Ugly Drum Smoker

What is the purpose of the blower in the bottom of the barrel? wouldnt that make the temps hotter?

Muscrat said:

What is the purpose of the blower in the bottom of the barrel? wouldnt that make the temps hotter?

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Blower is controlled by a controller and blows only to maintain a setpoint. Kinda overkill on a UDS but then boys need more toys!:clap2:

The blower with a Guru is the ultimate lazy Q tool. When I wake up at 3am to start a burn (BBQ for Sunday lunch - my designated meal to cook), I really don't feel like babying the pit to get it balanced out. On a normal burn, it could take over an hour to get everything balanced, and if my lump was damp, well then all bets were off.

With the blower, I can be cooking in about 15-30 minutes - and the temp will still be the same when I get back out of bed at 6am to check it. Too often (pre guru) I have thought I was balanced only to wake up to a cold pit.

I have also used it to cook Chicken when I wanted a stable higher temp.
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I used conduit nuts a lot - they are great, easy alternative to welding your nipples in place. I had to use them, because my steel nipples kept corroding to my pipe caps. Without conduit nuts or welding, I would never have been able to remove the caps (eventually they corroded so bad the only option was to remove the nipple with the caps on).

Keep your steel nipples oiled, or the caps will corrode onto them. I went to brass nipples to avoid that issue

jcinadr said:

The blower with a Guru is the ultimate lazy Q tool. When I wake up at 3am to start a burn (BBQ for Sunday lunch - my designated meal to cook), I really don't feel like babying the pit to get it balanced out. On a normal burn, it could take over an hour to get everything balanced, and if my lump was damp, well then all bets were off.

With the blower, I can be cooking in about 15-30 minutes - and the temp will still be the same when I get back out of bed at 6am to check it. Too often (pre guru) I have thought I was balanced only to wake up to a cold pit.

I have also used it to cook Chicken when I wanted a stable higher temp.
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I used conduit nuts a lot - they are great, easy alternative to welding your nipples in place. I had to use them, because my steel nipples kept corroding to my pipe caps. Without conduit nuts or welding, I would never have been able to remove the caps (eventually they corroded so bad the only option was to remove the nipple with the caps on).

Keep your steel nipples oiled, or the caps will corrode onto them. I went to brass nipples to avoid that issue

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I'm with you. I sometimes do small catering gigs. I cook on work nights. I take it one step further. My Stoker has a router and I just look at the graph on my laptop. I don't even lift my head off the pillow. :bored:

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Now thats one ugly drum!

There's a fatty on there smoking now for the seasoning. Man this thread alone is worth more than one person can express.

I started with a cheapo some-or-other brand smoker a few weeks ago, did a small brisket, and was upset with the inability to control temp. (no intake control) That was my very first attempt at smoking anything, AND it was a brisket. I did it naked, (really because I forgot to put on any rub :doh but I was happy because I got to see how the flavor was. My wife made some homemade bbq sauce, and we did enjoy it. I know I should have left it on longer, but the temp spiked near 300 on me once and I was afraid of overdoing it, so shortly after internal hit 180, I pulled the brisket, rested for 1 hr, my center came out dry. But, I was overall happy with the result, and experience and I was hooked, and decided that little crappy thing wouldnt do the job.

My friend who's a member here but i dont know his board name, suggested I check out the UDS. Since i really enjoy building stuff, I dove in. I'm at a stage of completion that the drum is useable, for under 100 dollars. I've got handles to put on but I need to get more stainless hardware, I'm going to paint it and build a worktable. I lit her up, got it up to 225, closed my rear two vents, left my valve wide open, she climbed to 250 and leveled about 250, 255 (after reading suggestions on how much charcoal to use when lighting :wink and thats where it has sat ever since.

Thanks to all the members on here sharing their vast amount of knowledge with those of us that want to learn the art.

(I'll hit the cattle call here soon. I'm not good at introductions when it's just "hi. I'm here to learn." Now I've got stuff to share!)

Welome tburda. You'll love your drum. :thumb:

Just Finished Mine today. Hoping for a Good 1st Smoke on Saturday

Well I did the first cooking on the new uds. We did some beef baby backs. Moinks. Venison backstrap and a large sirlion. I'm well pleased for the first cook. It seams that even at a lower temp it still cooks faster than my large offset pit. Half kingsford and half mesquite chunks. Been goin for 7hrs now on one basket of wood. My other pit uses half a cord of wood in that amount of time seams like.

