BaronVonOttomatic
Knows what a fatty is.
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2015
- Location
- Dallas, TX
Aloha, new guy here who's fixing to construct a drum smoker for a friend who mentioned he wanted a cheap smoker out at our deer lease. Wanted to share some info and a couple of ideas.
You can get a new kettle lid from Weber. The part number is 65174. My kettle lid has a small ding where the porcelain got knocked off so I decided to spring for a new lid and use the old on the drum. The new lid has a screw-on handle vs. the welded handle on the old one. Price was $51.27 + $7.00 FedEx shipping. Plus tax too, Weber must have a DC here in Texas somewhere.
There's a local guy who's selling nice 55 gallon drums for smokers. They're the heavier gauge unlined steel with smooth sides. I got another 55 gallon open head drum for free and plan to cut the top rolled edge off so I can trim it down so Weber lid will seat. According to my math cutting out ~2.5" section will bring it down to 22" but will probably start with 1.5" and use the Weber lid as a template and gradually trim back the edges like a piston ring until it's just right.
The drum I'm building will run off a Guru so planning to just have a single 3/4" air inlet. I scrounged up a 16 gallon steel grease drum for free from a nearby semi truck service center to use as a firebox. 14 1/4" diameter and the charcoal grate from an 18" Weber kettle is a perfect fit. I cut off the bottom 12" of the drum for the firebox and will drill a hole for the 3/4" inlet at the bottom on one side and space out two or three outlet hole on the opposite side.
Since I want to have at least two cooking grates (and hopefully 3) I've got a couple of ideas for a diffuser. I was able to scrounge up a 16" diameter piece of 1/4" steel plate that sits real nice on the firebox as option A.
I was also able to scrounge up a 30 gallon steel oil drum, 30 gallon drums are 18.5" in diameter. So option B is to cut off the bottom 3" or so of the 30 gallon drum to use as a diffuser/drip pan.
So I will be unnecessarily reinventing the wheel a bit along the way but the end result should be pretty cool.
You can get a new kettle lid from Weber. The part number is 65174. My kettle lid has a small ding where the porcelain got knocked off so I decided to spring for a new lid and use the old on the drum. The new lid has a screw-on handle vs. the welded handle on the old one. Price was $51.27 + $7.00 FedEx shipping. Plus tax too, Weber must have a DC here in Texas somewhere.
There's a local guy who's selling nice 55 gallon drums for smokers. They're the heavier gauge unlined steel with smooth sides. I got another 55 gallon open head drum for free and plan to cut the top rolled edge off so I can trim it down so Weber lid will seat. According to my math cutting out ~2.5" section will bring it down to 22" but will probably start with 1.5" and use the Weber lid as a template and gradually trim back the edges like a piston ring until it's just right.
The drum I'm building will run off a Guru so planning to just have a single 3/4" air inlet. I scrounged up a 16 gallon steel grease drum for free from a nearby semi truck service center to use as a firebox. 14 1/4" diameter and the charcoal grate from an 18" Weber kettle is a perfect fit. I cut off the bottom 12" of the drum for the firebox and will drill a hole for the 3/4" inlet at the bottom on one side and space out two or three outlet hole on the opposite side.
Since I want to have at least two cooking grates (and hopefully 3) I've got a couple of ideas for a diffuser. I was able to scrounge up a 16" diameter piece of 1/4" steel plate that sits real nice on the firebox as option A.
I was also able to scrounge up a 30 gallon steel oil drum, 30 gallon drums are 18.5" in diameter. So option B is to cut off the bottom 3" or so of the 30 gallon drum to use as a diffuser/drip pan.
So I will be unnecessarily reinventing the wheel a bit along the way but the end result should be pretty cool.