For my money – and time – the best way to go about building your own BBQ smoker is to go with plans used by folks who really know BBQ.

One of the absolute best resources out there for learning about good Smoked BBQ is a book called “Real Barbecue” written by Greg Johnson and Vance Staten.  Oh – and if you are interested in building the “Big Baby” smoker – one of the very best DIY BBQ Smokers out there – they show you how to do that, too!

The Big Baby Smoker

Their take is to basically construct a solid, working BBQ smoker by using materials that are inexpensive and easy to find.

The thing you always want to ensure with any BBQ smoker is that the meat you’ve spent good money for stays out of the way of direct heat and flame, yet stays in the path of the hot air and smoke used to cook it.

Collecting the two 55-gallon drums is fairly easy. What you want to look for are in making your DIY BBQ Smoker kit are those wood-stove kits made to change over these kinds of metal drums into inexpensive stoves for heating storage sheds and the like. These kits come with what you’ll need to get started. All you need to do then is to throw in some dampers and two of those little smokestacks for each end to let the smoke out of the top part of the drum.

Constructing the Big Baby Smoker

Here are the things you’ll need to build the Big Baby smoker.

1. Steel Drums – around $20 or so each.

2. Stove Kits – you’ll need 2 of them – from hardware or wood stove stores. Should be less than $50

3. Two 22′ x 15′ grill surfaces, which you can get for about $25 from a BBQ supply shop

4. Throw in the paint, hinges, smokestacks, fire bricks, bolts and brackets – and you’ll spend a total of about $150 – much less than what you’d spend on a pro-built rig.

Once you’ve collected these materials, you’re on your way.  Check out the rest of the “How To” guide on this smoker  – found on page 260 of the Real Barbecue book by Vince Staten and Greg Johnson.