barely feed mine fast enough.
Winner, winner chicken dinner. Bloody love your work. Champion.
Quote of the week!
"We all have something to gain by inspiring each other."
I've watched dozens, if not hundreds of How To videos...and Your instruction is Hands Down THE BEST I have Ever seen or heard.
The simplicity of instruction, and narration is Spot On.
Outstanding Job
Probably one of the best instructional videos out there.
What I enjoyed the most about your video, was hearing you tell you children Multiple times throughout the video you love them. And you can hear it out your voice. Your awesome.
The ability of this guy to draw a circle by hand is way more impressive than the barrel itself
P
16:51
@@Eaterofeaterofpies eeeeeexactly, thankyou
And the ability to "ahh measure your circle to make sure you get the right size hole here."
He followed the edge with his hand? It's not exactly difficult. And when he didn't the circle was way wobbly. Served the purpose though
Built one this afternoon. Overall works great. First tip is buy the hole saw with carbide teeth at Harbor Freight. It's $20 and lot faster than the cone bit. Use high temp paint on all cut surfaces, but I am in Florida where everything rusts. Thanks for the design.
Wish I read this comment a couple days ago. I’m building this right now and this project is the first and last time I use a step bit (when possible)
@@jkforzi never used one but you think the hole saw is the way to go?
A good quality step bit is what worked for me. There is a steep learning curve, but after a half doz holes, you leardcthe correct pressure to drill thru and when to let up. After that I was drilling 6-8 holes a minute, and that was slow. But you have to put the time in to learn what pressure is the magic point.
@@trebledog of n
@@wg8304 carbide tipped hole saws (look near electrical tools, they're used to cut into electrical panels and boxes) will nearly cut, but use heavy, steady pressure and a little lube, like used motor oil. This carbide teeth are brittle, so they'll stay sharp for a long time, but will break easily if they chatter or get hung up
Pro tip: Before you cut the bottom out of the second barrel you can draw all your lines, drill your holes and make your "propellor" cuts, and THEN cut the bottom out. It will be easier than cutting it out after. Also, consider adding a grate in the bottom of the finished burn barrel to better support the wieght of the burn material and not just relying on the thin metal of the "propellor." This will have the added benifit of prolonging the propellors lifespan and avoiding burn through.
Congratulations on an excellent presentation by the way!
yes, that thin cut up bottom int he video is not going to support much after a couple burns and a rain.
Yeah logs will just bend those things easily. I think that's what my Dad and I did when we built it. Right now outs is all rusted out lol. We hardly cover it when it rains
Thank you! I was wondering how I would finagle that part lol. That makes a lot of sense :)
We just built this and definitely had to close up some of those fins to stop things falling straight through. It didn't stop it and it also caused the vortex to not form as well. So yeah, we are looking at what to use as a grate for the bottom and also potentially place the whole barrel in a bowl shaped fire pit to stop whatever does fall through from flying away burning embers to nearby trees or us.
@@ca2269 maybe make the propeller flaps half as wide, therefore leaving more flat material as support.
Well if there was an award for the best presentation and innovation, you won it!
I recently had a go at building one and failed miserably.
Your video not only inspired me to build your version but you also sold a dewalt jigsaw. So Thankyou for sharing your talent and skill. I live in London and the locals get kind of hissy when it comes to smoke. Many thanks
😀🇬🇧
I was reading this in a American mid-west accent until you mentioned you’re in London, then I switched to the overseas English. 🤣
We can't legally burn wher I live but maybe I can pass it off as a homemade bb que cooker
I made one my own way.. still lasting in a wet environment. One barrel, made a stand for it to keep it off the ground so the bottom doesn’t rot out. Next I made 3 sets of 2 cut outs 3”x1” along the bottom. After that I made a grating to keep the bottom clean and allow air flow to the fire. Set that at about 3” off the bottom of the barrel. Made that grating removable for easy cleaning. The bottom of my barrel is not open like yours so I don’t have a mess on the floor. I just dump the ashes in a hole when it comes time to do so. Last about 7 or 8 years in NY state.
I made this two days ago by following your instructions exactly. The only change I made was not using self tapping screws. I have a mig welder so I welded it back together. GREAT idea and GREAT video! Thank you!
Did you use a cutting torch instead of a grinder?
Please any one tell me whether this burn barrel can be made an incinerator by adding it with petrol and compressed air because I am working on a petrol incinerator. By the way my name is Anil Kumar Singh and I am working in Indian Institute Of Technology Kanpur, India.
@@joshuawright6020 Plasma or oxy acetylene would be a good choice even for the holes.
Honestly i didnt expect such a well explained and wholesome video from a burn barrel tutorial but you did a great job explaining all the steps! Got a new project for this weekend thank you!
I spend countless hours watching how to videos on any random cool things to build next... you by far have one of the best ways to show step by step
I noticed you burned through a lot of cutting wheels. Diablo makes a diamond tipped cutting wheel that lasts a really long time. I skirt mobile homes and used to used about 5-8 discs per hone. I’m on the same Diablo wheel for my 4th home.
Thank you very much for the great tip
😉👍👍
So, what was the rpm of your grinder?
There's an exciting new way to cut metal. A saw.
