Ugly Drum Smoker

She needs wheels and a handle for the lid (and a beer opener), but other than that she works!! Held 225 for quite a while. Opened her up full throttle and thought I'd have to call the fire dept. I guess you can polish a turd.....:becky:
 
Last edited:
daninnewjersey said:
She needs wheels and a handle for the lid (and a beer opener), but other than that she works!! Held 225 for quite a while. Opened her up full throttle and thought I'd have to call the fire dept. I guess you can polish a turd.....:becky:
Click to expand...

Excellent job, Dan!

Cook something good this weekend.

Sterling
 
Hey Guys, been reading this thread for weeks now. I finally found a food grade drum with no epoxy inside, and after bringing it home I noticed it had a gold tint on the inside, almost like a clear coat. It originally held concentrated lemon juice. After grinding it a bit, it comes off as easy as the paint outside, but obviously a pain. Will the first burns take care of this? I'm looking into getting it sand blasted by a buddy of mine, but was wondering is this why everyone says the first burn is so important? Sorry if it's on here somewhere I haven't seen it.

Thanks
 
^^^^I would get it sand blasted if you can, then wash it out good and season it. No need to burn it out, after the sand blasting. The coating must be a rust inhibitor of some kind. You sure it's not a tan liner? They do come off easier.
 
So I'm curious if any brethren have put a hinge on the flat lid that some UDS's come with? I've seen plenty of pics of domed lids w/hinges but none with flat lids. Will it not work?
 
I know, I had them already from another grill so I put all the thermometers on , what the heck. lol.
 
I know, I thought about decking it out like that, but lost my steam. I basically tried something different than the norm. Instead of adding the weber kettle lid to the top, I said heck, I'll add the bottom. My lid is the weber kettle bottom. The reason was that it is much heavier and holds the heat much better than the lid does. It sits on perfectly and with the added dome height I can place the grill higher and get a better smoke. I added a home depot style vent through the hole on the top.
 
Long time watcher of this forum, now trying my hand at 2 UDS builds. I'm starting a competition team, and my teammate and I are building.

I've read a bunch of this thread, but still weary on what I should do. Any and all help greatly appreciated.

After securing most all the parts, we were down to getting the drums....which proved tough for some reason around here.

We landed drums today via craigslist. We were told they had a plastic bag inside, and the guy just removed the bag. Looks nicely painted inside actually (beige/tan), and no liner. A perfect fitting clamp on lid with gasket (which I'll remove) on the underside of lid.

http://i760.photobucket.com/albums/xx244/ForniaQ/Ugly Drum Smoker 40311/IMG_3162.jpg

http://i760.photobucket.com/albums/xx244/ForniaQ/Ugly Drum Smoker 40311/IMG_3163.jpg

We're planning to burn out and have them sandblasted, and then paint ourselves. Trying to do this part as cheap as possible, but with good results. I know... I know.

I do have a weedburner, and was wondering if I could get away on this alone to remove the paint? I got it for Christmas, have not yet used it so that’s a problem.

I have a Weber 22.5 Lid, and that sadly isn't quite large enough to fit over the drum lip. On the photo below, I centered the Weber lid on the rolled edge of the drum. It's basically that 'short' of fitting the whole way round the drum.

Is the fix here to remove the rolled lip on the drum? Or add a welded strip on inside of drum extending higher than rolled edge?

http://i760.photobucket.com/albums/xx244/ForniaQ/Ugly Drum Smoker 40311/IMG_3166.jpg

Again....trying to do it as economical as possible, but also functional (2 cooking grids?). I called so many local metal places/welders trying to get help with a charcoal box. Everyone tried to rip me off, so I made it myself this weekend. Now I'm dreading I'll get the same thing from sandblasters for the drum, and lid mods.

Any and all help greatly appreciated!!!!
 
Fornia, I had the same problem with my weber lid. I just flatted out the lip on my lid and it sits flat on my drum now. It's not air tight, but it's far enough away from the fire that it doesn't really matter.

I should note that my weber lid is from an old useless OTS, so I didn't mind flattening the lip and donating the lid to my UDS permanently.

As far as your paint issues...I'd say you should see what a good hot fire does to that paint before you start getting quotes on sandblasting. Then again, if a hot fire doesn't get rid of all that paint, I doubt that 250 degrees of BBQ temperature will disturb it either. I know that there are some in this thread who are cooking on drums that still have paint inside of them, the paint just happens to be under a nice layer of grease at this point.
 
kcchiefdav said:
Fornia, I had the same problem with my weber lid. I just flatted out the lip on my lid and it sits flat on my drum now. It's not air tight, but it's far enough away from the fire that it doesn't really matter.

I should note that my weber lid is from an old useless OTS, so I didn't mind flattening the lip and donating the lid to my UDS permanently.

As far as your paint issues...I'd say you should see what a good hot fire does to that paint before you start getting quotes on sandblasting. Then again, if a hot fire doesn't get rid of all that paint, I doubt that 250 degrees of BBQ temperature will disturb it either. I know that there are some in this thread who are cooking on drums that still have paint inside of them, the paint just happens to be under a nice layer of grease at this point.
Click to expand...

I used my weedburner to burn from the outside. I burned it till the inside paint was powder, then I took my pressure washer and cleaned it out to clean steel.

As far as the top of the drum goes, I took a die grinder and cut off the top. then i put the clamp that held the lid on around the top about an inch below the top and tightened it. This made it round again. Then I welded a 3/16" round bar to the inside of the barrel at the top. The Weber lid then fit perfectly.
 
My brother can get me a 55 gallon drum from his work for free. My choices are from one that contained washer fluid concentrate or one that contained brake cleaner. He says they are unlined and that he can have the top popped for me too. Are either of these good choices or should I stick with something food grade? So far the only food grade container I've found is about an hour plus drive, but only $12.

I plan to wash the drum with warm soapy water at least twice to get any remnants out before I burn the inside. Anything else I should do?
 
hey guys, I did my burn out and then once it was done, it started to rain. I got some light rust in spots on the inside of the drum, but Im not worried about that. I think that shows whatever was in the barrel is gone now.

Question is, on my S/S basket ( I threw it in the barrel during the first burn out ) , it looks like a red powder is stuck on the S/S or is that from the wood I was burning? I only included one pallet and burned all sticks/wood pieces.

Any idea on what it is?

edit: I did have an uncoated barrel. Just some rust stuff that was it. No epoxy.
 
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