Oil drum barbecue

[SC_BK]

I'm making a barbecue out of an old oil drum, for meets of a brilliant forum called Scottish-Vanners

After searching for weeks and weeks a lad from the forum said he could source some, so I picked a dozen up from Aberdeenshire on Tuesday
They used to contain glucose sugar syrup so smell funny

Made a wee start on it yesterday:

Drum sits in the middle of the frame with space for big shelves each end. The end pieces will be able to be used as handles to carry it about. The frame is about 6ft long



Then today:



I tacked the legs on, clamp the lower cross piece in, then pulled the legs tight with a ratchet strap

All legs and lower cross braces welded on. The cross peices are angle iron and will be used to support another shelf

That should be the welding on the main frame finished now



Marked up and cut one side of the hatch on the barrel. Then welded the hinges on. Saves trying to weld the hinges with the hatch flapping about all over the place

Cut out the rest of the hatch:

That's it for today.

I've never made a bbq before, has anybody more knowledgeable than me got any tips on the charcoal side of things? Would it be best sat directly on the bottom of the barrell, or ontop of a lower grille? (I have seen both done)
Do I need to add any vents?

 

[gavuk]

I made one from an old gas cylinder ,burn charcoal on the base but its a lot thicker than a drum ,i would at least reinforce the base ,sand fill the bottom or change to a smoker and have a seperate fire box ?,loads of plans for smokers on line ...or smoker....Sam mentions using sand in the bottom .......

 

[the snooper]

barbecue this summer do you think we will have a summer this year last time i did one it started to rain had to move bbq into garage.
hope your bbq goes to plan design some sunshine into it aswell please.

 

[Dr pepper]

Looks cool, like the table sides.
I'm looking for the smaller and rarer 35 gallon drum, I want to make a tandoor oven for the mrs.
Ther best thing to burn charcoal on is charcoal or wood ashes, it'll burn nicely and wont burn a hole through yer drum.
You need vents low down for combustion air, the way I've done it with a stove I made was to weld on a piece of tube so that it sticks out 6" (so you can adjust the air without burning yer fingers), then weld a bolt to the end with a disc with a nut welded on, so that the disc can be scewed in and cover the end of the tube and restrict the air flow, you'll probably need 2 of 2" tubes.
You also will need some ventilation holes in the lid, some foods need plenty of smoke so you close them a bit, and others dont so you open them.

 

[excossack]

A friend built one from barrels and used an electric motor to drive a spit and a blower from a Land rover to blow air into the BBQ at charcoal level. It worked quite well.
MK2 now sports extractor fan!

 

[pidgeon chit welder]

You could use an insert /removable deep tray for the fire box so you only have fire in say 2/3 of the BBQ ..this would let you have a cooler cooking at one end if so desired ? You may also want to make a griddle plate with handles to sit on the main rack for steak , eggs fried or round ring griddled , toast , boil a kettle , boil eggs or heat a pan /can of bean or tomatoes .

If you make the stand so you can lift off the upper part and stand the upper part down on the ground you have a really good fire pit for the evenings when sampling of various alcoholic liquids or communion wine and you keep your legs and feet warm .

It is also good for fire safety as the fire is enclosable for windy times , you can add logs in the fire tray through out the evening .

Is the main bung hole down at the lowest point to allow washing it out and air to come in from low down or is it uppermost for air control.

What cooking rack are you using ... EXPAMET is good but needs wire brushing off at fire up time fit lifting handles on it and make up a pair of lifters to suit all removable shelves and the fire box. If you make a two piece rack you can lift one and add more fuel if needed .It's surprising how often you discover you need just a bit more when using a big BBQ .

Have you thought of a high level rack that sits on the main cooking rack so you can move food away from the heat when cooked for such things like meats , baked potatoes or bananas in foil.

For BBQ skewers ....See if you can get some stainless steel flat banding wire ..I obtained some used that is 3.5 mm wide full radius-ed rounded edges and 2 mm thick .
Once carefully straightened out and rubbed down with wet and dry to clean & remove any unwanted burrs , I cut them in 450 mm lengths and formed a nice round eye at one end .
At the pointy end I carefully ground a four sided point over 15 mm and then on the last 3 mm did a tight snub nosed 4 side one , it helps stop mushrooms splitting and allows things like onion , capsicum and olives to also be interspersed with meat & skewered up .

 

[Coo]

Lincoln website has done a project oil drum bbq....same tip as yours for attaching the hinges !

They use a mesh in the bottom

http://www.lincolnelectric.com/knowledge/articles/content/bbq.asp

 

[Keith 66]

Stainless steel beer kegs also make excellent barbies.

 

[eltis]

i made one last year for when i went to autocross events, i find they take far to much charcoal, i ended up putting a bag and a half of charcoal in, so i had planned on shortening it but i havent getting round to doing it since i started building an autocross car,

i cut the drum straight in half and used an old metal table for its legs,

 

[SC_BK]

Thanks for all the advice everyone , if you have any more, keep it coming

Is the main bung hole down at the lowest point to allow washing it out and air to come in from low down or is it uppermost for air control.

