Before you make a double barrel smoker, it's helpful to know why it's such an advantageous design. Here's just one reason:

Good temperature control is a must when it comes to smoking foods. You don’t want your heat too high, otherwise you’re grilling more than you are smoking. The meat cooks too fast, and the taste and texture are different than truly smoked meat. For this reason, firebricks are used to help stabilize and maintain the temperatures in the cooking area. This is also the reason for the double-barrel design. If you need to throw extra coals or extra wood on the fire, you won’t have to open the container with the meat and upset the temperature.

Required Materials

3 – 55 Gallon Steel Drum Barrels
28 – Fire Bricks
4 – Square Aluminum Tubes (96″ long, 1″ square)
1 – Flat Aluminum Bar (to make the handles)
4 – Stainless Steel hinges for the doors
1 – Tiny hinge for the damper
2 – Thermometers. (Optional if you’re going to do the digital thing I show later.)
2 – Tubes of pure silicone caulking (rated to 500 degrees minimum.)
2 – Tubes of high-temp stove sealant (rated to 800 degrees minimum.)
3 – Cans of 1200 degree stove paint.
1 – Large duct cap (to use as a damper)
1 – Chimney pipe (I used 5″ duct pipe)
1 – Elbow for chimney (I used… Don’t know exactly what it’s called. Look at the picture.)
8 – 1 1/4″ long bolts (stainless steel) for attaching barrels to frame.
4 – 2 1/4″ long bolts (stainless steel) for attaching frames to each other.
38 – 1″ or shorter bolts (stainless steel) hinges, handles, etc.
50 – Stainless steel nuts (one for each bolt)
100 – Stainless steel washers (two for each bolt, except the damper hinges and bolts on the wooden handles, but the extras will be spacers under the hinges on the doors).
9′ – Lightweight chain. Holds the chimney in place, as well as operates the damper.
1 – Tube of JB Weld. Somehow I always find a use for this stuff.
2 – Grids to put the food on, and to make the fire basket out of.

IMPORTANT TIP REGARDING BARRELS

Unless the barrels have had food-grade stuff in them, you don't want to take the chance.  Even using a torch to completely burn every bit of paint off the barrel, sanding the entire thing, then giving it a good wash in denatured alcohol before painting it with stove paint wouldn't be enough for me to be comfortable if it had a toxic chemical in it.  Keep in mind that your food will spend an entire day in these barrels in some cases.  It's gotta be food grade.

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