Ugly Drum Smoker

4480 posts. Did it. Read 'em all. Do I get a t-shirt or sumthin'? Spent the day in the garage watching my barrel burn in the pouring rain. The build starts tomorrow.

Your only reward is now YOU have to post as much pron as you can.

Paul B

Now you can figure out how to incorporate everyone's suggestions, yet keep the weight of your drum under 500 lbs.!

Why does everybody use 4 inlet holes? I never use the third or forth. Is there a reason?

Captain Dave said:

Why does everybody use 4 inlet holes? I never use the third or forth. Is there a reason?

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Because they didn't make the first one big enough?:biggrin:
Four holes is good when you are burning the barrel, live in a cold climate and want to hit high temps for chicken or whatever or for the people who just need everything to be symetrical.

I'm In

Hello All:

Ok, so I may not have read the entire thread, but I have enough info to get started.

My first barrel was picked up just a few miles away for $5, but it had spray foam insulation base in it, so I didn't ever really trust it, even after two good burns (which were quite a bit of fun anyway)

So this week I contacted someone on C/L here in Dallas that had "Food Grade" barrels, I asked him specifically and he thought they were unlined. They were reasonable for $10 each and have the cool spring/hinge lid ring instead of the big bolt kind. When I went to look at them (27 mi. to Ft. Worth, Haltom City actually), they had contained petrolatum (aka Vaseline, aka Petroleum Jelly) which apparently is used to grease something at bakeries.

They looked good and there was even a couple of rust spots already forming despite the liberal coating of petrolatum still inside.

Anyway, after a thorough power wash and then degreaser and a rag, I thought I was really good to go. I took the wire brush to it and dangit, there's still a think coating/lining of some kind, but it does just come right off with the wire brush without even having burned it at all yet. I think I'm ok but I'm just a little disappointed, I made the 2nd trip to try to get one that would require less elbow greast and electricity.

The Lining is so thin and non-durable that I think one medium sized burn with the pallets I still have will do it though, and that's probably not a bad idea anyway to get whatever nasties still might be lurking from the mnfg. process and all.

I've got all the parts ready to go, and I've already practiced drilling holes on the original drum, although I was making 4 half inch holes because I already had some 1/2" close nipples and ball valves left over from an aborted beer making experiment.

I'm going with the original tried and true 3 3/4" holes with close nipples, conduit nuts, pipe caps, and 3/4" ball valve, but I still have to go to HF to get a cheaper ball valve than the $9 ones at HD. I own a 1/2" drill, step bits, hole saws, and an HF angle grinder but don't have a knotted wire wheel for it (another thing to get at HD monday, along with the requisite weed burner and the ball valve)

My lid for the new drums are lined with the dreaded tan liner, but I do have the other lid just in case. That much wire wheeling won't be that bad. They have the 2" bung holes and another one ~ 1", but for some reason I am attracted to the 8 evenly spaced holes for some reason, so I will probably leave them plugged and do that, and of course keep an eye out for a free or cheap Weber or Clone.

Got my expanded metal from Fulton's in Denton, had to buy a full sheet but it was "used" or as I like to call it "pre-conditioned" (it's been sitting outside for a few years and is pre-rusted) .Got that for $36 including 3 cuts with their torch so it would fit in the trunk. I just got caught up not wanting to pay $18 for a 2' x 2' piece at HD that I ended up spending twice that much but can make at least 6 more fahr rings with what I've got.

I got the cheapo "Outdoor Gourmet" grates and thermo at Academy, I know they're a little cheap and small, but they were about $15 for all 3, they'll get me started at least until I score the magical mythical free Weber.

I'm trying to keep this as cheap as possible, that's as much part of this as anything IMO

Anyway, Here's some pics. If anybody in North Dallas or the metroplex for that matter is thinking of building one of these, I have an extra barrel (the 2nd food grade type) and one or two pieces of expanded metal 2' x 44" you could have for what I've got in it. Hope that's not against the rules.

