People have noted temp hotter near vent wheel. How big of a fire basket do you have? With a smaller drum you might need a smaller diameter basket to limit fire and reduce heat. Swamprb has a couple of threads on his smaller drum.So I did my first Butt this weekend. It turned out pretty good. Along with that I did some Babt Back ribs. They turned out great too. I did get the 18 1/5 Weber lid to work. It worked out great. The question I have is... With the Weber lid does it get hotter than the flat lid that came with the drum. I know a lof of you when cooking you have most of your holes on your lids and UDS opened up the whole way most of the cook. But with the Weber lid on I have to have them all shut a little more than half way. I have 2 holes on the bottom and just the Weber air holes on the lid. My question is does the lid make a difference. It seemed like it ran hotter with the Weber lid. Over 300 with all the vents opened. But with the air holes set it ran about 250 but really couldn't get to go lower and it stay at a steady temp. I was also wondering what to do to get it to run a bit cooler. Should I add more holes or whatever? I forgot to mention its a 30 gal UDS. Also forgot that I held 250 for about 14 hours and at 24 hours it was still at 180 or a little more. At about 19 hours it was at 215 or so. Thanks again to everyone that has gave me great advice!!!!!!!!! I now can not stop BBQing. LOL!!!
I started reading this thread from the beginning about three weeks ago and am only on page 70. But I couldn't wait to build me one, so I had to jump in with both feet.
I can not name all of the names of the people on this thread that helped through this process. I just want to say "Thanks to everyone" and everything on this UDS was found on this thread.
It is seasoning now.
My firebox
http://www.richardmparker.com/storage/07_12_09_uds_v1/FireBox.JPG
My intake
http://www.richardmparker.com/storage/07_12_09_uds_v1/vent1.JPG
My UDS seasoning
http://www.richardmparker.com/storage/07_12_09_uds_v1/Compare3.JPG
Just for fun I am going to read this thread again from the begining.
I want a weber lid to increase capacity on my UDS. I cant find one anywhere but I was in walmart and saw a uniflame kettle for 40 $. It would be worth it if I could recycle the food and charcoal grate into a 2nd UDS....what do you guys think? Are the parts sturdy enough?
Thanks to all for the valuable info. Once I realized I didn't need to weld, the rest was easy. Well, to a point. Drill holes, no sweat. A friend found a weber kettle on the sidewalk to be given away. Lip was cut off with no problem. Even the barrel burn went fine after my wife left for the weekend (something to do about now getting caught).
But the thought of the noise, the dust, and the dark (It would be a tight fit in there), just wouldn't cut it. For a minimal amount, I had it sandblasted and powdercoated. My wife just won't go for ugly.
A friend noted it was the best chicken she ever tested. The got her husband riled up and a week later, he issued a throwdown challenge. I guess I'll just have to rough him up...
Congrats, another member to the MI drum corp.
Bubba is our leader, God help us all.
I was watching butts and the such cook preping for a HUGE Saturday. I'll post a new thread on it in the catering section soon.Nothing better to do in England today? You da man Dr.:-D
Rich did you shake down the ashes? Temp will go up.