Ugly Drum Smoker

As long as you have 2"s of exhaust the style doesn't really matter. I like to close off my intake and exhaust when I'm done a cook in order to save the unburnt lump. A puck works for me but there are lots of variations on damping down the barrel.
BTW- here's my latest drum-de-le-icious attempt.
Sour cream and brown sugar coffee cake with a bit of Maple smoke!

I guess I got the tin can mod from my granddad who always put a can over the exhaust pipe on his tractor to keep the rain out. I guess it really sunk in and that is why I do it. Plus it makes it real easy to shut the drum down after a cook or slow it down during a cook before taking the lid off to turn, baste, switch racks or whatever during a cook.

garyk1398 said:

I finally got my UDScompleted! Thanks to Pat (Norco), n8man and Barbarian for their help and words of wisdom!

Click to expand...

Norco's new quote
"Now you got it purty,
Go get it Dirty"


Welcome to the Drom Corps.

Meat Burner said:

New England brother...looks great so far!!! Keep after it and you will have a first class smoker very soon. Burn it out one more time just to be same, then "get r done". Keep posting those build pics.

Click to expand...

Thanks,

Looks like I might be keeping my original lightly kerosened drum for a burn barrel.

Today I got in touch with a guy from craigslist that has two 48 foot trailers full of drums. He said 90+% of them are food grade and most of those had olive, peanut oil or juice in them. To keep things simple he gets $12 ea. for any drum. He has sealed drums and open tops with lids.

Only negative about the whole deal is that he is about an hour away from me by car (about 75 mi). But, I am just happy to have found such a good source for drums.

I am going to have a couple of them for a weekend burn out. I might even have my uds all built by the end of the weekend. I have everything I need but the charcoal grate now.

Sorry for double posting, but I just thought of a few qestions for you experienced UDS builder/operators. Your opinions would be appreciated.

1.What will give me the most accuracy bang for my buck wise as far as thermometers go? I have a $16 grill care pit thermo with a 3" probe but it has not been used yet and I can return it if need be.

2. Someone mentioned using brass nipples/caps on there intakes so the caps would not rust onto the nipples. Is this a good upgrade or just a waist of money?

3. I am thinking about putting a 2" vent cap on top of my 2" exhaust nipple. It is the type that would go on the fuel oil tank for your home. This would be for both looks and functional as a rain cover for the exhaust. Do you think it would fark up my air flow through the exhaust or cause any other undesireable outcome?

4. I am considering a very short riser for the intake with the ball valve. I will use a 3/4x1 1/2" nipple out of the the intake hole. Then a 90* elbow, followed by a 3/4 x 2 1/2" nipple and then the ball valve. like I said very short. Do you think such a short riser would cause me any trouble with intake or temp adjustment? I am just thinking that the short riser would get the ball valve a little mor out of the way and look a bit better.

Thats it for now.

I am sure I will think of more though.

Thanks in advance for your input.

JT

Ummm JT... you are making the first mistake of building a UDS.. no worries, all of us do it... YOU ARE OVERCOMPLICATING IT... Build the thing as close to the basic UDS as you can with the materials at hand and then make the mods as you learn. there is nothing in your "hit list" that cant be added later. If something doesnt work, you will be more able to track down your problems if you make one change at a time.

Jt- keep the lid as light and simple as possible. The guys with 2" car exhaust or Bavarians pipe make for nice light lids and developed from experience with heavy or unweildy lids- trying to handle a hot unbalanced lid with one hand and mopping or flipping food with the other isn't easy peasy. For your intake -since you are in New England, I would go up a size in ID and bring the valve up higher. I like this when I'm cooking in a snow storm and my UDS is in a snowdrift. Also, winter cooking at 20 below requires a little more air intake then our New mexico Brethren with a 110 degree day.
One other thought- food safe barrels doesn't mean unlined.

Beerwolf said:

Ummm JT... you are making the first mistake of building a UDS.. no worries, all of us do it... YOU ARE OVERCOMPLICATING IT... Build the thing as close to the basic UDS as you can with the materials at hand and then make the mods as you learn. there is nothing in your "hit list" that cant be added later. If something doesnt work, you will be more able to track down your problems if you make one change at a time.

Click to expand...

AAWWW come on I wanna make mine Better!........Stronger!.........Faster!.... :biggrin:

I want Ram Air, Turbo Chargers, Dual Exhaust and Posi Trac! All in Titanium & Chrome Too!!

Sorry I kind of lost my head. It is funny that the reason I was looking into a UDS was because of the WSM's Price tag. But if you add up the price to everything I have thought about doing to my drum it steadily creeps closer and closer to the price of that WSM. ...........Crazy, but for some reason bulding it myself makes me want to keep upgrading it and I haven't even started it yet.

You are right I should go simple at first, and I remember reading that more than once in this thread and thinking "that is good advice". But, it is going to be hard to do. I'll have to see how it goes I guess. No promises even though I know you are 100% right about this.

The brass nipples should not be any better/worse performance wise than the black ones though. Do you think it is worth while for those due to the possiblity of the black ones rusting? I remember reading someone cussing out there nipples for rusting to there caps on here.

h20loo:
Thanks for the advice on the intake size. I actually remembered reading this too and forgot I guess........such a long thread. It will be cool to be having Que for din din in the middle January too. I will probably just use a very short 2" nipple on the exhaust with the vent cap. The vent cap is very thin and very light. My primary concern was the possible reduction of flow through the vent cap farking everything all up. What are your feelings on this matter?

