How big is a 5 gallon drum

[mseries]

Hi
I have been reading as much as I can on this forum because I am thinking of building some kind of separator. I shall be using a vacuum cleaner for my sucker and IIRC I read that other users have had success with vacs using 5 gallon drums as their cylinder. My question is this, just what dimensions are the 5 gallon drums that people talk about. I know that US gallons are different to Imperial gallons that we use in the UK and a conversion gave me 18.93litres. Is the volume of the contain important, I suspect the diameter at the top is the most important variable when it comes to avoiding by pass, so what is the diameter of the fabled 5 gallon drum that people use ?

[alan m]

the 5 gallon (same gallon as you ) drums we have in ireland are usually small oil drums or greese drums. from memory i think they are around 14-15 inchs . the diameter is the most important thing. if your using a vac fro the sucker then 5 gallons should be loads. just remember to empty it. i have a plastic barrel that i used for a seperater for my festool ct22. it is a top inlet design. the barrel came from a neighbour that works in a pharmacutical factory nearby . they just dump the barrels so she brings them home (with permision ) anyway it holds probably 7 gallons. you wouldnt want any more in it anyway or moving it would be a pain.

[Bulldog8]

The dimensions will vary somewhat, but basically 11.75" D x 14.50 tall. Check out USplastics.com under the bucket tab and you will see some of the variants.

Steve

[mseries]

thanks all