Ugly Drum Smoker

Sterling, looks like a good UDS you are doing there. All my baskets are 7 inches high and about 17 inch diameter. They only hold enough fuel for..maybe 16 - 18 hours. All drums are different and there is no magic combination. You need to try a few cooks and see what works for your fuel, style, and actual drum. Experiment a little and you will be just fine.

i could use a couple of those thermometers from Meijers. anybody want to help me out??...:lol::lol::lol:

BarberQue said:

I came to a conclusion after a couple of smokes on the uds, that the gauge on the outside wall is useless. So, I made a mod to the thermometer.(tossed it out) Not sure if this was in this thread before, but thought I would share this with you guy's. I took a 5/16 threaded brass rod and drilled a .156 hole through the middle leaving about .002 to .003 clearence ( per side) for the 12 inch thermometer probe($3 at Meijers)to slide in and out as needed.This way I don't need a digital thermometer for the grate, only the meat. And since I haven't made a cart for it yet I added a couple of handles to bring it in and out easier. I made a couple for my buddies and had them pc a copper vien the picture isn't that good I will have to get a better one later. I also did my first butt today on the uds, it's resting right now so no pulled pics yet, but the burnt end was awesome!!
View attachment 25946

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BarberQue said:

I came to a conclusion after a couple of smokes on the uds, that the gauge on the outside wall is useless. So, I made a mod to the thermometer.(tossed it out) Not sure if this was in this thread before, but thought I would share this with you guy's. I took a 5/16 threaded brass rod and drilled a .156 hole through the middle leaving about .002 to .003 clearence ( per side) for the 12 inch thermometer probe($3 at Meijers)to slide in and out as needed.

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Tyler, making that with brass rod is a good idea. Brass is real easy to machine. I tried to do the same thing using one of the cooking grate support bolts. Even doing it in a drill press the drill kept going off to one side and breaking through the sides of the bolt. So I scrapped the idea. I'll just stay without a thermometer on the outside because yes they are useless.

Weiser said:

That is a sweet looking build Sterlingsmoker!

Just a suggestion however.... the basket appears to be too short and too large in diameter from here.
It will work, but not for very long. It really should be at least 10" high and personally, I like 12" to 14" for cooks longer than eight hours.
I would add some expanded metal to the inside of what yo have.

Are you a Plumber? I question the use of multiple Ball valves although, they do look cool.:wink:

Weiser

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The basket and rack are from a WSM. I easily get 18 hr plus burns and have fuel left over.

EatonHoggBBQ said:

Tyler, making that with brass rod is a good idea. Brass is real easy to machine. I tried to do the same thing using one of the cooking grate support bolts. Even doing it in a drill press the drill kept going off to one side and breaking through the sides of the bolt. So I scrapped the idea. I'll just stay without a thermometer on the outside because yes they are useless.

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Ya, you gotta do it on a lathe, It's a lot easier. Since were so close and all, if you want a couple, I could help you out? Just pm me if you want some.

Has there ever been an official blueprint made on how to make one of these? Can someone point me to that thread?

Mike, have you read this thread from the beginning? Everything is in it. Good luck and post some pics of the build.

Here is a steo by step

Stiltz6ft9in said:

Has there ever been an official blueprint made on how to make one of these? Can someone point me to that thread?

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Here ya go bro.
http://www.thepickledpig.com/forums...32-our-uds-cooker-how-build-one-part-1-a.html

Masiewiz

Stiltz6ft9in said:

Has there ever been an official blueprint made on how to make one of these? Can someone point me to that thread?

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Try this Thread
http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43943&highlight=if+a+redneck

HOLY CRAP! I made it thru!!! Only took the better part of 2 days...:icon_sleepy

on top of that, I just got off the phone with Bevo who pointed me in the direction of some new barrel's... whoooo hooo no burning the liner! Like I was tellin him my main goal in building/using this is better/consistant fuel efficiency... The "Binford Smokemaster 3000" went thru 2 bags of coals, and unless I'm cookin a ton of meat, I just can't justify that...

So yeah... when I get time away from my 60 hr work weeks, this WILL be in the making... :biggrin: I can't wait!

Brian

Does any one have info on how to build one of these??
























J/K :twisted:

WOW!!
What an epic thread. I just finished reading the whole thing.
By page 20 I knew I had to have one, by page 30 I was building it. When I got into the 70's I recieved my permissions and went back through so I could see the pictures.
I have kept the original context of this thread and made an Ugly Drum Smoker.
Tale of the tape:
Lined barrel burned out with weed burner took about a half hour.
Went with four half inch nipples for intake because the 1" hole saw was more than the price of the barrel.
Eight 1/2 inch holes for exhaust in original top.

If you would have told me last week that this drum would burn so steady and I could just set it and leave it alone I would have thought you belonged in a looney bin.
First trial burn, no meat, held temps for about 17hrs but I had to give it the Norco boot method because I made my basket out of 1/2 inch FEM and it was clogging with ash. Rebiult it using the 3/4-9 with a webber coal grate and there is a pork loin on it cooking now.
Pron to come gotta get it outta the card and onto the net.
Here it is,

Thanks to the entire R & D team for working out the bugs before I got here you have truly made it too easy.

Loved the Norcoredneck statue by the way.

Nothing Better!

They are amazing aren't they?

