Ugly Drum Smoker

Just found this on craigslist...I may be looking at versions 2.0-140.0 HAHA

If I can get 4 of these I will be happy


Free 55 gallon plastic drums with lids attached. I have 140 drums, free to anyone willing to haul them away. They origionally had ink in them and can be rinsed clean.

StayDown said:

Just found this on craigslist...I may be looking at versions 2.0-140.0 HAHA

If I can get 4 of these I will be happy


Free 55 gallon plastic drums with lids attached. I have 140 drums, free to anyone willing to haul them away. They origionally had ink in them and can be rinsed clean.

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Plastic!?

HAHA..they have metal ones as well.....at least that is what he said..I guess we shall see.

Started the UDS project today, getting my butt kicked by some borrowed tools not holding up to the work, but got the out side burned and brushed and got one of the three vent holes at the bottom drilled. The flame thrower does not like the lacl of o2 in the barrel so I am hoping that a few vent holes help that. This drum had honey in it so i am not too worried about it as is seem to paint and not a liner. Pictures later need more beer.

Windy day

I ran a load of charcoal through me new UDS today. It went well but after opening the vents to get the temps up, it seemed to stay above 260 even after several hours choked back down.

Does the wind make it more difficult to keep the temps down? I wasn't cooking, just seasoning so it didn't hurt anything.

pinghacker said:

I ran a load of charcoal through me new UDS today. It went well but after opening the vents to get the temps up, it seemed to stay above 260 even after several hours choked back down.

Does the wind make it more difficult to keep the temps down? I wasn't cooking, just seasoning so it didn't hurt anything.

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on mines, i have a lot of gaps around the lid, and when the wind isn't blowing, smoke comes out of the gaps, but when the wind is blowing, i am pretty sure it is forcing itself into the gaps and into the drum. I had a lot of trouble keeping a low temp while the wind was blowing the other day. I need to seal it up better.

anybody ever had an issue with grease in their UDS? I think my coal basket must be too narrow, because I had a grease build up quickly in the bottom around the outside edges. This caught fire and caused a big problem with my cook. My UDS that I'm using is my first. I have since been building them this thread spec. !!!!

I would like to say to the guys that think they can tinker with this idea and make it better, they need to save the grief and keep it simple!

ytsejam said:

on mines, i have a lot of gaps around the lid, and when the wind isn't blowing, smoke comes out of the gaps, but when the wind is blowing, i am pretty sure it is forcing itself into the gaps and into the drum. I had a lot of trouble keeping a low temp while the wind was blowing the other day. I need to seal it up better.

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Ytsejam,

My lid leaks around the outside a bit too. I did my first cook today and it went well. The wind was still blowing pretty good though. My UDS has 8 holes in the lid (1/2" dia). What I did was cover half of them with magnets. I had no issue keeping the temp @ 225.

Since this UDS is about Low and Slow cooking here is an update from my Low and Slow UDS process.:-D
Bought this one last friday for 7,50 euro/9,75 $.
It moves smooth!

That plastic drum sure will give you some smoke. Just not sure I would eat anything cooked over it. lol!

Smokin Turkey said:

That plastic drum sure will give you some smoke. Just not sure I would eat anything cooked over it. lol!

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:-D

Me neither!
But maybe my guests won't notice!:wink:

nice lookin drums phubar

Well, after the issue we had Staurday with the hole saw (I think a step bit is the way to go for the pipe nipples) I got The Bengal Things pipe nipples welded into his drum now. With a thermometer for the grate and one for the meat..plus a pipe for the exhaust...he will be cooking for memorial day weekend.

Sadly, it may still take me awhile to get to cooking on mine. I have to weld mine up but today was my only free day. All good things come to those who wait thougn.


I will put up pics later of his charcoal basket and the welding....please keep in mind I am just learning to mig weld...but am a certified tig welder...


I should have tig welded them but that would have taken me three times as long.

Electric Drum Smoker

I used a 1500w heating element from a Brinkmann sitting on lava rock. All i do is plug it in and it heats up to about 235. Put a 1-1/4" hole in top because I was getting up to over 300. One hole in the bottom to run the power chord out. Lid came off of Webber fire pit. Looks like a chinese hat. I will post pictures later. Broke it in with 10 lbs. of pork shoulder with hickory and apple juice for 7 hours. Awesome tasting pork. My wife doesn't like BBQ. Unbelievable. In-laws loved it.

Weiser said:

WTF is this?
Can't really call it a UDS, nor can you call it
a BDS Clone.
I'm open to all suggestions. :razz:

Weiser
I experiment a bit too.

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Looks like a smoker to me. A tad small, but otherwise a design I have bounced arround a couple times.

I make sausage with a group every January (referred to as Sausage Day). We are currently scaling back, but in the past we averaged over 2,000lbs of smoked sausage. They have been doing this for pretty much their entire lives - so we have plenty of members with 50-70 years of experiance.

Over the years they have varied the smoker design a few times (from a wooden smokeouse, to a smoker made out of a metal cistern. The second to last was a steel framed, plywood lined, tin clad, outhouse shaped smoker. This last year we had a pair of those with electronic controlled thermostats and electronic controlled draft. There were some issues with smoke control - but those will be worked out before next year - along with multiple sliding smoking drawers (so that opening a drawer to load will not require opening the enitire smokehouse).
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The best "door" I have seen is on the extended drum, where you can lift the top part off with the cooking grates and have easy access to the fire basket. I have had no problems yet with mine and running out of fuel - but I can easily see doing the extended drum for additional grate space (did about 2/3 of a goat and abt's one day and was pretty packed on one grate).

anyone ever have any issues with burns going towards the open vent? i know this is prolly common sense as it's going to drive towards the fresh oxygen, but i thought i'd combat this by placing another valve (had 1 laying around) on one of the other nipples b4 getting started...

what i found was while i had an uneven burn with only 1 valve on (caps on the other 2) during a cook 2 weeks ago, i was able to maintain a 22 hr cook with the occasional adjustment to knock ash down, and temp drops that required a cap being taken off some times... and i ended up with a ton of coals left over... and then, over this past weekend i placed the other valve on, so i could get what i thought would be a "more consistent burn" and straight up ran out of charcoal 14hrs into the cook... it seems that instead of a more consistent burn, i just went thru more charcoal... :icon_sleepy

oh... and note to self... dont cook an entire rack of moinks without some sort of drip pan underneath... ooooofa... that was fun...

I'm a bit surprised you got a good cook only using one open vent but the UDS if a funny old bird and none are ever exactly the same. I cook with One open 3/4" hole and adjust from the other side of the drum with a 3/4" ball valve.

Do I still have to burn the drum if it is an unlined, reconditioned oil drum? I think it had hydraulic fluid in it.

rthensley said:

Do I still have to burn the drum if it is an unlined, reconditioned oil drum? I think it had hydraulic fluid in it.

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Pressure wash it out really good first and if you can feel bare metal,you're probably good to go. But,to be on the safe side for the family's sake I'd burn it out.

dbeast420 said:

Pressure wash it out really good first and if you can feel bare metal,you're probably good to go. But,to be on the safe side for the family's sake I'd burn it out.

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Thanks for the reply.

I was just looking for options that would save time and money. I hoped to avoid burning the drum (and having to repaint the outside).

A new drum would cost around $55. I really don't want to spend that much for the durm.