Stainless Steal Vertical Drum Build

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This was how i drew my circle. A screw in the middle of the table was my center point. the board to the right of the screw was to hold the expanded metal and prevent it from sliding. Then i wrapped a piece of wire around a sharpee and went to town. Getting the shelves in was a small hassel. They all have 9" of vertical clearance, and the top one has an aditional 4 inches due to the design of the container. I think i might build a rib rack that will stand up slabs of ribs on the top rack. All the racks will spin using 1 hand, i even put about 60# of weight on one and tried it and it worked to my satisfaction. But i am going to keep my eyes out for maybe a different set of wheels.

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Getting close... wrapped the smoke chamber with insulation tonight, Still waiting on the gas shocks for the door to show up. i have some more welding to do. Should be doing my season burn first thing this week.... any recommendations??? i was thinking charcoal with the dampers all the way open and the exhaust closed. I also have a turkey fryer that i can pull the burner off of and drop it in the fire box.
 
Hinges and door. Still waiting on the gas shocks

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Here is the Water pan. The opening between the fire box and smoking chamber is 19in square. The water pan is 17in square. That should be ok, i was just kinda quessing... any thoughts??

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Insulation and wrap on the walls of the smoking chamber. I made a 1" by 2" port into the smoke chamber with a lid. This will be for routing my temp cords into the smoke chamber so i don't have to run them through the door. 

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Here i am, grinding on the new smoker, and smoking on the old one. 

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Topped her off with insulation on the top and some more 20ga. So the SS drum wasn't completely flat on the bottom it had a rounded shape to it, i thought the insulation would make up for the shape but it didn't so the top is kinda concave.

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So i cleaned it and seasoned it, A thing of beauty. I dumped about 5# of lit charcoal in the basket, opened up the intake and let her go. 30 min later temps reached 350 and held strong. I was shooting for 500 and i could not think what i was doing wrong..... then i remembered i left the exhaust open. So after i closed the temp began to rise again. At 500 i completely shut the intake (exhaust already shut) and it held 500 +/- 5 for a solid 3 hrs. Every 30 min i would open it up and spray cold water all over the inside to steam clean the smoking chamber. I let all the other stuff i couldn't clean out burn up and when all the bad smells went away i cracked open the intake to get some oxygen to the coals and using the exhaust valve i brought temp down to 300 and then closed the intake and exhaust. I started spraying oil to season the smoking chamber and the racks. it held 300 solid for another 2 hrs. I dumped the charcoal that was left and packed her up, bed time now. 

Only issued i have to resolve is my ash pan warped extremely bad. Once it cooled down it returned to its normal shape so i will try to use it again when i'm not going for high temps. Also i need to relocate the wooden handle for the smoke chamber door. It is directly above the charcoal basket when loading charcoal and the basket is slid out.... therefore loading charcoal = burnin door handle. Also i noticed that the areas on the cooking racks next to the door are 15- 20 degrees colder then the rest of the cooking area on the racks. I know that is because the door is not insulated, but i was expecting less of a variance then that. Also when the exhaust is open their is almost a 30 degree difference between the top and bottom racks. So that means from the top rack next to the door, to the bottom rack all the way in the back i could have as much as a 40 - 50 temp difference, and the door mounted thermometer is not an accurate for the average smoke chamber temp.  I did the season burn without the water pan in the smoker so i do hope once i put it back in the temps will be more even top to bottom. I might have to always keep my exhaust partially closed to reduce the rate of air flow through the smoker, this also helps to even out the temps.  Thanks for reading shoot me any questions and i will throw up a hole slew of pictures tomorrow.
 
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This is so cool, spinning racks and the design of the firebox is awesome. The only thing I see is your water pan might be a little shallow if you plan on using water in it, if it is just a grease trap you should be fine. I have to say you built this thing aweful fast also. 
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Dang Impressive. I like the metal and ss look. That is how my dad did his whole hog BBQ. Can't wait to see some smoked product out of this unit.

Robert
 
This is so cool, spinning racks and the design of the firebox is awesome. The only thing I see is your water pan might be a little shallow if you plan on using water in it, if it is just a grease trap you should be fine. I have to say you built this thing aweful fast also. 
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I agree the water pan is a little small. Onlt holds about 2 gallons. The primary function for it like you said is a grease trap, and also to diffuse the heat coming into the smoking chamber, evening the heat distribution. I might have to revisit the water pan design if i'm constantly having to open her up and add water. 


Dang Impressive. I like the metal and ss look. That is how my dad did his whole hog BBQ. Can't wait to see some smoked product out of this unit.

Robert
Working with Stainless and not being able to weld it was a bit of a challenge and i asked myself if it was actually worth the trouble. With the time i spent wrapping that SS drum i could have build a rectangle double walled and insulated cabinet. Hands down the Stainless is alot easier to clean, that alone has me sold on the stainless. All i have to do is heat it up and spray water inside with a spray bottle and the steam takes care of everything and leaves a nice clean surface. Totally worth the extra work in the build. Plus i wanted to try something different and this project came out alright. Now i just wish my gas shocks would show up, i'm using a broom to hold the lid shut
 
A real man of genius. 

Fantastic plan and execution, on the design of your rig. I love it.

The roller shelves are the bomb man. Gonna have to retain that idea for a future build.

The door is simply awesome, kinda like a space ship opening up. 

You ask about burning wood.

I would think that you would be as well off running mainly charcoal but also set in a log or two. 

I did just that this past weekend. All charcoal since I was trying to keep temps down to just use the smoker as a warmer.

With the temp results you are showing, I think coals and a few wood chunks are gonna serve you well. 

Nice build sir.
 
thank you. I think sticking with charcoal is the way to go. To start out the smoker i'll dump in a full chimney of prelit just to get my temps up, but after that i only need to add about 10 pieces of charcoal every 2 hrs to maintain temp. I smoked on it yesterday for 15 hrs's and burnt up 16# of charcoal. It has a very low rate of fuel consumption and will hold heat very well. The problem i ran into is that if i let temps get too high in it i cannot bring the temp back down until the coal burnts up, even with the intake fully shut and the exhaust open the thing will still maintain its temp, i have to open the door and let the heat out that way. just going to play with it some and figure this thing out. 

I'll be taking it to the Great Southern Tail Gate Cook-off on Amelia Island. It will be my first BBQ competition as a Pit Master. Anybody else from the forum going to be their??

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Alright I can now finally say that i'm finished. Finally got in the gas shocks for the door. The first pair that i ordered were too heavy duty (90# lift each) and were twisting and contorting the door. The second set (pair i used) are 31" long fully extended and lift 30# a piece. These are working great so far. Here is a couple pics for ya. The shocks extend to both hold the door closed and open. Also had to add a heat shield between the door and the thermometers they got kinda hot.

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Thank you for reading. I hope this thread can help you to build that smoker you have always wanted to create. Special thanks to anyone who ever posted a smoker build thread, that is where i truly gained my ideas, and God blessed me with the inspiration. In all things, do them in his great and powerful name.

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