Does anyone know of a source for 55-gallon metal drums, ideally used,
preferably cheap?  A friend and I are looking for one for a sculpture project.
Where should we look?  Who might we ask?

24 responses total.

Ask a hobo.

Perhaps at the Ann Arbor Re-Use center, on S. Industrial?

I had that same question back in '99. (except they didn't have to be used.)
I have seen 55 gallon drums in private hands, used in such things as floating
docks, duck blinds, etc. But to this day I have never seen a single one for
sale to the public.

#1> Ask a propmaster for a film about hobos.

Apparently people are switching to plastic.  You can get plastic 55
gallon barrels for free in washtenaw county -- see
        http://www.co.washtenaw.mi.us/depts/eis/eisexch.htm
The main problem with empty oil barrels is that the EPA (and others)
will be quite vigilant about them -- that whole pollution thing.  You
might be better off with a new/never used one, or one previous used for
food grade stuff.  For metal, an additional complication is that if they
can't be reused as a container, they contain sufficient metal to be
valuable to scrap metal dealers.  There is definitely a salvage industry
centered about these in any case.  A web search, or perhaps the yellow
pages, might be your best bet.

If you're looking for stuff for sculpture, you might be best off
visiting several junk yards, and reviewing what's available, then using
that to guide your sculpture process -- there might be something even
better suited for your purposes than 55 gallon barrels.

There's a guy over on 38th here in Kalamazoo County that sells them...

Perhaps a chemical supply company, or a gas/oil wholesaler?  Hey, try a 
farm-supply store--if they didn't have some, I'd bet they'd know where 
to get one. 

(oh, and they're generally referred to as "burn barrels", out here in 
farm country)

Out in the boonies, people buy perforated steel barrels to use for
burning trash; they are called "burn barrels".  If you can use a
perforated barrel, there you are.  If you need one intact, you could
ask a retailer who makes them and ask the mfgr for an intact one.

I'll bet you could go to just about any working farm and get some.  
Also, auto shops and oil change places, I believe, buy their oil in 
barrels.  I don't know if they need them for anything.

Again, because of EPA regs and the retained value of the used
barrel (which is reprocessed and reused over and over until it
is scrapped) you might find that the cost is not exactly cheap.
As I recall there is a 'core' charge or diposit on them paid 
for by the purchaser of bulk petro for example.  Here in 
chicagoland there is a multimillion$US business in the west
side that all it does is reprocess used barrels for re-use.
(They are in big doodoo with the city gov for a number of
reasons.  Also I seems to recall they are charged by feds
with using petro barrels for subsequent food use.)

They are tracked. It is not surprising they aren't readily available
in the retail market. But then, neither are pallets. They are industrial
commodities, so not often available for home use (though some, shall
we say, are "liberated" by those that have access to them).

re#11: Indeed as are even wooden pallets.  There are shops that
specialize in repairing wooden pallets.  (I know from
pallets, one of my first jobs in the 70s was computerizing
a wooden pallet factory - raw wood 'cants' in and finished
pallets out - even tracked and sold the sawdust.  All to 
be run by semi-literate and illiterate workers.  (know what
a board foot is?)  Prior to my system going online 'waste'
(wood unaccounted for) was estimated to be 10%.  First months
of production under initial system measured actual waste at
about 30%.  By the time I left waste was measured at 1-2%.
All in PL/I.)

It depends on the use of those wooden pallets.  Big computers often come
on small wooden pallets that are "disposable" - compared to the value of
the computer the pallets are almost free, & customers don't necessarily
want to be bothered figuring out how to recycle them, & they aren't in
any case necessarily freed up right away.  Low volume, expensive item,
radial delivery pattern.  I can see where a grocery store or a warehouse
might well think of pallets in a completely different light.

yeah, those get thrown in the dumpster and then in major cities
a street person comes along, dives, and delivers them to the
'pallet remanufacturer' -typically a vacant lot where a higher
level street person sets up shop.  Many of them gradually make
their way back into circulation believe it or not - I can show
you two that I know of on the west side where you will see folk
delivering on shopping carts.  Think of it as 'ecology in action'.
The only thing green about the street bum besides his underwear is
the money he wants to make.

Several of them made their way into my basement.  A^2 apparently hasn't
got an active pallet recycling program, or they're slow enough that I
managed to intercept them first.

Fingerle Lumber leaves pallets alongside the street for people to take
away.  Just north of the Hill & Fifth intersection, across the tracks from
Potter's Guild.

It's like when one tries to go buy some of those plastic milk crates 
and then finds that they just arent available in the retail market. 

Kiwanis tends to have lots of them.

I bought some plastic milk crate type crates at Meijers.  They come in 
a variety of colors, and cost $3.  They're a little flimsier 
than "real" milk crates, but that was all right with me.

I think it's kinda neat that the county is giving the blue plastic barrels
away for free.

Store-bought "milk crates" are generally more stackable than real milk crates,
though the real thing stacks fairly well anyway.

real milk crates are much stronger than the kind in the stores which 
may or may not be important. 

That's very true.

Real milk crates are just a bit too small to hold records easily.  Of course
that's not quite as much of an issue as it used to be. ;)
Nice thing about the fake milk cartons is that they often have little slots
for hanging file folders.

Yup

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