Make A Paper Incincerator Or Charcoal Barbecue From A Garbage Can

You can make your own inexpensive paper incinerator to burn sensitive papers. Burning is faster than shredding, and you do not have the frustration of clearing paper jams out of your shredder. You just need to be careful not to singe your fingers or your hair, nor burn your house down.

The same set up can be altered slightly whenever you want to barbecue.

Incinerator and BBQ Grill

TOOLS AND SUPPLIES

You will need a metal garbage can, electric drill, drill bits, one-half inch hole saw to fit your drill, tin snips, hack saw, pliers, measuring tape, metal rod, one or two round barbecue grills, coffee can, one or more lids from 29 oz aluminum cans (approximately), tongs, poker, charcoal.

CONSTRUCTION

I used a twenty gallon metal garbage can because I could not find a smaller can at the time.  As you can see in the image, there are air intake holes between the “ash box”, at the bottom of the can, and the metal support rods that are placed at about the middle of the can. A barbecue grill sits on top of the two support rods. You might do without the support rods because the grill goes only so far into the tapered can. But the rods provide extra stability.

The larger feeder hole is above the grill. The optional cover for the feeder hole is a coffee can lid attached with a small metal screw. The lid is raised or lowered by turning it. Use the tongs for turning the lid, since it gets quite hot. Most of the time the lid is raised. Update: the lid eventually fell off during burning; a small bolt would be better.

The chimney is an aluminum coffee can with the ends removed. A small grill or metal mesh is placed on top of the chimney to catch small paper embers. Large can lids can be placed under the coffee can to adjust the size of the chimney hole. The chimney hole is cut into the garbage can lid at a smaller diameter than the coffee can.

I cut the feeder and chimney holes with tin snips. Then I used pliers to turn the feeder hole edges towards the inside of the can to avoid scratches and cuts when feeding paper through the hole.

The air intake holes can be cut with a one - half inch hole saw attached to an electric drill. As you can see in the image, my holes are not placed evenly. I do not have the strength to hold the hole saw in one place, so I take what I can get. It's not pretty, but it works.

The one - half inch diameter hole pictured above the feeder hole was for occasional air intake from an air compressor. However, it is not needed for burning paper. (It was recommended for burning garbage, to keep the heat high enough to avoid smoke and incomplete burning.)

Drill small holes to hold the metal support rods. I used welding rods. They can be cut to size easily with a hacksaw.

For storage, the chimney, poker, tongs, and other accessories are placed inside the incinerator.

PAPER INCINERATOR OPERATION

You will need a slower burning fuel, such as charcoal, to keep the fire going. It is difficult to feed the paper quickly enough to keep the fire burning without the extra fuel. Once you have the charcoal burning, you can feed wads or twists of paper into the fire.

Depending on where your incinerator is located, you may want to reduce the feed of paper to avoid flames above the chimney. It is best to use the incinerator on level ground or concrete, in an open area with at least ten feet of cleared space around the incinerator. If the incinerator is on the ground, make sure no vegetation is in that ten - feet area. Have a water hose at the ready for fire suppression.

You can sit on a stool or patio chair to feed the paper into the incinerator.

BBQ OPERATION

Use two grills for the barbecue option. The lower grill holds the charcoal and optional lava rocks, the upper grill holds the food. You can choose how far apart you want the food grill from the charcoal grill. The food grill will need to be a larger dimension than the charcoal grill because of the tapered shape of the garbage can.

This set up cooks nicely. The charcoal is less subject to going cold from too much wind, yet there is plenty of air intake. With a large heat chamber, the food cooks nicely.

SMOKER

I am testing the use of a smoker chimney. I used a large nail to hammer holes in the bottom of a coffee can. This is still being tested, so I will have to update here with the results later. The two grills will have to be farther apart, or the fire source will have to be in the bottom of the garbage can, since the purpose is to smoke, rather than heat the food.

LINKS

The best of the blogs I have read about making your own paper incinerator are:

http://www.ehow.com/how_10026435_build-incinerator-burn-paper-documents.html

http://www.instructables.com/id/Barrel-Incinerator/

http://diydiva.net/2012/04/burn-baby-burn/

So far I have not found much on making your own barbecue grill. At least not the way I made it.

Laundry Without The Electric Washer

Hand Washed Laundry:  Exercise Regimen Without The Gym Fees

I recently read we should get a minimum of 150 minutes of physical activity per week.  I'm not sure what level of activity that means.  But I know I need more exercise.  I think I have found a good way, for me at least, to get close to that 150 minutes.

