Hotrodguy_34
Well-known member
So I resurrected my dads barrel smoker from 34+ years ago to upgrade and try my hand at smoking.
The bottom had a door he cut into it but it leaked so much air I had to seal it shut with fire door gasket tape.
The barrel is Teflon Coated and still in perfect condition so aside from cleaning it up with non-toxic cleaner I was good to go and start putting in racks and such.
I took an old helium tank and cut the top and bottom off to make my charcoal basket. Used a plasma cutter to make holes in the sides and attached a 14” grate under it to get low of air.
Now here is my issues...
The lid is removable and I placed a 2” Exhaust stack on It. The lid does not sit tight as the barrel has seen some abuse(possibly could be beat back into position but I can seal it up with a dead blow hammer)
The Intake has 2” 90degree elbow connected to a short rise tear drop opening 2” pipe
What I noticed during my first smoke was thst it didn’t seem to draw Air as well As I thiught it would .... on the opposite side of the 2” opening I added a 3/4” ID threaded nipple to increase airflow
I also ordered 3 J-hook toggle Latches to attach to the sides and pull down on the lid to keep it sealed up and help reduce air getting in
My first attempt at ribs went pretty well. I kept it between 220-250 for better part of 3 hours... I wrapped for 1 hour and they finished real
Quick surprisingly at 205
I had loaded the basket 3/4 full of long burn charcoal and only lit like 8 briquettes to start via minion method. I used hickory wood chunks. I only ended using up about 1/3 of my charcoal and 2 chunks of wood
They tasted great but looking to try again soon or with other meat and was seeking help on how to keep air steady as why the 2” inlet wouldn’t Do as well as I thought it would
The bottom had a door he cut into it but it leaked so much air I had to seal it shut with fire door gasket tape.
The barrel is Teflon Coated and still in perfect condition so aside from cleaning it up with non-toxic cleaner I was good to go and start putting in racks and such.
I took an old helium tank and cut the top and bottom off to make my charcoal basket. Used a plasma cutter to make holes in the sides and attached a 14” grate under it to get low of air.
Now here is my issues...
The lid is removable and I placed a 2” Exhaust stack on It. The lid does not sit tight as the barrel has seen some abuse(possibly could be beat back into position but I can seal it up with a dead blow hammer)
The Intake has 2” 90degree elbow connected to a short rise tear drop opening 2” pipe
What I noticed during my first smoke was thst it didn’t seem to draw Air as well As I thiught it would .... on the opposite side of the 2” opening I added a 3/4” ID threaded nipple to increase airflow
I also ordered 3 J-hook toggle Latches to attach to the sides and pull down on the lid to keep it sealed up and help reduce air getting in
My first attempt at ribs went pretty well. I kept it between 220-250 for better part of 3 hours... I wrapped for 1 hour and they finished real
Quick surprisingly at 205
I had loaded the basket 3/4 full of long burn charcoal and only lit like 8 briquettes to start via minion method. I used hickory wood chunks. I only ended using up about 1/3 of my charcoal and 2 chunks of wood
They tasted great but looking to try again soon or with other meat and was seeking help on how to keep air steady as why the 2” inlet wouldn’t Do as well as I thought it would
