Just realized I forgot to post the final intersecting curve.

Done working on it for today. I have parts coming tonight for my truck so Tue & Wed are going to be predominantly truck days but I might get something done on the smoker, depends upon the weather.
1) Used some scrap 16ga sheet metal and cut 2-1" thick ribs that got welded inside the door on the top and bottom.
2) Same 16ga scrap cut 2 pieces 16" long x 2" wide and 2 pieces 26" long x 2" wide. Cut 45's on both ends and welded them to the outside of the door with 1" overhang. Only issues were having to cut and flatten the ribs on the drum but after doing the first one the rest went easy. Cut a 1/4" notch in the middle, reformed with a pair of duck bills and welded up the slot. The ribs have to be dealt with on both the drum and the door. I used a piano hinge welded to the right side of the door overhang.

Now it's on to the vents and door latch. Not sure how I'm going to do the latch yet, time will tell. There will be a total of 6 vents 3 holes each with sliding dampers, 3 on the top and 3 on the bottom. That will be the next installment.





For anyone new to welding, DO NOT try and run a bead. You will warp the drum beyond repair. You will notice everything I do is about 1/2" spot welds keeping 2"-4" apart depending upon the amount of stress on them. I spaced the ones on the top and bottom of the outer door frame closer because the steel was bent to shape as I went.

Very cool, good job building it. I have a friend with one we made but it's nowhere near as nice as that, we did this one with the drums end to end with a stack coming out of it with two flip up lids, it is on wheels though. Nice job.
Lost.

It will be on wheels in the end, just haven't gotten that far yet. Did get the axle back in the truck today tho, just gotta test drive tomorrow then back to the smoker.

looking very Good A77, Thanks !!

Just a note, I haven't forgotten about this I just had a bunch of wood fall into my lap that I couldn't turn down so I had to shift gears to that. I'll be back on this soon.

I've gotten rid of all the unwanted company so figured I'd get this thing done. Wrong. My Argon/CO2 is down to 75psi. I have a buddy coming up on Sat who's going to take the tank with him and get it filled since he lives in the city near the welding store. I should have it back in my possession next week Sat and I can get this done. Sorry it's taken so long, most things I do are done in a few days and I figured this would take a week.

OK. Got the tank back and the work begins.
I marked out a CL on the upper drum and layed out the 2 holes that will allow the smoke to move from the burn chamber to smoking chamber. Then used my scroll saw with a metal blade to cut out the holes. Then welded.





Got the holes cut into the burn chamber for the sliding vents.


Next is to get the sliders cut, fitted and attached to open/close the vents. I'm choosing to do this before attaching upper to lower because it's lighter and easier to move around right now and I'm going to have to put it on my bench to fit the vent sliders. Once this is done I'll be attaching the upper to the lower and cutting the door into the smoke chamber.

Got 2.25 of the vents done on the burn chamber. I ran out of rivets. I'll be headed to town on Tue so I'll pick some up then and finish that part. In the mean time tomorrow I'll be getting the handle for the burn chamber fab'd and installed so I can get rid of the bungy cord.

I cut the vents out of the scraps I cut out of the burn chamber to create the intersecting curve. I then had to figure out a solid way to make them slide back and forth without falling off. So. I made a set of jaws for a pair of vice grips to crimp a flange on the tin that would be the channel. Because I needed it to not only form for the flange but also wrap around the barrel I went with some thin roof style tin I had laying around and because it's so thin welding was not an option and I don't like screws because the expansion/contraction of the metal when it heats/cools will cause them to fall out so I went with 1/8"x1/4" pop rivets.

That looks like it was a real PITA Thanks for the update.