Another Double Barrel Smoker Build

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jd wire

Newbie
Original poster
Jul 22, 2014
9
10
SoCal
My Weber smoker of 20 yrs finally burned out the bottom. It was a good Smoker. I learned a

lot from it. I decided I wanted a smoker that could do more as in two turkeys if need be.

Really didn't want to spend almost $800 +.

I wanted a barrel style cooker. Not a combo grill, just a smoker. Liked the double drum

design and was off and running

Three guys I found had good write ups. I liked things about both.
Many thanks to

Javin007
http://www.instructables.com/id/The-No-Weld-Double-Barrel-Smoker-and-how-to-use-i/?ALLSTEPS

Maryland Pride
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/162427/double-barrel-stove-kit

Mphil
http://www.thesmokering.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=624422&sid=3443e5f655ae320ffd8722cc3ddb7a1a

I took info from all 3 of these. I hope I can do them justice. Read their stuff. They have

some great points. Mine is also a no weld design.
 
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You need 3 drums to build a two drum smoker.  I searched for 3 food grade 30 gal drums and 

had a hard time. Then found a cooperage that had 30 gal and 50 gal that they had sand blasted 

for grills. These are opene ended barrels , so one end comes off. Nice to work with actually.
$24 bucks each.

I had used a barrel wood stove kit in the past and went with this to save time.
- I live in SoCal, so the kit is not available, because we have outlawed anything that may do 

us harm.  Got it at Home Depot and had them send it to a Las Vegas Home Depot. Not a big deal 

really. Always something to do in Vegas besides get smoker parts.
This was a 2 barrel kit so the bottom was a door, legs and Flew. Top was two flew and leg. 

about About 100 for the pair.
 
That 1st cut is the haredest. I did the fire door cut and left the piece in between the vent 



and the hatch. I took that piece out later, because the end of the barrel was not flat, so 



the piece would not lay against the door.





Push the door as high up as you can and that will give you a little more room on the bottom 



of the fire box. Your choice.  The 55 gal drum has more room for raising the door.



The other guys used fire bricks. I had one of these as a wood stove to heat my house years 



ago and used sand and gravel in the bottom and it lasted years. I went with sand and gravel 



this time also.










 
I used a 10" stainless steel exhause and cut it down to 6". Wood stoves are not sold in 

SoCal, so Stove pipe is also not sold. The cut down piece worked well.Its about 3.5 inches 

long.  btw I went to a firplace company and they gave me a piece, so look around and the 

price may be right.
 
Cutting the hole for the hatch was tough. I left 2 3/4 inches on each end so the hatch 

itself would close.  The hatch ended up being 17 high X 22 3/4
That 17" is following the contour of the Barrel.
The barrels are 18" in diameter inside
27 inches long

I drew a line exactly at the top and then started my cut 1 inch below that. I got excited and 

don't have a lot of pictures of before my paint job.

When you cut the hatch make it 1 inch larger all the way around for a door gasket. Also may 

need to square up the door after you cut it and t his wuill give you the room to do it.

Another note on the hatch. Check the barrels. The ribs will probably not line up from one 

barrel to the next. I cut almost an inch out of the middle of the hatch so the ribs matched. 

Once thsi was done the door was not really square anymore. Had to do some grinding on the top 

and bottom tro square the door again. Notr a problem, but something to be aware of.

 
The rails to hold the grills are angle iron. Maybe heavier than needed, but I tend to over 

build. 
The grills are from Lowes. 17.5 X 8 inches (Master Forge). perfect fit. Home Depot had soem 

that were round grates, but they did not seem as heavy and I do niot want to replace these 

any sooner than I have to.

I bolted the whole thing together to make sure it fit. 
Then dismatled and painted and put it back together.

I liked the axe handle the other builds did and cut one down for this also. 

 
Good idea. with the two vents. I used 30 gal instead of 55 gal and had less space to work with. I used an open ended drum, because they were available. Took several weeks to find the drums at all. 

I'm still playing with my tuning plates to get the temp right, but I only have about a 7-8 degree difference between the two ends. I thought about putting the stack in the middle, but was concerned with too much heat since the meat would have been right over the inlet. Even with a tuning plate I thought it might run hot since the fire is also going to be right there with the smaller barrel.

The opened ended lid fits into the end of the barrel,so I could not pot the legs out that far.  I like the hatch cut of yours. Gives way more access to the inside. 
 
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I have this same kit and after putting everything together I began to question a few this.

1. Does the damper need to be on the top of the smoker?

2. Should the damper be in between the 2 barrels?

3. How am I going to attach straight angle iron to a curved barrel?
 
I Did mine a bit different. I used 2 -2" Auto exhaust pipes out the top with no damper.  I use a cover on one if I need to slow  the draw out.  Did not use stove pipe coming out.

I do have the damper from the between the two barrels, but find I don't have to use it mush once I got it set.

In the upper barrel I have two baffles that I had cut from my 3rd barrel (for the upper large hatch)  an 8" right over the pipe coming from the lower and a 5 inch next to that with about a 1" opening between the two.

I used open ended barrels with lids and the bottom one will need a support where the lid attaches due to the weight of the top barrel.

You can see the two exhaust ports in the back.  Attached a couple more. If you email me I can send the full set of pics for the project.

The grills are sitting on angle i  ron.
 
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