First uds build—help?

Hi everyone!

I’m building my first smoker-a conventional UDS. I’ve read several threads about cleaning/prepping the barrel. So I got a reconditioned barrel that apparently held food (had a food company logo painted on the side). It didn’t have the plastic liner inside like some I’ve read about. But it wasn’t bare metal either.

I gave it a good burn-out and that got most of the paint off. Now I’m wondering about the inside. It feels like bare metal but parts of it have a reddish hue. Tried using a metal brush attachment to clean things up with moderate success. I’ll attach photos.

So the million-dollar question is-is this sufficient to finish my build or should I spring to get the thing sandblasted? I guess I worry about effect on taste. I don’t think there’s any risk of contamination at this point. Thoughts? Suggestions?

Update: found a buddy with a sandblaster. Bought 100 lb bag of Quikrete commercial grade medium sand at Home Despot. 30 min later I had this (pics below). Then applied a spray coating that I had for my cast iron grill to the inside and ran a burn to season. I think this is gonna turn out well.

Done(ish)

I found some wooden handles that are coming in Monday, but I thought I’d share some pictures of my finished build. Thanks for the input, I think she turned out nice!

Thanks! I was very happy with the finish. Lowe’s carries a line of Krylon high-heat spray paint that was dead simple to apply and cost about $7/can. Two cans gave me about 4 coats and I was pleasantly surprised with the results.

Next up I’m going to try to program an Arduino to make an automatic temp controller.
https://www.hackster.io/dbarbee/temperature-controled-charcoal-smoker-58db49

No, there is a third intake nipple in the back that doesn’t have a riser to it. I just capped it off with an iron plug. From what I’ve read, once I get my coals up to temp, I can cap the third intake and then maintain airflow with the other two. Thoughts?

I’m going to play around with it next week. I’ll post my results