Ugly Drum Smoker

GlobalTJB said:

Im using a weber lid on the bottom of an open topped drum. The past few cooks have left the exterior covered in dripping streaks from moisture collecting up top and drizzling out of the side. Whats the best way to mod the drum so i dont have to keep cleaning the outside each time?

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Maybe you could run a bead of food safe silicone just above the joint. If done right, it should divert the drippings before reaching the seam.

coewar said:

What are you guys complaining about? The moisture is great for the cooking as it keeps the food moist. I never have a problem with drippings because #1 my fire basket wraps around my charcoal grate as opposed to sitting on top of it, so the diameter of the fire basket is maybe 2 inches larger. That catches a lot of drippings that would just burn up when they hit the coals.

The #2 thing is that I don't have an ash pan so the bottom of the barrel might be warm enough to evaporate anything that drips down. After like 2-3 cooks, I scoop out the ashes with a cut up milk gallon or small shovel. However I do want to put in an ash pan, but I'm thinking that if you let some ashes settle on the bottom, and then use ash pan it would keep it dry down there too.

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I don't think they're complaining about the moisture/drippings on the inside. They're trying to figure out how to keep them inside so they don't make a mess on the exterior of the drum. Essentially how to keep an UGLY drum smoker looking pretty. :crazy:

Yeah, something like that..I love the moisture created inside, it's the outside of a painted nicely drum starting to look like you know what from all the grease dripping down. No big deal,just have to clean outside a little more,but it is a problem when using kettle lids on these drums.

That being said I would not do it any other way for my own use.And I know some don't mind the rusty, "true" uds smokers but I could never get my family to eat food off a "true" uds.

brickie

Im sure this has been covered, sorry for asking again if it has. At what height should the grill be placed, is it 24" above the bottom of the charcoal basket? I've done it at 21" above the bottom of the charcoal basket, do you think it could cause any probs or should I plug up the holes and move it up 3"?

10_Bears said:

Im sure this has been covered, sorry for asking again if it has. At what height should the grill be placed, is it 24" above the bottom of the charcoal basket? I've done it at 21" above the bottom of the charcoal basket, do you think it could cause any probs or should I plug up the holes and move it up 3"?

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im closer to 20" so i had decent room for a 2nd grate closer to the top. i dont see the big deal and havent suffered any problems due to this. Ill be using a diffuser shortly which i believe would allow one to drop the bottom grate enven further

jcinadr said:

I use a guru - works great, super lazy. Really like it for starting the burn, does not take the extra time to stabalize that the basic UDS does. I have managed a 1am start up in under 5 minutes. Hell, one time I did it in probably 2 (but that was not intended)

A single blower on the side will cause a very uneven burn in your coals. It will probably cook fine - but looks terrible... Likewise, a single vent on top will cause uneven temps (at least if you are cooking on the hot side). When I cook hot, I either rotate my food, or the lid. I like having the elivated smoke stack as my lid holds water. If you use a Weber lid, ymmv.

If you search my posts - I ultimately rebuilt mine and put a false bottom in the drum with a bottom blower. It diffuses the blow 360 around the edge of the drum. Like the Guru, it is overkill - but works quite well.

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This is exactly how I want to build mine, but I can't search your posts. Can you pm them to me or shoot me a drawing or pic... Figuring I only need one hole in the bottom for the guru, but want to make sure the air is circulating properly.

Thanks friends
First of all I want to make a clarification (I didn't explain the concept well last time). The photos are only to clarify the idea of an air diffuser but, in my project, the intake tube measure 1 inch with a 3/4" adjustable valve, and the exhaust measure 2 inch.

@ coewar:
I'm sorry but I don't understand well what you mean, please use a simple language. I'm italian and I don't speack the american english very well.

At the moment I'm not interested to make a cold smoker, but in the future if I need it I'll make a "Smoke Daddy" clone.

My UDS is similar to your brother's project (bbq brethren forum link)

Sean "Puffy" Coals UDS


@ jcinadr:
Very nice air diffuser can you put other picture to help me with the construction?
Can you express an opinion on your UDS?
Which changes would make?


Thanks to all,
Have a nice day.

My newest addition!! Actually was built for my sister in law to give to her husband,so sadly it won't be getting used by me.



I started a thread about it,but thought I,d post a pic here.

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=122580

Lookin' really awesome, brickie!

Looks good brickie! Nice job

Thanks guys. The colors on this one really came out good.

