Ugly Drum Smoker

Well I went and did it.

I've read this thread probably 3 times through and more going to certain posts to get information. But I finally built one. Build was typical so I didn't take pics. But here she is

UDS11.jpg


First cook in progress.

FirstCookBeerCanChickens.jpg


Birds are done
donebirds1.jpg

Now Round 2
round2.jpg
 
Last edited:
Hello all:


Going to make my first UDS. I got 2 steel drums, both were food grade (used for juice concentrate) but both have a red paint like coating on the inside...what is the best way to remove? I was thinking burning them and then using a wire brush? Or do I even have to remove it?

37381_412729237720_565832720_491988.jpg
 
Heres how you get rid of the dreaded liner.
Yes, thats a leaf blower, and yes, the fire dept. responded.
hhrrrrrg006.jpg
 
Clifford.....

I just finished getting the lining out of mine. I think you and I had the same lining and I got bad news for you..... That stuff is amazing. I burned a bunch of wood to get very hot coals, rolled the drum and then blew air in it with my shop vac to really get it hot. Oh yeah..... didn't even faze that stuff. So this morning, I got my trusty Harbor Freight angle grinder with a couple different flap wheels and got to work. Three hours inside the drum out in the sun. Loud.... dirty (I went through four of those masks) and a huge pain, but it's finally done. I rubbed it down with canola, because I could SEE the rust forming on that bare metal (and I'm in Denver where the humidity is like 10 %!!!).

Now off to do a little welding and put the bolts for the grate in.

Please re-assure me that this will work..... while I was in the barrel, I was really thinking that writing a check for an electric smoker would make a bunch more sense!!!


Oh yeah.... I got my son in on the action!
 

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fat_bastard said:
How long are you talking about here? There are guys in this thread that have done 16 hour cooks without adding fuel. Fuel mileage is one of the benefits of the UDS
Click to expand...
ditto. We ran about 18 hours this weekend at a competition without adding any fuel and plenty left. Did brisket and butts overnight and then followed that up with ribs. The only thing I see a door doing is making air flow a problem.
 
even if you do have to mess with the coals. Is it going to be that bad to lift the grate out to do it? I have the weber grill from home depot with the handles and it seems like it would be less time to do that then it is to foil a butt.
 
Lock ring

Sammy...I use the locking ring to seal the drum up a bit better. The lid is a webber kettle which was too small so I flattened it out with a rubber mallet. It's still not perfect and there are some gaps. Using the lock ring that came with the drum stops exhaust from leaking out. It probably means nothing to the cook but watching that smoke come out the top was driving me nuts. Plus, the clamp adds to the UDS mystique a bit I think!
 
"Please re-assure me that this will work..... while I was in the barrel, I was really thinking that writing a check for an electric smoker would make a bunch more sense!!!"

Here's the proof...these are left over coals from a rib comp 2 weeks ago. Put in about 7-8lbs. Cooking sausage today...needle hasn't moved in about 3 hours.
P1030663.jpg

Sammy...here's the clamp I was talking about.
P1030664.jpg
 
My temps are all over the place but this is the first time i've fired her up. I let it get too hot on the ramp up and then took the top off. Temps have been high ever since but they are consistently high. I think i may have too much draft coming from my weber lid that isn't exactly sitting on there very tight. All the vents are closed and its still cruising at around 333 in the middle of the grate. The outside is runing in the 280's. I think i just too much charcoal fired when I opened the lid.
 
Mine doesnt have a liner but I was wondering is after you do your burn out, could you pressure wash it?
 
spott77 said:
My temps are all over the place but this is the first time i've fired her up. I let it get too hot on the ramp up and then took the top off. Temps have been high ever since but they are consistently high. I think i may have too much draft coming from my weber lid that isn't exactly sitting on there very tight. All the vents are closed and its still cruising at around 333 in the middle of the grate. The outside is runing in the 280's. I think i just too much charcoal fired when I opened the lid.
Click to expand...

These things take forever to cool down even with everything closed.

cliffordsimmons said:
Would the grinder be faster then the wheel brush???





Cliff
Click to expand...

Fast but wear ear plugs!!

shdybrady said:
Mine doesnt have a liner but I was wondering is after you do your burn out, could you pressure wash it?
Click to expand...

A burn will help with the outside paint if you are going to paint it? I think about 100 pages back someone said washing them out hot water and simple green? Something like that...
 
no I was talking about the inner liner. Not really asking for me. More for people in the future
 
Got my drum flying this weekend. A few tweaks need to be made as the weber lid is leaking a little around the edges. The first fire never went out. So I dumped more coals on it and started todays cook. Should have taken the hot coals out and put on top. Had a hard time with temp management with them burning up from the bottom :tsk:
 
pahutchens said:
Got my drum flying this weekend. A few tweaks need to be made as the weber lid is leaking a little around the edges. The first fire never went out. So I dumped more coals on it and started todays cook. Should have taken the hot coals out and put on top. Had a hard time with temp management with them burning up from the bottom :tsk:
Click to expand...

Temp management is my problem too I think my weber lid is really letting air in and creating way too much draft. I wanted to see just how long it would run so i filled it with 15lb of Stubbs. Put about 8 lit briqs in the middle of the basket with one cap off and the valve all the way open it climbed much faster than i thought it would. When i went to check in 20 min it was @ 288 and climbing. I damped everything down and ended up with about half open valve and all caps on to keep it around 290 but it never came down from there. When i lifted the lid that is when the problems started it shot up to around 350 and basically never came back down. It ran @ 350 for about 10 hours with all the vents closed and now its down to 275-300 and still chugging the only thing i can figure is the lid is letting too much air in because its not really sealed on the top.
 
cliffordsimmons said:
Would the grinder be faster then the wheel brush???





Cliff
Click to expand...

Cliff,

On mine, I used three things. One was a disk that I had from removing the expoxy from the garage floor before I re-painted it. It was very aggresive and would cut right through the lining. But it broke apart and I didn't have a preplacement. Next was a sanding disk for angle grinders. It's like a flap wheel, but with the sandpaper overlapping each other a bit. That worked pretty well and did not scuff up the steel as much, but it took longer. Finally, there are those "paint removing" disks that look like coarse sponges. I hit that a bit at the end to smooth everything out and take the little bit of rust that developed out. But that would not take out the paint by itself. The wire brush was totally useless on this stuff. It did not even chip the lining.

I had on ear plugs and ear muffs over them. plus a dust mask (four of them), eye protection and gloves. Oh yeah.. a tshirt that you can throw away. You need all of that.

Good luck. The upshot is that the inside of mine looks GREAT now!
 
Well, count me out as a true Vikings fan, then. Can you honestly say Bret is a true Vikes fan himself? He hasn't said yet...

The only way I can remember how it's spelled is from "There's Something about Mary.":

"Bret Faavvvvrrrruh?"
 
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