My thirty-five year old washing machine needs new bearings.  I tried to get my son to repair it.  He did some research, but did not think he was up to the job.  So I suggested we hand wash for awhile, thinking that would give him a push.  No, he has decided that his hand-washed clothes are cleaner, so he's perfectly happy washing his own clothes manually.  We have been hand washing for a year now.

Now, if one is going to be serious about hand-washed laundry, one needs some equipment.  I already knew about using a clean toilet plunger on clothes in a bathtub.  That will do in a pinch, but it is not very efficient.

I did some research and chose what I thought would work best for our purposes.  I wanted physical exercise and minimum repair problems, so I chose basic tools for the most part.  However, these basic tools work better than some of the hand-operated laundry machines on the market.  If you want to use a good quality, hand-operated washing machine, check out Lehman's.


Equipment stacked for storage.  On the left is the salad spinner.

My manual laundry equipment includes:  mop pails; a five-gallon bucket; two large laundry buckets; a plastic utility bin; two toilet plungers with  eight holes drilled in each plunger for water flow (this makes the plungers push through the water more easily); a  Lehman's Breathing Hand Washer; short and long handles for the plungers and Breathing Hand Washer; two folding, wood drying racks; removable clotheslines that hook to the posts on my back porch; a utility sink on the back porch; and a commercial, five-gallon salad spinner I bought on eBay to spin dry the clothes.  (The hand crank spinner works beautifully.)

I sometimes have three small buckets in various states of wash sitting in my bathtub while I plunge the clothes clean.  Very dirty items are washed in the utility sink.  I use a water hose with the utility sink, and the drain lets water out to wash the patio floor.  In Arizona, tap water is never truly cold, so this works.

Now for the exercise.  Most clothes take a plunging for ten minutes, an optional soak for a few minutes, then two rinses that involve some plunging.  This, with the hand cranking of the spinner, provide plenty of exercise for out-of-shape me.

Add vinegar to the last rinse to neutralize the detergent/bleach, and to soften your clothes.

I can plunge two small loads at the same time,

so I can wash, spin dry, and hang on the line, three loads of wash in ninety minutes.  Out of that ninety minutes I get about twenty-five minutes of exercise, the rest is just "physical activity."  Mid-week I wash one or two smaller loads, so that's a few more minutes towards my 150.

I'm not getting the washer repaired for awhile.  This is my new anti-aging regimen.

Five-gallon salad spinner spin dries clothes.

The clothes need to be balanced in the spinner.





A plastic utility bin with lid removed is good for over-sized, heavy loads.  I have to empty it with a pail.




Removable clothesline on the back patio.

If you do not like the look of a clothesline, you can make a removeable clothesline.  If you are short on space, the shower stall or bathtub can be used for drying clothes on a rack.  

The hand washer's parts.

Lehman's Breathing Hand Washer.  A must have for large loads.

Toilet Plungers Drilled for Water Flow.

The red plunger wore out quickly.  The gray plunger has lasted for a year, so far.

If you do not have a drill, try a hand cranked augur.  The holes need to be round, with no corners where cracks can form.

Utility Sink

The Utility Sink

The rope loop in the image above, has been replaced with a S hook to hold the water hose while  using the utility sink.   The CAL Ranch Store is a good source for  hooks of all kinds.  Also, they have large wash tubs, five-gallon buckets, and mop pails.

I added a twelve inch drain pipe to the utility sink.  The water drains onto the cement, helping to clean the patio and  water the lawn.

This was a very inexpensive sink.  I  had to add screws and braces to the legs.   The braces are PVC or similar pipe.  Some braces are screwed into the legs.  The cross braces are not.

I found several types of utility sinks at Sutherlands, which is no longer in business.   Lowe's, or Home Depot have them or can order them.  Sinks can also be ordered from Lehman's and Ace Hardware..

A Faux Turquoise Painted Concrete Floor

Part Seven About Painting Concrete Floors

This floor is reminiscent of a turquoise and copper gem stone.

The Finished Floor

The border between hall and bedroom, placed so the blue is flush with the door when the door is closed.

The floor after two coats of  Sherwin Williams Floor and Porch Enamel.

The floor after adding paint highlights, glitter, and two top coats of  Interior/Exterior Acrylic Satin H&C Concrete Sealer, Wet Look Water Based, from Sherwin Williams.

Copper glitter scattered while rolling on the Interior/Exterior Acrylic Satin H&C Concrete Sealer, Wet Look Water Based.  It is reminiscent of natural turquoise and copper.

The glitter is subtle, but glints in the light.  It took some trial and error to get the glitter to show up in the image.

For more about the process see my previous posts, Prepping the Floor, and Painting a Concrete Floor.

