Exhaust placement???

[willygm]

Hello all. Having a little trouble putting together my UDS. I'm a tight wad and trying not to spend any money. Anyway. My main question for the guys that have been here. I get free drums by the truck load here. Problem is they all are sealed top. Well I've looked at junkyards, Craigslist, and the side of the road for a weber lid. All to no prevail. On to my question. While my search for what I want I stumbled upon a 24" disc off a plow. This will work for now. It has a hole in the center obviously. So can I put a stack in the center for an exhaust or does it need to be off to the side? Sorry for the rambling. Thanks in advance.

 

[chilemeyer]

The couple of smokers I've built over the years have been designed so the smoke goes from the source , over the meat, and out the vent. For me the best results have been when this design makes the smoke flow as evenly as possible. So if my smoke is centered at the bottom then I would put my vent near the center of the lid. If I had a smoker box on the left my vent would be located off center and I would place the lid so the vent came out towards the right while facing it. Sorry to over simplify but hope that helps.