Thread: Quick Safety help please!!!

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Hey!
My hubs and I are wanting to create a cotton candy "stirrer" and I was wondering how to safely cut the lid off of our oil drum....it's brand new and never been used, but we don't want metal shavings around anywhere...is there a way to somehow "pop" it off? thanks!

Is this a oil drum with the lid that is sealed and only has 1 opening ? Picture is worth 1000 words. I used a sawzaw on one I had and then a grinder it took a while not an easy job then I got smart and bought the plastic ones.

yeah, it is one of those...the sealed with the individual bung...not sure where to get the plastic ones? sorry I don't have a pic yet, we haven't purchased it because we weren't sure if we were going to be able to easily take the lid off sorry!

If I had a cutting torch I would use that to get the top off those things are heavy gauge steel not easy to cut through ! You can use the pipe insulation to go around the top to "pad" it and prevent cuts etc. Best of of luck with your project

They do actually have a "giant can opener" for that, called a drum deheader. If you know anyone who works in a place where they use barrels a lot, they might have one you can use if you bring the barrel in. Otherwise call around. I have no clue just what industry would be most likely to have one of these, though.

Hopefully "never been used" means "I bought it from a retail company and not some random guy on Craigslist selling "new clean drums"". If the second part is closer to the truth, the standard caveat of "if you do anything that causes sparks (not necessarily power tools, just scraping metal together can do it) there's a chance you'll set off a giant vapor bomb in the process and become the next graveyard prop"

nope, it's brand new from a well known supplier we wanted clean because we don't want any nasty residues on props we may use again and again
thanks everyone for the advice! we may just try and find a good sturdy black garbage bin now though! haha