Well after years of avoiding anything to do with a drum, I've finally slapped one together. I'm a diehard stick burner and resisted as long as I could, but after my last two comps, feeding sticks ever 30 min @2 am is getting old.....20 min naps are not cutting it.

I seasoned it tonight an am very surprised how quick it got up to temp and how tight the control is.....cooking a brisket tomorrow, unattended for at least 4 hours.......we'll see how this goes.

Do you all draw air off of one intake or two?.......I've got two, one inch intakes(ball valve)

Clayhill,
I start off with all three valves open. When the temp hits 150 I close one off, at 200 I close the second one and at 225 I close the last one about 1/2 way and it will cruise along for 14 hours like this.
Welcome to the darkside

Just got home from my mega-smoke. I don't recommend throwing 50lbs or so of butts in one drum even though they will fit. It kills the convection, and the butts drip so much liquid that it extinguishes the coals. 40lbs or so is probably the practical max for a two level UDS. If I would have left a nice sized hole in the middle of the grates for the air to flow around it probably would have been a good idea to help the meat cook faster.

Given the dripping soaked charcoal mess in the drums, I made arrangements with the camp that I cooked at to leave them burning for the rest of the night until they run out of fuel. Leaving an extra near-temp butt on one of the smokers sealed the deal in my favor. Something tells me that I'm looking at a huge PITA to clean these guys out tomorrow. The pressure washer should help a lot. Do you think that I'll need to re-season them after I get them washed out and home?

Some interesting info that people might like to know...

1. A basket that is 16" in diameter and 6-7 inches high can hold a 20 lb bag of Kingsford briquettes.

2. A UDS + 20lbs of charcoal can hold temp for well over 24 hours.

These drums really are contagious. Twice guys saw my drums working and by the time we finished talking about them they were ready to build their own.

I should have the time to post pics this week.

Thanks everybody for your help!

FYI - Found those long probe turkey fryer thermometers that were referred to somewhere in the first 200 pages at Meijer for $3.19.

Count me in Brethren. I've burned logs and shoveled embers into a pit all my life. I built this guy Saturday morning and seasoned it last night. Did a Eye of Rounf roast on it during the seasoning. I think I liky! Started out basic with the UDS but may do some mods along the way. Thanks guys!

Brewski,

Is it hard to find a smooth sided drum? I like the look of yours better than one with the two rings around the middle. It almost looks like it should have a lining or something.

Does anyone know if they make drums with metal linings? I saw somebody post a double walled UDS but I didn't know if they made the internal wall.

bbrewster said:

Brewski,

Is it hard to find a smooth sided drum? I like the look of yours better than one with the two rings around the middle. It almost looks like it should have a lining or something.

Does anyone know if they make drums with metal linings? I saw somebody post a double walled UDS but I didn't know if they made the internal wall.

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I thought it was odd myself. I got two of them this week. The other one I turned into a barrel wood stove for my shop. I did a 5-6 hour hot burn to get rid of the original paint inside and out.

The business sells them for $10. They are clean because the glue and silicone that comes in them is bagged. They do not even have scratches or dents. :-D

Bung Cap Missing

I just got my drum to build my UDS.
I had a buddy pick it up for me, and when he dropped it off, the cap for the 2" bung was missing.
I have googled trying to find a replacement, but only come up with plastic ones.
I also googled for 2" pipe to just skip the cap and make a stack, but stainless is the only thing I found (other than plastic or galvanized) and that stuff is pretty expensive.
Where do I go from here?
What material are others using to build their stacks?

NCSU-Q said:

I just got my drum to build my UDS.
I had a buddy pick it up for me, and when he dropped it off, the cap for the 2" bung was missing.
I have googled trying to find a replacement, but only come up with plastic ones.
I also googled for 2" pipe to just skip the cap and make a stack, but stainless is the only thing I found (other than plastic or galvanized) and that stuff is pretty expensive.
Where do I go from here?
What material are others using to build their stacks?

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I used PVC and painted it to match my drum.

1FUNVET said:

I used PVC and painted it to match my drum.

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Isnt plastic (pvc) a problem with 250 degree air passing through it??
I guess technically, when it gets to the stack the air has already passed the food, but... there has to be a better way.

BGE Vent

One more question... I have decided to use a BGE draft door for my air intake. How are you guys attaching these to the drum? Rivets? JB Weld?

NCSU-Q said:

Isnt plastic (pvc) a problem with 250 degree air passing through it??
I guess technically, when it gets to the stack the air has already passed the food, but... there has to be a better way.

Click to expand...

Been cooking on mine for over a year with no problems.