35 or 55 gal dust bin? Steel or fiber?

[Hoang N Nguyen]

No problem flipping the filled steel 55 up and over and dumping in a bag?? Take video because I am not buying that.

I use a 55 steel and I just take the whole can to the dump spot. I have a 3320 Deere with a loader though and roll the can to the door on a drum mobile base. If I did not have that I would use a drum dolly.

You don't have to buy because I'm not selling. Like I said, it's all about how you handle it. Once you throw the bag over the drum and tip the drum over, half the contents would have already been dumped into the bag, this transfers a lot of the weight from the drum. After that, you can easily hug the drum and lift it up to dump the rest into the bag. The whole thing filled can't be more than 70-80 pounds including the drum. Just because I'm a small guy doesn't mean I have to be a wimp.

[Jim Becker]

...while I do feel the fiber drum would work fine, I also feel the steel drum will last a lot longer. .

My fiber drum from Oneida was purchased in 2004 and still going strong...

[mark mcfarlane]

Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences. Looks like the fiber drums have held up well. Oneida lists 29.5 lbs for the 55 gal steel drum, 23.4 lbs for the 35 gallon steel drum, and I couldn't find weights for the fiber drums, but I suspect they are about 30-40 percent lighter. The steel gauge must not be your standard industrial steel drum, which I think are closer to 50-60#.

50 pounds for a full 55 gallon bag of sawdust sounds like a bit beyond what I want to be hefting out of a 50 gallon drum in 10 years, at 70.

It seems like many of you aren't putting bags into the drums, but rather dumping the drums out into bags? Is that to save $ on the type of bag you use, or because of not wanting to deal with bag holding jigs or vacuum lines to keep the bags from collapsing under suction,...

[Andy Giddings]

In my case its the latter, don't want to deal with bag holding jigs or whatever to maintain a seal. Getting the dust turned out into a plastic sack is not that difficult. Like you though, at 70 I'll probably empty it more frequently to avoid the weight (8 years for me :-))

[glenn bradley]

Another non-bagger here. I am sure it depends on how you have to dump the spoil. I am dust sensitive so I put on a respirator and roll my bin out of the shop through the side door. The trash cans are right outside the door. Flip the lid open on the green barrel and dump 'er in.

Now, if I had to haul the spoil off to some other area or carry it through the house or something, bags would make perfect sense. With my (accidental) setup they are just one more thing to fuss with that I don't need.

In my fantasy-future I live where I can vent outdoors

[James Gunning]

I didn't want to rig up a vacuum system to hold a bag in place. It seemed too easy to just dump the chips into an inexpensive lawn trash bag. The local trash collection here hauls them away every Wednesday.

[Jebediah Eckert]

I went with the 55 gallon steel drum with a bag hold down from Oneida. I initially was going to dump into a bag and haul out. It just seemed you would be putting more fines in the air doing it that way vs the hold down.

[James Gunning]

When I dump the bin, it does put some fines into the air. However, it's dumped outside the shop and allowing for the wind direction, nothing gets to my lungs or back inside my garage shop. I can see how some shops would require the dumping to be inside. In that case, just closing up a bag and pulling it out of the bin would probably be preferable.

[Marty Schlosser]

Mark,

On my Oneida cyclone I've got their 35 gallong fiber bin and it's easy enough for me to lift. I can't imagine what it'd be like to try wielding the 55 gallon beast, and ex\specially if it was metal.

[Al Launier]

At the suggestion of a SMC member I tried using a HD 40 gal plastic trash bag inside the original HF collection bag & I'll go back to emptying the HF bag into the trash bag as I did before. Removing the bag from inside the HF bag was a major nuisance & very messy. On the other hand, removing the HF bag when 1/2-2/3 full, placing a large trash bag over it, turning everything upside down & then slowly withdrawing the HF bag from the trash bag & then tying off the trash bag is much easier & cleaner.
Yet, I'm still thinking of usinga trash barrel lined with a HD plastice bag that is sealed to the HF DC. Then I could pull the barrel out, tie off the bag & dispose of it. I just haven't gotten there yet. Still looking for a good fitting (sized for the HF DC), light weight barrel. Perhaps one of these days???

[Martin Wasner]

Why not a plastic drum? I use them for garbage and wood scraps at the shop. Find a dairy farmer, they usually buy teat dip, and well treatments in 55 gallon plastic drums, and have no use for them once empty.

I don't know how much lighter they'd be, but certainly the most durable option.

[Bud Millis]

Mark,

If your going to dump it outside like I do (compost and/or garden) go with the 55 gal fiber drum. I have a HF hand truck that I take the barrel from the shop to the garden/compost area and dump it. I also have a steel 55 gal drum - that's a handful by itself. If your in the city, take the chips to the dump, or have someone picking them up then a trash bag inside the drum (either) is good. Or you can dump it from the fiber drum into a trash bag. It all depends on your health, convenience factor and what your doing with the chips. A guy I know does it the last way for a guy that comes by and takes the chips for a farm.

Also another thing you should consider is what kind of work do you do - hobbyist who may only generate a shop vacs worth of chips in a week or a production person like me that will dump a 55 gal drum 1-4 times a day.

As we say in the off roading community, "Go big or go home!"

[Craig White]

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I went with 55 gallon fiber drum as well. Wish it emptied into two of them. In hindsight, a steel drum may have been safer from a spark/fire.
Craig