Ugly Drum Smoker

I think the answer you are going to get to your question is no. Burning out must be done. did you drill your holse before burning out so the fire coudl get plenty of oxygen. You have to have plenty of fuel in the drum so that it burns super hot. Make it glow red. It will come off.
 
Gotta Love It said:
Guys,
I am in the process of building a UDS. Actually have a buddy with some time on his hands who is putting it together, but I'm pretty familiar with the process. I have a lined drum and burning it out several times with a big fire has done no good at all. A torch wouldn't even hurt the liner and it is extremely difficult to get it down to bare metal. I have done a LOT of internet research on epoxy phenolic liners over the last several days and I was just wondering if anyone knows of any specific reasons why the liner needs to be removed other than just general peace of mind. As far as I can tell, the worst thing in the liner is BPA, which is the chemical which got attention about a year ago for being in some baby bottles and Nalgene water bottles. I actually found one study which concluded that heating food in a can lined with an epoxy phenolic coating did not result in an appreciable increase in the amounts of BPA in the food. I personally don't think drinking out of a water bottle with BPA is harmful (and epoxy phenolic coatings are used in water tanks and such) but realize that when you bring heat into the equation it could change. With that being said, epoxy phenolic resins are extremely heat and flame resistant and are used in such applications as firewalls in airliners (where surely you wouldn't want people you are saving from fire in a crash to just breath a bunch of poison, right?). They are also used as heat resistant handles in certain types of cookware, and also in Bakelite which is used in a variety of applications including cookware. I also found this statement--"Phenolic resins have excellent fire resistance and when induced to burn will release only minimal quantities of smoke or toxic fumes. "

SO...Is anyone cooking on their's with the lining still in or does anyone with a background in Organic Chemistry or personal experience with someone getting sick care to chime in and tell me why I shouldn't do this? Obviously I don't feel 100% comfortable with it but I'm pretty close to it. The charcoal basket design does not expose it to the most intense heat of the fire and if it won't burn or react to heat much higher than the 250 F or so that I plan to introduce it to I feel like nothing is going be released from it...
Thanks for any and all opinions!
Cary
Click to expand...

Peace of mind is what made me buy a brand new unlined drum. For $40 - $50 I am not going to risk it.
 
Well I got the drum finished and coated the inside with crisco... Here's a final pic...

a008232d.jpg


I went to dinner with the family and then decided to check my mail... I was shocked to see the Tel-Tru thermometer in there since I ordered it Thursday.

6e3b2eb9.jpg


I have the drum fired up and seasoning right now... I put a good layer of charcoal in the basket and then added some large chunks of hickory that I had laying around... The lid doesn't seal all that well and I can see smoke coming out of the edges... I may have to make a seal of sorts if it becomes and issue... Tomorrow I'll drill the hole for the Tel-Tru, but for now I have my BGE thermometer from my Weber on there.

1053cb9b.jpg

fd8b9cd3.jpg


I'm making a stuffed fattie tonight to throw on there tomorrow... This will be my first fattie...
 
UVaJester-

Good stuff! So, what exactly did you do to get that lid to fit? It looks like you used the drum upside down and cut the bottom out of it, and then fit the lid around the bead at the bottom of the barrel. Is this what you did? Did you end up having to tweak the edge of the domed lid to fit easily?

Thanks! Great work!
 
Rodney said:
UVaJester-

Good stuff! So, what exactly did you do to get that lid to fit? It looks like you used the drum upside down and cut the bottom out of it, and then fit the lid around the bead at the bottom of the barrel. Is this what you did? Did you end up having to tweak the edge of the domed lid to fit easily?

Thanks! Great work!
Click to expand...

The drum I used was a 55 gallon sealed drum. So I cut the top out and then I used an angle grinder on the bead to get the lid to fit better. It fits tightly, but it leaks a little. I can hold any temp 200 and up.... and I only notice the smoke coming from the lid seal when I have my intake wide open.
 
UVaJester said:
The drum I used was a 55 gallon sealed drum. So I cut the top out and then I used an angle grinder on the bead to get the lid to fit better. It fits tightly, but it leaks a little. I can hold any temp 200 and up.... and I only notice the smoke coming from the lid seal when I have my intake wide open.
Click to expand...


Big Lots 29.00 donor lid? Priceless!

the UDS looks great! Happy smoking!
 