More About Using Tools On The Floor

Part Six About Painting Concrete Floors

Prepping and painting a concrete floor:  some of the tools in use.

A list of tools and supplies can be found at the Supply List.

For the first post in this series see Protecting A Concrete Floor.

I used the pole sander on the bedroom floor, without using the belt sander this time.   The pole sander worked well for the smaller floor space in sanding down carpet glue, concrete, and patches.

After replacing the folding closet doors with sliding doors, there were large holes to patch in the floor.  The door hardware was well anchored.  The wall also needs patching with tape and joint compound.

The acid brush used to scrub the floor with TSP or dish soap.  For the bedroom I tried dish soap.  I do not think it cleaned as well as the TSP I used in the living room.

This brush will be a great back saver to use on the shower floor later.

My rag mop; my old standby when all other mops fail.   It works well to clean up the concrete.

Worn out sheets, dish towels, and t-shirts make good mop rags.  Use a non-nap fabric on the outside of the mop for less lint on the floor.  Nappy fabric, like terry cloth towels, can be used in the inner layers.  Cotton works best, but cotton blends are o.k.  Synthetics do not hold water well enough.

Masking of the border between the hall floor paint and the bedroom floor.  Use a ruler to draw a straight line.

Masked door and walls.  I re-used the paper I had used in the living room.

Paint roller, rags, and paper floor protection under the paint supplies.  The floor has been painted around the perimeter and the outside edge of the paint has been feathered.

Paint edging tool.  It is hand-held and intended for walls, but it works great on the floor.  Be sure to feather out the outer edge.

For images of the finished floor go to A Faux Turquoise Painted Concrete Floor.

For more about the process see my previous posts, Prepping the Floor, and Painting a Concrete Floor.

A Painted Concrete Floor: Pictures

Part Five About Painting Concrete Floors

The following are pictures of the living room concrete floor.  The concrete floor was painted with two coats of Sherwin Williams Floor and Porch Enamel, Interior/Exterior Acrylic Satin, then sealed with a clear top coat of H&C Concrete Sealer, Wet Look Water Based, available at Sherwin Williams.  The decorative paint was also Sherwin Williams Floor and Porch Enamel, Interior/Exterior Acrylic Satin.

Living room floor paint.

The orange paint was rolled directly on the brown base coat.  This makes the orange faint except when in sun light.  I like the effect.  It has different tones throughout the living room, as you can see in the images above and below.

With acrylic top coat.

Orange, red, and yellow paints tend to be faint without a white undercoat.  The semi-transparent effect of these tints can be used to good effect.

Paint only.  Satin sheen.

The above image shows the paint without the clear top coat.

With acrylic top coat.

Two coats of clear top coat change the appearance of the floor.

With acrylic top coat.  The camera angle  and exposure are deliberate to show the flaws in the floor.

You can see the difference between the paint sheen and the top coat shine.  As you can see in the above image, the extra shine reveals the flaws in the floor.  You can see where I patched a very long crack in the concrete, which I suspect runs through nearly the whole length of the house.  Once the furniture was returned to the room, the flaws became less noticeable.

To get a brighter orange, first paint a white undercoat.  After that has dried, paint over the white with orange.  I wish I had painted more patterns into the koi and less gold.  But my back was not sorry at all.

All the shades of color were mixed using brown, orange, blue, and white floor enamel.

As I mentioned in another post, I wanted to do a better job with the koi, but my aging back and knees forced me to finish the job as quickly as possible.

For information on how the floor was prepared and painted, you may see my earlier posts.  The first post in this series is Protecting A Concrete Floor.

Painting the Concrete Floor: The Living Room

Part Four About Painting Concrete Floors

Painting the Base Coats

Tape a paper barrier around the walls.  Now you are ready to paint.  Paint with an edging tool around the perimeter of the floor. Use a paint roller with an extension pole to paint the rest of the floor.  Use the same technique as you would to roll paint on a wall.  When the first coat has dried, paint the second coat. Follow the manufacturer's instructions for the drying time and the right tools to use.

The enamel dried quickly in our high elevation, summer Arizona heat.  I walked on it barefoot within two hours.  I waited for the instructed three to four hours before applying the second coat.  There were no noticeable odors with the windows open.  Some odor was noticed in the closets, of course.

The painting went quickly.  Since I was painting the living room and the hall, we had unusual exit plans.  My son hopped from his room to the master bedroom, stepped out of the low window, then entered the window in the dining room to step on the couch.  From the couch, he could step on the piano bench and finally enter the kitchen.  I reversed the process to reach the back of the house, but I'm considerably older so it was more of an adventure.

Two coats of brown floor enamel without top coat.

