Step 3 – Install the Grill Mounts
If you’ve used our fire basket design and the drum is a standard 34+” tall, you want to mount the grill grate about 7” below the top. This will give you the desired 24” clearance between the charcoal grate of the fire basket and the grill grate. It will also give you plenty of room to cook brisket, pork butt, and most roasts. If you’re going to cook beer can chicken or turkey, you’ll need to use a Weber lid for those cooks.
Drill 4 evenly spaced ¼” holes that are 7” below the top of your drum. Insert ¼” x 1 ½” bolts with a washer in each hole. Tighten a ¼” lock washer and nut on the bolt end inside of the drum. These inward facing posts will support the grill.
Place your grill on top the mounts and make sure it is even.
Step 4 – Install the Body Handles
Install the handles on opposite side of the drum just below the first ridge. The will likely be above the grill mounts you just installed. Use ½” long bolts for the handles so they don’t interfere with the grate. Use a lock washer under the nut. Mark the barrel using the actual handles and drill the appropriate size holes for the bolts.
Step 5 – Install the Exhaust Damper
You can mount a 2” exhaust stack in the bung hole without any extra drilling. We saw 2” electrical conduit that was threaded and could be used for an economical stack at Home Depot. Instead, we opted to install a simple swivel damper under a compression spring. We used a 2” bolt, nuts, washers and the spring to hold an electrical conduit cover plate in place and allow it to be adjusted by swiveling. We obtained all of this hardware at Home Depot. The conduit plates already have a hole drilled in the corner so that’s one less thing to do. See the picture below.
