Ugly Drum Smoker

JW,
Maybe it is the small diameter of the intakes. My intakes are Ø 7/8". Also the exhaust stack does not extend below the inside of the lid. Additionally the stack is short, in comparison to some I have seen. I did have to extend the stack on my off set to the cooking grates to hold temperatures.

I can't tell any difference in the temperature around the circumference of the grill where the meat is. Is it possible that temperature is drastically different across the grill only having one intake location open?

There is something different about my drum? What is it? Look closely.

Hey, ratdawg how does your drum cook? It looks great.

ratdawg thats awesome looking drum.my favorite so far.whats up with the angle iron on top?is it to keep the top from warping or just for extra weight? I just found me a drum and soon will be part of the club. wig

That's it people I have gone and done it!

Last week at work I finaly spotted a drum with a removable lid so I picked it up this morning with three pallets that were sitting around and ran it straight out to the mother-in-laws farm so she could give it several good burns. Broke up the pallets and set some of the wood inside just to get her started.
Aint I just the best son-in-law in the world.lol

Just for giggles I *recieved* a 2'' and 1.5'' ball valves, 2'' brass nipple ect.Wonder if it's going to burn way too much fuel with those sizes?

I'm off to ebay to find a 22'' grill.

TexaQ,, your drum lid and the flange around the edge. no bung holes in lid??? give us a heads up on constructing.

Actually the lid is on upside down. The walls of the barrel slope toward the center. Luckily I had a lid in my junk stash; since the lid that came with the barrel was plastic. Fortunately the lid fits very tight this way and does not leak.

I would like a kettle lid for this UDS. What kettle lid might fit? The barrel is Ø 22 1/4".

As for the construction I wanted to build as much as possible without welding. I drilled the intake holes 2" up from the base and burned the barrel by laying it down on its side on some bricks to elevate it and protect the patio. The charcoal basket is a 13" Weber Smokey Joe charcoal replacement grill with expanded metal that is attached with hog rings. This basket sits on a 15" ash pan. The cooking grate is 7 1/2" down from the opening. I had a muffler shop weld a Ø 3" x 7" long piece of exhaust pipe to the lid. They also put a 14"-20 bolt inside the pipe for the damper to attach to. I cut the damper out of an steel electrical box cover and held it in place with a washer, compression spring and couple of jam nuts.

It is cooking this morning and I have made one adjustment in just over two hours. Additionally, I have noticed that if the wind is blowing that it works best to open the intake that is common to the direction the wind is coming from. If the wind is strong I shield the UDS during cooking to control the temperature.

TexaQ said:

I would like a kettle lid for this UDS. What kettle lid might fit? The barrel is Ø 22 1/4".

Click to expand...

I have had trouble finding a kettle lid to fit so built this lid plus I like the look better then a kettle lid. It is the bottom of another drum. To make the lip a big enough diameter I had 3/8" steel rod welded to the outside of the lid and then welded 1/8" X 2" flat band to the rod to go over the lip of the drum. This was my experiment and it works great but is a bit heavy. I think for my next one I will try using the lid clamp. Will cut off the lever and the lever latch and weld the ring around the drum then a thinner steel band around it.

Got three more drums yesterday for my next project. The pics will come with the work.

(Looks like I posted at the same time you did Texas Q - late again as usual)

Hey redy2smoke also notice that the top portion of Texas Qs' smoker is rolled or tapered in, could this have been a solid construction barrel that has had the bottom cut off and inverted? I did notice the intake air holes located at the bottom like the standard BDS design.

Sorry I have been away from the forum for awhile and I may have missed any construction pics that you may have posted Texas Q, it is a good looking smoker and I bet what gets cooked on it really taste good too.

As for the extension on your offset I also positioned the exhaust on my offset/reverse flow smoker lower in order to maintain heat. You can tell from the photo that the stacks are not positioned on top of the cooking chamber but enter about mid point from the back side. There is adequate exhaust flow and I have not experienced any of the stale smoke taste with this smoker.


But for all out fun at home I use my UDS.

