Ugly Drum Smoker

Cut off vent

Bro...you got to share the specs on that cut off vent. Best idea/mod I've seen in a while.

My favorite drum so far was from a baker's son. His mom had a bake shop and went through tons of vegetable oil. Every so once and a while he would Craigslist the drums for extra cash. No liner as vegetable oil was a natural rust prohibiter.

Craigslist is your friend.

ok guys here is mine. When you smoke do you find that closing all intakes and using just a ball valve is enough to control the temp? My valve is 1 1/2 dia and I find that this fully open keeps the temp at about 250F which is just a bit too hot, but closing it chokes the fire.

Drunken Monkey said:

Do you have any info to share about how you did this? It's an amazing concept!

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CarlWayne said:

That cut off vent is genius.

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sjm845 said:

Bro...you got to share the specs on that cut off vent. Best idea/mod I've seen in a while.

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Thanks guys!

Here is a thread I started a while back in regards to the cut off vent.
http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=125116

Have used it twice in shorter cooks, still trying to find some time to do a long cook and track the temps below and above the vent so I can prove whether it's working how I expected it to or not. Hopefully this weekend.

@wmarkw, I am in Aiken and just found some drums. Eaves Oil company on 278 and Whiskey, the place is at the intersection between New Ellenton and SRS. 8 dollars a piece. contained Hydraulic oil. The will even cut the lids of for you.

Thanks Paul. Just sent you a PM.

OK...here is a question(s) regarding placement of the smoke stack on the lid that came with the drum. My lid didn't have a bung opening. Where would be the ideal placement.....directly in the center or to one side? I know that the lids with bungs are used with no problem but would there be an advantage to placing in the center?

Thanks in advance.
Ram

Lawdog's Smokewagon said:

Will HD accept Harbor Freight coupons?

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They take them all day long,no questions asked!!!

brickie

New UDS

Hi all :yo:

I made it to post# 3,555 and decided this weekend it was my turn to start one. It is pretty basic: (three 3/4" intakes (2.5" from bottom), one with a ball valve, eight 1/2" exhaust (2" from edge), 17"d X 11"h coal basket 3" above 18" ash pan on the bottom, 24" from bottom of basket to one cooking rack) hoto:

I used the extra conduit hangers (one for the lid hook) for tool hangers, and I added 4 eyelets on the inside so I can move the coal basket up to grill height for grilling.

I am about 2.5 hours into the seasoning burn (liberal coating of Crisco, ton of help from my wife on that one) and it still isn't completely stable. It is very slowly moving up to 250-260 then i close it a little and it drops to 200 and I open it back up just a touch, from 200 to 260 and back to 200 it taking about 45min to an hour. However we have a nice cool intermittent breeze today, it is empty, and my lid is leaking (gonna have to seal that up, silicone maybe?). I think when I get some meat in it it will help stabilize it.

Going to get a test with some bread in a few min to check for hot spots, then 2 naked fatties for dinner with some Hawaiian Sweet rolls. :hungry:

It has been a lot of fun building and playing with it so far. :bounce:

Update: Put in about a dozen pieces of bread and it all "toasted" well, on the left side it was a little darker on the left than the right but that is the side I have the nipple open on.

AggieRam said:

OK...here is a question(s) regarding placement of the smoke stack on the lid that came with the drum. My lid didn't have a bung opening. Where would be the ideal placement.....directly in the center or to one side? I know that the lids with bungs are used with no problem but would there be an advantage to placing in the center?

Thanks in advance.
Ram

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based on my very limited testing so far, I would have to say opposite side of the main intake.

Shut the intakes and have dropped from 233 to 104 in 45 min, I'm guessing I have a pretty good seal.

About 4.5 hours into the burn I added 2 fatties, they turned out good but I need to add a little more smoke next time.

Update: Opened all the intakes and exhaust at 50 min to see if it was really out....it was!

I'd like to thank every body who has posted and helped us out on how to build a UDS. It's the easiest smoker I have ever operated. It really
Almost seems like cheating to use it. I love it! Thanks again guys!

Well I started my build yesterday. Got my holes drilled, casters on the bottom and painted her up. Will install the hard ware today and brought my lid and my 2 exhaust pipes with me to work to have the guys in back weld it up for me. Hoping to get my basket done this weekend.

