Burn Barrel/Cage

[Rich Riddle]

As winter fades, I am going to burn a lot of my limbs this year. While looking at the DR Mower Burn Cage and reading reviews it became apparent it's quite minimal material and warps/rusts easily. That's surprising since they claim it's made of stainless steel. Any of you have ideas for a burn barrel? I will not pay $500 plus for a flimsy cage that rusts just like old barrels one can get for $25.

[Myk Rian]

Just get a steel drum and whack some holes in it.

[Tom M King]

I keep a pretty big burn pile. It's just a pile. I try to wait for a good snow to start before I light it, but last time the pile was nice and dry with a couple of days rain coming, so I started it right as it began raining. It was pretty amazing to see flames 30 feet high in a pouring rain.

edited to add: I did forget that I had an excavator work on it for a while soon before we lit it. We had a hurricane come through the Fall before, and I let people who lived close by bring their tree limbs if they helped pay for the equipment to push the pile up.

[roger wiegand]

What are these for? I've done thousands of burn piles over the decades and never felt a need for a container for them-- cutting stuff to fit into some kind of container would seem to be a real PITA. What is the benefit?

[Mike Wilkins]

When I was a kid we lived on a 30 acre farm and had a 55 gallon drum to take care of our garbage. It was my job to operate this 'high-tech' incenerator, and the drum never seemed to wear out. Maybe the steel back in the 60's was a lot more sturdy.
Now to the present; I live in a moderate subdivision, not in the city limits of any of the 2 local towns, so there is no burn ban. I wish there was, as it is not very pleasant trying to enjoy the outdoors on a nice weekend then the neighbor is taking care of his waste. And the winds are not always favorable.

[Ken Massingale]

Just get a steel drum and whack some holes in it.

+ infinity!
$450 for a dang thing to burn trash in?????

[Rich Riddle]

It is for burning branches/bushes. As far as cutting goes, in the past they were all cut to fit inside a chipper which is option 2. One doesn't seem any worse than the other as far as cutting something to size. An open burn area would have lots of floating ash.

[Jerome Stanek]

It is for burning branches/bushes. As far as cutting goes, in the past they were all cut to fit inside a chipper which is option 2. One doesn't seem any worse than the other as far as cutting something to size. An open burn area would have lots of floating ash.


Why would there be more ash floating from open burning than a fire place or fire pit. Branches and brush burn pretty clean without floating ash.

[Myk Rian]

When I was a kid we used wire trash burners. 4" squares in the wire.
It was all a lot of fun until a can of beans exploded in one of our roaring fires.

[Rich Riddle]

Why would there be more ash floating from open burning than a fire place or fire pit. Branches and brush burn pretty clean without floating ash.
Not sure if honey suckle qualifies as brush, but most of it will be honey suckle. The wife calls it honey suckle hill. I guess if it was a small area that would be fine. Hard to find a time when the wind subsides though. I had planned on placing a top on the burn barrel to control the ash.

[Mike Lassiter]

If you get a steel barrel, try to get one that had antifreeze originally, the barrel is made from thicker steel and much heavier. My old boss gave me one from work when I wanted to make a burning barrel for new place we moved to. Barrel was noticeably heavier than one that motor oil came out of. It's still sitting in my back yard - now for 18 years. I haven't burnt in it in several years, but it still is holding up well.

[Kevin Bourque]

I burn my trash here on the farm.
I used to buy galvanized burn barrels from the hardware store for $40 which lasted maybe a year before they totally burned through and fell apart.
2 years ago I bought a 55 gallon drum on craigslist for $20. I put a few holes in it and it works great.
No signs of burn through or rust at all!