Ugly Drum Smoker

Thanks for the reply jgh1204! It is much appreciated.

If I don't find anything better in the next week, I'll take the plunge and get one of those.

Cheers.

Hi everyone! So I made the plunge and have my basket made and burned out my drum and lid today. I think I may have messed up on the lid. I burned it with my weed burner leaned up against my barrel and now it's warped and doesn't want to sit on the lid easily.

Can I force it on the barrel and put the clamp on it then heat it all up to try and form it back or am I sol and need to get a new lid? Thanks, Pat

Hi guys! I found a new barrel source.

They sell new and re-conditioned unlined drums.

Now, two questions: should I get the thickest gauge? Also, does re-conditioned versus new matter?

Thanks,

J.

barracudamuscle said:

Hi everyone! So I made the plunge and have my basket made and burned out my drum and lid today. I think I may have messed up on the lid. I burned it with my weed burner leaned up against my barrel and now it's warped and doesn't want to sit on the lid easily.

Can I force it on the barrel and put the clamp on it then heat it all up to try and form it back or am I sol and need to get a new lid? Thanks, Pat

Click to expand...

I did the same thing. I tried to flatten it back out with a torch while it wad sitting on the barrel. It got better but never sat right again. I upgraded to a dome lid and love the extra room.

^^^ What he said. Keep an eye out for a cheap donor weber kettle. You can use the lid, cooking grate, charcoal grate (for bottom of fire basket) and even use the wheels if you're creative.

barracudamuscle said:

Hi everyone! So I made the plunge and have my basket made and burned out my drum and lid today. I think I may have messed up on the lid. I burned it with my weed burner leaned up against my barrel and now it's warped and doesn't want to sit on the lid easily.

Can I force it on the barrel and put the clamp on it then heat it all up to try and form it back or am I sol and need to get a new lid? Thanks, Pat

Click to expand...

No guarantees but it has worked for me a few times. Put the lid on the drum and secure it with the ring, and heat it with the weed torch when you get it screamin hot use a ball peen hammer and hit the ring all the way around then put a sopping wet towel in the middle and just leave it to cool all the way down. It will draw the metal to the center leaving the ring on until it cools will allow it to form to the top of the drum.

Here's the newest addition!
Spares w/ home made rub and glaze

Bludawg said:

No guarantees but it has worked for me a few times. Put the lid on the drum and secure it with the ring, and heat it with the weed torch when you get it screamin hot use a ball peen hammer and hit the ring all the way around then put a sopping wet towel in the middle and just leave it to cool all the way down. It will draw the metal to the center leaving the ring on until it cools will allow it to form to the top of the drum.

Click to expand...

I'll give that a shot I appreciate the advice. Worse case I'll buy another barrel or better yet get the weber domed lid!

My first UDS completed

I finally finished reading everything and got all my parts and supplies lined up and with the help of my son in law we finished our first UDS. Only took about 6 hours over the course of this weekend. We tend to think quite a bit to make sure we don't screw up lol.

Seasoned it and then smoked a fatty, the first of many to come. It was amazing! I checked and I have over half of my charcoal left!!!
I had an offset smoker that we refurbished so smoking wasn't new to me, but after using the uds I sold my offset. The uds is so much easier to use.

For the build I purchased a new closed head drum. We removed the lid with a saws all. I had bought the cheap Uniflame from kettle from Wally world, but the lid didnt fit. So after cutting the lid we used some #14 1 3/8 flat stock from Lowes the kind with the holes and welded that on and the lid fit great with just a little adjustment. Added some red rtv to get a good seal (need to add some more due to our haste).

We have 3 3/4 pipe, nipples one with a cap and 2 with a 90 with 24" black pipe with ball valves on the end. The grates are 2" and 8" from the top of the drum. We added a thermo that I had from my Charbroil smoke n grill along with a 1/2 flex type fitting for the digital probes to pass thru. We used the hinges with some modifications due to the lip of the drum from the uniflame. Put 3 4" casters on the bottom for ease of use. Used the old handles from the smoke n grill. Charcoal basket is #9 3/4 expanded 13" dia by 10" tall. Just need to add some more rtv, sand and paint and she is finished.

Can't wait to put some ribs, brisket, butts, chicken, turkey, smoked sausage and anything elset that doesn't move fast on this baby!

Thanks for all the valuable information from this site!

Well I finished my drum last Thursday. Well almost done, I still have to paint it . I just couldn't wait to use it. I cannot get over how efficient these things are. I loaded it with 2 bags of Best of the West mesquite and smoked a spare rib for 5.5 hours. I then smoked two pork shoulders for 15 hours with the remaining lump and about another half bag.I still have a couple logs left in my basket.

1st UDS Build

I finally finished reading everything and got all my parts and supplies lined up and with the help of my son in law we finished our first UDS. Only took about 6 hours over the course of this weekend. We tend to think quite a bit to make sure we don't screw up lol.

Seasoned it and then smoked a fatty, the first of many to come. It was amazing! I checked and I have over half of my charcoal left!!!
I had an offset smoker that we refurbished so smoking wasn't new to me, but after using the uds I sold my offset. The uds is so much easier to use.

