ChrisHager's UDS Build

Well, after grilling a bunch and finding that I was leaning more towards long grillings/smokes, I decided a UDS was in order. I'm going to take pictures of my process on this so feel free to add suggestions and comments. I've read through a ton of stuff on this wonderful forum so I have a pretty good grasp on what to do. If I make a mistake (or am about to), don't hesitate to point it out!

I've been busy lately and haven't had a ton of time to grill. It's bugging me. This weekend, my brother is coming to visit and I believe I have minimal to nil plans. I hope to get this UDS built this week and seasoned Friday night so Saturday I can smoke up some good eats.

So far, I've started with a barrel that had a latex based roof coating (my step-dad does roofing - he had three barrels just begging to be used). These barrels did have a liner in them. I fortunately also had a bunch of wood that was rotting out so I was ready for a good ole' fashioned barrel fire.

All I did was dumped out the contents and loaded the barrel up with the wood. I burned it hot for probably 6-8 hours. The next morning, they were still to hot to transport to my garage.



Here you can see the liner flaking off:




What should I do with them next? Soap and a power washer? Grinder to the inside? I'm going to get a weed burner also to flame it up again nice and hot before the seasoning. I hope to get the inside clean tonight. I don't know how many evenings I'm going to have to work on this before Friday shows up.

And for a little teaser, here are some pictures of what I've 'smoked' on my Chargriller Duo (without a side fire box).

I'm definitely excited to get it up and running. I've been reading through the big UDS thread. Tons of great info there!

Jethro608 said:

Get ground ou until you shine it up. To my understading this will take a while. Good luck .

Click to expand...

Try putting a thick brush wheel on the grinder. Should take that liner off with a little effort. Fyi I see new 55 game drums, no liner, at environmental supply stores. Envirotech, envirosupply, geotech... they are like $50

Sent from my GT-P7310 using Tapatalk 2

I believe that is what I'm going to do - wire wheel it. I'd buy a new drum but I was having trouble around here finding one. I emailed a few places and they never got back to me. It's a plus that these barrels are free as well - more work but an excellent excuse to drink a beer in the garage.

In other news, I bought one of these bad boys last night:



I went to retrieve my barrel last night as well and the dang thing was still hot! I emptied out all the coal and ash and washed it out. It's still a mess. I'm thinking about blasting the can 'till it glows with the weed burner then take a grinder wheel to it after it cools. I tested the weed burner out last night (of course I did!! :grin and had a spot glowing red. The liner didn't appear to 'burn' off so much. Those of you that use the burner, do you just heat the crap out of it? Does the liner actually remove itself? I expect to use the grinder to clean it up but:

1. Who doesn't like fire??
2. The less grinding I have to do, the better - obviously.

Once I get it shiny on the inside (and outside), I'm going to wash it with soap (I've heard Tide is great) and water then hit it again real quick with the weed burner to sanitize it before seasoning. Sound reasonable?

Thanks in advance for the advice!

Well, it's been a bit since I've worked on it. Clearly, I didn't make my goal to finish it up in a week. I did, however, grind out the inside of the barrel. I'm in the process of collecting parts and hope to work on it tonight or through the long weekend. My new (and much more reasonable) goal is to have it ready for next Saturday (10/13). I'll post some pictures up tomorrow of my progress but wanted to ask real quick - are there any benefits in buying a [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Weber-7433-Hinged-Cooking-Grate/dp/B000XXW8HW/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1349363474&sr=8-5&keywords=weber+grill+grate"]Hinged Weber Grate[/ame] over the standard grates?

Edit: I just realized that link is for the 18.5" and not the 22" grate. Do they make a 22" grate and is there a benefit to it or is the standard one the winner on this?

Thanks all!