DIY Dilettante: 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.