British BBQ Society Forums

Hi im Paul from Essex
just thought ill say hi ive just join and have been BBQ for about 3 years now looking to make and offset smoke if there are any tips out there please send them to me

one more question is I have a few oil drums that have had motor oil in them would like to cut them to make my offset BBQ would i need to clean it out first and how would I go about doing this they are closed at both ends with just a bung hole in them

Many Thanks Paul

elo fella (im new too), my mate works in the aircraft fitting trade and cut up an oil drum, had to clean as much as possible, then tried to burn the rest out, seemed to be ok

I dont want to take the sides off the drum as i want it like an oven just been flushing it out with water and degreaser its only had motor oil in it so dont think it will be a problem

Ok, I'm no offset expert, but I assume you want to use a drum a main cooking chamber and build a firebox to fit on the side.

Firstly, it's worth remembering that the steel on drums is thin. We use them for UDS but these are simple to build and have no doors or anything in them. Drums won't last a long time before they rust through, you'll get a few years out of them at best.

Secondly, heat control in offsets is considered more of a challenge, using a thin steel drum is only going to add to this, it's not going to be resistant to the wind and rain and it's not going to be stable like a proper offset - just check out the steel on John's Cactus Jack's and you'll see my point.

Third, offsets often require tuning plates welding into them, baffles etc. There's a lot of skill involved in building a good offset, not that I'm assuming you're not up to the challenge, I'm just letting you know it's not as simple as welding a fire box onto the side of a drum and letting her rip.

If I were you, I'd use the drum to make a UDS, they're cheap, stable and they cook great Q.

Now if I've not put you off building an offset, here's what I'd say about cleaning your drum. You're obviously going to be putting a door in there, so I'd cut and attach the door, open it up, scrub the inside out then burn it through with pallets. After that I'd close the door and then spot weld some flat bar around the door to get the required seal.

When cutting the door, a good way is to mark it out, cut the top and bottom edges with an angle grinder, weld on your hinges, then cut the sides, will ensure a good fit. You could also weld your flat iron rim on at this point or do it after your burn.

What are you planning to use as your flue from fire box to cooking chamber? Ar you just planning to use the bung hole or are you going to drill it out some more? You will probably need to calculate the correct size of flue, as you will with exhaust and fire box. If you hunt around on the American BBQ forums, you'll find the maths required to work out fire box and flue sizes. I've seen the formulae before but I don't remember them.

HTH

Thanks for that i did know it would take a long time to make have lots of plans and things im going to take my time on this

cheers

Might be worth looking around to see if you can find an old propane tank going cheap on eBay or for scrap. Now obviously there's steps to take when cutting these to eliminate any chance of it blowing up on you. However, I've seen lots of examples of good offsets built from propane tanks.

You also might like to read up on normal and reverse flow. Another consideration is building a double barrel smoker from two oil drums. They're very cool indeed.