Ugly Drum Smoker

Nice drum and basket!

My first UDS

I got a donor Weber Kettle from craigslist for $30. It was in pretty good shape but my drum was slightly bigger than the lid. First I tried a piece of aluminium flat stock around the inside of the drum. It was a little sloppy so I took some measurements and it was close to the Weber kettle. I cut off the top few inches of the kettle grill with an angle grinder. It fit perfectly inside the aluminum ring. I drilled it in out and attached it with SS 1/4" bolts. For 3 of the them I used 1 1/2" long bolts so they support the cooking grate.

From the donor I was able to use the lid, charcoal grate for my basket and the cooking grate for my lower level. I'm thinking about using the wheels to attach to my drum. Not sure they are big enough. I have to move it from garage across the lawn.

Btw...if you use an angle grinder be careful...if you don't get hurt it will scare the hell out of you.

I was trying to think of a way to effectively use the axle and wheels from the kettle also, if you come up with an idea please post!

Wow- I can't believe this thread is still going! I've been 'inactive' for about 4 years, with intermittent internet while I've been building our house. Finally got the house and barn built, so now I live in SC, and life is getting back to normal. I recently made a cart to move my SS UDS around. It's 1/2" black pipe, bent with a conduit bender and welded up. I need to smooth it up and paint it when I get the chance. My poor UDS got discolored by overheating; I need to figure out how to polish the SS back up.

Hi All, just in the process of doing my first UDS. Currently stuck trying to figure out the lid.

I want to use my Weber lid for the extra room it'll give me. I kinda feel like going 8" down is getting kinda close to the charcoal basket if you are using the regular drum lid. Does anyone know for sure if you get better results using a kettle lid vs the drum lid?

As it stands, my kettle lid doesn't fit on my drum so it's going to have be one or the other. At first I was hoping to be able to use both.

Dropsix said:

Hi All, just in the process of doing my first UDS. Currently stuck trying to figure out the lid.

I want to use my Weber lid for the extra room it'll give me. I kinda feel like going 8" down is getting kinda close to the charcoal basket if you are using the regular drum lid. Does anyone know for sure if you get better results using a kettle lid vs the drum lid?

As it stands, my kettle lid doesn't fit on my drum so it's going to have be one or the other. At first I was hoping to be able to use both.

Click to expand...

If you're gonna set it up to use the Weber Lid keep the lower grate and add another just below the top of the drum. That'll give you two cooking levels when using the kettle lid as well as allow you to use the lower level only when using the flat lid. I have 2 grates which allows me to cook 6-8 butts at a time with the kettle lid.

Wahoo95 said:

If you're gonna set it up to use the Weber Lid keep the lower grate and add another just below the top of the drum. That'll give you two cooking levels when using the kettle lid as well as allow you to use the lower level only when using the flat lid. I have 2 grates which allows me to cook 6-8 butts at a time with the kettle lid.

Click to expand...

Yeah that would work awesome if I could use both the drum lid or the kettle lid.

However, in my OP, I mentioned it would have to be one or the other. If I modify my drum to use the kettle lid, then the drum lid will no longer fit on it.

That's why I am asking kettle vs drum lid, which gives the better results. I don't want the meat to be too close to the charcoal basket. I guess I could use a diffuser.

My UDS

I've read the first 500 pages of this awesome thread.
Thanks to the "If a redneck wanted to build..." thread and other ideas in this monster thread, I built my first UDS. Obviously I got a little carried away.
All thats left is some wood on the shelf brackets and a bottle opener.

The basket was made by rolling the expanded metal around a propane tank and and welded to a 16" pizza pan. The bottom is a charcoal grate from an smaller kettle.

The wheels, one of the grates, and the lid, all came from a new 22.5" kettle I purchased from Craigslist. I welded top 2" off the bottom of the kettle to the drum for the lid to mate to. I have two grates sitting on three stainless bolts just below the lid and 6" down.

The handle and the hinge where both made from scratch. The Hinge doubles as a handle to lean the drum back on the wheels and move it around.

I used High Temp grommets from Grainger to run the probes from a Maverick ET-73 to the inside. It didn't look like a UDS without the analog temp gauge on the front so I added that just for looks and a back up reference point.

My son gets credit for the awesome paint job.

The first two cooks, ( a Fatty then a Picnic ) turned out good, but the Wife wasn't fond of the taste.

For the third cook I did some ribs but switched from Kingsford briquettes to Royal Oak Lump. Although I had a little more trouble holding a steady temp with the Lump, she liked the taste a lot better. The ribs were about 6 hours with just a few spritzes with apple juice and I did not foil. I think they turned out pretty good.

I may experiment with a diffuser to see how that affects the taste.

My wife thinks its hilarious as I have never cooked more than frozen pizza until now.

Posted my own thread but why not post here too?

**Hunsaker Smokers Clone #2** #Insane Clone Posse

Newest addition to the Left Hand Smoke arsenal!























Hot 'n Fast baby!!

SmokerKing said:

Click to expand...

Wow, this is like the mother of all UDS'S! Well done. Makes mine look like a little wimpy kid!

Scored me a real nice Weber lid the bottom was rusted out but it was free now to round up some more parts to build another UDS life is good cant wait for labor day wek end already got my Pork Butts

Hey everybody, why does it seem like I only get good smoke coming out of my UDS for maybe only 2 hours?

I'm using a full basket of Kingsford with hickory chunks that have been soaked for a few hours and scattered throughout the basket of charcoal. Even on the bottom of the basket. But it seems like after the first two hours, the smoke is done. Running at about 250 degrees.

"hickory chunks that have been soaked"
You do not need to soak the wood. You want to be seeing TBS (thin blue smoke). Almost invisible. Not heavy smoke.

I've been browsing through this thread for several days and noticed a few people are using long stem, kitchen thermometers through a grommet in the side of the drum as opposed to a normal BBQ thermometer. I kinda like this idea better since it gets a temp from closer to the cooking area. Is this just a normal candy/deep fry thermometer?

I use two deep fry thermometers in my UDS, one is short for temperatures near the side and the other is long enough to reach the center.

Decided to try the deep fry thermometer. Picked up a 1/4" barb fitting from lowes, works perfectly for the old thermometer I had laying around...

Making my first uds. If I can do it, it will prove that anybody can. Here's my question: I drilled my holes in the barrel and today did a burn out, a raging inferno that lasted about 3 hours. Almost all the paint is off and the inside has a serious char. Tomorrow I plan on cleaning up the outside a bit and painting it. Do I really need to clean up the inside? My barrel didn't have a lining, and although it said the inside was sprayed with a rust inhibiter, it didn't seem to be much of one. A week after I got it some rust started showing up inside the barrel. I just fine it hard to believe that after that kind of burn there could be anything harmful left on the inside. If it's important I'll clean it out, but it seems like an awful lot of work for nothing. Thoughts?