UVaJester said:
The drum I used was a 55 gallon sealed drum. So I cut the top out and then I used an angle grinder on the bead to get the lid to fit better. It fits tightly, but it leaks a little. I can hold any temp 200 and up.... and I only notice the smoke coming from the lid seal when I have my intake wide open.
Click to expand...

I wonder if I could cut the top flange off of the base of that Biglots grill and mount it into the top of my open-head drum... I know I've seen it done with Weber grills.
 
Rodney said:
I wonder if I could cut the top flange off of the base of that Biglots grill and mount it into the top of my open-head drum... I know I've seen it done with Weber grills.
Click to expand...

I tell you what I am doing with the Big Lots Kettle. I am in the process of building my second UDS. The drum that I got seems to be very narrow. Almost not true 55 gallon it's so small. Anyways I tried the "lid" that came with the Big Lots Grill and it would've worked, but had a lot of "slop" in the fit. I honestly never expected it to be too big. The weird part is I tried it on the UDS that I already have and it was way too SMALL. Weird huh?

I then just took the "bottom" of the Big Lots Kettle Grill and made a lid out of it. Where there is a flange built into the bottom, I just took a pair of pliers, and bent that flange up and over in a way to create the lid.

It is definitely not the prettiest bend in the world, but I tell you this, it's a great fit and should seal really well once I get it up and running.


Brandon
 
I just got 2 barrels and I was wondering how can you tell if there is a liner? The barrels I got contained either juice or flour and the inside looks like it's painted red. Does this need to be burned out?

thanks
 
SuperQue said:
I just got 2 barrels and I was wondering how can you tell if there is a liner? The barrels I got contained either juice or flour and the inside looks like it's painted red. Does this need to be burned out?

thanks
Click to expand...

The red is a liner and needs to be burned out, have fun with it.
 
SuperQue said:
I just got 2 barrels and I was wondering how can you tell if there is a liner? The barrels I got contained either juice or flour and the inside looks like it's painted red. Does this need to be burned out?

thanks
Click to expand...

It is probable that you have the "dreaded" red liner which is extremely difficult to get rid of. Others will chime in if I am wrong. If it is, you will be better off finding barrels with no liner, even at a higher cost.
 
Man I burned my barrel twice and it still had some liner in it. So I did a red neck sand blast. Sand in a bucket with some orange citrus cleaner, then with a green scratch pad, I went to work scrubbing, It came off after lots of elbow grease. Good luck
 
Are conduit fittings ok to use inside the drum..?? I needed to pick up a conduit nut and washer to install my tel-tru and they don't have anything noting whether there bare steel, zinc, etc...
 
HeSmellsLikeSmoke said:
Here is an online source for stainless conduit fittings.

http://www.gibsonstainless.com/
Click to expand...

I went ahead and used the conduit washers from homedepot... I don't really want to wait and order anything since I have a fattie sitting in the fridge right now...

I did look over the fittings closely and I noticed some of the fittings did label zinc and a few labeled steel... Everything I got either said steel or no label at all. The washers look to be same finish as the steel conduit nuts... Maybe someone here has been down this road before...

(Edited to add)
After typing this I searched the part number on the bag for the conduit reducing washers (#26820) online and found a pdf catalog from Halex... They list it as just steel...!!! Thank goodness I didn't use the lock nuts from that company because even though HomeDepot had them listed as steel, the part number brings up a zinc coated lock nut in there catalog...
 
UVaJester said:
I went ahead and used the conduit washers from homedepot... I don't really want to wait and order anything since I have a fattie sitting in the fridge right now...

I did look over the fittings closely and I noticed some of the fittings did label zinc and a few labeled steel... Everything I got either said steel or no label at all. The washers look to be same finish as the steel conduit nuts... Maybe someone here has been down this road before...
Click to expand...

YES THEY ARE ZINC COATED!!!!

use a charcoal starter chiminy with 10 or so briqets in it, put in your parts and burn the zinc off of them.
i have done this many times with nuts and bolts.
 
Dude, you need some high temps to burn the zinc off. You really don't need to worry about it though. People make a big deal out of the zinc, and unless you are breathing the fumes while welding on it, it really poses no risk. If some zinc manages to get on your food, it's fine. You aren't going to get toxic levels of zinc, even if you just ground up and ate the conduit nuts themselves.

I'm sure there will be several people saying otherwise, but I'd like to see the evidence.
 
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