@@johndough9187 if I’m within a 120v-20a outlet I will be using my plasma arch torch cutter! Hey, I wonder do they have cordless ones 🤔🙀?
diablo blades are awesome
I just finished mine this afternoon and tested it with cardboard - simply amazing! Thanks a bunch for sharing this project.
For a second I thought you made it out of cardboard to test it out 🙃.
If there's a commercial version of this I'd like that, I think making this would need more patience than I'm capable of, so that's probably why I'd be inclined to make one out of cardboard 😀
Just a tip. Burning just cardboard won't fully achieve what this is for. For it to work properly you need the inside barrel wall to get extremely hot. That's what causes the secondary combustion. Small smokeless fire pits take about 15 minutes of adequate fire to reach "smokeless" so a barrel this size probably takes about 30 minutes.
@@SweetMooch Trust me on this - when I burned cardboard it blistered the paint off the barrel in just a few minutes! Only trouble I have with burning cardboard is the ash is clogging up the air coming in the bottom. So I only burn one or two loads at a time, then let it cool and clear away the ash.
@@SweetMooch I used to live in a cabin that had a device called " blazing shower" for it's sole source of domestic hot water. It was simply a length of half inch copper tube lining the inside of stovepipe. It was hooked up to a pacariously mounted tank in the loft. It was pretty worthless but might have been the stove which was a Ben Franklin. You could burn a hot fire all night and still have a mediocre shower the next morning. I didn't install it but it looked right for the thermosyphon to work but it just didn't. The only thing it did is prevent the headache you could get from the freezing cold water in winter. I have seen old cook stoves that heated water and they had steel pipes right in the firebox where they were exposed to direct flame. Since the pipes were in the stove pipe the only way to get a shower warm enough to wash your hair was to have a partner feeding that wood stove with bone dry finely split hard wood. Or you could burn waxed cardboard cut into 3" strips and folded in to a triangle shaped tube. You could get a decent shower out of a couple banana boxes as long as you had an assistant keeping that fire fed so the Flames were going way up the stove pipe.(does anyone know why my Samsung won't let me write certain words without capitals?) Anyways, cardboard is capable of burning pretty hot but it needs lots of air. Maybe you're overstuffing or your cardboard is moist?
Think I'll just punch holes as before set on elevated cinder blocks.
Greetings from the U.K. we just made a burn barrel using your nicely detailed instructions. Works a treat, thanks for putting this video together and sharing it.
What I like about this video so much is the video work and the combined commentary were really well edited to make it simple to follow, not long drawn out pieces for real time footage. It condensed a length process into something practical and safe with plain common sense regards safety etc.(Loved the comment about making a burn barrel and not a clock) And how he got George Clooney to do the voice over is a testament to the guys persuasiveness . Well done. Yeah it was inspiring to watch and to learn. 100/100. Looking forward to more instruction... I'm lovin' it. SOnnie T.
I did something similar (although much less complex) towards the end of burning being allowed in my city. Nobody knew I was burning anything, unless they saw the jet of flame shooting out of the top. Never made nearly as much smoke as a small charcoal grill, and to be honest, sometimes I'd throw some garlic and onion powder into the fire to drive the neighbors crazy, wondering who was cooking out :D
yeah right! I smell a ... concocted concoction!
Lol ...
Love it
@@roymadison5686 you can also burn hot pepper
garlic and onions smell. LOL
haha great stuff
Thank you for posting, very charitable. Please continue to post. Learning from others saves us all money and time.
Super impressed with the ingenuity that went into this conversion. Thanks for sharing!!!
I put a hole about 8" off the bottom of my barrel. About 2.5-3" in diameter. Just big enough to slide a piece of steel pipe in that also fits neatly around the tube of my leaf blower. I put a loose piece of steel plate on top of the barrel that I can adjust. With the leaf blower just a bit above idle it will burn all of our household refuse and baby diapers, with zero smoke once it starts to get hot. I adjust the plate steel on top to leave about a 10-15% open slot. At night the sides will glow bright red because it gets so hot. Sounds a bit like a rocket when it gets going. Like I said it will burn all of our household refuse and diapers with zero smoke and leaves a very small amount of ash afterwards.
RoadFarmer - man i hope you're still on this one. i love this idea. can i ask a quick question? did you do this to just a normal barrel or did you build this type & then add the leaf blower adapter? you said it's pretty smokeless but is that cuz its this type WITH the blower or can i just add your mod to a normal barrel? i'm an outfitter in alaska & we have a small incinerator but i'd like something a little more mobile. thanks heaps in advance:)
Love the design on this burn barrel. I built one about a year ago which is about half the height using some old tractor wheels, same diameter as the 55 gal. drums. I have an ash collection pit underneath about 14 inches deep. Once everything gets proper air flow the whole pit glows bright red, in fact it gets so hot I have started using the pit as an impromptu blast furnace for casting (aluminum only), and forge for steel and iron. Keep in mind, I'm no expert, just a guy with a welder, and a lot of scrap metal to build with.
"We're building a burning barrel, not a clock" - will be my favourite quote from now on!
For forty years I've been fabricating things out of steel/metal. I'm constantly looking for ways to improve/educate myself. This is a great video on explaining the obvious then taking the time to educate others (like me). At the start I'm watching thinking why has he started to cut in the centre of the barrel, then he gets the strap. Now what, I'm thinking, and as soon as we see him wrapping it around the barrel it's plainly obvious. Too obvious, it's to stop the steel spring and the 1" notch in the rim obvious but so simple to most it's not. Great video. Thank you for taking the time.
I have made four of these for the family. On one burn barrel I used a lid for a bottom and raised the barrel so I would not have to drill all those holes on the outside barrel. Plus seven fire pits same basic method. They all work great.Thanks you are amazing.
This is great. I live in a country with no refuse collection where almost everyone burns (I should say smoulders) their rubbish. I'll be adding one to my yard and discussing a more robust build with a thermal blanket filled twin layered outer shell to increase the internal heat with our local government for public use. Hopefully reduce some of the localised pollution.
Thank you awesome stuff! Plus from what we see here a man with a heart of pure joy.
The addition of the thermal blanket will stop the air rising between the two barrels and exiting at the top- thus stopping the secondary burn. Your burn barrel will then smoke.
Curious, what country do you live in without garbage collection?
@@rowanshole why not read my comment again then apologise. It reads 'a thermal blanket filled twin layered outer shell'. The void between the inner and outer is not obstructed.
Reducing the heat loss from the outer shell will in fact increase the draw in the void. As well as keep the whole thing much safer. You could use thermal refactoried bricks as the outer shell but that would require a master tradesman in masonary as myself to construct and be very costly. 😁 Having one welded up out of mild steel plate is much cheaper
Comprehen what you read before replying is good advise.
@@ScooterKid659I live in the rice fields of a province in a south east Asian country. No such thing as public sanitation infrustructure around here.
@@darrellturner560 hope this makes you feel better- sorry.
I really liked how you showed you can build something practical, and useful, without a fancy workbench or fancy tools. Though the step bit was pretty key to this project, and you referenced it perfectly in the video.
"We all have something to gain by inspiring each other" -- this should be the tagline for TH-cam. I would bet on the ideas and success of 10,000 "backyard engineers" vs 50 highly paid engineers.
Backyard engineering is the best (IMO) driver for engineering talent. People who become engineers only because they were told they ought to because they were good at math or for the salaries don't often make good problem solvers. Again, IMO, YMMV.
That's what I was thinking. How many engineers would it take to create this cleaner burning barrel and how long? 😃 By the time he was on the bottom of the barrel I stopped, he'll have already come up w/ a new one.
@@Lawrence330 Necessity [and curiosity] is the Mother of All Inventions. ;)
Thanks for your easy to follow instructions they say where there's smoke there's fire . Not this time fire no smoke now when I burn my next girlfriend's stuff she can't follow the smoke . So I can sit down and drink a beer and burn and relax.
I made a burn barrel according to your instructions and the barrel is SUPER EFFICIENT!!!
Thanks for the video!!!
When I was a kid, everyone had what were called an "ash-can" which was a barrel in which people burned their trash. They were very smoky and hard to keep going, and the trash was never completely burned. Great improvement on the old ash-can design and a lot of fun! The amazing thing about this is that the space between walls has a much greater vertical length than the Solo Stove allowing longer exposure time for the air rising to be super heated, expand, and then come out the holes at the top hotter and at a higher velocity for a more efficient burn! The only improvement I could think of, would to create a system where the air coming in from underneath could also be heated before entry into the burn chamber as the Solo stove does by routing the air through a hole in the bottom which then comes around the ash pan! But you can't argue with success!
Freakin' brilliant. This is basically the exact way a jet turbine combustor works, secondary air injection for clean combustion, and it keeps the outside cooler for safety. Really solid work! Thanks.
You should see my version it actual sounds like a jet engine haha. th-cam.com/video/VzGpIGQiv-8/w-d-xo.html
It's called a woodgas burner. In this case a barrel. The gases that don't burn the 1st time has oxygen reintroduced to cause a 2nd burn. . That's the reason normal burn barrels smoke. Lack of oxygen
This is the same principle as AIR injection in late 70s and 80s engines. More efficient catalytic converters took over, and I'm not aware of any current production engines utilizing the tech. The diesel particle filters function more like an afterburner by comparison.
@@Lawrence330 I took the dpf as a catalytic converter for diesels lol I think u might mean the egr. I get what you're saying tho.
I looked at that project and thought: "a few of those would make one FREAKISHLY large jet engine..."
This is another reason why these platforms are important. This just awesome! Thank you for you and your families work putting your abilities out there, I’ll definitely be following ypur technique:(
Awesome awesome awesome teaching!!! Please don't ever stop passing on the knowledge! It's the only way we live and grow👍
One enhancement I would make is use the top 3 inches or so of another barrel as an ash trap under the barrel. Often when burning stuff there are nails and whatnot so having it all contained in a pan helps clean those up and it also gives you an instant container to haul the ashes away.
You don't need another barrel: Just cut 3" off one of the barrels before starting. The completed barrel winds up 3" shorter overall but you save material. The 3" ring off the second barrel might be useful too.
@@rafaelallenblock True. I guess it depends on how many barrels a person has laying around and how they want to go about it. I like the one barrel idea. More efficient use of resources.
On this addition I completely agree and it keep the ashes contained and easy to clean up after the burn…👍🔥🇺🇸
Please any one tell me whether this burn barrel can be made an incinerator by adding it with petrol and compressed air because I am working on a petrol incinerator. By the way my name is Anil Kumar Singh and I am working in Indian Institute Of Technology Kanpur, India.
