Materials

• An 88-gallon oil drum, they are easy enough to get hold of, I went down to a local fuel supplier, not like a fuel station but one of the depots that the oil companies distribute fuel from.
• Rubber edging, any local hardware store sells rubber seals.
• 12mm marine ply, I managed to get hold of some scrap wood that was perfect for this project but otherwise you can just buy some.
• I decided to add a wheel base that can be removed and replaced when wanted.
• for the internals, I used two pieces of 25mm mild steel box section for the supports.
• green and yellow acrylic paint for the detailing
• wood and metal primers
• super matt black paint
• Araldite glue, small nails, frog tape, rollers, angle grinder, etc.

Step 1: Cut and Clean

Open up the oil drum and clean it out. To do this first cut off the top using an angle grinder and began to pour out the oil or any remaining contents that are lingering. I used a strong detergent to get the grease/oil off the surface of the drum, this will be really important later once you start welding.

Step 2: Mark Up and Cut Up

Once clean, mark the shape using a marker pen than some frog tape (bright green painters tape)

1)  Using an angle grinder cut up the barrel, VERY noisy so make sure to wear ear defenders.
2)  Then I used another grinding wheel to remove the burs and smooth the sharp edges. This step is much easier if the barrel is really clean and dry as you can then just use a vacuum cleaner to remove all the metal filings from inside the barrel.

Step 3: Welding

In this step cut and attach a 25mm box section mild steel to the inside of the barrel.
1)  Using a hack saw, or in my case, a mechanical one cut the  25mm box section to 400mm lengths.
2)  Using a 572mm diameter circle, I made a section of it out of cardboard, marked the edges of the box section so that they will fit flush inside the barrel. then cut this shape out with an angle grinder or hack saw and ensure that they fit nicely inside the barrel.this is really important in order to get a strong and clean weld!!
3)  Secure the box section on either side of the barrel 12mm from the hole for you to sit in (refer to the diagram below). for this, I used a mixture of scrap wood to prop the pieces up and some strong welding magnets to hold the metal in place. ensure that they are level otherwise, the seat won't sit level!
4) Then carefully weld the box section onto the barrel. be careful as the barrel is very thin and, as i soon found out, it is easy to burn through the metal. please excuse my poor welding skills.
5) Then grind down the excess metal from the welds on top of the bars. again this is important for the seat to sit level.

If you don't have access to welding equipment I would suggest making supports from the bottom of the barrel rather than attaching it to the sides.

Step 4: Back, Seat, and Base

I then made the back and seat part of the chair. the seat part is pretty simple, just a 572mm diameter circle of 12mm marine ply wood. the back consisted of two right angle triangle pieces with a 15º to the vertical hypotenuse. then one 300-550-12mm piece of marine ply to make up the back.
the base was made of another 572mm diameter circle of 12mm marine ply except I then added 4 sets of caster wheels to the bottom.
once all this is done, sand it all down, fill any gaps, prime everything with wood primer, then paint with whatever color you like (i used some super matt black paint for the design I was going for)

1) cut out the triangular side sections with a base of 141mm and a height of 530mm. then sand all the faces and edges
2) cut the 300-550-12mm section
3) tack and glue the sections together to give you the back section. as shown below.
4) cut out the circles for the base and the seat.

5.) Once all this is done, sand it all down, fill any gaps, prime everything with wood primer, then paint with whatever color you like (i used some super matt black paint for the design I was going for)

6) I then added the 4 sets of caster wheels to the base. I just marked two perpendicular lines across the diameter of the base then insert the caster sets by 50mm so that they would be less visible.

Step 5: Finishing Up the Barrel

Finally, after cutting everything up, I primed the metal using oxide red primer (its excellent at preventing corrosion).

I then took the barrel to a local car repair workshop to have it professionally sprayed as I don't have access to any spraying equipment, they can give it a much more even finish than hand painting it, and it worked out to be a lot cheaper than buying the same quantity of spray paint.

I then made some stencils to use to put the radio active design onto the sides to give the chair its finishing touches. I first drew out the design 1:1 scale and cut it out of the thick cardboard.
I then used this as a template to cut sections of frog tape to mask off the arias that I wanted to stay black around the design and leaving the areas exposed that I wanted yellow.
I bought some small pots of yellow acrylic based paint and rolled the paint onto the barrel. this method was much quicker and gave much better results that trying to paint it on by hand!

then as a finishing touch, using some bright green acrylic paint, I painted on some ‘drips' from the top. I did this by hand as it didn't need to be precise and making a stencil would have taken far longer than a bit of steady hand.

Step 6: Upholstery and Covering the Edges

You can opt to do this part yourself which is the most cost effective way or to have it done by a professional. For the sharp metal edges, you will want to cover them with the rubber edging material you purchased to avoid injury and make the seat comfortable.

ALL FINISHED!

Now you can decorate and place the chair anywhere. There are many upgrades you can make over time with this I'm sure but for now, you have one awesome chair!

 Source:  bowlen199