UDS burn out concern

[paul58]

I got myself used oil drum. Burned it out twice. I used some pallets and random lumber for burn out. Then I realized that I burned some pressure treated lumber. Is it possible that pressure treated chemicals baked in to my drum? Is there a way to clean it out?

 

[daveomak]

Residue from the PT lumber will be in the ash..... Soap and water and a good scrub or two, will remove the ash.... Then I would re burn the barrel... and scrub again... Then oil the inside of the barrel with cooking spray and do a medium heat seasoning at ~300-350 degrees so the oil cooks but does not burn and caramelizes on the inside of the drum... probably 2-3 times to seal the drum well... It will be important to NOT burn off the sealing oil in future cooks... keep the temps under 325-350 in the future... After each cook you can re-spray the inside of the drum for additional seasoning....

 

[crankybuzzard]

Residue from the PT lumber will be in the ash..... Soap and water and a good scrub or two, will remove the ash.... Then I would re burn the barrel... and scrub again... Then oil the inside of the barrel with cooking spray and do a medium heat seasoning at ~300-350 degrees so the oil cooks but does not burn and caramelizes on the inside of the drum... probably 2-3 times to seal the drum well... It will be important to NOT burn off the sealing oil in future cooks... keep the temps under 325-350 in the future... After each cook you can re-spray the inside of the drum for additional seasoning....

Ol Dave knows his stuff!

Follow his advice and you're good!

 

[paul58]

Residue from the PT lumber will be in the ash..... Soap and water and a good scrub or two, will remove the ash.... Then I would re burn the barrel... and scrub again... Then oil the inside of the barrel with cooking spray and do a medium heat seasoning at ~300-350 degrees so the oil cooks but does not burn and caramelizes on the inside of the drum... probably 2-3 times to seal the drum well... It will be important to NOT burn off the sealing oil in future cooks... keep the temps under 325-350 in the future... After each cook you can re-spray the inside of the drum for additional seasoning....

What you think about wire wheeling it instead of washing and re burn?

 

[daveomak]

Dump out the ash.... wear a respirator... then rinse and wire wheel... Personally, I wouldn't worry about wire wheeling the inside after the burnout... except maybe to remove the loose stuff... the stuff that is attached has been cooked and any volatiles are gone... the oil bake will seal up what's left, if done correctly..

Cooking in a drum isn't much different than cooking over an open campfire.... sitting on the dirt that who knows what has been dumped there... after the first hour or two of the fire, the ground is "sterile" and volatiles are gone.... and you will always be cooking at a lower temperature than the burn out occurred at....

 

[paul58]

It is unlined drum so probably unnecessary to wire wheel it. Re burn to sanitize? Read some info on arsenic, bad stuff. But then the air we breathe is filled with all kinds of chemicals. So maybe we need chemicals nowadays.

 

[crankybuzzard]

It is unlined drum so probably unnecessary to wire wheel it. Re burn to sanitize? Read some info on arsenic, bad stuff. But then the air we breathe is filled with all kinds of chemicals. So maybe we need chemicals nowadays.

Where does arsenic come into play here?  Arsenic hasn't been used in pressure treated lumber since 2004. So, unless you burned some wood that's been hanging around for 10+ years, you should be fine.

Rinse it out really well, fill it with some known good hardwood like oak, start a fire, burn the crap out of it, then when cool, dump the ashes, wipe out the interior, spray it down with Pam, start a small fire in it to season.

 

[paul58]

Few boards of old fence, that's what got me started in the first place. Read bunch of people use pallets, which is probably bad too.

 

[crankybuzzard]

Few boards of old fence, that's what got me started in the first place. Read bunch of people use pallets, which is probably bad too.

I'd be more concerned over pallet usage.  I've seen some nasty stuff spilled on them over the years...

 

[paul58]

 
I'd be more concerned over pallet usage.  I've seen some nasty stuff spilled on them over the years...

Very true. As pallets are reused over and over. Could have been some serious chemicals spilled on them. Seems to me that some UDS builders spend too much time on the outside of the drum and not enough on the inside. And inside is what you should really worry about.