Why not just create rocket stove
Absolutely love this tutorial. Please do more like this for backyard projects.
Best part is with your son with a big smile looking at the camera at the end of the video. I'll have to give this project a try. I have the technology and a couple of barrels.
Clear, concise and well informed. This is easily the most valuable tutorial I have come across in my seemingly endless pursuit of learning how to best execute a smokeless burn barrel properly. Hats off to you, good sir!
Can't believe i just sat here and watched this entire video and loved it! I don't even need one of those, but I want to go out and build one. Great job.
Except for the last piece when he was working on the ground using the jigsaw. That part would have screwed up my back for a month! But same here, I felt like making one without the need for one.
@@kenh9508 Honestly, this seems very over-engineered. There are quite a few ways to make it much simpler and not much worse if not just as efficient. For example, you could do away with the inner barrel, on the bottom make those fins on which you rest the grate in your video, then drill a row of holes near the top like you did to the inside barrel, then use a crowbar or some long metal pipe to bend the metal to guide the air inside the barrel. Or instead of the holes near the top, you could cut fins like those which hold the crate, but have less space between them, and have them cut to have the uncut part alternate from towards the top of the barrel and towards the bottom of the barrel, then angle them to guide the outside air inside (bend outwards those connected from the top like an A shape, and bend inwards those connected from the bottom like a V shape), to allow the air to mix with the hot gases, for an efficient second burn.
@@SapioiT the whole point of the inner barrel is to route air to the rim for secondary burning, this is why it's smokeless, if you omit the inner barrel it won't work
I even picked up an American accent watching it 😁hot diggity dog great clip
@@andyb7963 Actually, it doesn't matter that much if the air comes from the bottom of the barrel, or from the sides of the barrel. If you have inwards-pointing holes, ideally slightly angled clockwise or coutnerclockwise, then you would still route air to the rim for the secondary burning. The funnel part is meant to help mix the air and increase the pressure (which, in term, increases the temperature), for the secondary burning to take place. You could use a longer funnel, if you think hose angled air intake holes (which have to be angled upwards towards the inside of the barrel), to make it more likely for the secondary burn to happen. Do look up how a "vortex stove" works, or how a "vortex rocket stove" works (which can be made from a barrel, too).
Your little gardener bringing you a carrot that is so cute. My daughter was by my side every gardening season from the time she was 2 until today. She is coming down to spend the weekend with me and her mom so we can plant this years garden. I absolutely loved your video I could watch a lot of videos like this one. Thank you for taking us along with you and God Bless your channel it's great to see good wholesome content on TH-cam.
I love this! I want to use a barrel to cook outdoors. In Mexico, they use this with a flat disc on top to use as a comal to make tortillas or a flat surface to put a pot on. I recently saw a video where she had also added a middle portion that she used as an oven complete with a door. She still had the top she could use to cook on while using the middle as an oven, brilliant!!!
Please any one tell me whether this burn barrel can be made an incinerator by adding it with petrol and compressed air because I am working on a petrol incinerator. By the way my name is Anil Kumar Singh and I am working in Indian Institute Of Technology Kanpur, India.
@@iitkaks6 Petrol? Why?)
@@Dmitro_KAVO Because petrol is a good and cheap means for combustion and i worked on it.
@@iitkaks6 Only fuel I use is a cup of diesel to get a fire going, the trash dose the rest, it's a burn barrel not a trash refinery burning medical waste.
This is a brilliant lesson! I love that you don't need to hear yourself speak the way so many other DIY video hosts seem to. This is a killer build that don't require welding or any special skills. Even ham-handed knuckleheads like me can do this. I'm genuinely excited to build my own.
I just bought a metal trashcan for this purpose. Making a burn barrel to burn larger items such as branches and some non-recyclable cardboard(food contaminated). But this video will definitely help me build it to make it burn cleaner and more efficiently. Thank You.
I'm already imagining a scaled-down version for my little garden. Yard waste collection stopped in our area so I tried to discreetly burn the little bit I had, but a couple handfuls of magnolia leaves on my firepit makes it look like I'm trying to send smoke signals! Thanks for sharing your design!
Did they offer you a discount on your taxes for the decrease in services?
.... neither did my city
Why not compost it? 🤷♂️
Like a metal gallon paint can...
@@fallingleaveskungfu It's down to space versus quantity of leaves really. My "lawn" is 20'x40' with a small magnolia. Mulching too many of the leaves only adds to the thatch that I rake out twice a year. A compost can would be full in a week and take a while to do its thing. Even if I could compost it all, I wouldn't have anywhere to put it except maybe the park behind my house.
Half a 30 gal barrel and a steel 5 gallon inner.. js
Nicely designed, drawn & explained. I wondered when someone would scale up the smokeless fire pit principle to a 55 gal barrel size. The preheating of the air between the inner & outer walls contributes significantly to the smoke reduction as well as the excellent air drafting, swirling & multiple air mix points with the rising hot gasses/smoke. Well done & worth copying.
*WARNING: This does not work with plastic rubbish bins.*
@@1nvisible1 Haha!! Not even once?!
