Scored me a couple barrels..Question about the lids??

I was able to find a guy with some food grade (tomato paste) 55 gal. barrels for $10/each. I mean he had a pile of them all in very good condition. Only problem is the lids he had aren't for the barrels and are too big; therefore, just sit across the top. I'm not certain they are going to seal without some mods. Anyone have any ideas? I had thought of setting a couple of bricks on top in hopes that it would weigh it down enough to seal. Should I even try that or scrap the lids and pick up a kettle lid? I measured the outside of the rim and it is 22 1/4". Will a weber kettle lid fit that?

I went ahead and burnt them out today as they appeared to have some kind of primer on the inside. Maybe it wasn't, but it was a reddish brown color on the inside so to be on the safe side I built a fire in them. I'm getting my materials list together now so hopefully by this weekend I will be smokin' on the UDS.

Weber lid fits many drums. I had to bend the lower flange of my lid out just a touch.

nice set up

At $10 a drum, you can make nice flat top lids like this. Take the top part or bottom of a donor drum and weld a piece of round bar to it then a piece of flat stock outside of that for the lip and your set. It fits, I have not found a weber lid to fit mine. Some others have found they fit and some other have not.

sampson said:

You know several months ago someone else had a problem with his lid fitting so he just made one out of plywood, it doesn't get hot enough at the top to burn and so what if it needs replaced now and then. If I remember right he just cut a circle of plywood slightly larger than the drum and another that mounted to the bottom of that which was slightly smaller than the lip of the drum and then held it down with some springs or bungies or something...

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I could do the same thing with the lids I have. They overhang enough to put a couple eye bolts across from each other and strap it down. Thanks for all the ideas. That gives me something to work with.