First build, 55Gal smoker.

[crinn]

My father got a hold of a few 55gal drums while out collecting waste oil, and wondered if I still had wanted to make a smoker out of one...
The answer I gave should be quite obvious...

This is an ongoing build thread... wasn't sure which specific sub to put it in, so I stuck it in here...

Anyway, I'm open to suggestions as far as what an ideal build would be.
I've done some searching, and will continue to dig around on what would be best.

Fabrication part of this will obviously be my favorite part... (probably more so than the cooking/eating, dare I say it) As I'm an ASME Xray CW.

Plenty of tools available to get this done with... Probably the first decent size home project I get to use my shiny Miller Trailblazer 302 for.. with full Smaw/Gmaw/Gtaw/C-CAC setups.
and if I don't have it, I can just take it to my work and do it there

I have the majority of the supplies I need, minus the fire box and grating... Which should be rather easy to come up with.. I think!

The stand it rests on will more than likely be rather elaborate, with a powdercoat finish. (unless I get lazy on this one)
Still drawing it up in Inventor a little bit to see what I like the most... and is still functional, hehe.


Anyway, here's the drum I've got... Which contained some lovely Photo cleaning chemicals, and my favorite toy of 2009 :]

 

[pit 4 brains]

Do you plan on making a UDS? Is there a chance you can get a cleaner drum?. First thing you need to do is get that lid cut out and do a really good burn in that barrel to cook out all previous chemicals. You need to get the whole drum red hot so doing a burn at night will help. May take a few pallets worth of wood..

 

[crinn]

Was thinking about a reverse flow actually, digging through reading about it all now. There's about 5 gals of water frozen inside of it actually, because the previous owner left it outside in the rain standing up... and then it froze :]
So it's inside thawing out right now...

Then it's going to get a good flush, then left about half full and fill the remaining open space with a purge before it gets cut...
Don't feel like blowing myself up :S

Already have the wood around, filled up an enclosed utility trailer to the top with scrap wood from my work a while back, and there's... lot's left :]
It more or less just contained thinned down gas.

 

[rio_grande]

Be intersting to watch this progress,,, Good luck,,, Photography chemicals can be really nasty stuff so clean it extra good.