@@woolval52 works for about half a fire
Ive been doing this for years. Mine produces mass amounts of charcoal and is continuous fed. Note fire off the Pyrolysis gases much lower and heat the inside hopper much more efficient than this design. th-cam.com/video/VzGpIGQiv-8/w-d-xo.html
Just uploaded the tutorial. This is my kit but it can be DIY'ed use the vid and the one here to grasp the concepts and just build it. This is the same basic concept of what this guy is doing here but Im capping off the fuel hopper and igniting the pyrolysis gases lower to apply that heat to the fuel in the hopper. th-cam.com/video/7p6Y4ezjRBI/w-d-xo.html
Amazing! ... Minimal tools needed, abundant raw material, every step makes sense, and is easily doable. The final outcome is exactly what I was looking for. Love it.
Some years ago we camped at an Rv park in the
Santa Cruz mtns of Calif. For fire pits, this park
had fabricated their fire pits out of the tub used
in old washing machines. These tubs have holes
punched into them top to bottom. The first thing
I noticed after lighting my fire was, NO SMOKE!
It worked SO well that I acquired an old washing
machine tub, put 4 legs on it and we hauled around
with us as we traveled. It was the BOMB!! Until
after many many fires, the metal fatigued & the
thing fell apart.
!
I bet it lasted a lot longer than the burn barrels
These are very common here in Germany. At least in my village.
I used an old dryer tub for a while. It had a ceramic coating on it that I *could not* remove for the life of me. Sure made welding the legs on tricky, but it kept it mostly rust free for years of use.
I have used one of those, and they work very well!
They use them as portable pits at events I’m told. Great idea
That's awesome. I would suggest saving the end off the first barrel (and leaving an inch or two side to it) and then use that as a top of lid for when not in use and it will keep the rain/snow out. 👍
My mom and I made followed this tutorial and it worked out great! Got an acre lot and was able to get all the yard debris burned up 100x faster than normal with no smoke!
How long did it take to complete the burn barrel?
Awesome man, now take the ash, put it a 5 gallon bucket with non chlorinated water, add leaf mold and a tablespoon of seasalt, give it between 15 day to a year or more, then use a 10 to one delusion for potassium fertilizer. Thats a Jadam, Korean natural farming method I learned. To make plant specific fertilizers change the ash part of that recipe to chopped grass and cuttings from the plant you intend to fertilize. Personally I couldn't find leaf mold in my woods, so I use my Homemade compost.
@@infiniteadam7352 good information thanks from England UK
@@infiniteadam7352 you lost me after 5 gallon bucket . would it be useful to just throw the ashes in my garden ?
@@time2cclear in moderation.
A little bit can be useful, a little bit more if your soil is acidic.
Too concentrated will kill your plants
I saw this video, several year ago, when i need idea for smokeless burning. Then i remember to rewatch it because i think i could make it now. But WOW, i found that this video has been benefiting so many people in this world. May the good things you shared turn back to you as every goodness in your life. Thank You, Sir.
Great video with good clear instructions, nice work. I have been using this design on a smaller scale for over 15 years as a cook stove. It uses food tins commonly found here in Australia and if I stop the burn at the right time also produces charcoal I can either cook with again later or use in the garden as biochar.
Awesome idea! I knew that a taller fire pit worked better than a shallow one for the smokeless design but I never even thought about a burn barrel. Brilliant 👊
But I think a very shallow wide one is much, much more entertaining. People like to stare down at an actual fire and they need to see the person sitting across from them. They won't hang out for a beer if they are staring at the side of a barrel. So there's still research and development to do here! Let's get to work!
Would this design still work as well if the barrel was cut in half?
I would like to see if it would work on two thirds tall
As someone's neighbor I'd sure appreciate this. Around where I live people seem to just use piles and its often the smoke blows around to my house and is really irritating. I'm sure some people are illegally burning things they shouldn't ever be burning, like trash and old furniture and tvs and stuff like that (which I vehemently oppose). But for people burning clean wood and sticks from cleaning there yard this would help improve air quality.
I know this isn't the best way to get rid of mosquitoes, but I made me a smoker by putting a 5gal bucket inside another,with some air vents cut in the bottom,made a handle from a tree branch wedged inside the bucket handles so I could move it while working in my garden. It's a huge garden and I store my rainwater next to the garden in a few places,also there is a farmers canal flowing next to me so there are plenty of mosquitoes. I will throw some green weeds on top of the fire to produce the smoke to rid my work area of mosquitoes.One day I had so much smoke it looked like a dense fog was setting in and some passerby called the Fire Dept. When they showed up,put the lid on,they didn't know where it was coming from.Just a bit of humor. Nice video btw,very cool.
Easy to follow, clear instructions. I love the idea of turning one barrel bottom into a turbine style grate and using some of the inner barrel flaps for integrated stands. Already knew the basic design idea from creating small & simple wood gas burners / hobo stoves for camping or bushcraft out of used food or paint cans. Looking forward to try out your approach on the next one I make as it solves grate and stands using simply what you already get from the 2 barrels. Also guess the turbine grate (lots of directed airflow, likely causing the air to create a small tornado inside the barrel ) and the burn chamber's upper rim tapered inwards like a jet exhaust will increase performance.
Just stumbled upon this. Great video, great design.
My family has always burned our flammable garbage as opposed to using trash pickup services. After becoming more environmentally conscious I have started eliminating as much plastics from that group as possible so that it's mostly paper and cardboard products.
