Stuck together 5 gallon buckets

Any one got tips on sepaerating? Thanks

YouTube search it.

My Dad was king of 5 Gallon Buckets.
After he died and we cleanup his stash we figured he had approx 2-300 of them.

What we always did for separating the stubborn ones was flip them upside down, stand on the handle with one foot and pull up on the rim of the stuck bucket with both hands.

Or hang on to handle and beat around the rim of the lower stuck bucket with a hammer.

The key is to not push them together,

This is the method I use. More like tapping than beating though. A plastic bucket will only take so much hammering.

There’s no force in the universe stronger than that which holds buckets together. It’s what black holes are made from...

^^^^ this

Air hose and a blow=gun nozzle. They come apart like they were greased.

I put a small chunk of 2x4 in the bottom of each one before stacking them. No more sticking together. Does not help you now I know but will when you get them apart LOL

Yes

yup

Second an air hose. If you aren't going to store liquids in them ( used mine for rice coal) drill a small hole in the bottom. Put the air nozzle in the hole and a shot of air pops them apart.

sit them in the sun . Come back in couples hours.

Buckets are being held together by vacuum created most likely by temperature changes. You just need to break the seal between the buckets to release the vacuum by: apply air pressure to the sealed space, or heat to expand the trapped air or brute force to pull the buckets apart or deform the side the lower bucket to break the vacuum lock.

I developed a noose and rope system that I tied to a pole or post and the slip noose fit over the top bucket and one could leverage them apart, but thanks for the tips we use 500-600 5 and 6 gallon buckets for sap and are always looking for ways to separate them.

Bryce

Dynamite

Lay on their side and straddle them. While sitting on them grab top one and keep wiggling and pulling it apart. My go to method

thin screwdriver to break the seal between buckets

Air compressor

Growing up on farm, I struggled with this all my life. My experience is, more force distorts the buckets, and compounds the issue. Spread your fingers evenly around the lips of the bottom bucket, and slowly push up with your thumbs 180 degrees apart. I've gotten buckets apart like this that 2 grown men had been pulling on.

learn something today ,air hose thanks

If one grew sang you knew NOT to stack buckets, you layed them on their sides in piles. But yes air works great for those who forget how to stack buckets on their sides

Like I said sit them in the sun !!! No tools no gimmicks nothing special. When I was running 4 sewer plants all the chemicals came in 5 gal buckets. in 15 years I figured I handled over 20,000 5 gal buckets. 1 per day times 365 times 15 times 4 plants.=21,900. That's not counting loading and unloading them from the back of the truck !

a golf ball in the bottom

Drill a small hole in the bottom to release the vacuum.

You ain't seen stuck, till you got a bunch from walley world that still had cake frosting in them and then stuck together! Momma was working at walley world and bringing buckets home every night, and put them in the basement. I finally called her off, but a bunch sat there for several years. Was no getting them apart! Ended up throwing all of them away. The frosting set up like concrete!

Oh, A Woman's attitude

X2

C'mon Vegas all this great advice are your buckets still stuck???

I used to get the buckets from the grocery store, they would just snap the lids back on and I would carry them out like that.

that frosting is something else

makes you re-thing eating many doughnuts after cleaning a bunch of those buckets that sat in the garage a year and it looks like the day you brought them home on the inside.

of course I still eat a doughnut once in a while