Guys,

I'm begining construction on my UDS tomorrow and have only one question regarding using a bbq guru. I want to make sure I get an even burn (couldn't accomplish that on my Pro-Q using the guru) and was thinking about piping the air through black pipe to the middle of the bottom of the drum and then difusing to create airflow all the way around the charcoal basket. I would only use one air intake hole with the fan attached to it.

Am I over thinking this? Should I just do the one hole with the blower attached and just deal with the uneven burn? Does the uneven burn even matter?

Thoughts???

Brickie,

Beautiful paint job.

I'm starting on my UDS tomorrow, but it won't be that pretty. Just basic black.

Nice looking drum!

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

I will try to post a few more pics of my uds over the holidays. I am very happy with it, with only a few exceptions.

1) I often run with sticks - 100% twig burn (I have tons of pecan trees and they are always shedding, so most of the year I just walk around the yard to get my wood). If I am doing a hot burn (350) and leave the lid off for over 15 seconds I will get a huge flame up (above the grill). After closing the lid I will get a hotspot under the exhaust. Simple solution - don't open the lid - and when you do, get in and out fast. I may get to the point of pulling the entire grate off to cut the time the lid is off (say for turning a bunch of chicken). Perhaps I should add a shelf to put the grill on...

2) My self constructed blower works fine - but is not professional. I have broken the wires once by accident. It is hard to seal the blower after a burn (as it is hard to reach under the pit). W/O sealing it the coals will smolder for at least 8hrs and probably quite a bit longer (with pipe caps I could kill coals in 30 minutes). (I have restarted a fire after 8 hours just by turning the blower back on). I have considered pluming the air intake from the bottom of the drum up a side. That way I could easily remove the blower and plug the hole - plus I would not need the long (flimsy) wire from the blower to the guru. This could become a self contained unit and a good storage box for the guru and probes...

3) Speaking of storing the guru - don't leave your probes laying on your shelf in the rain. Just don't do it. Probes stop working when they get water in them. It seems to release the magic white smoke. So far no damage to the guru (hung on the side of the pit), but I have been better at remembering to put it away. Last burn was in the rain (w/o a working meat probe, and my other digital thermometer's probe suffered the same fate), so I put a zip lock over the guru before attaching it to the mount - nice and dry all night.

is anyone cleaning their UDS???? if so, what method and frequency? THe sides are getting kind of nasty and i wasnt sure if i should leave it as a protectant or wash it off

I'm going to clean mine before using it this Friday with some simple green. Should cut the grease without removing the paint.

brickie

Been working on my uds. The first barrel that was given to me had mo lid and the red coating on the interior. I've been holding off burning it because I couldn't find a donor lid for it.

So I started checking Craigslist sent a few emails off, one guy couldn't meet up until after Christmas, another didn't answer, third guy says he thinks he has two drums left. We decided to meet up today, since he was almost an hour away I emailed him this morning and wanted to confirm everything including the color of the interior.

The guy emails me back and says its silver inside and out, no rust on it, he thinks its stainless steel.

So I jump in my car and drive about 80 mph to meet the guy.

Turns out the barrel is galvanized. I decided to take a chance on it and got it anyway. I recalled reading around here that mecuractic acid takes zinc off pretty quick so I stopped by home depot on the way home.

$6.96 for a gallon of acid, about half an hour layer I got bare metal on the inside of the drum.

Rinsed it well and sprayed it down with Pam.



Didn't quite get the acid to the top rim, took that off with the angle.grinder.



Will do a good burn tomorrow and start drilling.

Wow, very ambitious!! Muratic acid is nothing to play with at all.Sure that could not have been fun.Good luck on your build. Will be watching your progress.

brickie

brickie said:

Wow, very ambitious!! Muratic acid is nothing to play with at all.Sure that could not have been fun.Good luck on your build. Will be watching your progress.

brickie

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Not something I would want to do every day, but I wore goggles, gloves, protective mask, and had several pounds of baking soda to neutralize the acid.

Will start working on it this morning, hopefully will have it ready to smoke this afternoon. Do have one issue, my buddy with the welder can't help me weld the charcoal basket until next week. I'll have to came up with dome way of wiring it together until then.

Well got it together, still need to get together with my buddy that has a welder and weld up the basket and weld the nipples in place so I can put in the ball valve and caps.

Got it started with a load of charcoal. Didn't have the caps in place so it ran up to about 425, used some fridge magnets to block off the vents, had it at 250 for a while and now it has dropped to 200. Lifted the top off only one side of the charcoal was gray I closed it up and will see how it continues to run.



My 19 year old son was helping me make it and decided he wanted to try burning out the other drum with the red liner.

He is in the back yard now with the leaf blower and a fire going.