What cooking rack are you using ... EXPAMET is good but needs wire brushing off at fire up time fit lifting handles on it and make up a pair of lifters to suit all removable shelves and the fire box. If you make a two piece rack you can lift one and add more fuel if needed .It's surprising how often you discover you need just a bit more when using a big BBQ .

Have you thought of a high level rack that sits on the main cooking rack so you can move food away from the heat when cooked for such things like meats , baked potatoes or bananas in foil.

The main bung (around 2") is located near the top, as this is the way round the barrel sat in the frame best and also I have seen people fit small chimneys from the hole.

As for the rack/grille, I haven't really decided yet! I have some bits from an old fireguard that are about the right size that I was thinking about using but they seem a bit weedy, espicialy once i cut into their frame.
I'm trying to keep the costs as low as possible and unfortunatly haven't seen any shopping trolleys dumped recently

Expamet looks good, I have also seen people use 1" weldmesh (I have a pile of 2" but I think I would loose half the food through it)


Yeh the plan is to have a small upper shelf for keeping stuff warm

 

[SC_BK]

Not much to show today. I cut up the wood for the shelves either end, which is off cuts of scaffold boards from my shed. Drilled the holes to bolt them on but obivously won't fit them until the frame is painted.

Made a start on a wooden handle for the lid out of an old broom handle.


Cut and welded 2 lengths of angle to go over the lips on the drum and lid:

 

[SC_BK]

Cut up another of the drums to make a tray inside for the charcoal

 

[SC_BK]

Bent up some bar to make handles on either end of the drum, for lifting it on/off. Also welded on a bit of box section behind the middle hinge, to control how far back the lid goes:

Then made a start on welding in angle iron to support the mesh (still haven't decided what I'm using for a grille yet!).
The ends of the barrel were a bit bent so I used a length of timber and a jack to push the ends out slightly

 

[pidgeon chit welder]

Bent up some bar to make handles on either end of the drum, for lifting it on/off. Also welded on a bit of box section behind the middle hinge, to control how far back the lid goes:

Then made a start on welding in angle iron to support the mesh (still haven't decided what I'm using for a grille yet!).
The ends of the barrel were a bit bent so I used a length of timber and a jack to push the ends out slightly

Can you still lift the fire tray out to empty or replace it ?

Our normal way was to make the expm grill on an angle frame that was supported in four places on the longest side so we could lift it out to get the fire tray out .

 

[SC_BK]

The only bits welded in are the angle either end, the box in the middle is just offcuts holding the timber mid air

 

[SC_BK]

I now have some grille
It's cut into 2 pieces so you can lift one side and add/tend to the charcoal if needed

Also made a smaller upper shelf to keep food warm on

And here is the handle I made up from an old broom handle

 

[pidgeon chit welder]

It's looking good,

Today I have been preparing for our Easter barbeque , sown the remaining onion sets, sown some 36 mini plant pots with all sorts seeds for food plus a few lupins and geraniums , made a stonking big bonfire that toasted me nicely as I was in jeans and T shirt order.

Errrrrr , whats that white stuff on the floor ?


Regards

Sun Burnt of South Wales

 

[SC_BK]

It's looking good,

Today I have been preparing for our Easter barbeque , sown the remaining onion sets, sown some 36 mini plant pots with all sorts seeds for food plus a few lupins and geraniums , made a stonking big bonfire that toasted me nicely as I was in jeans and T shirt order.

Errrrrr , whats that white stuff on the floor ?


Regards

Sun Burnt of South Wales

The ground is frozen solid here!! I was moving my wee scaffold tower earlier and the spreader plates were frozen to the ground, took buckets and buckets of hot water to lift them


Here is what the BBQ looked like last thursday:

Frame painted, and the top shelves which are made out of off cuts of scaffold boards are stained and bolted on. I made the lower shelf out of an old sheet of MDF, painted it white, then made up a stencil of the forum logo, sprayed on blue. I gave all the bits of bare metal on the drum a quick lick of red oxide.


On Saturday it got it's first use at the forum meet at Loch Lomond, here is a photo taken by someone else, there's loads more on the forum if you want a nosey
http://scottishvanners.50.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=1323 (I'm the larger chuckle brother!!)

Although I avoided having to do any cooking , I think the BBQ performed quite well.
In the bottom of the drum I put in a layer of sand, with the removable trays on top. I was happy to see that none of the drum's exterior paint burnt off, so I'm currently painting it with the blue gloss used on the frame.

 

[SC_BK]

Have now painted the drum, it's gonna be getting used again in 3 weeks time at the next meet

 

[SC_BK]

Oh and here's a tool I made up for lifting the grilles in and out