# Forum Home Renovation Metalwork & Welding  Will these be any good for firebuckets?

## PlatypusGardens

Picked up these old tubs earlier    
Good size, about 5-fiddy across.
Cut one up and put some legs on it already to see how it would look...pretty good...  
Just wondering about the coating....seems to be enamel 
What's gonna happen there when it heats up? 
I seem to recall someone saying it'll shoot off in little shards.
Is that correct?   :Confused:

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## webtubbs

Yeah, old washing machine tubs. We used to hit them with rocks as kids to make the cool cracked pattern in the enamel on the outside. Not sure how they go in a fire though - don't think I've ever seen one used as a fire bucket.

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## PlatypusGardens

I might give one a testrun here before I put them up for sale   :Unsure:  
The coating is rock hard....almost impossible to grind off 
The bottom was fairly rusted out on this one so cut it out and stuck a razorcut blade on there with legs on it.   :Smilie:

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## webtubbs

Looks pretty good! Be interesting to see how it handles the heat. 
Yeah, pretty much have to use a hammer to get that coating off. Pretty sure its the old enamel though. 
How did you attach the blade to the drum?

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## PlatypusGardens

Yeh been talking to a couple of people and they reckon no worries.
One bloke mentioned the enamel cookware, like camping gear etc.
But that might be different enamel....and if there's a bit of rust in places it might pop from the heat..?   

> How did you attach the blade to the drum?

   
Would be better to have the legs on the drum as the blade warped, of course, which made the legs move and now it wobbles hehe. 
but it was just a test run, so.... 
Can always adjust the length of the legs to make it flush again

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## OBBob

Maybe you'll have to season them all in your backyard before selling them.  :Biggrin:

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## phild01

> lenght

  ....hmmm :Cool:

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## PlatypusGardens

> ....hmmm

  
Fixed

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## OBBob

> ....hmmm

  I still read it as length... your mind is wonderful in this respect.

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## PlatypusGardens

> I still read it as length... your mind is wonderful in this respect.

  
There's that thing going around the interwebz... A couple of sentences where all the words have the correct first and last letter but the ones in between are jumbled.
The brain still works it out.   :Smilie:

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## phild01

> I still read it as length... your mind is wonderful in this respect.

  #8 http://www.renovateforum.com/f209/br...advice-117653/

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## phild01

> There's that thing going around the interwebz... A couple of sentences where all the words have the correct first and last letter but the ones in between are jumbled.
> The brain still works it out.

  True, remember taht one!

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## OBBob

> #8 http://www.renovateforum.com/f209/br...advice-117653/

  Ha ha

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## PlatypusGardens

We used to get endless phonecalls from people thinking we were a local tyre shop. 
One day I looked up their number.
First 4 digits the same, while the last 4 digits were the same as well but with the middle two swapped around.    :Wink:

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## PlatypusGardens

> Ha ha

  
Haah

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## phild01

> Haah

  Ha ah :Cool:

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## OBBob

Hmm

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## Bros

What are you going to do with them?

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## PlatypusGardens

> What are you going to do with them?

  
Hello and welcome to the forum.   :Smilie:  
I'm PlatypusGardens, I make things from metal and sell them at the local markets.
Check out my other threads in the welding section    :Rofl:

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## Bros

> I'm PlatypusGardens, I make things from metal and sell them at the local markets.
> Check out my other threads in the welding section

  Well there you go I never expected that.  
Now for the real question who in Mackay would buy fire buckets as I would think that akin to selling refrigerators to Eskimos.

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## OBBob

Bahahaha... welcome Bros ...

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## PlatypusGardens

> Now for the real question who in Mackay would buy fire buckets as I would think that akin to selling refrigerators to Eskimos.

  
we have fires here at least once a week.
All year around. 
lots of people buy these things for camping etc.
(I pity the fool who goes camping and doesn't have a fire )  
I've lost count how many I've sold at the markets and when I don't have them for sale people are always asking if I will be making some soon.
Two of these are already pre-ordered. 
Fire is an important and essential thing for a lot of people regardless of the temperature.
Just sit further back   :Smilie:

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## Bros

Have you thought about making these. Popular with caravanners and campers as they collapse down and fit into a milk crate. I built a couple for people.

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## Marc

> #8 http://www.renovateforum.com/f209/br...advice-117653/

   Ha ha, missed that one. 
In German all Nouns are capitalised so if you write the Bench in my Boat is made of Timber that is how you write it ...  :Smilie:

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## PlatypusGardens

> Have you thought about making these. Popular with caravanners and campers as they collapse down and fit into a milk crate. I built a couple for people.

  
Saw someone selling similar setups a while back at the markets,
Kinda like the OzPig. 
Potbelly black too. 
Forget what they were charging....not a lot from memory....
(they hadn't made them though, they were in branded boxes.)
Too much work making something like that. 
Takes long enough to cut those pump tanks up and weld legs on them....
Even longer once you start fiddling around with doors and hinges and latches etc...  
People like the open ones though.
They're more interested in the bigger ones too, which is why I'm hoping these tubs are gonna be ok.

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## Bros

Different to Ozpigs in they are vertical and can fit into a milk crate. As for selling at a market when you take the cost of you would be working for next to nothing.

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## PlatypusGardens

> Different to Ozpigs in they are vertical and can fit into a milk crate.

   ah yeah true...still similar     

> As for selling at a market when you take the cost of you would be working for next to nothing.

  
Eggsacktly 
Most of the stuff I do is bugger all material wise, and it works out a pretty good $/hour for the most part.
What I lose on some things I make up on others.   :Smilie:  
And the stuff I do spend a bit more time on I enjoy doing for the challenge and seeing my idea materialising. 
Even if some things just end up looking rubbish.....but those ones get cut up and altered.
Not many things get completely scrapped.

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## Bros

How much do you sell them for?

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## PlatypusGardens

Firebuckets $40-$60 depending on size

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## PlatypusGardens

I would probably get $80 for those big ones if I put a fire grate in them

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## PlatypusGardens

They're very basic and simple but most people don't have the tools or motivation to build one themself 
Or they wouldn't know where to get the materials from... 
dunno.  
they sell anyway   :Smilie:

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## Bros

As long as they sell but add up the time taken to make them the going to get the raw materials the cost to make a $40 you would proberbly working for $15 an hour but the plus side it goes in the hip pocket.  
I was recently at a market with my young granddaughter who wanted to buy her mother a present for Christmas. We found a stall selling tubes to put plastic bags in made from a tea towel with all frills sewn on it for $5. I thought it hardly worth making but if it was any more people wouldn't buy them.

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## PlatypusGardens

Well if you worry about every minute of every day plus fuel plus welding wire this that and the other you may as well just lay in the hammock all day and do nothing haha. 
Like I said, most of these materials cost me somewhere between nothing and bugger all.
I'm always out and about driving around whether I'm working or just looking for stuff.
When I'm not working I'm in the shed making things.   :Smilie:

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## Marc

A truckie that lives nearby put 4 brake drums on the footpath in the hope someone would take them. They are massive from a very big prime mover. Would make a very good firebox for a very large forge ... or ... a fire bucket.

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## PlatypusGardens

I made up a second one of these.
As I welded legs etc on it, the enamel was popping off the inside of the drum. 
Hmm

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## boyracer

> A truckie that lives nearby put 4 brake drums on the footpath in the hope someone would take them. They are massive from a very big prime mover. Would make a very good firebox for a very large forge ... or ... a fire bucket.

   Used to have one as a fire bucket, about 70-80cms across.. Once it was hot everyone started moving further and further away from the heat it stored and radiated. Still there?

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