Ugly Drum Smoker

PhilipW said:

As long as you're know the 3/4" is the inside diameter. Actually, it's more like .8125" ID for a regular threaded black pipe nipple from the home center.

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You also have to make sure your ball valves are full port...you can purchase half port ball valves which will cut back on your air intake. I have 3 full port 3/4" ball valves, 1 shut, 1 full open and 1 half open to maintain 220ish. Good Luck! :thumb:

tuliku said:

Thanks all for the advice given. The drill was indeed 2 cm, so i guess the inside of the air intake is a bit smaller.
First thing after work will be getting new vents, and a bigger single exhaust on the top.
Will post again with pics on v1.1 of my UDS

Thanks !

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I would try a burn with the 3 intake valves removed and the exhaust wide open! I bet it would go over 350 just my 2c

So I recently built one and have a few questions. The UDS is amazing at holding temps and is very easy to use, but the food has been okay.

How long does it take to one of these to get seasoned? I did the Pam coating, smoking, and repeated the process. I have cooked two butts, four chickens, and it's got kind of a metal taste. Also....this thing is already filthy! How often are ya'll cleaning these things and how? One more question....will coating the I side of the drum with bacon grease help?

Thank ya'll!

My build is done, first smoke today...... im nervous:



Whole Chicken, Pork Shoulder and Moinks. I am just winging it.

Just finished the UDS build yesterday. Smoked my first fatty this morning. Applewood smoked bacon, Bob Evans sausage, smoked gouda and sweet bell peppers. Turned out great. I need a little better seal to control temps, but was happy.

The top of the UDS is the bottom of a weber. I am thinking of cutting the lid and mounting it inside the UDS as a lip for the bottom to sit on. I like the bottom better than the top since I think I will have less of a hot spot with the wider open top vents. Plus I like how this looks a little more than just the standard lid.

Thanks for all of the great ideas. It took me about 2 weeks to read all the threads. Awesome work! Not sure why my pics are just links......sorry.....


http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/m506/twelvegaugepump/Food Pron/DSC_0846.jpg


http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/m506/twelvegaugepump/Food Pron/DSC_0840.jpg

http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/m506/twelvegaugepump/Food%20Pron/DSC_0841.jpg

http://i1129.photobucket.com/albums/m506/twelvegaugepump/Food%20Pron/DSC_0857.jpg

Does anybody have an MSDS on the red epoxy liner used in barrels? It's used in food grade barrels and extreme heat and most chemicals won't touch it. The only way to remove it is through agressive abrasive action. Once it's coated with a layer of grease and smoke and kept below 500 degrees is it really dangerous? Yes, I've read the entire thread but have not seen any references to an MSDS for the liner. Honestly, it seems more stable than Teflon/Silverstone/etc.

Paul Worth said:

Does anybody have an MSDS on the red epoxy liner used in barrels? It's used in food grade barrels and extreme heat and most chemicals won't touch it. The only way to remove it is through agressive abrasive action. Once it's coated with a layer of grease and smoke and kept below 500 degrees is it really dangerous? Yes, I've read the entire thread but have not seen any references to an MSDS for the liner. Honestly, it seems more stable than Teflon/Silverstone/etc.

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Hey Paul,

I had the same question, and I looked and looked a while back, but all I could find are the MSDS on the actual liner material when it is applied in liquid form....not once it is a solid coating.

My initial thought was that this stuff was so tough that it wouldn't be a problem. But I have since started building smokers to sell, and I don't want to endanger anyone else. You could build one, and just burn in it a few times without any food, and see how it holds up. If it makes it through 10 burns with no peeling or color change, I would think it would be good to go.

I have since found unlined re-conditioned barrels near my home for $32, so I just get those. Takes the liner and the cleaning of a barrel out of the equation.

Dave

Summarizing questions from people.

Hi guys.. just browsing and saw some interesting maybe unanswered questions.

tuliku - Post #8141 (http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1686745&postcount=8141) explains a lot with air flow and I put in there area of a circle chart. Please note that the chart is about controlling the INTAKES. Always leave your Exhaust fully opened, once you have figured out how many holes and how big you need. You can use the calculations and convert to metric system. In general, if you have three 3/4 inch holes you would have a total of 1.33 inches squared for the intake, and for exhaust you should have about pi inches or 3.14 inches squared, which you'd get from the typical 2 inch hole in the lid.
Adding some chimney pipe helps a lot to create the draft to pull. It will burn more coals though, however getting high heat will not be a problem.

tuliku !! When you mention that you only got to 120 degrees, are you by chance reporting in Centigrade? That would be ~248 degrees Fahrenheit. This actually seems very typical.


hankll - burn it out! especially the one that had antifreeze. Clean it with something like dish soap at least, or something like alcohol-based cleaner.

hankll & Drumbum77 - Then BURN it out at a high temp, close lid, should do like a good 400 degrees for an hour at least? Or just let it finish the fuel. (any kind of wood helps create lots of heat. Be careful! not too much!)