I always seem to pick up two or three of anything just in case, especially when I've driven 27 miles then 21 more miles to get there.

PICS

The barrel as received




The Label




After a wash and the first run with the wire wheel showing the liner




Stuff




I'm really looking forward to this, got some fatty supplies in the freezer and butts are on sale right now

Thanks to everybody for making this information available, I'm really enjoying it!!

da_burl out

Mine has 3, as well as 3 sets of U-bolts to hold the grates. 3 can be symmetrical- 120 degrees apart. The number isn't as important as the amount of square inches of intake. You could have one big one. I find it easier to plug less holes. I have 1" diameter holes, and mine runs about 375-400 with them all open, and a fully engaged fire. With 2 plugged, mine seems to run about 225 for hours and hours.

New Drum

Got my Drum i was wondering how long to burn to get the liner off?

Frisco

I'm just down the road from you in Frisco Burlinski. I found a source for drums in Dallas but they have the tan liner which is a huge PIA to remove.
I have a line on a SS drum that I'm going to check out next week. If I find good drums w/o liners I'll let you know. Good luck on your build. I've been smoking meat for a while and this design works amazingly well.

So I got my drum this weekend. Also picked up the Wal-Mart Weber knock-off to use as a donor. I've got 3 1" intake holes drilled and the lid mounted using the hinges that came with the grill. The drum had a type of cleaning solution in it from a car wash so I did a burn in it last night. I'm gonna wash it out and probably burn it again, I didn't quite get all of it. Now I just need to get my grate mounting hardware and the expanded metal and I can finish it. Pics to come later.

big.burlinski:

The thin/clear lining is probably BPA (bisphenol A) It is also used to line beer cans and make baby bottles (even though it is commonly considered to be an endocrine disruptor). So if your nads fall off and/or you suddenly become gay, blame it on an incomplete burn-off of the BPA.

Mark said:

big.burlinski:

The thin/clear lining is probably BPA (bisphenol A) It is also used to line beer cans and make baby bottles (even though it is commonly considered to be an endocrine disruptor). So if your nads fall off and/or you suddenly become gay, blame it on an incomplete burn-off of the BPA.

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Well fark, I certainly don't want that!

That settles it, I'll risk a fine one more time and do a 3 pallet burn followed by a full tank of propane in the weed burner!

I was going to call the City this morning and just ask them if it was ok to do a controlled, attended burn in a 55 ga. drum in my back yard, but instead I found the whole Municipal code online, now I realize it's not even ok to light my grill on the deck unless I have an automatic sprinkler system (and not the kind for your lawn!). All these years I've just been a scofflaw!!

Well then; easy way to comply is not do it on your deck and have a hotdog on the end of a stick just in case

Mark said:

big.burlinski:

The thin/clear lining is probably BPA (bisphenol A) It is also used to line beer cans and make baby bottles (even though it is commonly considered to be an endocrine disruptor). So if your nads fall off and/or you suddenly become gay, blame it on an incomplete burn-off of the BPA.

Click to expand...

LMAO on that one Mark. Being a Monday, I needed that. Sounds like the lining isn't much of an issue at this point. Just throwing that out.

Thermometer orientation

For ease of telling where the temperature is I put the desired temp on the thermometer at the "12'oclock" position. You can tell at a glance if you are high or low.

billydcard said:

For ease of telling where the temperature is I put the desired temp on the thermometer at the "12'oclock" position. You can tell at a glance if you are high or low.

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I did this in my race car so I could just glance at the gauges and know where I was with the water temp, oil pressure, and tranny temp.

UDS is ready

Check her out
How to i post pics?

got pics up!

Big B, If you ever decide to build another...Which you will because one of your friends will want one. There is a place here in DFW that has new and unlined drums. The place is called Dallas drum, this is where I purchased mine. A piece of mind goes a long way!

4500 posts damn that's a lot of reading.