Ugly Drum Smokers

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Ugly Drum Smokers

Postby Steve » 04 Nov 2009, 14:03

I wanted to start a discussion on here about these because I'm hoping to build one next Summer, time and finances allowing. I'd have thought there may be others on here who'd fancy buildign one too.

I found an excellent guide to building one here on The Pickled Pig Forums
(guys/gals who've not been here, I recommend it as a great source of information)

So I'd like to open up the discussion here...

  • Has anyone built one?
  • Does anyone know a good source for drums, expanded steel or a friendly welder to make charcoal baskets?
  • Any recommendations for places to get parts?
  • Any ingenious ideas to make building one easier and/or cheaper?

My first thoughts are ways to avoid welding (because I can't weld :( ) so I've thought about making a charcoal basket from a Weber charcoal grate, a Weber ash catcher, some expanded steel and a few heavy duty bolts/washers/nuts.

Any and all input is welcome.
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Re: Ugly Drum Smokers

Postby MANT » 11 Nov 2009, 18:01

I'm strictly am amateur at this but I built this at the weekend (link below) and smoked some meat, and i'm also leading a team next May at the Surrey competition, so am getting some practice in.

http://www.gastroteers.com/node/11
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Re: Ugly Drum Smokers

Postby Steve » 12 Nov 2009, 14:17

Something's been bugging me about your smoker, I think it's a cool idea and I like it but then it hit me...

Is the incinerator bin thingy you used made out of galvanised steel? Looks like it, and the nuts and bolts all look like bright zinc-plated as well.

If so you might want to reconsider your design. Zinc gives off dangerous fumes when it is heated, these can cause metal fume fever which isn't nice. The temperatures your smoker will get to shouldn't really cause this to happen because I think it's somewhere up around 400F before fumes start to come off.

However I don't think I'd take the chance with my food and I can imagine the judges at competitions won't allow you to cook on a galv unit.

You can remove galvanised coating by shot blasting the unit thoroughly, then you can paint the outside with engine block paint and season the inside by rubbing it with cooking oil then giving it a good burn. If you don't have access to a shot blaster though that will probably be expensive. You can pick up a suitable oil drum, reconditioned for £20 or less.

Sorry if this is bad news for you, I might be wrong and your bin isn't galvanised.

Cheers

Steve
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Re: Ugly Drum Smokers

Postby THRILLIN GRILLIN » 12 Nov 2009, 20:14

I say better safe than sorry. Especially when in competition, probrably not good for your points tally if you make the judges sick or in worst case scenarios they die.
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Re: Ugly Drum Smokers

Postby Steve » 19 Jan 2010, 13:30

And so it begins...

Neil and I picked up our drum today

Image

The drum is second hand and was previously used for storing fruit juice.

Unfortunately it has a liner which will need to be burned out and then sanded. We also couldn't get a bung lid without buying a new drum at double the price so we'll have to drill out an exhaust but that's not really a problem.
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Re: Ugly Drum Smokers

Postby Steve » 20 Jan 2010, 13:55

I found this place for some of the fittings required for the air intakes.

http://www.pipefittingsdirect.co.uk

I managed to get barrel nipples and end caps in mild steel. It's important to avoid galvanized metal due to the heat in the smoker.

The parts I bought are for steam pipes. I bought parts for 2 UDS because chances are we'll build a second one and shipping is the most expensive part. I would have bought locally but couldn't find the parts without going to plumbcenter where the parts were ten times the price.

In total it cost £15 for all the nipples, end caps and ball valve for 1 smoker. I just need to get washers, nuts and bolts now and we'll be ready to start building.
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Re: Ugly Drum Smokers

Postby Danjob » 20 Jan 2010, 18:38

Im looking forward to this.

Once built are you considering building anymore and errr (ahem) selling them on.

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Re: Ugly Drum Smokers

Postby Steve » 21 Jan 2010, 01:27

We're going to build this one and see how it turns out. If it's good we're going to build a second one for our team.

We'll post all the details on here but I doubt that we'll build them for other people. The main reason is that we can't get hold of unlined drums, so we have to burn them out, sand them down and repaint them. This is a lot of work so it's not something we're likely to do.

We'll definitely share everything we discover though and providing the drum works out, we'll bring it to Rother Valley for the comp.
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Re: Ugly Drum Smokers

Postby Steve » 21 Jan 2010, 12:29

The parts we ordered from Pipe Fittings Direct arrived today :)

Image

So we've got the ball valves, some barrel and hex nipples (because I didn't know which would be better), end caps and some elbows (so we can mount the ball valve vertically).

I've been told that I can get the other fixings in non-galvanised steel from Apex Fastenings in Slough so I hope that we can get the rest of the pieces quickly.
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Re: Ugly Drum Smokers

Postby Danjob » 21 Jan 2010, 22:18

Steve wrote:We're going to build this one and see how it turns out. If it's good we're going to build a second one for our team.

We'll post all the details on here but I doubt that we'll build them for other people. The main reason is that we can't get hold of unlined drums, so we have to burn them out, sand them down and repaint them. This is a lot of work so it's not something we're likely to do.

We'll definitely share everything we discover though and providing the drum works out, we'll bring it to Rother Valley for the comp.



Thanks for the clarification Steve.

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