Now for the fun.

Decorative Painting

I decided to paint koi ponds on the floor.  Not an original idea, but I had some fun with it.  The ponds are not as detailed as I would have liked.  But my aging back and knees complained loudly and long while I was painting.  I was forced to do a less than optimal job as a result.

Mixing colors using white, blue, orange, brown.

I bought light brown for the base coat, and a quart each of white, dark blue, and orange floor enamel. These were mixed for the colors I needed to paint the koi ponds. I had light and dark grays, greens, blues, and greenish browns from these four colors.

Paper fish to lay out the design.

Large areas of a single color can be rolled on. Smaller areas require small brushes or artist brushes.   Artist brushes can be found at Walmart or Hobby Lobby.

For your design, lay out rolls of newsprint on the floor, taped together to make the size of the pond or other object you want to paint on the floor. Sketch the outlines on the paper. Cut out your biggest shape, see how it looks, cut, tape, cut, tape, till you get what you want. Then position it on the floor until it is where you like it.  Use a pencil to trace around the large shape.

After rolling on the background paint, other large shapes, such as koi in the pond, are cut out of newsprint and laid on the background to decide where to position them. The paper objects can be flipped and reused in different positions

Working on a sponge shape.

Sponge Painting

I wanted to sponge - paint maple leaves in an arc around my living room, as if leaves had blown in and scattered through the back door.  I thought a sponge would be the quickest way to do this.

Look for a sponge with small holes. Large holes will leave globs of paint. Use a sponge as is, or cut it into shapes.   The sponges I had did not quite work for this.  So I tried a stencil.

Stenciling

You can cut your own stencil from cereal box cardboard. It won't last too long, and you will have to keep cleaning the edges with a paper towel, but it works. Use a small roller, a brush, or a sponge to apply the paint. Your stencil will dry to use again later, provided it's not warped too badly.  I extended the borders of my stencil by taping newsprint around the edges.  This helped to keep paint from sliding off the edges of the stencil and onto the floor.

Do not go for a highly detailed stencil unless you want to use an art brush and spend way too much time in a back breaking position.

Cardboard and paper stencil.

Clear Acrylic Top Coat and Sealer

The floor is easier to clean if the sealer is used as a clear top coat. It protects the paint underneath from wear for a longer period.   Apply it with a brush around the edge of the floor, then use a roller for the rest of the floor.

At first I did not like the extra shine. It showed up every flaw in the floor, and I expected it would be more slippery. But I wanted a good seal against dog urine, as well as a protective coat over the koi ponds I had painted. If it were not for that, I would have preferred the satin sheen of the base paint.  However, a year later, the shine looks good.

One coat is supposed to be enough. But I had trouble seeing where I had applied the sealer. It goes on slightly milky, but I could barely see that. I kept stepping in it, which is dangerous. When wet, it is treacherously slippery.  Since I couldn't see it well, there were bare spots to go back and patch up. I added a second coat in part to make sure all spots were covered.   It should be noted that my vision is not that good.

Glitter

While I was rolling on the first top coat I stopped to sprinkle copper glitter on each section I had just rolled. I sprinkled an extra fine glitter out of a salt shaker, sometimes in a circular pattern, sometimes just broadcasting it. At times, because of some dampness, the glitter came out in clumps. I just took whatever I got.

Glitter and stenciled leaf.

I tried rolling over the glitter but it did not pick up on the roller and move around. It pretty much stayed put. I had rolled the top coat over the koi ponds first, to avoid rolling glitter onto the ponds. I rolled the second top coat over the glitter.

As the top coat and glitter wear off, I can reapply both glitter and top coat as needed.

Whether or not the glitter reacts with the acrylic and the sun to change color remains to be seen.  A year later the glitter still looks good.  If I had it do over, I would use a coarser glitter to show up more.  I purchased the glitter in the craft section at Walmart.

Design Ideas

If you are interested in ponds and other floor painting ideas, there are some great images if you search the internet.  Several of the paint manufacturers have floor painting images as well.  Dyes; these images can be somewhat adapted to paint.  Concrete floor pictures has some great looking designs.  For more design links you may go to to my post, Protect Concrete Floor From Dog Urine.

Update:  One bedroom floor is done.  For a few details and images, go to A Faux Torquoise Floor.   Three more rooms to go.  I'll keep you posted on what I learn.

Next post:  Pictures of the finished floor.

Before Painting: Concrete Floor Prep

Part Three About Painting Concrete Floors

Before you can paint, you need to prepare the floor properly so the paint will adhere to the floor. These instructions are for indoor living spaces, they are not adequate for a garage or workshop.

