Home depot primary possibility?
 

I went the cheap route, since start up cost was four times as much as I wanted it to be and got a HOME DEPOT bucket for my primary. The smell of the bucket pretty much screamed NOT FOOD GRADE so I got my self a FOOD GRADE 20 gallon storage bag to stick in it. I lined the bucket, cut of excess and was thinking I do not even really want the lid to touch my brew.

I want to know if people think it is ok to just forget the lid and take the excess bag to make a COVER that would lead to the BLOWOFF tube, securing it duct tape: I attached a image... Hope it works.
LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK
CHEERS

I would get a lid but your method I would assume would work...only one way to find out...if the bucket has a 1 or 2 on the bottom should be fine.

I'm all for saving money, but this isn't a place I would advocate for it. An Ale Pail will cost you less than $20 and will be the one part of your brewery that is in contact with your beer more than any other component (except bottles, I guess). It's not worth saving less than half the cost of one extract kit while risking off flavors in every batch.

My question is, what will you be saving in the long run? Fermentation buckets are ~$15 at LHBS. Home depot bucket and bag seems more work than it is worth. Good luck though.

say no to home depot pails!

LHBS FTW

Batches are usually ~5.5 gallons and HD buckets are ~5 gallons.

You either need to make smaller batches or get a bigger bucket.

My local homebrew store sells fermentation bucket, lid, grommet and airlock for about $12. But it looks like you have your mind made up. What are you going to do for an Airlock and airlock grommet to keep out the microbes?

What is your first brew going to be?

go for it!

I ferment in home depot buckets all the time. It's fine. Never had an off flavor or infection from them. Clean/sanitize as usual. They're the exact same HDPE as Ale Pails.

For future reference, Lowes sells 5gal food grade buckets. It's about $4 for the bucket and another $1.50 for the lid.