First cook on homemade Bigmista balcony smoker clone

Norcoredneck said:

Only during their allocated play period, or unless the family has some school project due tomorrow/emergency situation. I'm sure you have all been there. If you are curious and not bored go to photobucket.com and search "norcoredneck" and check out the electric smoker I made for work. Worked out great, real hit at work since no fire is allowed.
Link:
http://s91.photobucket.com/albums/k296/norcoredneck/?start=0

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That is a cool idea...is there a door to replenish the wood chips?

Was looking at your welding post, on thin gage material like that cleaning off all the paint around the joint will really help out. Sometimes on bushings similar to those I will try some 309L filler (stainless). You won't have any problem tying into the drum, so you can concentrate on fusing to the bushing.

Only thing I know about welding is you get to wear cool gloves and a mask and make sparks.

Bigmista said:

Only thing I know about welding is you get to wear cool gloves and a mask and make sparks.

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Playing with fire...that's about the size of it. Oh.., don't forget those cool hats.

UDS details needed

Norcoredneck, you built a cool UDS smoker! I'm interested in making one. Would you clarify some details for me? I see there are two sizes of BDS fire grates on their website. What are the specs for the large grate ring and base and small ash grate ring and base? What size bolts to attach the fire grate parts? In the side of the barrel what size bolts are used to hold the grate up? Does it matter how far the holes in the lid are from the edge? Thanks!

Looks SWEET!!!!!!!

Great info!

:-D Thanks for the additional links. Those are some great photos and detailed instructions! Definitely some good changes by you and the brethren from your first UDS.

Great idea on the fire grate (no pun intended of course), ash pan, and handle. What size pan did you use to catch the ashes?

I saw photos and the lid template on the forum. The holes look to be about 3 or 4" from the edge of the lid. I tried to unsuccessfully enlarge the template. What is the best distance to use?

I told my brother and co-workers about the UDS. My brother told his co-workers. We acquired 4 food grade drums and have 5 people who want a UDS and a few more are curious. This info will really help with the build. We plan to build the first drum this weekend.

I found temp a gauge like on the UDS at a local BBQ store. Without calibration its $ 14, with calibration its $ 24. Should I get the calibrated one, and are there better prices for it?

wow

Wow, this is a great thread for building one of these smokers. I have looked around and found a local place selling used food grade barrels relatively cheaply but A) I live in a neighborhood where I have seen a neighbor ding'd by the hoa for having a shed top peaking out over their fence so doing a major burnout isn't really an option and B) considering me and my family are going to be eating food out of this I would like to have a barrel that I know what has been in it previously. So I saw in your thread that you ordered your barrel new from mcmaster. I have a location relatively near where I work and was looking at the 20 guage 55 gallon drum part number 4115T68. This is an uncoated (on the inside) new steel drum which should work. Anyone have any problems with this one I should know about? Secondly it has normal black paint on the outside. Since I can't really do a good burnout what would you suggest on this? I can always try to hit it with my sander but seems like alot of work. Is it needed to do this? I could not tell if you were using the standard paint that came with the drum or if you sanded/repainted. Third is I had an idea for adding functionality to this and wanted to see what everyone here though. Right now I have a gas smoker and a gas grill. I really like the taste of charcoal grilling though. So what I was thinking was add another "grill level" about 2 inches inside the top of the barrel and then if I want to grill out put my charcoal on the top of the 1st normal grate down (about 6" so about 4" from the food grate I am putting in so I could use the upper section as a charcoal grill. Any objections to doing that? Fourth from the comments about finding just the right height for the grill racks. What I was planning was to have 5-6" from the lid and work down from there. From cad drawings it looks like I should be able to get 3-4 racks in although I also want to have a wood chip holder suspended above the coals and a water pan above that. Would having the water pan help to alleviate some of the concern about how far the lowest level of food is from the coals? If I can get 4 22.5" racks in there then that give me ALOT of cook space. Also thinking of adding extra level holes that I could blank off if not needed for when doing ribs to allow for even more rack space. Any comments on this? Obnepec

one more thing

One more thing I was looking at. As I don't have access to welding equipment but I really like the roller you have on it had an idea and wanted to see what you thought. What I was thinking was, instead of welding the pieces to the bottom of the barrel, make the X with castors attached at the edges and then drill 4 holes through the material holding the castors and drill holes through the bottom of the barrel and then bolt the castor X to the bottom of the barrel. Probably not as sturdy as welding but with washers/nuts on all sides so its not focusing the force on a small area of the bottom I think it would work. Any comments?

Obnepec