Fark Me... call in the experts!

The size of the drum would be good but it won't hold up very well and the walls are very thin so you will have some heat loss there as well. I don't know the dimensions of your cook chamber but you definitely need a larger fire box and I can't really see the size of your opening but odds are if the box is small then the opening is too. What are the dimensions on the cook chamber?
 
One thing I think I see is a damper between the firebox and the smoker, this needs to be done away with and controlled at the exhaust pipe's.

I also think the inlet into the smoker is a bit high, looks to be above the cooking grates.
 
I'm willing to drop by and taste test. :thumb:

Great craftsmanship! It can be fiddled with to make it perfect!

:becky:
 
Firebox is too small. Too much heat loss with the coupling pipe. Not enough air in, not enough exhaust out. You need a large firebox with substantial draft to maintain a clean burning fire that is big enough to heat that thin-walled fuel oil tank.
 
Ryan the firebox seems to be to small, the exhaust pipes are way to small. Ryan that drum looks like an old oil drum or diesel drum, how thick is the steel on the drum? If its not at least 1/4" it will lose way to much heat.
 
won`t get hot

it was a bit chillie in central ohio yesterday but it wernt that cold smoked on the lang no problem getting to temp you need larger opening to tank located lower in cook chamber below racks (heat rises) as anyone with ofset will tell you the 55 gallon drum is a good idea cooker looks nice you guys halve put alot of work into it keep at it good luck
 
Why you building such a BIG smoker? :shock: You gonna be cooking THAT much meat? Is this to be a Whole Hog cooker?

Keep the firebox and cut the cook chamber in Half (right between the doors from top to bottom)............and add another pipe tween them or better yet notch them and stick them together like most firebox to cook chambers are..... and a baffle in cook chamber........
 
I agree with the above that the fire box is way to small. You can't produce enough heat in that to really get a cooker of that size hot.

Also a 55 gal drum will not last that long if you use it as the firebox.
The thin metal will quickly weaken at the temps needed to keep that cooker going.

Good luck
 
First off, you're smoker is just too big to burn charcoal in it to get it up to temp. You need to burn wood. I'm willing to bet if you got some nice oak going in there you'd see the temps well over 500° no problem. I dont think the firebox is to small at all. There's a lot of volume to heat up, and being 30° out doesnt help, so you need to produce a lot of heat.

Second, the stove pipe sits way to high in the cooking chamber. It should be as low as possible. If possible, raise the cooking chamber and re-plumb the pipe into the base. But, try burning wood first and see what happens.

And get rid of the damper in the pipe, it's deffinately not needed.
 
I agree with Zak.

I have a wood stove in my cabin in Northern Mich about that size.

It will heat the whole thing to 80 degrees with only a few pieces of wood no problem.

I know that thats not the same, but the thing gets freaking hot!!!

I would think you can make that firebox work if setup right.

Might have to feed it more often, but i think it would work.
 
I had kind of the same problem with my offset. The problem ended up being fixed by increasing the exhaust size. I went from 2 4" pipes, to 1 6" pipe. made all the difference. Now it takes about 30 minutes to get up to temp.

I would remove the 3 little exhaust pipes you have. Replace them with 2 larger diameter pipes. I would put them in between what you have now.

I would also move the inlet from the firebox to the chamber to below the grates. Plug the whole up top and put a new hole behind and up to the bottom of chamber.

Good luck!
 
Weekend update!

after a grueling day of grinding and drilling I am very happy to say that we got this beast up to 275 degrees on saturday!!

Turns out the wood burning stove was a bit of a hinder because it is desinged to radiate the heat and not necessarily exhaust hot air. Once I realized what was going on we got the trusty cutting wheel out and basically gutted the inside of the box (DUH:crazy:) From there I took everyones advise and drilled out a bunch more holes near the bottom of the firebox for intake. After that we lit her back up for another test run with much greater success:boxing:

With having said this, there are still some kinks.

As someone mentioned I would constantly be adding fuel and he/she couldnt be more correct. This won't be an issue on short cooks but obviously with a cooker of this size I not just making chicken wings all day. The original plan was to be able to do a whole hog+. Although it would be awesome to have whole hog capabilities i dont see me actually doing it more that once a year (if that). Therefore I am thinking of ways to modify the inside of the cook chamber in order to reduce the volume of actual heating space, with out taking away too much from the outside appearance.

I am thinking something on the line of welding a steel plate across the entire inside of the cook chamber just above the door. I am also thinking of welding a plate vertically in between the doors and re routing the intake so that its only going into one side vertually cutting the cooking space in half then just using the other side as a heating box... or something...

Any thoughts on this? I know the odds are against us but we've had a great time building it so we would like to see some success:-D. Where theres a will theres a way. (Especially when you have access to Brethren Expertise:becky:)

By the way I couldnt just stop BBQ all together so while we were working on this I pulled out my Very Ugly Drum Smoker and cooked for the family.. posted a couple pics for everyone:bow:
http://s836.photobucket.com/user/Ryan921/library/
 
Glad you had some success! I like the idea of one HOT side and one HOLDING side!
 
Do the Vertical plate between the doors but make it removable. :thumb: Bolt in........... weld some angle or plate in on all four sides to bolt to. :heh:
 
SmittyJonz, you sir are a scholar! thats a great idea, and a fairly easy fix at that. Thanks to EVERYONE for all of the great advice. I will keep posting at the build progresses.

Ryan
 
Being from Ohio(Akron). You were playing in about 20-30 degrees yesterday. The main chamber is huge and very thin walled.

The best way to get temps up with only a small cost is - Insulation. I use an Akorn because it is insulated (the reason I didn't go WSM).

Oven insulation under some wool (fire proof) blankets should get your temps up. During summer your heat will still be an issue but heating to 200 from 90 is easier than heating to 200 from 20. (Your fire box can keep up with it - maybe.) This will get it working now.
 
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