Oh sure, now he's Mr Safety! LOL!
If you can't get the ice cream pails; you can buy the 5 gallon pails and lids at Home Depot or Lowes pretty cheap. If you don't use your cement fast, the plastic pails will help extend it's shelf life. Don't forget a mask and goggles/safety glasses. Billie

Thanks,Billie.I did forget about goggles.My bad for that!
and for those of you who wear,like me,glasses.They don't protect your eyes; in fact,the dust and crud from working with this medium scratches the glasses up something fierce.I'm going into my third pair,which my wife says will stay out of the studio on pain of...anything you think,only worse.Man,she can be a bear!
Cheers

I've used those lidded pails for years, and it absolutely is the way to go. Much easier to take measurements out of for mixing too.I always wear an old pair of coveralls when I do the transfer,mask, and gloves, goggles. It really doesn't make for a pretty picture, I am sure the neighbors must think I have hazardous goods around, lol
Cindt

I have two large 22 pound cats so as you can imagine I go through a lot of cat litter. I now buy the large 28 pound size of scoopable litter that comes in these great clear pails. When the cat litter is all used up they serve as storage containers for sand, concrete, quickwall, and anything else I dream up. They stack nicely too.

I'm sure my neighbors think I have an obsession with cat litter as they those containers line one side of my garage wall.

Serene

You do,Cindy,you do.To really get your neighbours going,though,get a HAZMAT suit,then tell them there's very little to worry about!Ah,good times.
Cheers from here

As I was making the transition to the use of smaller plastic containers described here, I made the mistake of dumping my first 90 lb bag of Portland cement into a standard sized garbage can. Uh - when it was time to scoop out what was needed, it was terrible! The HD buckets are great - and now that I have two cats, I also have kitty litter buckets. Life is good.

I must have missed out on earlier conversations about this. I don't understand why you transfer cement to containers. Is it so you can store it outside? I use a small garden store (linked below). I slip each bag of cement into a plastic sack as I remove it from the car, then stack them on top of each other (I buy three at a time). They go at one side, bags of sand get stacked in the centre, and the big sack of vermiculite goes at the other end. I find it very useful because the lid of the store opens right up, and I simply open the plastic bag containing the top bag of cement, take what I need, then close the plastic bag again. So you have to move the material only once, from car to store.

I damp the vermiculite before using it, so when finished for the day I put enough vermiculite in a container for my next casting, pour lots of water in, and cover it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Store

Running dog, I store mine in smaller closed containers due to the humidity we get sometimes in the summer. Although the main reason I pour the portland in smaller containers is because I only wiegh 120 pounds. I can't possibly lift 93# bags from my car to a storage shed. It's just not going to happen without me hurting myself!

It sounds like your system works for you and that's great. Mine works for me.

Serene

Humidity is bad here too. I use 5 gallon plastic buckets also.
Paws

lol - I'm not even 120lbs! But, as I mentioned in another thread, bags of cement in Ireland seem to be smaller than your bags, because of H&S regulations, so if your bags of cement are double-sized I can see why you'd want to decant it into smaller containers! With our smaller bags it's quite easy for me to roll the bags of cement out of the car into a wheelbarrow, and wheel them to the store one at a time. I wouldn't be so happy moving bigger bags!

I wasn't criticising, just wondering what your reason for decanting was.

96 lb bags of cement here would be 42.6 kilos there.

Visulize a full bag of cement lying on the ground... with a pair of arms and legs sticking out from under it!

Sue

Two cents worth from a class A cheapskate; Any bakery in a gracery store or Wally World will give away the buckets they get pre-mixed frosting in. Can also get some from dry wall contractors at construction sites. What I like about these and the ones from the bakery is they have O rings around the lids which make them even more moisture proof.
Packrat

Packrat, Every time I've tried to get free around here I haven't had any luck. Guess someone's there ahead of me. I forget which big home improvement store has them but one of them sells the lids with o-rings in the lids for added sealing protection. Billie

Good morning to all!Gotta go teach some good folks how to steer a dragon boat this AM,but thought I'd remind everyone that you can get pails of every stripe,free,at your local recycler.That is,should you have one.The ice cream buckets were salvaged at the end of our tourist season,when the buckets are placed in recycling.Free is good.
Cheers from here