Ugly Drum Smoker

WOW that is an amazing thread. It has been going on for years. Unfortunatly I do not have time here at work to read everthing, however with the hour I just spent reading I think I got pleanty of info to start my project. I love the UDS on the trailer rig. Really all the UDS were good.

cone

Does it fit the top of the drum or do you have to modify it?

thanks tim

hey cool drum did the cone fit the top of 55 drum or do you have to modify it?
thanks

I've burned out the drum tonight, and it's going together this weekend. WooHoo! Thanks everyone for your posts and ideas. I'll keep everyone posted, and pics soon to come.

smokindave74 said:

On my second drum, I actually turned the whole thing upside down, and use the flat lid, clamped on, as the actual bottom of the smoker. I cut the "bottom" out of the drum with a cold chisel, and put my lid on that end. That is pretty typical of most closed end drums. The open ends have the bigger lip, that is too big for an unmodified weber lid. The welded or rolled edge on the bottoms, usually accommodate a weber lid perfectly.

Click to expand...

Ugh. Guess I should have read a few more pages. Missed it by 12 hours. I honestly don't see the need for more than one rack for what I plan on ever doing, so I'm not freaking out, but I would have liked the option to go for two! Cheers all. If the snow/sleet/crap ever stops, I'll be able to fire this thing up. One question for unlined cans, do you rub the barrel with oil, or do you just straight up cook?

Any suggestions on getting the remaining corn syrup residue out of my open headed drum?

On the sides it is basically clean and the bottom probably has an 1/8" of solidified corn syrup.

I am thinking I will just use it as a burn barrel to burn my wood chips and bark from a winter of chopping wood and then I will have a "seasoned" barrel to build my smoker with.

Discuss. :wink:

p.s. My other concern is that I get a burnt corn syrup/ash debris caked to the bottom of the barrel.

tim hawk said:

hey cool drum did the cone fit the top of 55 drum or do you have to modify it?
thanks

Click to expand...

If you're referring to the cone tops on my drums;
No modifications to the rim of thedrum.
The cone top required some mods. Had to weld 1/4" rod, flat stock and some Rutland rope and silicone to make it capture and seal to the drum.
It's a tight, leak free fit though when it's done.

landlocked said:

Any suggestions on getting the remaining corn syrup residue out of my open headed drum?

On the sides it is basically clean and the bottom probably has an 1/8" of solidified corn syrup.

I am thinking I will just use it as a burn barrel to burn my wood chips and bark from a winter of chopping wood and then I will have a "seasoned" barrel to build my smoker with.

Discuss. :wink:

p.s. My other concern is that I get a burnt corn syrup/ash debris caked to the bottom of the barrel.

Click to expand...

How about a couple pots of boiling water to dissolve it.

Thought I'd share something I learned when I started in on my closed head drum.

I used a jigsaw to cut the top off. Easy, and quick. I cut right against the edge.

Then I got my angle grinder out to smooth the inside edge. My weber top was slightly too small to fit the drum, so I started in shaving down the lip. Around and around a few times, checking the fit as I went, and suddenly the part of the lip cut from the lid came loose and I lifted it right off the drum, leaving only the drum wall lip there. A little more grinding and the webber fit like a glove.

I didn't think much of this until I went to help my friend Adam open up his closed head drum a couple days ago. We were discussing how this lip came off and decided to skip cutting the top off and try to do it by just grinding the very top edge of the drum until we were just through the lids rolled edge. Sure enough, with very little effort, doing this easily separated the lid from the drum and made sizing it to his webber lid easy as well.

Here's a quick drawing I made of the way the drum wall is rolled and then the lid is rolled over that drum wall lip.



And here's a quick youtube video I made of Adam grinding the top edge, and how easy the lid separates.

http://youtu.be/OeaER0yLiK4

I did another drum like this yesterday for another friend, and his was made from thicker metal, but it still separated mighty easy.

Well, after tomorrow I'll have 10 days off to get the ol' UDS up and running. Can't wait to load up the forums with some pics!

Goodmornin' folks! First post here, and after reading through many, many pages of this thread I decided to build my first UDS.

Thank you for all the information you've provided throughout the thread. This is my first smoker ever, and it is all fairly new to me.

Oh and I know you guys like pics! So here goes...Hope you like!

The beginning


Basket materials


Basket construction


10min Basket complete (all scrap metal from shop)


Complete!


Fattie & Ribs

The Big ONE!

Brothers...quick story about the power of the UDS.

My buddy borrowed my drum to cater a party he was attending. It seems his XL BGE couldn't handle all of the food so he needed my hillbilly smoker to cook 40lbs of chix...which it did flawlessly!

He picks up my barrel in the morning and stuffs everything into his truck. I get a frantic call about half hour later...he was doing 90 on the highway because he was late and the barrel lifted 100 feet into the air and crashed in traffic. He said cars dove out of the way like the BIG ONE at Talladega!! Charcoal, grates, lid, firebox, clamps...all over the road and not a single wreck! He tried to recover as much as he could frogger style but the grates were toast.

