[Rajun Gardener]

I decided to remove all of the paint inside and out just to be safe. I burned the barrel again and it did remove some paint but not all so I grabbed the Harbor Freight weed torch and burned it all off. The torch is cleaner than a fire inside, the black is metal and the brown is surface rust from sitting after the 2nd burn.

I used oven cleaner and a new toilet brush to scrub the light paint haze that was left and it all came off easier than I thought.



I wanted to do a break in cook and see if I need to change things before a paint job so I applied a liberal amount of cooking oil to the inside and started coals in the chimney. the basket worked great.

All fired up with 3 intakes open and she burns about 300

After about 3 hours I added a chunk of bacon fat to the water pan and cooked some pork steaks. The temp settled in about 230 with only one intake open.


I pulled them off after about 3 hours, these came out great considering I didn't add woodchips.


That was late last night, I checked the barrel this morning and it's nice and seasoned inside, today I'm doing checken legs for a flare up/fire test.