Reverse flow smokers

[Swindon_Ed]

I'm looking to build myself a new smoker over the winter to keep me busy.

i'm looking to make an offset using an oil barrel, but i've seen a few people talking and making reverse flow smokers and i'm wondering what the benefit of reverse flow is

[JEC]

No experience of reverse flow offsets myself but found this

http://www.thesmokering.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34514

I'm starting to design a catering sized cabinet smoker which will be reverse flow, ala Backwoods style, to me this gives advantages over conventional flow as the heat will be more evenly distributed, unlike in a WSM for example where the edges of the racks are typically hotter than the rest of the grate