As a four year student of AG. MECHANICS, perfection is needed when fabricating a smoking hot BBQ. I’ve made two BBQs for my sophomore and junior years that grill food to perfection.

With this experience, I’m making a BBQ Smoker for my final project as a senior and, I’m going to show you how to make one step-by-step. 

Step 1: When deciding how I was going to get my hands on a cheap 55-gallon barrel without any contaminants it seemed impossible. So I ended up buying my barrel from Home Depot which cost 129.58; even with the high price, it was a better option for me to pay extra than go all the way to Merced and buy a cheap beat-up barrel that I would have needed to clean before welding. 

Step 2: When I got the barrel I immediately began to cut the barrel in half. Before cutting, you need to find the center of the barrel and mark a straight line with chalk or tape where you want to cut. Some advice when cutting the barrel is to know that you can make individual cuts rather than just one long cut, but in the end, it is all preference; Just don’t be like me and make an ugly crooked cut because now I have extra work to do.

 Step 3: After cutting the barrel you need to grind the edges of the cuts to make a perfect fit and add a lip. Now it’s time to add hinges to the lid. I bought door hinges from Sorensen Ace Hardware since I didn’t have the right material to make my hinges, but if possible it’s better to make your hinges. Find where you would want to place the hinges, make sure the hinges are at the edge of the lid, see if both hinges are aligned with each other and tack them on. If not aligned with each other it will be corked when closing. 

Step 4: Now it’s time to get grippy! The handle of a BBQ speaks volumes amongst the people of this world. So why have a crappy thin metal handle when you can have a luxurious wooden handle made from a child’s hand as his hard-working sweat is infused into the handle itself, forever trapped. I plan on having a wooden oak handle made by my great friend Eli Salvatier (11) who specializes in wood. Some call him the wood whisperer, because he’s one with the wood. Either make or buy your handle to your desire. 

Step 5: The legs are a pain so listen carefully. It’s best to buy thick and strong angle iron so I ended up using ½ by ½ 3/16 inch angle iron. A barrel isn’t squared so it’s best to build a frame for the barrel to sit in or have a friend help you align the legs to your preference for squareness. 

Originally I was going to make an old-fashioned smoker with a box for material to burn and smoke the food but didn’t have enough metal for the box so I ended up giving up on the idea 🙁 But if you were going to, here’s how to.

Step 6: For me, I wanted to make an 18-inch perfect square box. so I would cut 4, 18 inches by 18-inch perfect sheets of metal and weld them together. Before tacking them together I’d use a carpeting square to make sure it’s squared then start welding. After welding the 5 sheets together I’ll start putting the hinges on the box for the last sheet (there should be 6 sheets in total). The box should have a door and vent for airflow.

Step 7: Find the section of the barrel where you would want to place your box and cut both the box and barrel to allow airflow through, usually, you’ll place it where the box slopes down on the smoker and is the same width as it. So since my box is 18 inches long I’ll place the box on the barrel where it meets that length. 

Step 8: For the inside of the smoker, I’m going to use angle iron and expanded metal. I want to build a frame for the expanded metal to sit in so I can take it out whenever needed. Since I don’t plan on making a traditional BBQ smoker anymore. 

I plan on showing my smoker at the May day fair if I finish in time.  I was going to sell the BBQ Smoker, but I’m most likely going to keep it and use it as a reminder what to do and not do when building a smoker.

A word of advice please don’t rush the process. Even if your life depends on it, it’s better to do the project the right way instead of ruining it by rushing. The faster you work the more prone you are to mistakes and will take more time and energy fixing it than if you did it right the first time.  

Here’s a list of things I needed and what it cost me to build my BBQ Smoker:

Home Depot stainless steel 55-gallon barrel- Total $129.58

Angle iron – 1 – ½ x 1 – ½ x ⅛ – Total $23.25

Angle iron – 1 x 1 x ⅛ – Total $29.44

Door hinges – Total $12.35

4-foot by 8-foot expanded metal – Total $30.25

In total 224.87

The metal I used was bought from Modesto Steel. The metal could be bought anywhere else it doesn’t matter.  

To be continued:  be on the lookout for another article showing the completed smoker.