Ugly Drum Smoker

I use two of these:

Well, he's local as heck to me but a bit of a haul from Justin.

http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/for/4850932900.html

This cat will put an ad on CL a couple of days before he's going to show up at the uHaul self storage place (Walnut and Glenbrook in Garland) where he keeps the drums.

The drums I got are nice - smooth sided, unlined and heavier gauge than the trash barrels he sells too. They had some sort of chemical in them, there was some dried up crud that looked kind of like polyurethane around the bottom. I used a weed torch to burn it out three times to be on the safe side, scrubbed with a wire brush, then washed then sanded the inside. Since I welded everything and am an amateur welder at best the heavier gauge was nice and saved me from burning through on a couple of the welds. I expect it to hold heat well also.

The pit temp probe for the Guru has an alligator clip on one end and would need at least a 1/2" hole, which is why I'm thinking a slit in the lid is the ticket.

Woot! Got the inside wiped down with cooking oil and a fire in the hole. Took about 25 minutes to get up to 350° and she's holding steady with the Guru working at ~30%. After a good seasoning burn tonight it'll be go time.

Whipper up a mini and hopefully be seasoning tomorrow.

The downside to doing a test/seasoning burn after work is that I wasn't able to keep tabs on the drum all night so I'm not sure exactly how long the charcoal lasted. Dumped about half a chimney of lump into a 3/4 full basket at ~5:15 and had the temp up to 350° by ~5:40. When I went to bed around 11:00 it was holding at 350° with the Guru working at about 20%. When I went out and checked it at 5:00 a.m. it was ambient temperature. So I figure a full load of charcoal lasted somewhere between seven and nine hours at 350°.

The basket/firebox is the bottom 12" of a sixteen gallon drum (14" diameter) with a 16" diameter piece of 1/4" plate on top. Depending on how long the temp holds at smoking temperature (i.e. 250°) this weekend I may scrounge up another grease drum and cut it at 15" for more charcoal capacity. I've also got a 30 gallon drum (18" diameter) I can cut up to use as a diffuser so more heat radiates straight up vs. the 1/4" plate diffuser.

While I was watching the temp stayed rock steady at 350° - it hadn't moved up or down even one degree whenever I checked on it and never moved while I was outside eyeballing it. Again, I've got to think using a heavy hunk of steel plate to absorb/diffuse heat has to contribute to that. Perhaps at the expense of burn time.

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the results after one burn. Got a brisket on tap for Saturday and a couple of racks of short ribs planned for Sunday. To be continued...

The more you block the heat, the more coal your going to use. That 1/4 plate is sucking up ALOT of heat. Your coal basket of 14X12 inches high should get you at least 17hrs at 250 deg. Not sure how you turned the bottom part of a drum into a basket. If you do not have enough area/air flow for the ash to drop from the coals, you could have choked out your fire due to the ash. See how much coal you have left. Most UDS's are very steady with temps and do not require mass to stabilize temps.

It's more of a firebox than a basket, drilled a 1 1/8" hole near the bottom on one side for the air inlet then welded a couple of tabs at about the same height as the top of the inlet pipe so the grate sits on the inlet pipe and the two tabs. Then drilled three 1 1/8" holes opposite the inlet centered about 7" up. There was zero charcoal left after the seasoning burn, nothing but ash.

I cut off the bottom of a 30 gallon drum to try as a diffuser instead of the 1/4" plate and have it in the cooker now with a 7lb butt for an overnight cook at 260°. I need to find someplace to download some pictures so I can share my insanity.

Photobucket - easy with mobile app.

starsman said:

Can you tell us who this local guy is?

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There are several guys on CL selling drums - 1-2 on Ft Worth side. Most Feed/Ag stores have them - that's where mine came from.

http://dallas.craigslist.org/sdf/grd/4866493996.html

http://dallas.craigslist.org/sdf/for/4856237865.html

http://dallas.craigslist.org/ftw/for/4851514479.html
I got my well seasoned 3 rack flat top UDS up for sale.

Newbie here. Ordered my drum a few days ago and have my basket already made. Excited to get the drum in the garage and drill some holes. Thanks to all for the great tips and ideas.

Alrighty then, here's a picture of the firebox. Air inlet up top and three holes opposite. This is before I welded in the tabs across from the inlet to support the grate.



Picture before paint:



Painted and seasoning:

I believe your going to find your coal basket does not have good quality air flow and might be blocking some of the intake air from getting to the coals. But that is just my experience.

Affirmative, once I removed the Guru the charcoal left in the basket went out. With the Guru it stays rock steady at 250° the charcoal runs out and there's nothing but ash. I designed it to use with a Guru so mission accomplished there.

Sorry if this question has already been addressed, and with 820+ pages I am sure it has, but with a reconditioned drum do I still need to remove the paint on the exterior of the drum? Is this paint typically "high heat" or do I need to burn that paint off and reapply the correct type of paint? Thank you for any light you can shine my way.

nathan said:

Sorry if this question has already been addressed, and with 820+ pages I am sure it has, but with a reconditioned drum do I still need to remove the paint on the exterior of the drum? Is this paint typically "high heat" or do I need to burn that paint off and reapply the correct type of paint? Thank you for any light you can shine my way.

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You don't have to burn the paint off the exterior. I have a standard 55 gallon, new 16 gauge drum and had it over 400° with no damage to paint. If you are going to reaping it, of course go with a high heat BBQ paint, engine paint, or high temp powder coat (some powder coaters won't guarantee standard powder coat with high temp applications).

TXLX said:

You don't have to burn the paint off the exterior. I have a standard 55 gallon, new 16 gauge drum and had it over 400° with no damage to paint. If you are going to reaping it, of course go with a high heat BBQ paint, engine paint, or high temp powder coat (some powder coaters won't guarantee standard powder coat with high temp applications).

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Thank you for the help! Looking forward to the assemble today.

Finished my 1st. build today. Excited to get this thing smoking.

After burning for 12 hours at 250° (~50° ambient temperature) there's probably about another hour worth of charcoal left in the firebox.