Just an FYI be VERY careful building smokers out of drums. I worked in the natural gas and oil industry 42 years. I had a very successful retirement after those years. Anyway some of those barrels had arsenic and PCB’s and other chemicals in some barrels. Keep in mind barrel labels often mean nothing. You might think some barrels had soap in them. Soap is loaded in plastic barrels.
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Good info.
Meathead concurs and states this caution on the Big Poppa Smokers Kit page:
"Reconditioned drum. Open top 55 gallon reconditioned drums can be found for as little as $50, not including delivery. The supplier needs to be a state licensed re-conditioner and you must require that the drum has not held chemicals. Believe it or not, metal is porous and chemical residue is hard to remove. State employees will visit licensed reconditioners on a regular basis to ensure that the company is following proper cleaning procedures and that the equipment being used is operating within state regulations, which vary from state to state."-
Even during cleaning drums it’s next to impossible to remove residue in the bottom and top seams of the drum. You can purchase perfectly NEW clean barrels but your going to pay a LOT MORE than $50
At the same time it wouldn’t surprise me if offset smokers have been built from salvaged
natural gas and oil pipeline piping.
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Look for unpainted barrels that had a plastic bag liner for juiceComment
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Buy a new 55 gal drum, not reconditioned. When I left a job 10 years ago (I managed the HW storage area), I took two new drums with me. One I gave to my brother who made an UDS. The other I still have.
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