Our setup is more of a pit, but now I am looking at this and am inspired to put the same technique to use on a bigger scale for a pit.
You can burn plastic clearly using a paint can with a hole on a top. Just feel it with something that isn't PVC and put inside your burning barrel
I wish I’d seen your tutorial earlier - had a bunch of old, but sensitive, documents to burn. I used the old gas grill my neighbor gave me; it eventually got the job done, but it wasn’t pretty.
Very well thought out, and well presented. Thanks for sharing
Ive put together my parts and tools… looking forward to putting this together this weekend! Thank you for the great video!
Primary ability of this gentleman is to be an ideal family person. Rest will follow. More and more happy days with your family sir!
I've done the same thing on a small scale with tin cans, with my son 'helping'. Then we'd have fun burning sticks and pine cones in them, watching the jets burn the smoke. Very nice job upsizing this to a piece of useful gear.
I built one similar it's like a jet engine dangerous heat invisible flames be very careful using one of these
I wonder if this thing “roars” like the wood gas/ hobo stove you build with the paint can.
Im going to build one of these, but i want to experiment with less holes at the top to see if i can get the “swirly flames” effect”. That would keep drunk people around the fire entertained.
@@tuloko16 you don't want drunk people around one of these! it's not someone might get hurt someone WILL get hurt ,BADLY. It will burn branches as fast as you can put them in there once it's going
I did this tin can thing too. You can get swirling flames by poking a screwdriver in the secondary air holes and jerking it sideways, all in the same direction, making rudimentary air scoops. This mixes the fuel and air more and causes an even cleaner combustion. And it looks cool 😉
@@andrebartels1690 how long will the tin cans last? Can you use them for smaller burns?
*I liked the way that you worked in the entire process. It was systemetic, organised and pre-planned. Enjoyed it. Loved it.*
Actually, everybody works but everyone does not do in proper way.
It is a great ideal and clear direction for a burn barrel. Your step-by-step is a skilled presentation. Thanks for sharing .
I love this! Been planning to make a burn barrel for ages. Even got two barrels ready + an ancient water heater chamber. But, could never quite figure out how to attack it. Seen the ones with angled holes/flaps for air intake, but they do not in reality work that great. Was thinking to make a top with an intake for air from an airblower for secondary combustion, but it all got to advanced in the end. So, actually, what i love the most about this, is that you managed to make a super advanced, high functioning design, but completely without involving more advanced techniques like welding etc. ANYONE can do this, with some time and patience, with completely ordinary tools.
Thanks for this. We burn yard waste in our rural town much of the summer...generating much smoke..NOT ANY LONGER! Thank you! Additionally one could make 3 of these (shorter) using two barrels much like you did and use them as fire pits.
Or, if you're just making a small fire pit, cut a single barrel in half and use those 2 halves to make it. I would think that would work as well.🤔
I got myself a barrel a couple of years ago that I meant to use as a burn barrel. When I picked it up I happened to get two of them. They’re still just sitting there, behind my barn. But NOW I know what I’ll use both of then for, and finally get me that burn barrel!
Thank you! 😁
Very good system. I used your video to make one. Finally, we were needing to use it due to bad weather preventing the trash service from pickup.
What we learned:
-the optimum amount of burned trash bags before emptying it out is six
-keep either a pit to dump the residual or heavy duty 55-gallon trash bags to contain the residual until normal trash pickup is resumed
-the long nosed grill lighters work well to get the fire going without accelerant
-bottles and metal objects will be left as residual, so make sure to wear good gloves when emptying it out
Thank you for the excellent design idea.
Four legs are better than 3. Look at the leg and vent panels before cutting. Number 18 for me ended on the seam. Best to over lap inner drum seam with area not cut. Think about it you’ll get it. After I made it I thought having two 3/8 x 4” bolts sticking out of the outer barrel close to the top would help move it to the location and aid if it ever needs moving. When this incinerator is running the flame can reach 3-4 feet above the can if loaded. Even with only 1 foot of burning material the barrel generates a lot of swirling air flow which throws a lot of 1/2” ash into the air. The burn is very complete and I do not notice hot embers but lots of floating ash, not an issue in a farm or backyard away from the house by say 50 plus feet. This is a fun project and personally rewarding to complete and watch it work. I used a carbide Lenox 1” hole saw with a paint cap of used oil to dip and drill, no pilot hole needed and it goes very fast no preplanned spacing needed other than line 1:5 & 3” guides. 1/2” starter holes and a Jig saw with a Bosch metal blade went through everything like butter well maybe a bit harder. A harbor Frieght rolling magnet was a incredible at clean up making life easy. Everything is razor sharp so his advice and directions will save a cut, I made out injury free. It was mentioned on another video post. You do not want to do this with a flannel shirt, the guy had to throw his away. All the cut metal especially from the grinder will stick to flannel. I used a welding jacket but any smooth long sleeve cotton should do fine. Polyester can melt from grinding sparks. When screwing the legs a quick trigger bar clamp is awesome. Enjoy your project, very rewarding.
very good points. do you know if you used the thinner type barrel? i know when i bought my barrewly i had the option of the thinner and thicker one. i got the thicker one and its been hell to cut with jig saw and step bit and bending the tabs inward for the inneer barrel by hand was not possible. i went thru 3 metal cut off wheels.
