Make a Metal Bucket

This entry will be particularly exciting for anyone who's really into buckets! 8-D ..but for everyone else possibly not so much..

The smoker is a fairly important piece of beekeeping kit, but it's also a bit of liability being basically a tin of fire with a hole for air to go in and another for smoke to go out. It's not unknown for smoker fuel to relight  long after you thought it'd gone out. That's how the plastic bin I used for smoker ash met it's demise. Luckily it was sat on concrete and did no damage beyond the tragic loss of a cheap bin but clearly you need something that won't burn or melt to keep it in. You can buy a lockable metal boxes for that purpose but it's a bit extravagant unless you particularly need to move a smoker in a vehicle. My solution is a metal bucket. Being a bit thrifty I make my own.

Pull one of these from a bin

Takeaways and restaurant bins are a good place to find old metal oil barrels. I found the above one outside a local eatery and hauled it home. Actually I found three in deifferent places, I've made a few of these over the years. A few minutes with the Dremmel was anough to cut the top out then I went round the sharp edge with pliers squashing it flat to make it safe -don't want to be getting cut on this thing, it's out of a bin after all. Used some wash liquid and water to get rid of the oil residue inside.

One brand spanking new metal bucket

I drilled a hole in each side, deburred it with the Dremmel then added some nylon rope I'd found to make a handle. It's not actually stainless steel and left outside does rust but should last a few years and it only cost a few minutes work.

New home for the smoker

As these barrels are bigger than a typical bucket there's room to keep the smoker inside it hanging from the edge so the hot cylindar and base isn't actually in direct contact with anything. The smoker at home lives in this all year. The stick in the smoker is just what I use to block it when I don't want anymore smoke.