Does anyone have any suggestions on how I should attach ball valves to my 55 gallon drums for WMO cleaning? Is it as simple as cutting a hole and threading a valve in, or should I weld it? The barrel walls don't seem thick enough to make a solid hold on a valve that is just screwed in.
Pictures of your set-up and any links to specific parts or descriptions would be a huge help. TIA!
Sounds like you are talking about metal barrels. The plastic ones have 2" plastic plugs that have knockouts for a spiggot to thread into. Maybe you could try to see if one of those would thread in your metal barrel. .02
Many supply stores have weldable, pipe thread bungs to create the threaded opening you need. Make a hole in the drum where you want it, weld in the bung and thread in your valve. Here is an example of 1/2" and 3/4" bungs: http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Female...tings,991.html
Also, I have seen 2 part compression bungs, which use a compression gasket trapped between the inside and outside bung parts for sealing. I think they are for plastic barrels.
Rick
Last edited by rchalmers3; 01-02-2010 at 00:07.
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55 Gallon drums usually have 1, 2 inch threaded hole and 1, 3/4 inch threaded hole.
The threaded holes in the drums are pipe thread but most I have used are not standard tapered pipe thread they are what’s called straight thread.
They have the same thread count that NPT has but don’t have any taper to the thread to seal instead they use a gasket on the outside of the plug to seal the contents of the drum.
You can use NPT in a pinch in straight threaded holes but not the other way around usually. The tapered (NPT) threaded pipe, valves etc aren’t going to seal real well but finding a straight pipe threaded valve is nest to imposable from what I have seen.
Find a 2 inch male threaded valve and use the 3/4 threaded hole in the drum as a vent.
I have a hand pump that fits the 2' thread hole on top...don't really need it any longer, if interested PM me for details...used it for an engine pre-oiler experiment.
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It will be a metal drum, standing upright with the valve near the bottom. I read someone's post where they have two valves; one closest to the bottom to drain off sludge, the other a little higher up to get the cleaner oil.
Thank you for all of the replies. I will do some investigating. I have a small welder now and can get something to work!
Be sure that nothing flammable, or explosive, was ever stored in the barrel before you weld it! More than a few welders met their maker by striking an arc on a fuel drum. Washing it out with water isn't good enough.
If the drum is a former fuel drum... no matter how long ago... you need to fill it with CO2 while you are welding. There used to be lots of advice about using car exhaust, it won't work, so don't try! Because of air dilution exhaust systems, modern cars don't necessarily have a high enough percentage of CO2 in their exhaust to guarantee non combustion.
If you check around you can find drums with threaded plugs on the bottom, otherwise I concur with Stumps if you don't have prior knowledge of what the drum was used for don't weld on it.
Use a barrel dolly that can be layed horizontally, Drum Truck, Dispenser, 1000 Lb Cap, 55 Gal - Drum Hand Trucks - Carts and Trucks - Material Handling : Grainger Industrial Supply
otherwise if you lay a 55gallon drum on it's side you should still be able to get 40+ gallons in it. We made frames out of angle iron to hold multiple drums on their sides.
We've used pipe fittings on our drums with teflon tape with minumal leakage, if you have enough fittings you could run two drums next to each other and coneect them up to double your capacity
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Tapping a valve on a 55 gallon drum.
