My take on the ol' UDS
 

Well for about the last year I have been chomping at the bit to build a UDS, but have been putting it off because I couldn't find any good barrels. Well after searching craigslist religiously for about 2 months, I acquired all the parts needed, and the journey began.

I started out with a food grade barrel from craigslist for $20
Got it sandblasted locally for another $20
Then found a donor weber kettle for $10 at a garage sale.
Got some clearance 22.5 weber racks for $10 each
Spent about $40 on hardware and started to build this thing and here is what I came up with.

http://stuff.bryanrabeconstruction.c...903_105305.jpg


Just a run of the mill UDS, but I have been experimenting with diffusers. I had a 22.5 pizza stone laying around and threw that in.
http://stuff.bryanrabeconstruction.c...903_103359.jpg

I had great luck with that and my stoker, +-1 degree swings, but then ran into issues with my standard charcoal grate not going more than 6 hours, before needing to be refilled. Sitting scratching my head one night on what to do for more charcoal capacity, I looked over at my donor weber and though hmm I have an idea... and came up with this.

http://stuff.bryanrabeconstruction.c...905_193818.jpg

By just cutting the lip off of the kettle the weber fits very snugly inside, and I drilled some extra holes, and added some slots to the front port for the fan on the stoker.
http://stuff.bryanrabeconstruction.c...907_185201.jpg

I cut the legs off to a few inches to get enough space for ash, I filled it mounding to the top with about 30lbs of fuel, and set off to see if I could get more than 6hrs out of her..Well 32 hours later the fire went out, I was pretty happy with that (pizza stone was in it, and it went though a thunder storm or 2) it held +-1 degree at 275 the ENTIRE TIME, of course my computer froze that had the stoker log.. it was beautiful.

I put a gasket on the bottom of the barrel (had a locking lever) and just raise and lower the body over the weber charcoal grate, it keeps it airtight and allows for easy starting/refueling/cleaning. I was thinking of adding some latches on the bottom just to make sure it stays airtight.. but other that that I consider the build a success.

Thanks to all and there are more pictures here... http://stuff.bryanrabeconstruction.com/Qin/UDS/

Bryan

It's a beauty, congrats!

Nice!

Congrats on the build!

nice looking rig.

M

Ah yes! Gotta love that ingenuity. Good fix.

A man with a plan! Love it!

Where did you get the pizza stone? I'd like to get one like that for an 'ugly pizza oven' I'm thinking about building.

Great idea.
I'd expect a slight improvement in efficiency as well.
Without the stoker and forced air, I wonder if you'd need additional slots for fresh air intake.

Wow! Thats brilliant. A donor Kettle as an Ash Basket. I have 3 Donors I bought for the lids (building 3 UDS for friends).

32 hours? Wow. Love your ingenuity, brother. Thanks for sharing!

Arlin

Nice work! Great ideas!!!:clap2::thumb:

Nice job :thumb::thumb:

I was thinking the same thing.....except I had tri tip in mind. Some smoking and a quick reverse searing at the end. :thumb: