MTF's ugly little scavenger entry

[Miketheforester]

Here we go folks after plan number 1 went to shit I finally found my blank canvas. Prepare to be amazed... Or deeply disappointed?

[Frank_Cox]

Hahaha, I'm ready!

[Gizmo]

I'm sorry my puter must be on the fritz or something mtf - I can't see your picture here ...

[The Czar]

No pics....never happens....

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[smokethis]

Where is the pic .........did u get ur tank from frank its the new invisible line

[DUAYNE B]

Holy Crap dude, that looks amazing!!! Great pics and idea

[DUAYNE B]

Ohh wait, wrongg thread, no pics in this one

[Miketheforester]

Here is the only clue I'm giving until the build is done, and yes it will be RF, and yes it will have a 10 gallon or less CC.

[ATTACH]11133[/ATTACH]

[The Czar]

[Smokeone]

I don't think that plastic bucket is gonna hold up.

[Miketheforester]

You just wait S1 this is going to be epic...

[The Czar]

Says the man with a plastic bucket....

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[Miketheforester]

So here we go. You all saw the 15 gallon barrel I started with. I decided i was going to turn that into a vertical center feed RF. Next I had to figure out what I was going to scrounge for the RF plates and lid. All I could come up with was some old disc blades that a found laying around an old farm. Everything down hill from there. By the time my gears were done turning I decided this was going to be an all in one disco, grill and RF rig. Here are pictures of most of the sources of material. Most of the normal steel bits came out of scrap piles here and there. One mans scrap is another man's free steel source.

[Miketheforester]

Sorry folks, I flat out suck at taking pictures, so bear with me. My next step was to cut the bottom 1/3 of my barrel of, then begin making the pieces to go in it. I built my lid/ disco by cutting down one of the disc blades to the diameter of the lip on my barrel and welding in a bung cut out of a drum lid seen in the pile of stuff on the previous post. Next I cut 2 plates for my RF plates, the first with a hole in the center and the second just smaller than the diameter of the barrel. Then I cut 2 rigs out of 1/8 inch steel plate the diameter of the barrel an about 1 inch wide to create a mating surface between the top and bottom part of the barrel. Then I took all of these pieces and wrapped and welded bands of varying thickness and widths of scrap steel around the outsides of the fore mentioned parts to act as a mating surface between the barrel and the parts that could be screwed through, so I wouldn't have to ruin the vintage paint on the barrel by welding on it. I also had to cut a new bottom for the barrel due to severe rust issues, and that is where I put the air intake.

[Miketheforester]

Next I added legs to the bottom of the lower portion of the drum to clear the air intake, I built a fire basket and a grate. Here are all of the parts ready to assemble.

[Miketheforester]

I figured assembly would be the easiest part of this build because all I had to do was bolt it all together, right? This part really sucked! The barrel was damaged and bent as is from a long and violent life, so then when I tried to load in several rigid steel ring with 0 tolerance figured in I really had to fight every part and some of the made me adapt to their will. So my "bolt in" assembly ended up requiring a BFH, pry bars, grinding and every other method of persuading that I could think of. Eventually all of the pieces went into place except for one of the mating rings which ended up sitting in the wider portion in the bottom of the upper portion of the barrel. I just wrapped it with Nomex gasket material and ran screws into it such that the pulled the ring tight into he barrel.

[Miketheforester]

Here is a picture of that last bast**** mating ring installed.

[Miketheforester]

So here is the finished product in its 3 configurations. Luckily the way the barrels are built to stack the fire box portion of the smoker can be set on top of the cook chamber portion of the barrel for convenient use on the disco and grilling function.

[Miketheforester]

So here are pictures of the finished product. The brawt was the seasoning run and the chicken was lunch this afternoon. Overall this cooker works really well and is heaping full with just under one chimney of charcoal in it. I do have to watch, because if the cooker runs for a long time the intake plugs with ash, and that thing is hot if you adjust it after the cooker is warmed up. Other than that the thing seals up extremely well which was one of my main concerns, but the tight fitting disco lid and the Nomex gasket on the mating surface really do the trick.

[Clover Ridge Smokers]

Looks really good Mike!! I bet the Q taste pretty good too.

[TuscaloosaQ]

LIKE LIKE LIKE LIKE!!!!!!!!!!

[The Czar]

.....and it was some mighty fine chicken!!!!

[Miketheforester]

So in the end this is a fairly good build that would have been worlds easier if I hadn't wanted to preserve the paint on the barrel and could have welded to it. My final cost for this project is around $20.

[The Czar]

And living up to the name Captain Tightwad!!

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[Smokeone]

MTF you definetly went all out. That will be one useful little unit!

You know samples always help the vote count.