Tapping a valve on a 55 gallon drum.

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-Steel-Weld-Bung-Fittings,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

Perhaps a barrel dolly where you can roll the barrel on its side and use the bung in the lid.

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.

Position the drum as this guy has done and it will gravity flow.
http://www.chdist.com/images/products/74-996_bk.jpg

Google Image Result for http://www.chdist.com/images/products/74-996_bk.jpg


Or use a granger valve, it looks like they use the 3/4 hole for the valve and the 2 inch hole for the vent.
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/drum-accessories/drums/material-handling/ecatalog/N-9rm?op=search

Recovry4x4 said:

Perhaps a barrel dolly where you can roll the barrel on its side and use the bung in the lid.

Click to expand...

I have a drum and just drilled a hole in the bottom for a drain, and welded in a pipe......

the same thing for the heater elements

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.

It was late and I'm sorry I didn't clarify...

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.

-Chuck

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

Looks like a black pipe coupling would work, too. Just go to your favorite hardware store and pick up whatever size you need. Then, cut a hole and weld it in. Remember: Safety First!

Yohan,

I looked at using a weld in bung on my barrel, but instead chose a 2" pipe section (saved 1 part). I cut a hole with my torch about 3- 5" up from the bottom of the barrel, and welded the pipe section in. I chose the 2" pipe, because it let me put in a heating element also (have not used it yet).

My first barrel had a sealed lid, but last week I picked up 7 new barrels with removable tops for $15 ea. So I will be making a new barrel with a removable top (so I can get in and clean the barrel occasionally).

I also picked up 2 ea, 275 gallon totes ($100 ea) to store trans fluid in. I will be dropping one off at a transmission shop and switching out when its gets full.

Laterrrrr
Avn-Tech

Here is another thing I have done with barrels to transfer fuel, this may or may not work for your needs.

Without cutting a hole or welding in anything just using the two threaded bungs at the top of the drum.

I used air pressure run through a regulator on the 3/4 inch bung to leave 2-3 PSI into the drum and push the fuel out of the 2 inch bung.

Here are two pics of what the setup looks like.

Thank you all for the input. A man was killed at my old job when the barrel blwe up that he was using as a work bench to weld or cut on. I would never be that dumb, but I understand you only know me as Yohan, the person who types stuff on SS. I could be a real moron and some have told me they are sure of it!

I like that huge barrel rack, too!

I like big racks too!

Huge racks... I better not say what I'm thinking!

Bunkerbuilder, I don't even have an air compressor, but I like that idea.

Bunkerbuilder said:

Here is another thing I have done with barrels to transfer fuel, this may or may not work for your needs.

Without cutting a hole or welding in anything just using the two threaded bungs at the top of the drum.

I used air pressure run through a regulator on the 3/4 inch bung to leave 2-3 PSI into the drum and push the fuel out of the 2 inch bung.

Here are two pics of what the setup looks like.

Click to expand...

Yohan said:

Thank you all for the input. A man was killed at my old job when the barrel blwe up that he was using as a work bench to weld or cut on. I would never be that dumb, but I understand you only know me as Yohan, the person who types stuff on SS. I could be a real moron and some have told me they are sure of it!

I like that huge barrel rack, too!

Click to expand...

These warnings aren't judgments about your intelligence, or competence. They are just gentle reminders to think. We all need a regular dose of those sorts of reminders... because, well we forget sometimes.

These reminders also serve to remind the reminder to remember to think too.

The sad results of accidents while working on this kind of stuff are too demoralizing to contemplate.

-Chuck

Big racks, small racks.........it really doesn't matter.........they're still made up of BOOBS!!!!
Sorry......couldn't resist......