How to adapt Weber kettle lid to UDS??

Hotrodhog said:

No offense to anyone aboves post, but your all getting your tools out to quickly.
First of all, get the right drum, if it don't fit leave it

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Many people don't have the luxury of passing up an available drum and must find a way to make things work with what they have.

Hotrodhog said:

No offense to anyone aboves post, but your all getting your tools out to quickly.
First of all, get the right drum, if it don't fit leave it, heres another thing about that, most open top drums fit perfectly when flipped over, the bottom of mine seals to perfection on my 30's and 55's

Hint, keep a lid in your car. i do.

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I agree. We have found that open top drums have a very thick ring around the top. We take a closed drum, turn it over and cut the bottom out. When grinding it smooth we discovered that the metal is rolled over the bottom. Just pop it off and you gain quite a bit plus it is still reinforced. Not sure if you'll understand that.

Hotrodhog said:

No offense to anyone aboves post, but your all getting your tools out to quickly.
First of all, get the right drum, if it don't fit leave it, heres another thing about that, most open top drums fit perfectly when flipped over, the bottom of mine seals to perfection on my 30's and 55's

Hint, keep a lid in your car. i do.

Click to expand...

my drum was free so i worked with what I saw not with what I could invision

This has been enlightening fellas.... Read most of the big thread. Found an open top drum and went to work.

The bottom of my drum fit the weber perfectly but I did not find that out until I had drilled the holes. So....

With the clamp removed my top sealed well. I cut off all of the weber edge except the dome. The weber then dropped right into the inside edge of the barrel top. I cut out the middle of the barrel lid and then slit the remaining edges and bent them up against the inside of the weber. Had it welded together. Sealed it with high temp and that was that.

Thank you for all your help.

You guys are the best.

Hotrodhog said:

No offense to anyone aboves post, but your all getting your tools out to quickly.
First of all, get the right drum, if it don't fit leave it, heres another thing about that, most open top drums fit perfectly when flipped over, the bottom of mine seals to perfection on my 30's and 55's

Hint, keep a lid in your car. i do.

Click to expand...

So you put a lid on the bottom? and didnt use any of those tools others got out so quickly to cut the bottom out of your drum? Interesting... sounds like just as much if not more work to me.

I cut the bottoms out of my drum and use the weber lid. This makes it easy to clean and load with fuel.

I had this lid & a drum that did'nt fit so i did this. I wanted a hinged lid anyways. sit drum lid on drum, place dome lid on drum lid, remove paint from both areas to be welded. clamp the 3 together while welding to minimize warpage. cut out center of drum lid leaving approx. 1 in. from groove..

bertkemtncurs said:

Never thought about welding the dome to a flat lid and cutting it out - good idea!

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that is exactly what i did, but just note that the weber lids are made out of a super thin metal compared to the drum. ill post pics of mine

I used one of these

that I put inside the flat lid. It snugged up tight against the inside of the bulge of the flat lid that sealed over the lip of the barrel. Then I just used a bead of JB weld to adhere it and seal it. Worked better ''n any other lid I've ever made. Sorry, the pics I took of the finished smoker (which I gave as a Christmas present to a friend) got deleted from the camera in order to take pics of the kids opening their christmas morning goodies.

And let's just get this out of the way now: YES it is galvanized. The temperatures that I cook at are no where near hot enough to vaporize the zinc and I figure if you can abate asbestos with paint, you can abate zinc with a good cast-iron style seasoning.

Dont know if I missed it but are you supposed to cut the lid out on top or from the side of a closed drum. I plan to use a weber lid. Right now it doesnt fit the the top or the bottom.