Offset Vertical Drum Smoker

Whats up guys, check out my UDS Frankenstein. I'm calling it an Offset Vertical Drum Smoker, but if you google that you'll find zero results. Since I couldn't find another one, that made me REALLY want to build one.

My 8 year old son Owen and I have been designing/building it for about 3 months now and with a lot of help from the Brethren I think we've got her dialed in pretty well. Three things I discovered during this process, I love working with my son, I love building BBQ's, and I love JB Weld!!

The Deets:
The fire box is a 33 gallon steel drum with 4 ea 3/4" brass ball valve/iron pipe intakes and two 1-1/8" intake holes with a sheet metal damper. There is a 4" iron pipe connecting the fire box to the


The Smoke Chamber is a 55 gallon oil drum that I burned 5 pallets in and cleaned with detergent at least three times. It holds three 22" weber grills and has a 4" x 2' x .032 rolled aluminum stack on top. I used a high temp silicone cloth material I had for the gasket around the door, and the diamond plate door I had rolled at a sheet metal shop (I already had the diamond plate, traded the labor of rolling it for some smoked tri-tip).


The stand is a steel storage shelving unit we modified and added the two lawn mower wheels on a 3/8" all thread axle, and we also added a 4" swivel caster in the front under the firebox drum.

I bought these latches from ebay for $10 each, smokin deal but I didn't realize how huge they were! But we used them anyway.


Well, there she is. We've used her twice now and aside from some temp issues due to a lack of quality thermometer and two small of an exhaust (originally had just the 2" bung hole on the smoke chamber drum) she works great! Cooked three tri-tip two whole chickens and 15 pounds of brisket and everything so far has came out delicious.

Thanks for letting me share, and I'd really love you comments!

HeSmellsLikeSmoke said:

I don't understand the intake manifold which lets air in above the fire as far as I can tell?

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Hey Jim, the 4 pipes feed the undernieth and to the side of the fire. I use a charcoal basket sitting ontop of two bricks so it's raised up a bit. See the pic.


THis pic only shows two intake pipes (I added the top two later). The one on e the very bottom is a 6" nipple that feeds right underneath the basket which sits ntop of those bricks. The other 3 only have a 2" nipple (like the one shown) that feed the bottom/side of the basket.

1911Ron said:

Very cool, nice job! Good for you having your Son help:clap:
I have one question, what is holding the grates and how solid are they?

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Hey Ron, thanks for the compliment! Each grate is held in place by 3 ea 1/4" x 3" Stainless Steel bolts with SS lock washers and nuts. They are very strong. I thought about JB welding on the bolts, but I decided to leave them removable just in case.

Southern Home Boy said:

Yeah, I'm with Pig Dog... I'm curios about the fire box. The concept is cool and I dig it, I'm just interested in how you stage your combustibles.

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Thanks a lot guys, I attached a pic above of the inside of the fire barrel. It only shows the two intake pipes (I've since added two more on top) but you get the idea.

The bottom intake pipe draws air right the the bottom underneath the charcoal barrel (which sits up ontop of those bricks) and the othe three pipes feed air to the side of the basket starting from the bottom going up.

I guess I could have NOT put them vertically and tried to put them side by side around the barrel, but I was going for a monster smoker intake manifold look. It seems to work fine, in fact that barrel gets hotter than... well it gets hot!!

MikeMc said:

BADASSS!!!! I think you might have advanced the science here!
How did you join the connecting pipe? Is that where the JB weld is?


I've been lookin for barrels to start a new project, maybe like this. I have 3 racks and a diffuser plate but bending over into the smoke sucks and its blown back on me a time or two.


I'm thinkin a stove pipe damper between barrels would give a lot more control and divert smoke while loading


+1 on lower intakes too but it probly won't matter much.




Great job!

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Thanks Mike! Yes that is where the ol JB weld came in. I did do some actual mig welding. We tact welded the barrels to the stand and all the joints on the stand, but the 4" iron pipe was two thick of a metal compared to the drums and we just kept burning holes in the drums. So we went with JB weld for that and all the intake pipe and the chimney and.... well you get the point, I love that stuff!