Plastic Barrel

[epic]

I have a ~40 gallon plastic barrel that could be great as a preseparator.  The question is how to fit a Thien baffle lid in/on it.  As you can see in the attached picture the top opening (~16") is smaller than where the actual baffle would sit (~20"), therefore getting the baffle in the barrel would be difficult, if not impossible.

Two possible solutions to this:
1) Make a lid/baffle like normal but use a piano style hinge to make the baffle foldable. Problems: Finding a way to assemble it once the baffle is inside the container and possible air resistance from the hinge itself (unknown).  Also cleaning out the barrel could be troublesome.
2) Make a lid/baffle that sat on top, as opposed to inside, the barrel.  Problems: No idea what type of material could be used to make the curved part of the lid.

Is this container going to work or should I keep looking for something else?   :'(

[bennybmn]

I would make a whole lid/baffle cylindrical assembly to sit on top, AND make a side inlet to it, cut out a couple curves in the process.  1/8" hardboard is flexible enough to make that curve I think...

[Jim_L]

I picked up a plastic barrel from work (about 25 gal) that had straight sides up to within 3 inches of the top.  I thought I would saw it off at the top and have a nice straight sided barrel.  I cut it and then found the top went from a circle to an (racetrack) oval.  Turns out the sides varied in thickness with 2 opposite sides 3/8" thick and the other 2 at 90 deg were about 3/16" or less.  Well the thick sides went straight and the thin bent.   Seems that heavy/curved top 3 inches was for a purpose. So much for blow molded drums, and back to working with a 30 gal steel Hydraulic oil barrel.  Lesson learned. 

[epic]

Bennybmn: Thanks for the input.  I'm still debating whether it is worth the work!

Jim_L: Thanks for sharing your experience.  I was thinking it might be worthwhile to cut off that heavy/curved top 3 inches to make it easier to fit the baffle.  Needless to say this won't be happening now.   :o

[Bob Wolfe]

I'm in a similar situation, I have a (basically straight side) poly barrel but the top is reduced around 2".  I cut out the circle for the baffle just small enough to fit inside the barrel opening, but then when I removed the material for the drop slot, it just seems like has too much space between the barrel wall and the baffle for it to be effective.  Any thoughts or ideas are welcome.  Thanks

Bob

[dabullseye]

make the uncut section adjustable