@@warrenpeas I used a standard DOT oil drum with bung holes. Which should be the thicker barrel. I used a Bosch metal blade, I have used cheaper blades and they dull very fast. I also poured oil in front of my blade. I did not use a step bit, I used a carbide tipped lenox 1” hole saw and dipped it in used oil before each hole. Oil really helps and expensive bits, so I use oil to give them longer life. Both tools are still good to go. I am impressed with the Bosch jig saw blade. Now the fins and legs I cut with a professional cut off disk on an angle grinder. It was worn down about 50%. No oil on the cutoff wheel. Best of luck. Lots of satisfaction when it’s finished.
@@mrfrankbosh im almost done. i just have the vent holes for the outter barrel and the vent disk that sits in the bottom. thanks
6 legs are better than 4 legs
@@Twichery ha ha ha yes they are already lost one leg. Thinking about a cast iron set of legs. I move my barrel often. Still the best burn barrel I have ever made. It is awesome to load and watch.
"We're building a burn barrel, not a clock."
My OCD doesn't care.
Wonderful video! Getting some Grant Thompson vibes (may he rest in peace) which is a good thing!
OCD is great in finish carpentry, but in backyard engineering it tends to slow progress. Trust me, I know from experience. I suffer from the perfectionism gene myself.
@@thomasarussellsr OCD doesn't care! LOL
@@rollingsteady3107 oh, I get it... I could spend a week building a burn barrel. The holes must be evenly spaced so that the fire-nado spins just perfectly.
"Don't drill in your hand" -- Man, you take all the fun out of this!!!
Been there … done that
LOL! I helped my brother detach his hand from a roofing job. Doggone that had to hurt. Oy.
😆😆😆😆😆
Excellent video. Clear instructions without the fluff. I got a little concerned when you were cutting towards
yourself with the jigsaw but no harm done. Respect.
You could always do all the drilling and cutting of your grate while before cutting it out of the barrel to be at chest height rather than working on the ground
And drill all those holes before making all the razor sharp teeth at the top.
..and not have to wrestle with it on the ground
Real Craftsmen always use a gnarled partial 4 x 2 placed on loose rocky soil as a preferred workbench. Makes for easy clean-up. . .
you must be vertically challenged if that barrel would be at 'chest height'
@@aaronfu2 to each their own
Very well done video and instructional commentary. Great project, I just completed my build and it works Great. Did a side by side test and it's quite impressive. The old barrel with just holes in the sides was still smoking and barely burning when this new smokeless barrel had finished burning. Thank you. I plan to add an ash catching tray under it.
"We're building a burn barrel, not a clock." That needs a t-shirt. Or a frame in my shop. :-)
What a well-designed improvement on a common yard item! Thanks for showing a way to make a difference.
You sir taught us how to build an item most of us didn't know of yet try to accomplish ourselves....but the message at your conclusion was an unexpected gem....god bless you n your family for the informative step by step instruction for a cleaner and efficient product that is two fold.....burns up all sorts of trash and avoid almost all immitted pollution into our air .... genius and impressive.....thank you sir.
You can use reflected heat to increase the combustion temperature of the smoke:
Make a lid - ideally conical - with central hole 1/9th the area of the combined ventilation holes. If you tab the lid's hole you can attach an old paint tin with its bottom cut off for a chimney. Why 1/9th? Fireplace chimneys used to be 1/9th of the area of the opening.
Wait...what? Oh wait, you are describing a simple woodstove. That is is something else entirely.
It should also be double-skinned for added heat. Hinged to flip open. 1/9 th of the opening might interfere with the flow of air too much.
yeah i agree adding a chimney would make this burn better with less smoke, however you would need something to allow you access to add wood while it burned
I built it according to your instructions and it is freaking amazing! After filling it up with smaller branches as well as larger pieces of wood it goes from being lit to a roaring fire within 3 minutes. Once it is going it draws in tons of fresh air and sounds like it has big fan or jet built in! At this point even wet/rotten wood is combusted instantly and what little smoke is produced stays clear. My only recommendation is to not use this in dry areas where a wildfire could break out easily as it can throw tons of embers that rain down depending on how hot it is burning and the type of wood used.
Overall 5/5 would highly recommend!
Having a fire in any sort of contraption or in the ground, where everything is dry around it is generally well-known. I hope.
@@philmccracken2012 Never, EVER rely on common sense. . .
Just ran across your channel and as a welder/fabricator for over 4 decades, although I am a bit of a perfectionist, I am impressed with what you've shared..I been wanting to put together a "burn barrel" and you've inspired me to finally put one together.
I will be trying a few different ideas and we'll see how mine turns out in comparison to yours..
Thumbs up, thanks for sharing and showing your cute kids..
Be well!
Razor!
Update?
Any progress?
Well? Are you ready to fab me one? I'll PayPal you, lol
@@jerrysolonsmith8471
Thanks for the offer Jerry...
But I haven't had time to make one for myself, so I went out a bought one...😳
I bet you have a plasma cutter which would make this job a snap.
