boxed deicing salt - is there a tap

[oldyork90]

The building where I work recently began purchasing sidewalk deicing salt i n boxes of 50 pounds. Inside the box the salt is contained in a light plas tic bag. It appears to me that this setup is used for some kind of automat ion - a salt spreader of some kind.

I need to get the salt into small barrels and was wondering if there is a t ap of some kind that can be used to "drain" it. Remember the old oil cans and the piercing spout driven into the can's top? Something like that. I' ve done the google thing and can find nothing. It would be nice if it had some way to stop the flow also. I never need 50 pounds.

Thanks

PS - This group used to be really nice - no spam. Is there an alternative moderated site that one can use? Especially the OT guy - seems lonely, pos ts all day....

[Vic Smith]

Probably be better off just cutting the corner with a razor or scissors. Never saw what you're looking for.

[micky]

Maybe it's just a cheap lightweight container.

Definitely.

With a funnel if needed.

Years ago, I bought a big plastic bottle of de-icer, with a 4" screw-on cap, not plain salt but something that works a a much lower temperature.

When I went to use it this year, it was like one big sedimentary rock inside. I used a big screwdriver and loosed up a lot of it, but I used that. Then I tried an elecric drill with a spade bit, and that did well and reached pretty far into the bottle. But then I diidn't go out for

2 hours and it was all stuck together again. Have to drill it into small bits again, and figure out how much time I have to use it before it gets hard again. =--- The bottom looks more like the top was, that I can separate it with a screwdriver, or a jack handle, which is longer.

[philoÂÂ]

If you find the boxes too heavy to pick up and just pour out the salt as needed all you have to do is cut a flap in the bottom with a jack knife. If you do not use up all the 50#'s at one time, just lay the box on it's back. There will be a small amount of spillage but if you are careful it will be negligible.

BTW: I did a quick scan of the postings here and see there is no "one person" who makes OT posts. I make plenty of them and they always seem to have "OT" in the subject line so it's no big deal to scan past. No need to insult anyone here who does so.

[Stormin Mormon]

Sounds like the new calcium chloride stuff. Absorbs water from the air, and makes a mess. If you leave it long enough, it turns into liquid slush, then solution in the bottle. Yikk.

[Dan Espen]

Everyone else craps on the floor here, so why don't I just leave this here.

Don't worry, mine has a sign on it so it doesn't smell.

[micky]

No, I've had that. It leaves a puddle of water in the bottom. This isn't it. Was totally dry, at least no water could be seen. Transparent bottle so none in the bottom either. .

I had a basement that smelled a bit. I bought 50 pounds of calcium chloride. I put some decorative masonite vertically in a plastic bucket. By decorative I mean a pattern was cut out of it. Put the CaCl2 in one half and water showed up in the other half (probably in both halves but easier to ladle or pour out from the empty side.)

It was very strange. If I put the bucket on one step, the smell went away on that step, even though my nose was 5 feet higher than the bucket. Then I'd move it to another step, and after 2 or 3 days, the smell went away there, even though my nose was just as high and one would think there is some air circulation and the air isn't glued to a particular step.

After I did every step, the basement smelled fine and I gave the rest of the 50 pounds to a gas station.