soundman said:
Speaking of welding, Today when wile we wre building our dry ice fogger the LD burnt 2 holes in the drum one he fixed by filling it the other we are looking into some water proffing solutions to fix it but beacuse of the high temps and water pressure we might not be so lucky.
Ah' 55gal drums for dry ice. Amazing how quickly they rust. Given welding which I would think does not in this case need to be someone certified, you might weld than paint a plate over the opening. Silicone the space between the plates and make the patch at least 3x larger. Otherwise if you can't weld it, I might use a combination of the silicone - especially if possible one that's rated for a metal or wet application, than use JB Weld (found in auto parts stores) on the same size of plate especially around the edges. Might also patch the hole with some bondo.
If your leak is small you might also find some spray cans of something like water heater patch of some sort in the same auto parts store which should work to some degree. While shopping and repairing, you might also assult the can with a
wire wheel and
wire brush than scrubbing pad or steel wool. Than
wash the can down and let it dry. Once dry, I might attempt to at least paint the interior of the can, perhaps using a Rust Oleum primer than hi-temp paint to which Kraylon is best, or see if it's feasable to paint on an enamel coating inside of the can which would resist watter even better. Silicone around all joints or corners once done.
If it's a leak around the drain valve than silicone or the above spray type of car radiator repair might be best short of removing the
fitting, adding a plate than re-installng.
Otherwise there might be some kind of foam or other plastic liner you can spray into the can so long as it's rated for about 200F and the water. Spray foam
insulation for instance has remarkable bonding to the surface and might be sufficient to withstand water. It should be sufficient for the temperature and could work wonders especially in the corners.
Just some thoughts anyway short of replacing the drum and starting over. I know I have an empty 55gal. drum laying around from some
haze fluid if you are local. Finding empty drums hopefully that will not have had toxic chemicals in them should not be too hard. A drum that was used to store adhesive might even be more water tight given dried adhesive coating it's walls.