Nice,
Gave me inspiration to make my own design. It is basically the same but I made 3 changes/additions:
1. Air regulation
To the bottom of the barrel I added a second layer, made out of the 2nd barrel top. The pattern of holes in both bottom layers are layed out in such a way that I can regulate the air inlet by shifting the top layer in relation to the bottom layer. I can operate the position of the top layer by folding out a piece of metal (made by one of the holes in the layer) through a slot I made into the barrel side
2. Leaving the rim intact
I removed the top of both barrels by grinding of the top op the rim until you touch on the welding seam between barrel and top.
It makes a nice and clean separation and you end up with two barrel tops and a rim on both sides of the barrel.
3. Stable barrel legs
I used the stroke metal that is cut out of te inner barrel to make 3 legs that are attached to the outer barrel. Makes it quite stable.
Tnx for the inspiration.
brdi
I'm a visual kid of guy have have trouble visualizing what you did. Is there a way I can get some pictures to show me how you did that?
@@Biglou13-z3pyes I can bur not now since im traveling around Europe. I’ll post some pictuelres when im back home
What an amazing instructional video. Simple tools and measurements. You’re a great Instructor! I have watched many videos but not 1 like this. Crystal clear instructions.👍
Love that you tell your kids that you love them so much!
One suggestion for the end of the vid would be a time lapse to show the wood piles getting smaller and how much faster your barrel burns.
Take care and much love.
Yah but where's da eco button, ain't we trying to ration da wood pile so as not to work to hard in 11' of snow ..
Ingenious idea. I recently fonud two two old barrels buried in the garden. They were s little bit rusty but this seems to be O.K. After breakfast I'll empty them and start to work.😁
Thank You for sharing your burn barrel design. It's different from all of the boring burn barrel videos that just drill several holes in one barrel. You take it to a higher level.
I built a burn barrel exactly to your video instructions, and I love how well it works. Not only is it smokeless, it burns materials faster and it doesn't have to be touched once it starts burning! I love it.
Thanks again for sharing your creativity and ingenuity with the rest of us TH-cam surfers!👍
Please any one tell me whether this burn barrel can be made an incinerator by adding it with petrol and compressed air because I am working on a petrol incinerator. By the way my name is Anil Kumar Singh and I am working in Indian Institute Of Technology Kanpur, India.
@@iitkaks6 I think that the barrel metal would be too thin for what you want to do. However, industrial compressor tanks could work, just find the people that install and work on compressors. 😊
Nice project! I made a much smaller version of this out of tins and used it to cook on during two weeks summer vacation. It worked incredibly well, not in the last place because the beach nearby was full of the tiny, super dry wood fragments that I could use to fuel it.
an idea. combine this smokeless design with a rocketstove design and you would have an excellent camping stove
Sir this is awesome, I am a retired gas and central heating engineer your amazing solution for your burn barrel is achieving the correct stoichiometric air to fuel ratio for a efficient burn.
It is a pleasure to see the level of craftsmanship shown. This will be my next project, thank you for sharing this knowledge.
I will almost definitely never build something like this in my life, but it was certainly very entertaining to watch
youll build something
My wife could do this if she Watched this Video, if I could stop her watching crap Soaps on the TV hahaha
Hi! Thanks for your video. I live in Norway and built the same after your instructions. Just added a fine mesh "chicken-mesh" on top of the "fan" in the bottom to prevent big chunks of coal to fall out. Burns really good and with a minimum of smoke.
What a swell idea. Love it. I have a favorite saying "why build something good, when you can build it perfect". Great job.👍
Thanks heaps for sharing! We live on a mountain property with endless brush and I built this to start tackling it before forest fire season. Seriously love burning this barrel! Only thing I'm looking into up grading is a different grate in the bottom. I got mine super hot and it has warped. Ace design cheers
We have a "secondary burn" wood stove of excellent design. Therefore, I would delight and benefit from an addendum video explaining the air flow design of this burn barrel. (And your charm shows through and sets a good example of a man.)
I absolutely LOVE it!! I've wanted one of these for years. My husband has made several wood gas stoves out of soup, coffee, paint cans. But could never convince him to make a ginormous one like this.
I can do it myself now.
Thank you kind Sir. 🙂
Yes, I agree with everyone's assessment below. Excellent instruction. I built one myself, works great!! Speaking of the "grate" in the bottom: I cut and bent my tabs the other way so that it would work with the direction the tabs of the inner barrel are bent.
Great how to video! Super clear hands on instruction! Nice to see a dad who loves his kids too! 👍
I think this is AWESOME!!
I will make one asap! The amount of time and inginnuity that you did, is appreciated greatly! Well done!
Pretty ingenious design. I might build one for my friend who has very messy trees that drop sticks and branches all the time. The smoke has always been an issue because the nearby fire department will come if they see even the slightest bit of smoke which is annoying to say the least. Also there’s a downdraft in the valley where he lives which makes the smoke linger Hopefully this should at least cut back on the smoke
my issue with stuff like that is the sparks and ash, I got a fierce fire going in a mesh burn box and it was like a rocket!
Thanks for wasting 26 mins of my life! LOL Incredible job of showing how to build this barrel. As other have commented (probably) -- your free-handing/eye balling lines is better than my "precision" measuring. You are truly a skilled craftsman. The narration was great and the video moved forward at a great pace. Also the overdubbing of the audio post-video allowed for a better listening experience. Thanks again for showing how to build a smokeless burn barrel.