Barrel clean out question

[boone0]

Hey everyone, I am looking to build my first UDS I found a free barrel that used to house acrylic laqeur. It is unlined, had some rusty buildup in the bottom but was in decent shape. Here is my plan:

1. Apply brake/wheel cleaner from car wash, power wash off (done). Looking at the MSDS for what was in it, it listed 10% sodium hydroxide as a chemical it had poor resistance to, so I figured that would be a decent cleaner. I mixed that up, scrubbed the sides, and let it sit in the bottom for about a half hour.

2. Lit a couple chimneys of charcoal, laid the drum on its side, and spread the coals out. Rotated every 15 minutes of so to expose the whole barrel to heat. I can't do a large burn where I live so this is the best way I could think to burn out any residue. This is in progress now.

3. Rinse out and see what's left. I will wire wheel out any heavy buildup, rinse, then scrub out with mineral spirits. Power wash that out, coat inside with oil, then dry and paint the outside.

4. One seasoning smoke without food.

The temp of the barrel was 375-400f the whole time as measured by laser thermometer. Does this seem good enough? I am on a strict budget but I want to make sure I have a clean, safe barrel at the end.

Thanks in advance!

 

[bmaddox]

I personally would have stayed away from using any chemical cleaners and relied on the burn out to get rid of any residue. Fortunately it looks like the cleaners you use are flammable so the burn out would have gotten rid of them. I used brillo pads and soap for a final cleaning on mine to get rid of any remaining residue then I seasoned for 3-4 hours making sure it stayed around 300 the whole time. 

 

[boone0]

Well i got a little uneasy about it, not sure my method was hot enough. Going to clean out the ashes, get some laquer thinner to soak in the bottom in case therr is any laquer remaining in the rolled edges, clean out with water, then burn out with a HF propane torch.