Aesop wrote:I'm just trying to get my head around why anyone would want to be using plastic drums and the cheapest ways out to store something with more destructive force in vapor form than many purpose-built explosive devices.
If someone wants to to take the prudent step of storing fuel, and be equally prudent in purchasing the transfer and storage particulars, rock on.
If you're going to do it half-assed, I think the appropriate advice is "Suture self".
There are any number of commercial enterprises, including Northen Tools, who sell proper equipment for moving, storing, and transfering fuel, drums, etc. I would avail myself of their products before trying to do things on the cheap, but mainly because I know the price of large-scale skin grafts at the burn unit.
Also, in my experience, most gas stations have no frickin' idea what you're pumping gas into, provided their product is paid for, and don't tend to slither out from behind the registers long enough to have anything to say, but I'm in a busy urban area with clerks looking like they'd need help to spell GED, let alone in English. Mayhap the hired help in rural areas are bigger busybodies more conversant in DOT and Hazmat regs, so adjust your actions accordingly.
Perhaps one of the reasons I ask the question.
The plastic or the steel drums, if properly sealed / vented are not significantly different then the dot containers.
3/8 in plastic / 1/8 in of steel vs 1/4 in of steel /aluminum is not the issue, proper venting and fume removal is the key to not making a bomb. Well that coupled with proper grounding.
In other words, if they go bang, the container construction will have no meaningful difference in explosive containment between the options.
I see no difference other than venting between the options. Please help me understand where I am wrong.
