Got a drum and Kit comes in tomorrow

hamiltonbarnes

New member
My dad found a drum for me and my kit should arrive tomorrow. I am going to pick up the drum next week. Should be building end of next week and into the weekend! Any tips that I should know, I have already looked at the vid and plan on a burnout. also have bought high temp pant on Amazon that should arrive today!
 

BabelBBQ

New member
Multiple coats of paint. How much did you order? I used one can of spray paint per coat. The big box stores and the "helpful hardware" place both sell Rustoleum Ultra which has a nice shine to it if you need more.

Go a head and have a nice burn without right away with the drum and get as much of the paint off that way. I found that it didn't get all of the paint and had to have another burn the next day with the drum facing the opposite direction (assuming the wind is coming from the same direction, even a very small wind could cool the drum off enough that the paint doesn't burn off in spots).

Drill the holes and put the handle on the top. Do another burn, put the lid on for this burn and the holes should allow enough air flow to get really nice and hot and hopefully burn the paint off of the lid. (I did not do this, so I had to sand the paint of the top using a 3m sanding pad which wasn't to difficult, but would have been nice to just wipe it off with a paper towel after it had cooled off).

For the holes, I had never worked with metal before or a step bit. I saw a video of a guy making his drum (not a BPS EDS) and his video was one of the reasons I ended up ordering the kit. He mentioned the price of the bit, it is really expensive, and really makes the kit a huge value that it is included. The tip from his video I used was to keep putting a little dawn dishwasher liquid on the tip of the bit to act as a coolant/lubricant. I had tried to make pilot holes using a 1/8 in bit but the first one I tried bent the cheep 1/8 bit I bought. I think I saw someone else either post or comment about using a nail set tool as a way to put a little dimple in the drum to keep the bit from sliding. Maybe someone else can comment on this. But the only things that didn't quite line up due to the bit sliding were the bottom vent holes, and they are covered by the vent cover so really no big deal.

Regarding the bottom vent, there is a thread on the bottom vent, read that if your drum doesn't have exactly the same radius as the bottom vents, there are ideas there including high heat silicone sealant, which I did end up using (had to get it from an automotive store).

Most of all have fun, It was almost as much fun putting the drum together as it is cooking on it.
 

Salmonsmoker

New member
There is a spring loaded punch that works great for marking the drill locations. It looks similar to a nail set but the center section is a spring. You hold the point on the marking location, pull back on the spring end and let it snap back. It puts a pin dent in the metal that's perfect for drilling a pilot hole before using the step bit. The pilot hole will prevent "drift". As for fitting the bottom vents...They are curved on a larger diameter than the barrel. Take a smaller diameter cylinder- a propane tank for example, lay on it's side and gently roll the vent back and forth across it with even pressure to reduce the diameter, testing the fit against your barrel. Repeat until the curves match. Do the same with the vent slider so that it slides easily in the track. You can put the vent up to your eye and look down the curve- you'll be able to see if there are flat spots or sharper bends along it's length. Takes a couple of minutes.
 
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