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Old 05-09-2013, 09:24 AM   #10859
Belaurora
Found some matches.
 
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Join Date: 05-06-13
Location: Fort Washington, MD
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Quote:
Originally Posted by smokainmuskoka View Post
I did the same with mine, but with 3/4"l x 1/4"d stainless nuts and bolts. I C-clamped the aluminum bar to the outside of the drum first, then bent it around the drum, clamping every 8 or 10 inches to get the aluminum formed. Trimmed the excess and squoze it into the inside of the drum. I drilled bolt-holes in the drum first then marked the aluminum for matching holes. After they were drilled, I had some problems with the holes lining up and had to re-drill a few. I would recommend you just clamp the aluminum strip inside the drum once you have it formed and trimmed and drill through both in one go.
My strip protrudes about 3/8" above the drum lip - if I do a future UDS I'd go 1/2" or 5/8"
I also used red hi-temp silicon to seal.
I am building my first UDS and have the same issue with the Uniflame lid being too small to fit. Here is the link to my build thread: http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/sh...=1#post2475371

So I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts about welding the Uniflame dome to the original drum lid. My drum lid has a nice tight seal. The real issue may be whether I am a good enough welder to weld two THIN pieces of metal together. I have had lots of practice in the last couple of days and have gotten much better. I know there was someone who did this and I was hoping they would chime in. It it really difficult to weld the two together. I was planning on spot welding in 4 places and then doing very short spot welds around the perimeter, maybe 2 seconds for each spot.

Or would it be easier to just buy a piece of metal or aluminum and bend it inside the drum like in the above posts?

Anyone with experience welding the two pieces together? I am using flux core. I don't have a bottle of gas yet.

By the way this thread ROCKS!!
Thank you all so much for your help. I hope some others find what I have done to be useful too.
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