I was tasked with burning old receipts, bank statements, etc this weekend, and figured as long as the barrel was going, I'd add some wood scraps and such.
Suspended the cauldron down in the barrel using a couple pipes through the handle and ended up doing about 50lb of lead while I was taking care of business.
the heat is borderline sometimes to melt lead (have to keep some good embers right below the pot), but I don't have to worry about excess heat melting stuff I don't want.
