DIY Horizontal Smoker
Grilling and barbecue often are confused, but they are two very different styles of cooking meat. Grilling is fast, using direct heat and an open flame. Steaks or pork chops can be grilled in a few minutes. Barbecue is slow cooking, relying on indirect heat and smoke to cook the meat and impart special flavor. It will take hours to barbecue a beef brisket or pork roast. Grilling and barbecue can use either charcoal or wood for the heat source. Barbecue more often relies on wood, such as hickory, mesquite or pecan, for special smoke flavor. Does this Spark an idea?
Things You'll Need
- 55-gallon drum
- Stiff bristle brush
- Soapy water
- Welding equipment
- Metal chop saw
- Tape measure
- 2-inch angle iron
- Metal hinges
- Door handle
- Fireplace grate
- Grill, purchased or made
- Chimney elbow and chimney
- Sheet steel
- Reinforcing bar
Instructions
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Obtain a 55-gallon drum to make a horizontal barbecue smoker. Any big cylinder can be used but a drum is best and easiest to work with. Get a container used for food or non-toxic and non-volatile materials. Remove the lid or end from the drum, and scrub it thoroughly with a stiff bristle brush and soapy water to remove all traces of its previous use.
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Set up welding equipment and a metal chop saw in a good work area. Remove the drum lid and cut it in half horizontally with a welder's cutting torch. Save the two sections for later use. Buy 2-inch angle iron, a piece of sheet steel, some 3/8-inch steel reinforcing bar, a chimney pipe and elbow, and a fireplace grate.
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3
Measure the drum with a tape measure and cut 2-inch angle iron with a metal chop saw to make a rectangular cradle, two ends to support the ends of the drum and side pieces to fit the length. Miter the ends of each piece and weld them together with a flat edge of the angle irons to the inside for the drum to rest on.
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Make four legs of angle iron, tall enough to make the horizontal middle of the drum about 30 inches high. Weld these to the corners of the cradle, with the angle iron around the corner. Cut braces to fit horizontally between the legs on all sides and weld those in place. Set the drum in the cradle horizontally, resting on the inside of the frame, and spot-weld the bottom to the sides, a weld at each corner and along each edge.
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5
Draw a line around the drum at its horizontal mid-point. Mark another line vertically to divide the top part of the drum in half. Weld two hinges along the horizontal plane on one top half to hold a door. Cut that half loose from the drum bottom using a welder's cutting torch to create a lid for a cooking chamber. Weld the top half of the lid on the open end to enclose the other half of the drum for a firebox. Weld a handle on the door side opposite the hinges to raise and lower the door.
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Weld the bottom half of the lid across the bottom half of the other end of the drum, to seal the firebox, with that piece as a baffle to separate the fire from the cooking area, but with the top open to allow smoke to flow into the cooking chamber. Set a purchased fireplace grate into that chamber.
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Cut 2-inch long pieces of angle iron and weld them at intervals to the sides of the cooking chamber, with one side extending into the chamber as support brackets for a cooking grill. Put two brackets on each end and three along the sides. Buy a grill to fit that space or make one by cutting expanded steel flooring to fit or welding a grid of steel reinforcing bars to fit; cut rebar to make a frame to sit on the brackets, then weld rebar across that frame to hold the meat.
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Make a circular hole in the center of the closed end of the cooking chamber using a cutting torch to fit a purchased steel chimney elbow. Weld the elbow into that hole. Make a damper by cutting a circle of sheet steel just smaller than the circumference of the elbow. Drill holes through each side of the top of the elbow with a metal drill and slide a piece of rebar through the elbow, then weld the circle on the rebar, so it can be adjusted with the rebar handle to open or close the flow of air there.
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Install a chimney pipe, which typically is crimped to fit inside the elbow. Get a chimney high enough to divert smoke away from the cooker. Weld that pipe in place to the elbow. Set the cooking grill in place and build a fire in the firebox; put wood on the grate through the open end of the drum. Adjust the openings if necessary to create enough air flow to allow the fire to burn with smoke flowing through the cooking chamber to the chimney.
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Tips & Warnings
Do not try this if you do not have welding experience and expertise. Welding equipment can be rented but it requires training to learn to use it properly.
