Gasketing the lid of my UDS. (project pron)
 

The dreaded leaky lid. The weather has started to turn colder up in my neck of the woods and for most that means it's time to pack up their grills and smokers until spring. Not me! I plan on continuing to do both through the whole winter but, it has gotten me to think about holding more heat in on my UDS. During the summer, having little smoke leak out around the lid hasn't phased me all that much but, now I am seeing that as potential heat loss as well. So, off I went to the hardware store!
Luckily I have gotten to the point with my local hardware stores that they no longer frown when I mention I am there to buy stuff for my smokers. (For some reason I think they are naturally convinced that everyone is out to blow themselves up or cause severe bodily harm to others.) So, when I walked in and said, "I need gasketing for my smoker!", They didn't even bat an eye, just showed me right over to the fireplace area. After a quick discussion regarding installation, I was left on my own. At this point one has to make a choice in gasketing, either rope style or flat style and then of course how wide. On closer inspection of the flat style, it appeared to have a groove running down the middle that I thought the rounded edge of my drum might fit nicely into so I went with that type. Figuring that the lip of my lid was roughly 1/2" wide I went with the 5/8" wide stuff. The stuff I found only came in six foot lengths, on the upside I found that if you work it correctly, 6' will work just fine for doing a 22.5 Weber style lid. Along with that you also have to pick up some gasketing cement to install the gasketing.
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To start the project, I bent out the lip of my lid to the point where it was almost flat and then gave it a quick cleaning with a wire brush.
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The lid was then placed upside down on my UDS for support and the gasketing was put inside to make it easier to work with.
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A bead of the gasketing cement was then laid down in the groove of the lip of the lid. I would do this in 8" segments.
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The gasket was then laid in place. A couple of tips with this, make sure you push down on the gasket when you lay it in or it could slip. If you pull the gasketing to tight, it will also slip out of place.
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It might take some work but a 6' length should work. On one lid I actually had about 10" of excess that needed to be trimmed off.
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Now, the directions on the cement say you need to then close the furnace door tightly for 2 hours to allow the cement to bind properly. In this case I quickly flipped over the lid and set it on top of the UDS. I very carefully adjusted it to where I thought it was the most even all the way around and then pushed down firmly on the lid for several seconds.
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The gasketing was allowed to sit overnight to harden up. So, far it has bonded like it says it should. The lid feels like it fits more firmly on the UDS now and I'm hoping there will be zero air leaks around the lid from now on. Can't wait to finally test it out this weekend! :thumb:
Thanks for looking!

Nice! Excellent guide for those who wish to use some rope gasket!:thumb:

I was about to ask about ways to seal up my UDS. Thanks a lot. I will look into this method.

NO......Really!!!!! It gets cold up there.....:laugh:
Good Info
Thanks for sharing

:becky: At this point I'm so used to it, I complain about summer. :laugh:

Your idea looks good. I spent 11 Gs on martial arts lessions for two kids, this still may be the best use ofhttp://s956.photobucket.com/albums/ae47/work3fish4/ one of their belts. Worked great on a windy cool day.

Great idea - thanks for sharing.

cool idea, keep us posted on the result.

I did the same thing to the lid on my uds, after about a month the gasket sealer got brittle and started to flake out. The rope got loose and became a real pain. Took the rope out and beat the brittle sealer off of and out of it and reinstalled using red silicone. Been about a year now and no problem. Maybe you will be luckier than I was.

I might have to try this. The foiled rim mod is okay, but this looks better.

BTW, is it necessary to flatten out the lid?

Thanks for the advice! This is my first time doing it, so glad to know!

If your lid fits good without having been bent out, I would say you could probably use a round type of gasket instead and make sure it was only about 1/4" wide, then the lid would continue to fit as normal with the gasket helping to seal it up better.

I must say that the gasketing worked very well... for the 5 minutes that it stayed on. :mad2: :frusty:
I plan on trying out the red silicone as soon as I get back to the hardware store.

Yep I had the same problem with my ECB attempted this mod with no luck. Didnt know anything about red silicone will have to try that once I get my Weber lid.

my red silicone made it about a year with my rope gasket then i just tore the whole thing off and never looked back. i will use a welding blanket this winter to help hold heat.

Bigbuitz:

Two issues that I see from your pictures.

1. The bonding surface has to be squeaky clean. Yours isn't.
2. You didn't use red silicone.