The above is a fair example, if I do say so myself. The purpose was to build a garden composter. These things can be purchased, but tend to the pricey. We wanted one that would be sufficiently high capacity, allow tumbling, and high up in the air for easy unloading into a wheelbarrow.
This picture illustrates some of the pros and cons this project revealed about building things out of plastic barrels. The original idea was to use an old-fashioned steel 55 gallon drum, but the plastic ones are more available. Also, the steel drums tend to be used for more toxic liquids, like petroleum products and solvents. This barrel previously contained a cleaner for food preparation equipment.
PROS: This kind of plastic cuts easily with a sabre saw. It's easy to drill with spade bits or regular drill bits. The material doesn't melt or gum up your bit or blade. It will take self-tapping wood screws and seems to hold them fairly well so far. I did find it a lot easier to drive screws when there was a very small guide hole than trying to use the screw to drill its own hole.
CONS: The only major complaint so far is that this material gets awfully flimsy once you start cutting out pieces of it. I had intended to use plunger locks to keep this closed, but the door was so flex-y that they didn't hold the door closed. The chest hasps shown here do a better job of holding the door in place and preventing it from opening when the tumbler is rotated door-side down. The extra holes around the hasps are from where I had previously mounted the plunger locks. This picture also shows how warped the plastic has become - the door and the hole it was cut from obviously do not match up very well any more.
Baby Jane inspected the garden. Both she and it are growing dramatically now. She looks dubious about the Contraption.
The Homestead Fam: Adrianna, Jane, Byron, and Charlotte the Fearsome Wonder-Dog.
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