Where are you going to burn the steel drum? That will be one super hot inferno to pull that off.
Had mine glowing red hot last time I used it. Awesome.
After some frustrating smokey sooty sparky burns, I finally looked up how to PROPERLY construct a burn barrel... Alaska, of all places, actually has laws about the way to build one. So I took their advice and it worked very well. It's something along the lines of three 4" square holes around the bottom, covered with mesh/screen to prevent coals from leaking out. Wow, what a difference... the roaring pillar of flame burned every bit of material fully, with almost no smoke. Most excellent.
Amazing what adding a little oxygen will do for the process.