Firebox ideas

[Darth Stig]

Hi, I apologize if this isn't in the right place as it's kind of sort of about my smoker build, but it's also about material gathering.

So I have a 250 gallon propane tank, filled to the brim with water. It's been 5 months or so, so I'm assuming I'm good to do whatever I want to it without blowing myself up. I've been researching as much as I can and from what I've read, bigger is better for the firebox and you want something around 1/3 the size of the cooking chamber. I'm on the tightest of budgets as I lost my job. I've been trying to find something to use as a permanent firebox for my offset smoker.

Right now, the best idea I have is to buy an old gun safe or larger safe, hopefully with a broken latch or something and weld it to the smoker. That way it's insulated and should be reasonably cheap, especially compare to what people want for steel plate or sheet metal.


I've tried craigslist and searched: steel plate, 1/4" steel, sheet steel, sheet metal, steel tank

Would a water tank or cheap smoker work as a firebox? Like the Masterbuilt 40" gas smoker? *I don't know why this is a link* I haven't crunched the numbers for the cubic volume because I still am hoping to find the typical firebox.

Here's the questions, is there something I can use that is cheap enough to buy that will be a good firebox? I only have a MIG welder running off the typical 120V wall outlet (Miller Multimatic). What's the thinnest steel I can get away with? I know drum barrels used as burn barrels deteriorate after like a year of use... I live in Atlanta, GA; does anybody know where I can go to look at scrap metal for sale? Everywhere buys, but doesn't sell back.

 

[Dawg Dude]

Hey welcome.
A guy I worked with years ago built an over under smoker using two 45gal drums. The lower drum which was lined with bricks that he built the fire on and the upper drum was the cook chamber. He bought a kit at Tractor supply for $40.00 or $50.00.He had access to a lot of drums at work, so replacing them was not an issue. The kit has all the hardware and brackets to join the two drums horizontally one on top of the other. He did a lot of fish and sausage. He used that seat up for 5,6 years and never had to replace a drum. He may still be using it. I moved and have not seen him in a long time. His set up really worked well. I remember him buying the kit on Fri and bringing smoked salmon to work on mon. It was really good! Good luck.