As he's on the phone telling me this story I hear a smash and a litany of four letter words. Yep...he smashed a deer while he was telling me about the destruction of my drum! Classic. Keep in mind he still had to get to this party and cook all this food (9 racks, pizzas, chix) and do it on a truck with the front basically ripped off!

I ran to the depot and bought 2 grates and headed to help him out. Got busy with a hammer and pounded the UDS back into round. Slammed the lid down and used a foil gasket to seal it up. Aside from some serious scrapes of the custom paint and a fat dent near the valve...it worked perfect!!!

This ordeal motivated me to finally break out my harbor freight flux welder and teach myself how to weld. Took a flat lid from another barrel and welded the weber dome to it and then cut out the inside. Tighter seal than when I used the lock ring and clamp!! Got a shoulder and a chuck roast in as we speak for a BBQ tonight! Pics included...remember, not one lesson on the god awful welds! NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF THE UDS!

It's a Beautiful Thing!

Used this great info from you guys to build my 1st uds. I was using the top of the drum for a lid with the holes around the perimeter. I recently scored a weber lid and got it to fit on my drum my only question is do I watch the top vents or do I just leave them open all the time? Again thanks for the info guys.

CostaRican said:

Used this great info from you guys to build my 1st uds. I was using the top of the drum for a lid with the holes around the perimeter. I recently scored a weber lid and got it to fit on my drum my only question is do I watch the top vents or do I just leave them open all the time? Again thanks for the info guys.

Click to expand...

I leave my weber vent open all the time. I never close it until my fire is out. I have read numerous times here to never use the top vent for any kind of control, only use the inlets.

Big Darb said:

How about a couple pots of boiling water to dissolve it.

Click to expand...

Not interested. Too simple. j/k

It's still been a little on the cold side up here (NW Montana) and the corn syrup is pretty much solid from being old so I am not too sure hot water could do it, at least in the quantities I could manage to boil.

That being said, it's probably easy enough to give it a shot and see.

I could also see if I can borrow a turkey fryer burner to trow under the barrel.

Thanks for the idea.

PhilipW said:

Thought I'd share something I learned when I started in on my closed head drum.

I used a jigsaw to cut the top off. Easy, and quick. I cut right against the edge.

Then I got my angle grinder out to smooth the inside edge. My weber top was slightly too small to fit the drum, so I started in shaving down the lip. Around and around a few times, checking the fit as I went, and suddenly the part of the lip cut from the lid came loose and I lifted it right off the drum, leaving only the drum wall lip there. A little more grinding and the webber fit like a glove.

I didn't think much of this until I went to help my friend Adam open up his closed head drum a couple days ago. We were discussing how this lip came off and decided to skip cutting the top off and try to do it by just grinding the very top edge of the drum until we were just through the lids rolled edge. Sure enough, with very little effort, doing this easily separated the lid from the drum and made sizing it to his webber lid easy as well.

Here's a quick drawing I made of the way the drum wall is rolled and then the lid is rolled over that drum wall lip.

And here's a quick youtube video I made of Adam grinding the top edge, and how easy the lid separates.

http://youtu.be/OeaER0yLiK4

I did another drum like this yesterday for another friend, and his was made from thicker metal, but it still separated mighty easy.

Click to expand...

PhillipW, yours may be the tip of the month. I'm building a couple more drums this month and am anxious to try your technique. I'll be sure to let everyone know how it turns out.

Sterling

Thanks for the tip, I just smoked a couple of fatties for the test "kids love em"....me too. Left the vents wide open and she held temp perfectly.

UDS ready for maiden voyage

Well, finally got it done. Got the barrel for $25 and burned it out. Got sick of using the angle grinder and found a steel place near me that sandblasted it for $25. Money well spent!

Drilled out a bolt to accomodate a turkey fryer thermometer.

Made the basket from a Wally World pizza pan, Weber grill, expanded metal and stainless bolts, nuts, washers and zip ties.

The intakes are 3/4 in. pipe nipples held with conduit nuts.

Can wait to season her tomorrow.

http://flic.kr/p/9AHW9D

http://flic.kr/p/9ALQGo

http://flic.kr/p/9AHWax

http://flic.kr/p/9AHW8K

http://flic.kr/p/9AHW88

Well, here is my UDS experience. I picked Dalek for my handle and if there are any Dr. Who fans out there, they will know what that is.

I started with a unlined used Olive oil drum I picked up for $16 and went to town on it. I used an angle to cut the lid off (it's in the video that PhilipW had shown). I used a weed torch to loosen the paint on the outside. Used a paint stripper / scotch brite type wheel from the orange hardware store and it made quick work of the paint on the outside of the drum.

Built the fire basket per recommended procedures on the forum with a minor tweak on the bottom of the ash pan, to make sure it didn't sag over time.

I went to a local fence/iron working store and found the stuff to make the arms. The bubbles around the drum are actually fence pipe weld on caps.

I still have some things I want to do to the weber dome but my family has been hounding me to get the UDS to a point that can start smoking!!!

I would like to thank all the people who have posted their experiences here and a special thanks to PhilipW for prodding me on this project!!!

Tomorrow is the day this Dalek comes to life :-D