Project: Smoke-Stacked - Part 5: The Maiden Voyage

A lot has gone down since the last update.  Let's cut to the chase, and get to the pictures. 

Thanks to the wonders of Amazon, I was able to find the perfect thermometer for this smoker.  The maximum temperature is a little lower than most grill thermometers.  It's focus is clearly made to cook in the 200-250 range, right where you want to be when smoking. Here it is installed on the door.

Here's a close up shot.  You can see that it clearly has the different temperature ranges marked.  My goal is to be as close to 225 as possible.  More on that later...

Here's a shot of the smoker mostly assembled, with the stove pipe attached.  Starting to look pretty good!

Here's a profile shot, as well as a view of my messy work bench. 

Next was time to install the handle.  I had to trim down the brackets a little bit, for it to fit between the barrel ribs.  It turned out pretty well, and functions great!  When fully opened, the handle rests right up against the stove pipe. 

After a couple of really frustrating hours, I managed to somehow get some 6" aluminum ducting between the two barrels, connecting the dampers of the bottom barrel, to the collars going into the top barrel.  Considering my barrels were not the same shape to begin with, it made it extremely difficult to align the holes for the collars.  If you ever decide to build one of these yourself, MAKE SURE to get three, identical 55-gallon drums.  You will save yourself a lot of frustration in the end. I don't have any pictures of the ducting connecting the barrels.  It looks like garbage, but hey, it works!

So, this brings us to the maiden voyage.  In the morning, I moved the smoker out to the driveway, and loaded up the bottom barrel with my bricks.  I wanted to make sure to make a channel that my fire basket will sit on.

Here's a shot of my fire basket all loaded in.   You might not be able to see in the picture, but the basket is about 10" in width. (It barely fit in the stove door)  This allows the fire basket to sit about an inch and a half above the bricks, allowing air to get under the charcoal and wood. 

Thanks to the stupid ducting issues between the barrels, I didn't have time to season the smoker the night before the first cooking session.  So, I had to fire it up early, coat the inside with vegetable oil, and try to get it partially seasoned before the ribs went on.  I loaded her up with a couple of chimney-fulls of charcoal, and plenty of chunks of wood.  Here's the evidence, that my smoker works!

After a couple hours, I sort of knew what I had to do to keep my temperature right around 225.  So, once I had it down, I packed some rub on the ribs, and threw them on the smoker.  Here they are, smoking away. 

I ended up using quite a bit of white oak, and cherry wood.  I must say, they turned out great!  They maintained their structural integrity when picking up, but the meat came clean off the bone.  I was also able to achieve a very good smoke ring on the meat.  I apologize I don't have any pictures of the finished product, but I was very excited to eat them.  Taking pictures was the last thing on my mind, once they were done. 

Stay tuned for more adventures with the new smoker.  We're just getting into the prime BBQ season, and I intend on practicing plenty more this summer! 

Project: Smoke-Stacked - Part 4

I only have four new pictures to share in this week's update, but a lot more work has been done between the pictures.  This week, I got very familiar with the paint brush, as I painted the exterior of every piece that will be involved with the smoker.

Here's a shot of the two main barrels, after their first coat of paint: 

 

After a second coat of paint, it was time for reassembly.  This is probably the part of the build I've been looking forward to the most.  There is just something great about actually seeing what the finished product will look like.  Here is the bottom barrel, all dressed up, and ready for the dance. I've got the stove door, both dampers, the bottom feet, and the top barrel support feet attached.  

 After the bottom barrel was ready to go, I just set the top barrel on top, so I could get the two collars on, as well as hang the door.  I still need to cut some aluminum to fill the gap between the bottom barrel dampers, and the top barrel collars.  There is about a 2" gap to fill in.

 Here is a close up of the hinges I used to attach the door. Aside from a very small minor glitch I'll have to resolve, this system looks like it's going to work well.  I used some T-hinges, but had to bend the long part, to accommodate for the curvature of the barrel.  Thanks to me extensive history with video games, I am proud to say I had ample thumb strength to bend them,

The only things left, are to attach the handle, the 3" sections of aluminum I need to connect the two barrels, attach the exhaust collar, and then attach the stove pipe and topper.  Then I can load it up with bricks, bend up my piece of expanded metal for a firebox to sit on top of the bricks, then we will be really to light it up! 

Project: Smoke-Stacked - Part 3

 After another productive weekend, we are getting closer to being done.  My parents came to visit this weekend, so my dad was able to help me quite a bit on Saturday.  I didn't get as much done on Sunday as I had hoped, but we're getting there.
So, on with my dad offering his help, we were able to cut out the holes in the bottom of the top barrel, as well size up, and mount the angle iron in the barrel which will be used to hold the cooking grates. 

Here's a shot looking straight down through both barrels.  

I wanted to make sure my cooking grates would fit and everything, so here's a sneak peek at the 22"x33" cooking surface. 

After doing a little research online, and reading from others that have built these same designs, I think I might need to have an additional source of air for the fire barrel.  My buddy Erik also indicated this would possibly be an issue.  So, I decided to make my own air intake on the backside of the fire barrel, opposite of the stove door.  First, I drew circles to cut out on a scrap piece of metal (the piece I had cut out for the stove door), and drew out a design that I would be able to bend a little handle for, and be able to rotate around 360 degrees.  After cutting it all out, I traced the holes onto the fire barrel, and drilled out matching holes on it.  So, after I get it all attached I can regulate how ever much air I need from both ends of the fire barrel. Here's a shot of the plate lined up with the holes in the barrel.

And here's a shot of the plate spun 180 degrees, closing off the holes.

I don't have a picture, but I was also able to cut out the door.  Here is a shot of the door after being painted.    

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get anything else painted, but everything else is literally all set up and waiting to be painted in my garage.  It's supposed to be pretty nice this week, so hopefully I can get it done soon!  Stay tuned for further updates.