Making my own smoker, couple questions.

El Ropo, Howdy;

El Ropo said:

You're making this far too hard. The drum you have is the same diameter as a 18.5" weber kettle.

Find an old 18 kettle on craigslist or a yardsale. Part it out. The lid will fit perfectly on top of your drum. The charcoal grate is the perfect size to make your charcoal basket. Wrap the outer edge of charcoal grate with a 6" high strip of expanded metal available at lowe's. Connect a pizza pan on bottom of charcoal basket so when you lift the whole unit out of the drum, all the ashes come out with the basket, like this

That's for a 22.5" UDS, but the principle is the same. The cooking grate from your donor kettle is perfect size for your 30 gallon drum. Buy one more "cooking grate" for a 18" weber kettle", and you'll be set. No silicon, , hinges, latches, access door, no one off coal basket that doesn't even fit into the drum.

You don't need a farking access door to add fuel or wood. Leave the drum whole, the fire basket is loaded with unlit charcoal and wood, dropped into the UDS, then either lit with a torch, or a dozenish briquettes are lit in a chimney, then poured onto the top of the full basket. That right there will get you 14+ hours of cooking. No reason to have latches hinges, etc.

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:clap: AMEN !

hank

And I'll add, if you try your drum unmolested with any funky access doors or other doo-dads, and you do not like it that way, you can always ADD the funky stuff, but you can never take it away .

You may want to get some gasket material for the Weber kettle lid, if it does not seal perfectly your temps will run away.

Bill

If you can't find a cheap or free 18 weber, I saw one today on red tag clearance at target for $38.00 and the extra 18 grate was 5.00.

Here's my 2c.- Take that air tank coal basket, fill it with dirt, and plant herbs in it. You can drill holes in that thing all day long and you still won't have as much "open" area as a basket made of expanded metal. Furthermore, the fact that the tank is round means that most likely the ash will work it's way down to the bottom and clog up the air holes. Fire needs oxygen! A basket of expanded metal, with a FLAT bottom, means ash will fall away best it can on it's own thus giving you a good efficient burn. Don't re-invent the wheel here. There's a reason everyone makes their baskets like the ones posted above. They work.

PM sent. :cop:

Keep the build pix coming! Can't wait to see how this thing turns out!

ok i know im late to the party but heres my .02,
i can see the air leaking through those door cuts like a hurricane from the pics, go to lowes and get 1" wide flat steel stock weld it to doors half overlapping barrel, them get flat 1/8" thick x 3/4 wide wood stove rope gaskets and permatex them to the flat stock and seal up the gaps, with all the air flow at the basket your temps are going to ramp up and you will definitely have a shorter burn, also the door at the top grate is going to leak so much heat you'll have to burn hotter to maintain temps. also similar situation with lid. not to be completely rude but all the guys tried to help and make this an easy and enjoyable first build but you clearly have your own mind set in your ways. the uds thread here is a great read although it is 600+ pages long use this mini a few times and then build one that has been proven time and time again and then give me a report on ease of use and how much extra sleep you get. the whole idea of a sealed up unit and longer burns is consistent heat and a more "set it and forget it" mentality. once you learn any cooker your food will only get better, and a consistent cooker makes for great bbq and a less sleep deprived operator. sorry if i was a little harsh, rough night with the baby, i didnt get much sleep. remember if it aint fun then why do it? oh yeah abandon that coal basket also just like they said

the end result looks just like you wanted :-D I like both access doors, but it seams like you need a better seal on the doors if you "glob" on the sealer on the door side then cover it with plastic wrap to keep it from sticking to both sides at once close the door and let it cure (learned that trick here just cant rember to credit sorry) it will have a nice tight seal.

I don't see how you will be able to regulate the the temps with the open fire chamber as there is no way to control oxygen to the fire.

Here is a thought.

I think one could get a smaller 30 gal drum with a removable lid and cut it down to 12" - 15" height for a firebox. Maybe have a clamp for the removable lid and you remove the lid to access the fire chamber. At the bottom, have a charcoal grate a couple of inches off the floor of the drum. Set the air intakes up to this drum just like any UDS.

Now you could connect this drum to a 55 gal drum with a short tube (maybe rectangular) for heat to flow from the firebox (small drum) to the smoke chamber (large drum). Maybe even extend the tube into the large drum a little for even heat distribution. You could then cut a side door in the 55 gal drum to access maybe up to 3 racks of food. Sealing this door should be no more critical than the door seal on a traditional offset smoker.

Now you could control the temps by adjusting air flow to the charcoal in the small drum like we do on a normal UDS. You have access to the fire chamber without removing racks full of meat. You have access to the meat racks through a side door or through the top lid. And it's only a little bigger than a standard UDS.

Would this work? Main benefits would be an additonal food rack and better access to food and fuel chamber (so fuel or wood chunks could be added without removing food racks). It's sort of an offset UDS.

CustomBBQ said:

I'm actually having issues keeping the temperature lower right now, I think I don't need as many coals as I think I do.

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How are you attempting to control the temperature inside your smoker? If you're trying to do it by measuring out your coals then it won't work.*

Smokers control the temperature by controlling the amount of oxygen that gets to the coals. To raise the temperature you increase the oxygen supply (usually by opening a valve) and to lower temperature you choke off the air supply. A smoker that isn't air-tight will let in too much air and the coals will get hotter than you want.

Here's my DIY UDS. I have two racks and I've cooked ribs and pulled pork for 15 people with the same sized drum you have.

* - I suppose you could constantly monitor the temps yourself and keep adding/removing coals in your coal box but you'll still have wild temperature swings. You'll also have to watch it the entire time to add more coals for long cooks. It'll be a major PITA.

I find the end result humorous to say the least. You asked for advise from people who know the ins and outs of smoke. You basically slapped everyone on the face that tried to help. Besides wasting your time and theirs you now have a run away train smoker. I really hope you are able to get this step child under control. I have much appreciation for your attempts and the time you put into it. If you lived closer to me I would give you a 55 so your words would be over.
I wish you the best of luck, unfortunately I think anything else you do will be nothing more than lipstick on a pig (pun intended)

CustomBBQ said:

Deeg: First and foremost, your smoker looks pretty sick, haha. I have four 1/2" vent holes at the bottom of the drum. I can plug these whenever, or buy vents and such, which I know would help with the oxygen flow. But here's the thing, the smoker does NOT have temperature swings, it holds real steady, it's just been a higher temperature than desired so far. I have no issues with tending the fire since I won't be doing any overnight cooks, I live in a city so people probably wouldn't be crazy about me smoking all night, haha, the houses are fairly close. Should I try cutting some air flow and using same amount of coal, or use less coal and gradually add as needed?

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I really don't know. I use oxygen to control my temps but you're using fuel amount, which is completely different. You'll just have to experiment. It took me a while, even with the controller, to get the hang of it.

One other piece of advice (which you'll probably ignore :icon_smile_tongue: ) is not to trust the single thermometer you have, especially if it's a coiled-spring thermometer. I've done a lot of experimenting with my UDS and different areas of the smoker can be 20 degrees difference even though they're inches apart. Depending on how many items I'm smoking I have 5 thermometers in different places (including inside the meat). Given the air leaks in your smoker I assume you'll have more hot and cold spots but maybe the high air-flow will stabilize the temps better.

Are you sure you really need MORE airflow?

You regulate air flow (oxygen) to the coals/fire, not to the smoke chamber. Unless I'm missing something, your coals are sitting outside exposed to air so you can't restrict air flow to the coals. So I have no idea what advice to give as controlling air to the heat source is the only method I'm families with.