• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • r ranson
  • Anne Miller
  • Pearl Sutton
stewards:
  • paul wheaton
  • Nicole Alderman
  • Liv Smith
master gardeners:
  • Carla Burke
  • John F Dean
  • Nancy Reading
  • Jay Angler
  • Timothy Norton
gardeners:
  • Jordan Holland
  • Jeremy VanGelder
  • Andrés Bernal

How to reuse a tin olive oil can?

 
gardener
Posts: 1241
Location: Zone 6b
794
forest garden fungi books chicken fiber arts ungarbage
  • Likes 8
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I got a couple of 3L olive oil cans sitting around and don't what to do with them. The opening is very small making refilling difficult. Any suggestions?
20230914_202302.jpg
Olive oil can
Olive oil can
 
master gardener
Posts: 5777
Location: southern Illinois, USA
1916
goat cat dog chicken composting toilet food preservation pig bee solar wood heat homestead
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
A funnel addresses the refilling.  
 
steward & bricolagier
Posts: 12982
Location: SW Missouri
8090
2
goat cat fungi books chicken earthworks food preservation cooking building homestead ungarbage
  • Likes 8
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Worse than refilling is trying to wash them out. That oil doesn't come out easily.
I went with cutting off the top and bottom and just using it as flat metal.
I didn't come up with anything better.
 
steward
Posts: 9397
Location: South Central Kansas
2427
9
kids purity fungi foraging trees tiny house medical herbs building woodworking wood heat homestead
  • Likes 7
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I wonder if you could use snips to cut them in half, kind of roll the cut edge inward maybe twice, and have two little bins/baskets.
 
master pollinator
Posts: 3894
Location: Canadian Prairies - Zone 3b
1015
  • Likes 8
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
If the top or bottom was cut with a can opener on three sides (and the plastic spigot removed) this would make good biochar in a wood stove.
 
Douglas Alpenstock
master pollinator
Posts: 3894
Location: Canadian Prairies - Zone 3b
1015
  • Likes 9
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Chimney for a portable rocket stove while camping?
 
gardener
Posts: 1083
366
12
homeschooling hugelkultur trees medical herbs sheep horse homestead
  • Likes 10
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Any kind of metal tin is so useful!  

Small opening containers are great for dry goods like wheat berries, seeds or rice.  You can seal it with a cork or tapered dowel.

Sometimes if something is no longer "food grade" it can be "feed grade".  I could store used fry oil in a tin like that and feed it out to my chickens over winter.


I also have lots of baby trees I am helping get a good start.  I can fill a container like that with water or even a light nutrient mix and leave it by the tree gently seeping out.  
 
May Lotito
gardener
Posts: 1241
Location: Zone 6b
794
forest garden fungi books chicken fiber arts ungarbage
  • Likes 8
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Thanks! I am not sure if a can opener can go around the corner or not. But at least i can snip away the tiny spokes in the center to fit a funnel through.
20230916_140016.jpg
Spigot detail
Spigot detail
 
master gardener
Posts: 7186
3707
6
personal care gear foraging hunting rabbit chicken cooking food preservation fiber arts medical herbs homestead
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Top off, holes in the bottom, it would make a cute plant pot.
 
Pearl Sutton
steward & bricolagier
Posts: 12982
Location: SW Missouri
8090
2
goat cat fungi books chicken earthworks food preservation cooking building homestead ungarbage
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I used a sideways can opener on mine, that worked on most of it. Did have to use metal snips at a couple of points.
 
Posts: 5
4
  • Likes 7
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
1 Remove one large side with an angle grinder, smooth sharp edges and use as drawers for tools or small components in the workshop.
2 Cut lengthways through the middle of one large side and both ends, fold over so the other large side is creased down the middle and you have a lower profile drawer with two compartments.
3. Fashion a carrying handle (from the removed material in example 1 or from wire for example 2) and they can be used as a small toolbox.
 
pollinator
Posts: 3970
Location: Kansas Zone 6a
263
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Dick Proenecke made everything from oil cans.  Everything he couldn’t carve out of wood, anyway.

I just watched a video where they made shingles out of beer cans.
 
pollinator
Posts: 500
388
2
forest garden trees books building solar composting
  • Likes 9
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Some folks can make music out of it!

 
gardener
Posts: 4724
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio,Price Hill 45205
869
forest garden trees urban
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Chimney for a portable rocket stove while camping?



How about the body of a tent stove?
 
Posts: 325
123
4
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
The ones I get, a can opener takes the top of fine. Does leave a sharp edge, which I tape over. I have used two as rag bins in the kitchen (clean and dirty) I used one filled with gravel as a miniature Christmas tree (winter branches) base. As I get more, I expect to use them to sort bolts and small tools in the garage.
 
gardener
Posts: 1466
Location: the mountains of western nc
410
forest garden trees foraging chicken food preservation wood heat
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
this is one of those times i would probably go for one of those seam-cutting can openers. whatever you decide to make would be less dangerous anyway. i always seem to cut myself on the sharp edges on opened cans, even if i’m being intentional about trying to avoid it.
 
steward & author
Posts: 32837
Location: Left Coast Canada
11127
8
books chicken cooking fiber arts sheep writing
  • Likes 10
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
What we do

old can opener and care because of the sharp edges.  Or a modern soft edge opener you don't mind destroying after two tins.

Rinse with very hot water.

Add seed and soil
Good-for-starting-trees-with-longer-roots.jpg
Good for starting trees with longer roots
Good for starting trees with longer roots
 
Posts: 22
6
2
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Hello!

I just saw a video of a handheld berry picker and i wonder if an oil can could be cut into something like that?

shopping.jpeg
[Thumbnail for shopping.jpeg]
 
May Lotito
gardener
Posts: 1241
Location: Zone 6b
794
forest garden fungi books chicken fiber arts ungarbage
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I am thinking about making it into a heater by burning used cooking oil. Maybe I can fill it 1/4 full cut an opening above that on the side for acessing the wick and drill some holes for air inlet. The spigot hole will be a chimney for exhaust. But right now I am lacking the tools as well as some long-lasting fiberglass wick. I made a simple version burning vegetable oil with cotton yarn as wick, it burned too fast and it was a little bit smokey.
gift
 
Rocket Mass Heater podcast gob
will be released to subscribers in: soon!
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic