I want to scatch build some oil drums but i dont know how to go about doing it. Any help would be great. Thanks

Hey Adam,

I have never done it but if I were to do it this is how I would go about it:

1. Get some thin plastic card
2. Cut a rectangle and roll it so that it forms a tube.
3. Cut out a couple of rings to make the top and bottom lids
4. Cut a couple of thin strips of plastic card and glue them around the rube to form the rings you see on all the drums. I guess they help with rolling drums

I guess that's how I would do it.

One idea too is to get a piece of PVC (home plumbing plastic tubes) and cut to size, cut a top and bottom, add a bead around the outside for seams.
The bead could be plastruct flat stock, or thin hobby wire (maybe??)
You could take a look at the medicine chest and see what prescription or asprine bottles you have laying about.

Why? There are lots of good ones available for cheap on the market.

Thanks for the help.
HP- Cause im cheap and dont want to spend the money...LOL.... :-)

Armand Bayardi has a nice selection of both new and damaged 55 gallon drums in resin.
It's a question of how much your time is worth.

I would turn em' on a lathe.

Cody

Cody, I bet you could turn out a 1:16 copy of Michaelangelo's David on a lathe! :-) (Still waiting to see your 1:1 scale Tiger...)
Marty, the lines on the outside of the drum give it structural rigidity while saving weight. They're bulged out form the inside after the tubes been rolled.
Matrix- I've seen sme of your work. I bet you could use any of these suggestions to make a master, then vacuform any number of copies. That way you have drums which can be left open, dented, squashed, etc. Save a lot of cash on resin that way...
If you haven't got a vacuform, there's a great article here on the site that shows how to build one cheap!
HTH!

LogansDad, where is that article? do you have a link? Thanks.....

Matrix- sorry, buddy, I've been scouring this site for the better part of a (work)day & can't find it! I THINK it was matt who did it, and there were some pics. He (whoever HE was) used a loaf pan reinforced w/wood, and plastic screen for a top. I got mine out of FSM, the idea I mean, I use an electrical experimenter's box w/a preforated printed circuit board as vac surface. If you can't find anything on it, just PM me w/ your snail mail address & I'll send you a copy of the instructions.
Sorry 'bout the bad lead , I know that can be frustrating

If you don't want to buy the cheap kit drums that Tamiya and other brands provide off the shelf, you probably have not invested in a lathe either. Casting your own resin copies may be more expensive than the plastic kits, too.

There's always the "illusion" trick if you want many, cheap...

cut a few cylinders in any material with the right diameter (plastic or copper tubing, wood, ...) then throw a tarpaulin over your drums. The old paper tissue + water&glue mixture gives wonderful results. Then paint, weather and behold : an impressive collection of drums !

It was me who built the Vac machine. Here is the write up on how to build the Vaccum forming machine.

You can actually make a home-made vacuum forming machine pretty cheap and easily. I did it a few years ago myself (read about 10). Take a small metal loaf baking pan, a section of heavy metal mesh (I actually used plastic mesh, but would use metal if I did it again), some PVC pipe, and some pieces of "L" shaped aluminum. The bread pan is your base. Cut a hole in the side of the pan that will accept a piece of PVC pipe that is the size needed to hook up to your vacuum cleaner hose. Epoxy the PVC to the pan. Next, use a couple pieces of 1/4 inch bass wood going across the inside of the bread pan with holes drilled in them to allow air flow. These will be your internal bracing so the metal mesh doesn't collapse into the pan when the vacuum is applied. Epoxy them in as well. Now epoxy the metal mesh to the open top of the bread pan. You should now have a bread pan with PVC pipe sticking out one end, wooden braces inside, and topped off with a mesh top. The vacuum chamber is complete. Now you need to make the frame to hold the plastic. Use the 'L" angled aluminum, bend it into a square just big enough to fit over the meshed top of the chamber. You need to make two identical frames. Once these are completed, the two frames need to be held togeteher, drill holes through both frames and place screws with wing nuts to secure them. The plastic sheet gets sandwiched between the two frames. Your vacuum machine is now complete. To use it, simply carve your master and place it on the mesh. Take your plastic sandwiched in the frame adn heat it over the stove till it visibly droops in the frame and bows down. Turn on your vacuum and quickly transfer the plastic in the frame from your heat source and bring it down over the master on the vacuum machine. The vacuum will pull the plastic down to the mesh and around your master making an exact copy of it. It is pretty easy to do. Here is a photo of the machine I built.
Here it is:


All that said, I would go the route of buying the Tamiya, Italeri, or other oil drums then cast them using RTV rubber molds. Vac forming doesn't really work well for round objects. I cast my own copies all the time.

Hope this helps. Good luck.