Then when it cools, if you don't smell any chemicals, rub the whole thing down with cooking oil and then burn it again, but this time with wood you would cook with to produce a good amount of smoke. Let this smoke for all day again. It should hit 350 degrees for half an hour during this phase. Doing this will create a really NICE coating of blackness that will be somewhat hard and protect both the drum and your food from anything left over inside the barrel.

My friend did this with his drum using olive oil and it came it amazing. Looks as if he carmalized it inside.

Magnets

coewar said:

If you have a large square or rectangular magnet, you can just place it over neighboring holes to cover more than one. And I'm talking about one of those flexible magnets, like you might put on your refrigerator. Maybe some business send them to you for advertisement. They are usually not rigid magnets.

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Just for the record, I tried the flexible magnets and they DO NOT work. They all seem to fall off once the smoker gets warm. So the small rigid, thick magnets is what I'm using with 1/2 inch holes. And for times when I have larger holes than I wanted (like the 1 inch holes for the 3/4 inch nipples) I used "bushings" to get the open diameter down to 1/2 inch. Was an easy fix.

I use speaker magnets to cover 2" intakes. Work perfectly, no behind the drum screwing around, and adjustable with a toe.

coewar said:

Hi guys.. just browsing and saw some interesting maybe unanswered questions.

tuliku - Post #8141 (http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1686745&postcount=8141) explains a lot with air flow and I put in there area of a circle chart. Please note that the chart is about controlling the INTAKES. Always leave your Exhaust fully opened, once you have figured out how many holes and how big you need. You can use the calculations and convert to metric system. In general, if you have three 3/4 inch holes you would have a total of 1.33 inches squared for the intake, and for exhaust you should have about pi inches or 3.14 inches squared, which you'd get from the typical 2 inch hole in the lid.
Adding some chimney pipe helps a lot to create the draft to pull. It will burn more coals though, however getting high heat will not be a problem.

tuliku !! When you mention that you only got to 120 degrees, are you by chance reporting in Centigrade? That would be ~248 degrees Fahrenheit. This actually seems very typical.

Click to expand...

Thanks a lot, the chart looks quite useful. I already bought 3x 3/4 inch valves, which are almost twice the size of what i have now at the bottom, and will install it tonight. Past few days was constantly raining, therefore the delay.

About the 120 degrees, it was fahrenheit sadly enough :-(

However, tonight another try, and will post the results

Thanks again man

tuliku said:

About the 120 degrees, it was fahrenheit sadly enough :-(

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Wow, that's hard to imagine only 120F. My UDS reaches that temp just sitting out in the sun.
Your environment must be wet and cold.

Currently is it not the hottest time of the year, but also not cold.

As promised, here an update on my situation:

From this:


I made this:


Here you can see the new air intake valves:




And the final result:


There is improvement, but slow....
In a small hour, i went from nothing to to 220 Fahrenheit...

Any idea's ?

Live from Prague, Czech Republic, Europe: Now at a whopping 240 Fahrenheit
(1 hour later)

tuliku said:

Live from Prague, Czech Republic, Europe: Now at a whopping 240 Fahrenheit
(1 hour later)

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Have you tried closing the daisy wheel exhaust ?

Nope, doing that now.

=edit= now after closing down to 200 F.

Is air able to get under the bottom side of your basket? It's not solid on the bottom is it?

The bottom is solid, here's a better pic:



Should I drill holes at the side of the bottom pan ?

The only thing looking at your ash catcher it almost seems like the sides are at the bottom level of your charcoal grate. Hard to tell by the photo, are your bolts from the bottom of the catcher 3" above meaning 3" from the bottom of the catcher to the grate? If the sides of the catcher are really close to the bottom of the grate looks to me you really don't have much airflow once the coals ash starts dropping. If you want to keep the catcher I am guessing drilling holes around those sides probably ain't gonna hurt and actually I think your problem is the more I look at it - airflow. I used a 16" pizza pan from Wally World which has very little lip on it and I think it cost 3 bucks or 3.50. Keeps the basket lower as I bolted thru the bottom of the pan and with a bunch of washers and nuts the grate is 3" from the bottom of the pizza pan so the pizza pan just sits on the bottom of the barrel with the bolt heads holding it off the bottom.

Correct, the edge is same height as the bottom of the basket.
I'm gonna drill 3/4 inch holes around it now, buy some new charcoal and report back in about 1 hour from now.

Thank you, much appreciated.