Winter Grease Collection

[Brendan C]

My friend and I just finished assembling two new collection barrels. Luckily for me, he is one heck of a welder and has the nicest home machine shops I've seen. Check out the photos. The welds are a mix of MIG and TIG. I opted to go with the propane torch idea to heat up the grease for winter month collection. We welded 3/4" through wall fittings into the barrel to attach the valves to and used 2" black steel pipe to create the inverted "V" heat exchanger pipe. I like HarryN's idea of using my cars exhaust to heat the barrel. I'll post again if I end up trying that idea out. I appreciate all the feedback everyone has posted here. A sucker tank would be great but I just don't have the space to haul one around with me. Maybe I'll set one up sometime in the future.

[FrenchFry]

I like it. Nice work.

Can you lock those valves? If not, swap them out for some lockable ball valves from McMasters.

Some knucklehead will open that valve and they will call you to clean up the mess.

-FF

[Brendan C]

Originally Posted by FrenchFry

Can you lock those valves? If not, swap them out for some lockable ball valves from McMasters.

Some knucklehead will open that valve and they will call you to clean up the mess.
-FF

Yep, they are lockable AND self closing (Most of the parts I used were from McMaster). I also have the lids locked onto the barrels and the barrels locked to a fence post that they are placed next to outside the restaurant.

These new barrels are sooo much nicer than my previous ones. My 12volt fill rite pump was starting to act a bit funny so I'm happy that I won't be relying solely on it to get to the grease. Let gravity do the work!