I loaded my newest, and lit it off at 2:00Pm yesterday (Saturday), cooked all day with no problems.
This morning (Sunday) it was still chugging away at 190* when I checked
around 9:00 AM.
At Noon, I added a chimney full on top and right now( 9:00 Central) it is reading 208*.
This thing has been running for 30 hours on less than 12lbs of KF
and some Hickory chunks. I can't wait to see where it is in the morning.
It has to be getting low on fuel by now.
I'm selling my offset.

Weiser

muddy_udders said:

Does any one have info on how to build one of these??

J/K :twisted:

WOW!!
What an epic thread. I just finished reading the whole thing.
By page 20 I knew I had to have one, by page 30 I was building it. When I got into the 70's I recieved my permissions and went back through so I could see the pictures.
I have kept the original context of this thread and made an Ugly Drum Smoker.
Tale of the tape:
Lined barrel burned out with weed burner took about a half hour.
Went with four half inch nipples for intake because the 1" hole saw was more than the price of the barrel.
Eight 1/2 inch holes for exhaust in original top.

If you would have told me last week that this drum would burn so steady and I could just set it and leave it alone I would have thought you belonged in a looney bin.
First trial burn, no meat, held temps for about 17hrs but I had to give it the Norco boot method because I made my basket out of 1/2 inch FEM and it was clogging with ash. Rebiult it using the 3/4-9 with a webber coal grate and there is a pork loin on it cooking now.
Pron to come gotta get it outta the card and onto the net.
Here it is,

Thanks to the entire R & D team for working out the bugs before I got here you have truly made it too easy.

Loved the Norcoredneck statue by the way.

Click to expand...

Pron for the masses.

I had a flare up and did a panic scoot while taking picture Doh!

Are people flipping or just rotating or leave it be?



Pork loin roast and chicken lollipops, This is 4 hours on the pork and 1 on the chicken. I wrapped it in foil after the picture.

First UDS cook







smoke ring



Tacos



It ....Works!!!!

JV

tweek said:

I posted a while back about the barrel I was going to buy with the red liner. Well I finally did a burn but the liner seems totally untouched.Sorry for the repeated edits, just trying to get my pictures to link right.

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I'm guessing your coating was a fire retardent enamel like this:
http://www.fireretardantsinc.com/30_30/paint_burn_barrier.html

Wow. I just built my uds friday / saturday. I took a wire wheel to the coating inside the food grade barrel. That was not fun. But it is done and clean and cooked awsome ribs. Only problem is that with all vents closed i could not keep it under 250 degrees. I think i will set my charcoal basket down flat on the bottom.since the whole thing is made out of expanded metal. And not use lump charcoal and i will use k.f. This site was a lot of help. And bigmista's video's. Thanx everyone that put there imput in here.

Is this enough?

Hi guys,

I burned the heck out of my barrel for 45 minutes on the inside alone with the weed burner. I STILL couldn't get all of the inside paint off. Some of it flaked off as I torched it, alot didn't. This drum once contained polyproplyne glycol, a "relatively harmless" additive in toothpaste and food preserving according to wikipedia. Should I sand it with a wire brush, or do you think it's good? Here are pictures of it so far.

timmy7649 said:

Wow. I just built my uds friday / saturday. I took a wire wheel to the coating inside the food grade barrel. That was not fun. But it is done and clean and cooked awsome ribs. Only problem is that with all vents closed i could not keep it under 250 degrees. I think i will set my charcoal basket down flat on the bottom.since the whole thing is made out of expanded metal. And not use lump charcoal and i will use k.f. This site was a lot of help. And bigmista's video's. Thanx everyone that put there imput in here.

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"I think i will set my charcoal basket down flat on the bottom..."

Let us know how this works.

As you know the consensus is that there needs to be space under the basket for the ash which makes sense. Where will the ash go if it's flat on the bottom of the drum? Not sure but there may be someone on here that has tried this. Sure would be simpler but not sure.

We've had a few folks lately with new builds having high temp issues on first cooks. Not sure why but from what I've seen on my drum lid or upper air intake is the root of all evil and needs to be consistant and conatined to the right amount. Then the lower intakes can work the way those with the experience have documented here.
Other thing ...as I did early on I got my fire too big when I started it and then had high temp issues due to lack of patience. Remeber, the gurus all say "catch it on the way up." If you start small and be patient I've found that it works pretty good.

Good luck and keep us posted.

That all is damned good advice!
The basket on the bottom is good for about an hour, maybe two max.
Forget that silliness. It won't work.

Weiser

sfbbqguy said:

"I think i will set my charcoal basket down flat on the bottom..."

Let us know how this works.

As you know the consensus is that there needs to be space under the basket for the ash which makes sense. Where will the ash go if it's flat on the bottom of the drum? Not sure but there may be someone on here that has tried this. Sure would be simpler but not sure.

We've had a few folks lately with new builds having high temp issues on first cooks. Not sure why but from what I've seen on my drum lid or upper air intake is the root of all evil and needs to be consistant and conatined to the right amount. Then the lower intakes can work the way those with the experience have documented here.
Other thing ...as I did early on I got my fire too big when I started it and then had high temp issues due to lack of patience. Remeber, the gurus all say "catch it on the way up." If you start small and be patient I've found that it works pretty good.

Good luck and keep us posted.

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Now Weiser take it easy on little Timmy.
My latest drum likes to sit about 250 to 260 with two vents 1/2 open. It does not like having only one vent open, mind of its own there. So I will just make my cooks a little shorter. And like SFBBQguy said catch the temp on the way up.