Neighbor used to build a lot of 'em, trained me how to do it. He had a stroke and fell on the ice, is laid up now after hip replacement surgery. Get a 500-gallon fuel barrel. These are about 4-ft across and around 6-feet long. Cut one end completely off, stand it up. Cut 3 holes measuring 1inch by 3 inches in the sides about halfway up. The door is about 22 inches square. A smokestack is made that's about 2 feet long, goes on top with an 8-flange (smokestack is from old auger tube, it's about 1/8" thick. about 3 or 4 links of chain are welded on top 2 different places. Door is reinforced all the way around with straps, with an extra strap in the middle. Door hinges are made by welding on a couple rods and using a tiny metal pipe that just fits over the rod like a sleeve, the straps are welded on directly. Door catch is just a scrap piece of iron with a notch cut in it. Door latch is just a thin bar. Another rod is tack-welded onto this bar for a handle. A single screw/bolt is used to hold the door latch/handle on. You do separate burnables and tin cans of course, but trash in this can be burnt even in high winds. Trash burns slowly but completely, and it never gets hot enough to hurt the barrel. The ashes seem to just disappear with time - people have owned his barrels for 8 years and never had to dump it - but the chains on top make it easy to pick up with a loader if you needed to. With a plasma cutter and wire welder, it took us around 4 or 5 hours to do it all. Might take a little longer if you're using a cutting torch. I'll take a few pictures and post them later.
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