So, mine is built and christened.
Burned:
Folded the lip of the charbroil lid out and hammered it back down around the lip of the barrel. Afterwards I painted it it so it wouldn't rust because the ceramic finish cracked off in the bending and shaping process
Started off as a cranberry juice drum. The inside was primed and the fire didn't get all of the paint off of the inside but it got most of it off of the outside. So i got inside and got dirty:
got some free exhaust pipe for the intake and I had some exhaust flanges laying around. I welded some sheetmetal over one of the flanges for the damper:
This triangle holds my small charcoal basket off of the bottom for a slow cook. For steaks and burgers is raises the basket up for a hot fast flame-kissed cook. The large intake let's it get really hot, and I don't think it needed to be even that big (2.5") but free is free. I need to build a bigger charcoal basket for cooks longer than 5-6 hours at low temps.
The u-bolts are at 24" from the bottom of the tripod when it's on the bottom, so they serve double duty acting as the lower deck if I have enough food to require to decks to cook on.
Two racks ready for cooking
during:
And ready to come off, 4 hours later:
I'm really happy with the way they came out. This is my first slow and low cook with wood chips and charcoal. I started the fire small, caught the temps on the way up and 235 degrees was easily maintained.
I am going to add wheels and a shelf to it and give it a flame paint job. Thanks for all of the info everyone.
--jeremy