Build a Smoker

I found a 250 gallon oil drum on craigslist.

Sliced 1/4 of it with a sawzall like this...

I used 4 door hinges to hold the lid, and lined the outter edge of the lid and tank with angle iron to give the lid some rigidity, and something solid to close on.

A piece of 1/2" conduit to make a handle.

2 trays to fit inside for the cooking surface. Easily removable for cleaning purposes.

At first, charcoal in the bottom would be the method of use. I changed my mind about that later, but here's version 1.0... A 2 3/4" piece of muffler pipe was used for a smoke stack. I utilized the 2 3/4 disc cut out of the cooker as a damper for the top of the pipe. Also, doors were cut in either side of the cooker for shoveling coals and ashe. A tongue was made nice and long so she would be easy to back with the F150.

All painted up and in use. My first inclination for a thermometer was to put it in the lid. I soon learnt the error of my ways...

Overall, version 1.0 worked, but it just lacked an ease of use. We found that we were constantly fighting internal temps. This was largely due to a discrepancy between the temperature at the top of the cooker (where the thermometer was), and the cooking surface (the temp that we actually care about). The top temps varied wildly and without any regard to adjustments we were making by opening/closing the smoke pipe damper and ashe doors.

But... Anything worth doing is worth overdoing, right?

So, here comes version 2.0.
I welded up a 14" X 24" 1/8th inch steel rectangular box to be used as a firebox.

It is attached to the cooker by chopping off a top rear section the same angle as the attachment point on the cooker. The door is made of 2 sheets of 1/8" steel welded together. Hinges are cut from some 1/4 stock, and a 1/4" rod is used to hold 'em together. Hopefully the pictures are better at explaining this than I am.

This worked pretty good, but temperature regulation was still very eratic. Heat was going from the firebox and out the smoke stack never making it to the far end of the cooker. Giving uneven cooking temps, and unknown cooking times.

Which leads me to version 3.0. A smoke stack at the cooking surface on the end opposite the firebox, and the thermometer was relocated to the cooking surface on the same end.

This setup works beautifully! The only thing left to do, is put a shield over the area where the firebox heat/smoke enters the cooker, thus allowing cooking on the firebox side without overheating the meat.

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