For those unfamiliar, it's basically a barrel stove wrapped in an insulated jacket with a blower to move heat into the house. I was doing my routine maintenance and replacing gaskets. The barrel seemed plenty solid all over even after a number of years use. That is, until I took the smoke stack adapter off and found that the barrel rusted through underneath it. That's the only rust through. Now, I have to decide. Should I have a metal plate welded over the rusted out area or should I get a new barrel that will have to be cut and refitted and the paint burned off? I have to wonder if I can get as heavy gauge of a barrel since the used ones they sell at Rural King seem rather light. Anyone have suggestions?
Is this a 55 gal drum stove? If it is, I'd hit up some industrial areas, they would have heavier drums.
Tractor maintenance shops (like John Deere dealerships) purchase lots of hydraulic oil in very heavy steel drums with closed tops. They love to give them away.
Welcome aboard Snerdguy Although we sold our little piece of property in the Catskills a few years ago, we had a 33 gallon drum stove in the tiny cabin for just shy of 35 years. Look to see if you can find a stainless steel drum and you’ll be set for many years to come. I don’t know how well welds will hold up if decide to revamp your current setup. If it were me in your shoes and the only option was to keep and repair, I’d have a piece of 1/4” steel rolled to match drum shape and use a ceramic fiber blanket gasket, bolted thru with stainless hardware.
Heck, even scavenging a chunk of another drum skin would work. And it’s already the correct curvature. If the collar is still intact and sound, it would bolt thru the repair piece, which as I said above would be bolted to the drum, with a gasket.
BrianK has played with a lot of barrels. I'll give him a call and see where he got his. They were nice and the sides were not ribbed.
I simply found “straight sided 55 gallon barrels” on a regional Craigslist search app I use called CPlusforCraigslist. I set it up to search statewide areas. Most of the guys I found selling them were picking them up in lots from manufacturing facilities then reselling them online. Mine were used for silicone based clear lubricant and I picked them up used once from a local reseller. The nice thing about the straight sided barrels is they were several gauges thicker than ribbed barrels. That said, it sounds like your original barrel is still pretty much intact, so I’d agree with the recommendations above to just find a similar barrel, cutt out the section needed, line it with come thin ceramic blanket (to make it relatively air tight) and bolt it in place through the original barrel with good quality stainless bolts and nuts.
I'd recommend regular bolts over SS. SS will gall from heat and not come apart anyhow. Save the cash and use Elcheapo hardware
You too! Not around the forum much any more with my duties here in Massachusetts but TurboDiesel sent me a text with a link to this thread. Thanks Tim! Spent an awesome day riding in the Berkshire mountains of Massachusetts today, almost 5 hours on the bike. Beautiful weather, already feels like fall, my favorite time of the year to ride.
A coat of anti-seize will solve that...especially nickel anti-seize...it has a ~2500*F temp rating (which is 2-300* more than "standard" AS) once coated they will easily come apart in the future. All the internal firebox metal and fasteners on the Kuuma furnaces are stainless...when doing my summer inspection I can often spin the bolts/nuts apart by hand after broke loose with a wrench.