Will post some pics soon.

I got my exhaust stacks welded on my lid and now the lid doesnt fit as well. A little wobbly if that makes sense so not sure why that happened. Could I use some of that RTV red silicone sealant stuff around the drum lip to help seal it better? I still have the locking rig and could go that route.

wmarkw said:

I got my exhaust stacks welded on my lid and now the lid doesnt fit as well. A little wobbly if that makes sense so not sure why that happened. Could I use some of that RTV red silicone sealant stuff around the drum lip to help seal it better? I still have the locking rig and could go that route.

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The lid is probably just warped a little from when you were working on it. I would take a solid block of wood and a hammer, place the lid on, and start banging on the block of wood, working around the inner rim and edge of the lid until you get it to fit again. Also look to see if the lid is concave at all. As the lit heats and cools, it might flex a little. That is why I have went exclusively to weber kettle grill lids on closed-end drums. Chisel the top out of the drum, and put the kettle lid on......no drilling, no fitting, as most are a perfect fit. They are rigid, and heavy duty.

wmarkw said:

I got my exhaust stacks welded on my lid and now the lid doesnt fit as well. A little wobbly if that makes sense so not sure why that happened. Could I use some of that RTV red silicone sealant stuff around the drum lip to help seal it better? I still have the locking rig and could go that route.

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Had the same problem with mine. A hammer and some brute strength got it close but not perfect. Good enough to cook.

wmarkw said:

I got my exhaust stacks welded on my lid and now the lid doesnt fit as well. A little wobbly if that makes sense so not sure why that happened. Could I use some of that RTV red silicone sealant stuff around the drum lip to help seal it better? I still have the locking rig and could go that route.

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If you have the locking ring, use it. That has the double purpose of keeping the lid on tight and keeping the curious folks from letting all your heat out. If your ring just has the large bolt, get a 2" spring clamp to hold it closed instead of the bolt (http://www.harborfreight.com/2-inch-capacity-steel-spring-clamp-39529.html)

PhilipW said:

You shouldn't really have to give it more air after you take the lid off. In fact the opposite should be true.

If you think about it, before you take that lid off, you only have a very small amount of combustion air coming in through your intakes. When you take that lid off, the fire gets a huge gulp of combustion air (by comparison). It will burn through that air hotter than if you had not taken the lid off.

Your temp gauge drops only because there's some cool air in there at the moment, but the fire isn't running at that new cooler level, it's still hot as it was and even hotter now due to the extra air.

It will easily catch up on its own. In fact, I think most drums will actually run up in temp after taking the lid off. Many turn their intake air off before taking the lid off to prevent too much air from getting in and causing a temp spike.

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You are correct, PhillipW. This is exactly what happens. I have built about 5 or more UDSs so far, with some different methods, and I can concur that the vent sizes and lid seals, and removal of the lid are major factors to the temp spikes and temp control.

I have set up a table with butcher board/paper on top. Whenever I tinker with my product (basting, temp-check, seasoning, etc) I always pull the rack out with the meat on it, and place the lid back in place. I get virtually no temp spike. Someone on here invented some cut-off vent, which is pretty cool, but taking the meat out, and putting the lid back on is a lot easier. The meat might cool slightly, but it is a non-factor when you are cooking something 12+ hours anyway like a brisket or pork butt.

A quick question for the UDS pros: lets say that your UDS is running at 300 and you wanted it to run at a lower temp. How long would it take you to lower the temperature to 250 degrees?

I am asking this because last night I completed my UDS but when I was doing some trial runs, It took forever for the temp to drop even with all intakes closed but when I closed the exhuast, then the temps when down in like 30 minutes. Is this normal or do I have a leak somewhere?

Thanks all for the replies. I was just at Harbor freight and I wish I knew about the clamp. Will have to snag that on my next visit.

I'm racking my brain about this diffuser thing. I know I could easily drill some more holes, add another grate for a diffuser and figure out something to use if I want to. But what are most people doing?? Does the meat taste that bad with the fat dripped smoke? I have read so many post on so many different forums and I'm indecisive.

My other 2 smokers are an offset and a char broil fat boy water smoker; like a 18.5 WSM and I use the water bowl filled with sand for a heat sink. I'm not a smoking newb but I have never done a UDS direct heat smoke. TIA