UDS First Burn, couple of questions though - -pics

Heres my UDs I built over the past few days, did it in my spare time at work, its my first shot at one so Im not completely familiar with a few things and hoping you guys can help me out.

1. When lighting the coal (lump) I dumped half a bag into my basket and some into my chimney. After getting the ones in the Chimney hot I dumped them into the basket in the UDS. Is this an ok way to light them all, Its been over and hour and nothing else is catching on yet. Ive got all 3 of my air intakes open 100% and exhaust open all the way.

2. When online can I find an affordable screw on thermometer to gauge cooking temp. Cant find any locally.

Ive attached pics, atleast I hope so. first time Ive tried attaching pics

Thanks Alan, wasnt sure if they would catch over time or not, Guess for my initial fire up I was expecting all to catch

Thanks for the compliments ! This was actually the factory paint Mobil puts on their drums we get at work. I was hoping to paint it flat black with muffler paint but until then the red will do, Thanks for the link Phubar !

Wal-Mart caries cheap candy/deep fry thermometers with 12" stems. These are long enough to read the temperature at the center of your cooking grate. Much better then the short stem thermometers that screw into the side IMO.

Thanks David ! do you know if it came with the capture nut? I have a deep fry thermometer but I dont have a way to lock it to my UDS

So was that a new Un-used drum? If not you really need to burn it out before cooking in it.

regionalceleb said:

Thanks David ! do you know if it came with the capture nut? I have a deep fry thermometer but I dont have a way to lock it to my UDS

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It does not. I carried a 9/16 bolt to a welding shop and he drilled a hole in the center to allow you to slide the thermometer in. Keep in mind it must be so you can remove it to allow you to take out the fire basket.

Get a Harbor Freight weed burner, man. $20. Hooks to a propane tank. I put my coals in the basket, a few fist-sized chunks of wood on top, and then I blast it with this thing for about 2-3 minutes, and everything is lit nicely. Then just lower the basket in the drum. I use a $4 fireplace poker for that. It's great for re-starting old coals, too. I just close my drum up after I smoke, so if there are unused coals, I take the basket out, clean out the ash pan, add anything I need to top it up, then blast it. I typically get two 6-10 hour cooks out of one load of coal/wood.

BONUS: Sounds like a jet engine! Impresses all who see you. Every man should have one. :thumb:

Helpful hints: A wire bale off a 5-gallon bucket works perfect for a fire basket bale. Removed the plastic handhold from it, and make a small dimple in the middle of the wire where the plastic handhold was, to keep the basket from sliding when you use your fireplace poker hook to lower it down in the drum. The bale is much thicker than ordinary wire. Also, a 2" pipe at least 6" long on the lid will improve your draw, even with the small venting bung closed off.

You are on your way to years of good cue on that thing! Congrats!

@ Mirage Man - the drum was Mobil Oil Grease drum that had a pull out liner in it, after yanking out the liner there was a light coating to prevent rust on it that we washed and scrubbed out. These pics were from my first burn, havent cooked anything in it yet, was hoping to do ribs or a brisket this weekend but now theres 5 days of rain predicted.

@jswordy heard a lot about the weed burners from Harbor freight, we actually have a HF store in town, think Im gonna check it out. Ive read some good and some bad about the burner but sounds almost to "cool" to pass up