For the build I purchased a new closed head drum. We removed the lid with a saws all. I had bought the cheap Uniflame from kettle from Wally world, but the lid didnt fit. So after cutting the lid we used some #14 1 3/8 flat stock from Lowes the kind with the holes and welded that on and the lid fit great with just a little adjustment. Added some red rtv to get a good seal (need to add some more due to our haste).

We have 3 3/4 pipe, nipples one with a cap and 2 with a 90 with 24" black pipe with ball valves on the end. The grates are 2" and 8" from the top of the drum. We added a thermo that I had from my Charbroil smoke n grill along with a 1/2 flex type fitting for the digital probes to pass thru. We used the hinges with some modifications due to the lip of the drum from the uniflame. Put 3 4" casters on the bottom for ease of use. Used the old handles from the smoke n grill. Charcoal basket is #9 3/4 expanded 13" dia by 10" tall. Just need to add some more rtv, sand and paint and she is finished.

Can't wait to put some ribs, brisket, butts, chicken, turkey, smoked sausage and anything else that doesn't move too fast on this baby!

Thanks for all the valuable information from this site!

Your is a pretty close build to mine. Tweak the lid hinges a bit to make it lean back when open and it makes a perfect spot to rest the grill.

whats the average price to build one of these smokers?

I'm at about $100.00. 15 for drum, 30 for donor kettle, 15 for valve. The rest was bolts, handles, misc. * note....that amount did not include the cost of beverages during build.

bigluelok said:

whats the average price to build one of these smokers?

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I've done one for about $50, free drum, weber kettle off cl $10, 2nd grate $18, valve $10, rest was stainless hardware and a piece of aluminum to make the kettle lid fit.

The other one had to buy the drum and 2 grates, put 3 valves on it, have probably $125 in it.

Got a quick question for the experts.

First some info.
I did my seasoning burn the other night with some kingsford blue bag that I had left over. I keep mine in a container so I am not sure how much I actually had. My basket is approx 13"dia x 10" high. It was filled up over half way with coal and 4-5 fist sized chunks of hickory. I lit 12 briquets in my chimney letting them get good and hot and poured on my basket. Both valves and pipe nipple, all 3/4" were wide open. I had read that most prefer to get their drum up to 350 for about 30 mins to get a good seasoning. I got mine up to 291 per my digital probe and 300 on my dial thermo.

It was starting to rain so I am not sure if that had any effects. I let it run at that temp (290-300) for about 30-40 minutes and then put on the fatty, which turned out amazing!

I put the cap on the nipple and closed one ball valve leaving just the one slightly open and got my temp to the 250ish range.

My question(s) is this.

Should I use more than 12 briquets to start my basket (assuming I am doing a long burn) say for brisket or pork butt?

Should I leave the cap off the nipple during the cook and just regulate with the ball valves?

I know with some practice I will be fine just want to make sure I am heading down the right path.

Thanks as always.

Should I use more than 12 briquets to start my basket (assuming I am doing a long burn) say for brisket or pork butt? NO

Should I leave the cap off the nipple during the cook and just regulate with the ball valves?
NO two drums are the same if that is what works for your UDS do it.

Well Ive completed my first UDS thanks to everyone on this forums tips! I kept it pretty simple using fence gate handles, I used an eye bolt and hook combo so I have some where to hang the lid, I used the digital Maverick thermometer with 2 probes. One for the grill grate and a food probe.
I did mess up and warp my lid using a weed burner, I was able to get it back close but it still wants to spring off there so I'm going to use the clamp for now until I can score a weber lid.
Quick question, last night I had all 3 intakes open ( 2 3/4" plugs and 1 3/4" valve) and could only hit 304. I closed one plug and let it stabilize about 15 I lost a few degrees if any. Then I closed the other plug and lost an additional few degrees. Using just the valve half open I could get it down to the 225's. Should I open up my exhaust holes one size? It seems that it may be limiting my temps. The lid sprung off on one side about 1/4" with just the valve half open and the temps shot to 270.

barracudamuscle said:

Well Ive completed my first UDS thanks to everyone on this forums tips! I kept it pretty simple ...

Quick question, last night I had all 3 intakes open ( 2 3/4" plugs and 1 3/4" valve) and could only hit 304....

The lid sprung off on one side about 1/4" with just the valve half open and the temps shot to 270.

Click to expand...

I think you need to open up the exhaust a little more. Looks like you have six 0.5" holes in the lid. I have run up to eight 0.75" holes with no problem. You can always close one or two of them off with magnets.

couple of theme drums.

Hi brothers,
My son and son in law got to sample some ribs done on my uds and were very impressed. So i made them each one for their birthdays!! My son is a gators fan so he got a gators drum. my son in law has and always will be a redneck (like me) and has always had a lot of John Deere stuff. So tell me what ya think.
the gators drum was a new drum and i had to weld a strip around the top to seal the lid. The John Deere drum i had to use a drum lid...cut it out and the base of the wally world kettle fits like a glove!!