Smokers are used for barbecueing a variety of meats.
Building a homemade smoker to barbecue meats is not difficult using common materials, and is far less expensive than purchasing a ready-made smoker. The essential principle of the barbecue smoker is to keep the meat inside it away from direct contact with the fire, while exposing it to the heated air and smoke that will respectively cook and flavor it. This design consists of two 55-gallon drums positioned on their sides, one on top of the other; the bottom drum contains the fire, while the upper drum contains the meat to be smoked. Add this to my Recipe Box.
Instructions
1. Paint the barrels with high-temperature resistant paint.
2. Cut a hole for the firebox door on the end of the barrel that will be on the bottom. Use a saber saw.
3. Cut the holes for the flues. In the final configuration, the flues will provide the path for smoke from the bottom drum to travel up into the upper drum. There should be two flues, placed on each side about halfway between the centerline and the ends of the drums. Do a dry fit of the flues and drums to ensure that you have cut the holes in the correct places.
4. Cut the upper drum in half lengthwise.
5. Mount the legs and fire door on the lower barrel, following the instructions on the wood-stove kits. Attach the inter-drum supports and flues. Attach the top barrel to the flues and supports.
6. Attach the top half of the upper drum to the lower half using the hinges, and install the handle on the front of the top half of the upper drum.
7. Cut holes for the chimneys at either end of the bottom-half of the upper drum using a saber saw.
8. Assemble two chimneys using the lengths of stovepipe and chimney caps. Each chimney should come out the end of the upper barrel horizontally before making a 90-degree turn and having the segment with the damper vertically, topped by the chimney cap.
9. Line the bottom of the lower barrel with fire-bricks to prevent burn-through.
Tags: upper drum, bottom drum, drum contains, fire while, half upper, half upper drum