First move the furniture out of the room so you will have ample space to work on the floor.

A) Pull up carpet and padding. While pulling it up, cut the carpet into strips of a size you can handle. Roll up the strips of carpet and duct tape the roll to make it easier to haul to the dump.

Pry up the carpet tack strips with a small nail puller or a hammer claw.  Pull out carpet nails with the same tools.

Sweep and mop often between each of these steps.

Carpet adhesive and plaster - filled nail holes.

B) Clean up and then patch nail holes and cracks with pre-mixed concrete patch. Some mixes work better for holes, some are better for tiny cracks. Use epoxy crack filler for larger cracks. The epoxy will stretch as the crack widens, so your paint will last longer before a crack shows through. If I had it to do again, I would finish the concrete patches over large nail holes with a topping of epoxy for a smoother finish.

Some older nail holes from a previous carpet installation had been filled with white plaster.  I chiseled and wire brushed the plaster out of the holes.  Then I filled the holes with concrete patch.

Just mopped.  Cracks have been patched.

 While the patches are drying:

C) Remove the carpet adhesive. Apparently, different solvents and methods work for fairly new, still sticky carpet glue than works for old, dry, hard carpet glue.  For new, sticky carpet glue visit http://www.vintagerevivals.com/2013/06/how-to-paint-concrete-plus-my-secret.html 

Removing old carpet glue: I tried all kinds of things.  A number of solvents are supposed to remove all the glue, but none of those I tried were effective, and the odors aren't so great inside the house, even with plenty of ventilation.  Of these, acrylic paint thinner, which contained xylol, worked fairly well.

Better than the rest, with less odor, and no skin irritation, was the regular Krud Kutter for cleaning and degreasing.  Don't use the Krud Kutter glue remover if you want to put a transparent finish on your concrete. That stuff stains the concrete and does not do any better job.  Also the greasy stain might cause a problem with adhesion of the paint.

Once the Krud Kutter has worked for a minute or so, you still have to scrape the glue off the floor. Use a floor scraping tool. I was loaned a tool that looks like an over size wood chisel, with a 2 inch wide blade and about 1 1/5 ft. long. It stayed sharp and had the right length to get good leverage for scraping off glue and paint.  (Paint came off like a charm after the Krud Kutter had worked on it.)

It is important to have a real floor scraper, because it will hold it's sharpness better than a hoe or a wood chisel.

If linoleum adhesive is all over the floor, use a long handled floor scraper, which looks like a straight hoe, to scrape adhesive off the floor.

The carpet glue has seeped into the pores of the concrete, so you will not get it all off. You will have to scrape and then sand it down as far as possible.  The scuffing of the sandpaper will help the new paint to adhere to the remaining glue.

In searching for something to get the epoxy out of the pores I learned that one can burn off epoxy, which burns at a far lower temperature than provided by a small propane torch, but I found it extremely time consuming to burn just a small amount.  ( Note: I read that burning super glue releases cyanide gas, not good!)

D) Sanding the floor: You can use a pole sander with 80 grit paper. It saves the back.  You also want to sand the whole floor to open up the pores and avoid acid etching.  That is, unless you enjoy the hazards and fumes of acid and are applying an acid etch stain.  In my opinion, those stains are best applied on a garage floor or outdoors.

For the living room, I used a belt sander with a light touch. 80 grit sandpaper will sand those patches smooth and sand the strips of glue, as well as scuff up the whole floor. If you have the physical strength and the money to throw around, you can rent a floor sander. But I like the quick results I get with a belt sander. I bought a cheap sander, under $60. I figured if it lasted long enough to sand the floor, it was good.  The draw back is a back ache while using the belt sander.  One also has to be careful not to over-sand with a belt sander.

Use a block sander, pole sander, or orbital sander in the corners where the belt sander can't reach. Use ear protection, safety glasses, and a good dust mask or respirator. Where possible, stuff rags around doors to keep dust out of other rooms.  Keep your sensitive electronics away from the dust.

E) Sweep and mop yet again. Now it is time to use TSP.  Use the small amount recommended on the package, mixed with water.  Use an “acid brush” on a long handle to scrub the soap or TSP into the floor. Then mop it up. You will have to mop and mop and mop. A Depression Era rag mop is really useful.

Some people say dish soap does the job on a living room floor, since there are no automotive greases in the concrete.  I tried dish soap on a bedroom floor.  I think I prefer TSP.  It seems to do a better job of cleaning, which is important if the paint is going to adhere.

I mopped for an hour or two each evening for a week until the water was as clear as it could get.  A year later, the paint is holding up well.  However, I do not have small children running through the house.

Next post:  Painting the Floor