55gal drum Horizontal build

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Well, I picked up the drum from the local powdercoating place today. They finally sandblasted it, over a week later. Looks good, just can really see the dents well now. Here's a sandblasted pic, followed by a pic of the drum and rack coated in flat black high temp paint. I will not be painting the inside, just the caps. They were a little rough so I lightly sprayed them and I will thoroughly season the rest when I return from vacation....
 
Yeah Pinky....we want more LOL
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Man, it has slowed to a halt almost. A friend is trying to hook me up with some expanded metal, a whole sheet, so I cannot really pressure him to do that, plus I have been sick since Monday with some horrible stomach bug. I am bolting the rack together to make it permanent and making brackets to mount the drum to the rack.
 
Well, I decided against this shelf unit I had been using for a base. I actually have the barrel mounted to it as we speak, and had a heat deflector fabbed up, but am changing plans rapidly.

My wife kept saying "...$50 here, $50 there, how much is this homebuilt smoker gonna cost?"

Well, the answer I came up with is that I cannot halfway do this thing or else I won't be to enjoy it and show it off. Moreover, I ill want to buy what I have envisioned from the start. I need more than just good BBQ for the time and energy devoted to this project. The way I figure it, I will have built a $1000 smoker for $250-$300 bucks. I'm okay with that.


I am having a local exhaust guy fab me some 1.75" id pipes for a base/stand and also make a detachable stack out of 3" exhaust (with flange) for easy removal. I need to get him my specs on Monday. It will probably cost another hundred bucks, but it will hold up better and look great doing it.

As of this afternoon I have purchased all the steel I need to get going, and a buddy dropped off some SERIOUS expanded metal yesterday. You know the stuff you can buy at Lowe's, like 13gauge I think? Well, this is easily double that, and heavy as crap. I love it
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I will start updating with pics as things shape up a little better.
 
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