BTW, I am going tomorrow evening to get 2 Drums(all I could get approval for was $25) from the barrel man. Do you all think I should just get two open drums with lids/bands or mix it up and get one of those and a sealed drum that needs to be cut open? he is a ways away so I will not be going back anytime soon.

Thanks, this site is great.

Good thinking... remember you arent making the space shuttle here... all it needs to do is smoke some form of mamal. If you can control the process, you are sucessful, if you cant.. you learned something.

Once you see how simple these things are to cook with in "stock form" you will probably forget most of the additions and concentrate on making smoked food rather than making a Smoker to smoke food... thats what we are all here for... well most of the time.

thickness

I talked to a guy who has 200 barrels in good shape with lids for $13, they had varnish in them.
I told him I might get some but might try and find some that had food products in them first.
He told me that barrels that had food in then aren't are thick as the ones that have had things like oil,ect,.
My question is that true or is he just trying to sell his barrels?
thanks,
craig

Craig;

first off , weclome fellow MOFO (that's short for Missouri folk)

Now, in an attempt to answer your question. I would discount his theory. If he is offering a heavy weight barrel, that wouyld be a good thing if you had a way of verifying that claim. I wouldn't worry too much about the barrels containing varnish. Varnish will burn off relatively easy. Enamel or epoxy lined barrells, on the other hand, can be a bich to burn out.

Personally, if I were you, I would also be considering the driving distance to get a barrell. If there was only a coating of varnish in an otherwise unlined barrel and it was relatively close by, and its a relatively heavy guage barrell, I recommend you go for it .

JTank70 said:

What will give me the most accuracy bang for my buck wise as far as thermometers go? ks in advance for your input.

JT

Click to expand...

If you look at Grainger's Web site, you will notice that they are closing out their Ashcroft dial thermometers. I got some, and they don't need any adjustment but they are adjustable if they should slide out of calibration. They are high quality and the ones with the 3" or 6" stems are like $8. You can't order them online, you have to call Grainger to order them. And you have to have a Grainger account, which means you have to have a business license or know someone who does. But this is a real good deal in my opinion. I snapped up 3 of their 2" dial thermos with 9" stems back when those were about $12, now they put them back up to something like $30.

seattlepitboss

Exhaust venting

I am to the point that I need to put the exhaust vents in the drum lid. As it sits now, I think that there isn't any reason to make the exhaust adjustable. I am thinking that the amount of air you let in the bottom is going out the top. If you choke of the exhaust, you could override the air intake metering at the bottom. Basically, the air that flows through the system is the lesser of the amount you let through the bottom or top.

Am I thinking correctly? is the general concesus (4) 3/4" diameter holes?

Lid

pinghacker said:

I am to the point that I need to put the exhaust vents in the drum lid. As it sits now, I think that there isn't any reason to make the exhaust adjustable. I am thinking that the amount of air you let in the bottom is going out the top. If you choke of the exhaust, you could override the air intake metering at the bottom. Basically, the air that flows through the system is the lesser of the amount you let through the bottom or top.

Am I thinking correctly? is the general concesus (4) 3/4" diameter holes?

Click to expand...

I think it is 8- 1/2" holes on the lid.

ok now I am severly p.o.'d at myself!!!!

For some strange reason I had it in my head that the food grade drums with the red liner in them were the good ones. I just drove 120+ miles round trip and bought a freekin barrel that is not going to work out.

Fark Fark Fark Fark Fark!!!!! I am Dumb as a bag of hammers.

I am going to bed the ride made me tired.

Yahoo...I finally have something to post about. Went down to the farm turkey hunting last weekend and saw an old John Deere grill under the clubhouse. Had to 25++ years old. Anyway, I put the tape on it and it measured 22.5" across. My wheels started turning and I ended up bringing it home. After some good scrubbing and a coat of paint, I put he bottom of the old grill on the UDS and it fits perfectly. The top fit, but the bottom has a flange around it that actually fits it to the drum. I was even able to take the vent off the top and fit it to the bottom part of the grill. Shoot, I got to go take a picture and post it.

If you have an old rusted out John Deere grill, there is hope for it as a UDS lid.

Maybe you'll luck out and the red liner will burn out easy.....it has happened before

Here we go...and this is before I found out I am receiving a donated Weber grill to use for a top. :-D Might have to build another UDS.

There were three legs on the top (bottom) but two had broken off. I drilled 3/4" holes where the metal had torn out and threaded two pipes in and capped them. Fired it up last night and it holds great at any temp from 190 - 250. Then I tested for the shutdown and it goes dead in less than an hour when I close it off. Now I can smoke two grills worth of meat instead of just the one!

JTank70 said:

ok now I am severly p.o.'d at myself!!!!

For some strange reason I had it in my head that the food grade drums with the red liner in them were the good ones. I just drove 120+ miles round trip and bought a freekin barrel that is not going to work out.

Fark Fark Fark Fark Fark!!!!! I am Dumb as a bag of hammers.

I am going to bed the ride made me tired.

Click to expand...

My red liner burned out in 20 minutes with a weed burner, give it a burn.:lol:

I gave away the first drum smoker I made. Sniff. Now I only have the 85. Sniff.