J. Phil Thien's Projects

It's been awhile since I have been on the site but I came across an interesting source for 55 gal drums that may help out members looking for such a thing. We were doing some home improvements and when we were looking at insulation we decided to go with Icynene foam. Once they showed up at our house yesterday I noticed that the materials were stored in 55 gal drums that looked like they have a banded top where you release the band and the comlete top comes off instead of a sealed two bung style top. So I talked to the guy that runs the company and he said that they do not disppose of the barrels but give them away to people that ask. The other thing I found out is that the barrels that the foam material come in can be lightly cleaned with no leftover residue and they are perfectly reusable for anything and even have a liner in them sprayed by the manufacturer. The other barrels for the hardener are not as useful so we are going to use one as a burn barrel. So if you want a hopefully cheap local source for barrels look in the phonebook under insulation and see if you have an Icynene installer nearby and he may just give you some barrels for free. Just thought I would share this in the hopes that it helps someone else out.   ;D

I was able to score a free plastic barrel with a removable lid and a locking ring. I know that it will generate a static charge when used but I had an idea for grounding it and wanted to run it by the forum. My shop vac has a two prong plug but the extension cord is a three prong with ground. So if I was ground the barrel to the unused ground wire on the extension cord would I be tempting the electrical gods to fry me and my equipment or do you think it would work?