Hey JW - my barrel was an open head type, but one end has the flat roll crimp to keep the bottom on and the opposite end has a rolled lip. The open tapered end was Ø 22 1/4" and bottom or opposite end is Ø 23 1/2". BTW that is a nice looking pit.

Barbarian - someone is much better at welding than me. Looks good. Tell us about the temperature differences with the lid. What kind of spacing do the cooking grates have?

ratdawg said:

I only close mine when not in use to keep rain out.

Click to expand...

What type of pipe did you use for your air intake? Smaller exhaust pipe? There's a junk yard around the corner from me and I can get them for next to nothing but was curios in case you used something different.

HAVE WELDER WILL TRY ANYTHING NOW!

Barbarian said:

I have had trouble finding a kettle lid to fit so built this lid plus I like the look better then a kettle lid. It is the bottom of another drum. To make the lip a big enough diameter I had 3/8" steel rod welded to the outside of the lid and then welded 1/8" X 2" flat band to the rod to go over the lip of the drum. This was my experiment and it works great but is a bit heavy. I think for my next one I will try using the lid clamp. Will cut off the lever and the lever latch and weld the ring around the drum then a thinner steel band around it.

Got three more drums yesterday for my next project. The pics will come with the work.

Click to expand...

How do you bend them into the shape?

Ok, one more post. For cutting through the barrel I was planning on using my angle grinder but would a torch be easier or faster? If so would an oxy-acet work? They've got kits for nothing on ebay.

I can't been to tell you how well these drums work. It took maybe five minutes to set everything up and start the charcoal with a weed burner. My drum was at cooking temperature with approximately 15 minutes of stabilization time prior to cooking. Actually I was prepping meat during this time. I made 3 or 4 adjustments in an 8 1/2 hour cook; which I thought was great cuz the wind was blowing. Still blowing 16 to 23 MPH. The temperature never exceeded 250° F even after removing the lid to flip meat or check meat temperatures. Two 7# pork butts took about 8 1/2 hours to reach 200°F; fatties in two hours and a pork loin roast in 2 1/2 hours.

Ok my UDS lovin brethren. I have a crazy idea. I can only describe it as a transformer UDS.

I saw the lid on Barbarian's and the tailpipe use and started to think about wouldn't it be cool if I could rig it so that my small uds/udg was able to hook up to the large without destroying them both?

I'm thinking about putting a hole in the bottom of my small with a latch that I can use to open and put onto the regular one's air inlet pipe. Then use a ring to hold them in place. I could then put the larger charcoal basket in to fuel the fire and smoke.

I could build a stand to hold them up (new welder mod) and then quadruple my cooking capacity in the 55g one. Does this sound clear to anyone or am I going to have to draw a picture?

Is that an off set, vertical UDS?

smokinwig said:

ratdawg thats awesome looking drum.my favorite so far.whats up with the angle iron on top?is it to keep the top from warping or just for extra weight? I just found me a drum and soon will be part of the club. wig

Click to expand...

smokinwig, The lid did warp a little when I welded the exhaust stack on. So I made the angle iron frame for it. Next time I will weld a flange to the stack and bolt it to the lid.
Also anyone living near Chico, CA. you can get food grade drums at Smucker's for $5.00 per drum.

chinesebob said:

What type of pipe did you use for your air intake? Smaller exhaust pipe? There's a junk yard around the corner from me and I can get them for next to nothing but was curios in case you used something different.

HAVE WELDER WILL TRY ANYTHING NOW!

Click to expand...

chinesbob, the 3'' pipe I found at my old job and the 2" were old chrome Stantions that held the red rope for walkways.

chinesebob said:

<snip>
Does this sound clear to anyone or am I going to have to draw a picture?

Click to expand...

Go on Bob draw us a picture.

Transformer BBQ

Ok here it is. I was thinking I could make a coupler that would seal around the air intake when it was inserted into the small one. Otherwise they could both just be used as normal uds.

I just don't know if enough heat would be generated...

Do you plan on ever using the small on it's own for smoking again?

yep.