How to build a barrel smoker

Step 4: Cutting the barrels for reals.

As you can see by the drawing I cut one barrel into three pieces and shortened it by removing a section of the barrel.  I did this for many reasons.

1. I was lazy
2. I didn't want to buy some sheet metal and build a firebox from scratch
3. I thought it would look cooler

On the cooking chamber barrel cut a door. BTW rounded corners look better and don't stab you. Make them large and try to make the cut as nice and thin as possible so heat/smoke doesn't leak.

Comments

[confortif]

I bought a plasma cutter on ebay from Harbor Freight about 5 years ago and it works just fine. Is the gap it leaves (~ 1/16th - 1/32") small enough for the "gap" you are referring to? I've cut propane tanks with this (filled with water of course!) so I know I can dial it in for a very fine cut but wanted to know if that's good enough.

[Ruettiger]

I think you are talking about the cuts for the doors? If so that would be great to use for it. If you can't get the gap small some flanges could be welding on the underside of where the door stops. This would be done to overlap the back of the door to provide a better seal. I think your plasma cutter would work much better for these cuts than the cut off wheels I used.