The first step of creating a drum smoker, after getting the drum, is to burn it out. This is probably the most fun part. I drilled 4 1/2 inch holes about 4 inches from the bottom for ventilation, filled it up with wood and lit it up. In all of the instructions I found online I didn't find anybody that talked about burning out the top of the drum, but I did that too. It created LOTS of smoke. On the plus side, we were able to have a marshmallow roasting party while cleaning the barrel. Thanks to my buddy for letting me use his copious yard space to do this. I'm sure my neighbors would not have been terribly happy with me had I done this in my backyard...
The barrel I got from Craislist for 30 bucks along with the ventilation holes I drilled
Now that's a FIRE!!
The kids taking advantage of said fire to make some s'mores.
Putting the lid on resulted in LOTS of smoke, but you need to burn out the top as well. I removed it for a while, then put it on at a pretty steep angle so much less smoke was produced.
