Ugly Drum Smoker

keale said:
you gotta be kidding! Thats cheaper than the smokey joes over here!
jealous mod!
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OOPS should have moved camera to the left. 4 smokey joes at $7.42 each. Sorry to rub it in.:-D
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Thawley said:
That's pretty cool, Chris. Did you weld the upper part on or is it removable?
How you gonna get the firebox in & out, scaffolding?
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The top section has two grates and lifts off to access the lower two grates and the firebox. I can also put the lid on the bottom section and use it as a traditional drum. Or take the grates out of the top section and use it as a tall lid. I'm anxious to cook on it to see if it can handle the extention.

My first cook is actually gonna be chipotles. I have a bumper crop of jalepenos and want to give them a try. From what I've read, you need to be careful about smoking jalepenos in the same smoker as meat so I'm gonna do them first.
 
ipls3355 said:
The top section has two grates and lifts off to access the lower two grates and the firebox. I can also put the lid on the bottom section and use it as a traditional drum. Or take the grates out of the top section and use it as a tall lid. I'm anxious to cook on it to see if it can handle the extention.

My first cook is actually gonna be chipotles. I have a bumper crop of jalepenos and want to give them a try. From what I've read, you need to be careful about smoking jalepenos in the same smoker as meat so I'm gonna do them first.
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Let us know how the Chiles come out. I have a whole bunch also.
 
ipls3355 said:
With extension mod
Seasoning her right now. Put a couple thermos in to compare temps at different levels. Top is running a little hotter then bottom, but all are within 10 degrees.

My lid doesn't fit real well, I think because where I got the drums stores them stacked on their sides and slightly bent them.

UDS.jpg
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That is very nice Chris! On my first drum prototype I had cut a section of another drum and it slid into one of the ribs of the main UDS, it was @ 44-45" tall and when I put it on the drum dolly it was just too big for me to work with, then I found the 38" drums-yours look to be about that tall without the sleeve? Nice job!

Brian
 
This is the mother of all drum smoker threads. Holy cow!! I'll add my meager unit to the mix.

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Little tip for those that have trouble getting lid to seal. I distorted my drum when dumping it by doing the old trashman slam. I took the band used to seal drum and welded a cheap pair of vice grip clamp pliars and clamp it. Seals great.
 
The red paint was on the drum already. The white paint for the lid was a high heat tremclad paint, for radiators, bbq's, and stoves. It is rated for 1200F.
 
I smoked my jalepenos this weekend (sorry no pics). I completely dried them by smoking them at 180° for 24 hrs. Got up this morning and the UDS is still chugging along at 160°. Thats 30 hrs on about 15 lbs of Kingsford.

My concern is airflow. I had two pipes open to keep the temp at 180. I have three 1/2" nipples for intake and four 3/4" holes in the lid for exhast. Does this sound adequate?
 
sksmoker said:
This is the mother of all drum smoker threads. Holy cow!! I'll add my meager unit to the mix.
Click to expand...


Actually, it is the mother of all UDS threads. Not all drum smoker threads, but this where the UDS got its name from what I can tell. I don't think anyone was calling them UDS until I started this thread.
 
Chris...I've seen other people in this thread talk about 3 1/2 inch holes in the bottom and 8 holes in the top. You might want to try adding a couple more top holes and see what happens.

I'm going to try building one of these myself, which will be a true adventure!

Thanks for the update on your jalapenos, I was kind of wandering how that turned out. I think the 180 degree heat level is perfect!

Craig
 
Q-Dude said:
Thanks for the update on your jalapenos, I was kind of wandering how that turned out. I think the 180 degree heat level is perfect!

Craig
Click to expand...
I was very impressed with the way it held the temperature and for how long. I lit 10-12 lbs of K saturday night at 10:00. It wasn't till Monday after work before is started losing steam. But I was surprised I had to keep it 2/3rds open to do so. I'll get it dialed in, I can tell I'm gonna love it.

^^I said 15 lbs before, but I checked the bag last night and it was close to half full still.
 
Thanks Brian. So far, I am using three evenly spaced pavers.
 
UDS build question number one (of many I think!) from me, is there an accepted minimum diameter for the charcoal basket? I'm using a standard sized 45 gallon drum and I've got a 13" diameter propane cylinder which I'm thinking of cutting the bottom third off to make the coal ring, is this too small a diameter?
 
I believe the standard charcoal ring is 13"D x 6"H. I made mine 15"D x 9"H, but I think it may be too large based on the difficulty of controlling temps later on when the whole pile of charcoal gets going.

I have built another drum for a friend that uses a 12"D x 6"H and that person reports no trouble keeping constant temps.
 
Mine is 11"D x 12"H and has a pretty good range of adjustability from 200-350*, but I haven't tried it below that...

I bought a 12" x 48" of expanded steel, cut 12" off for the bottom and used the remaining 36" for the ring. I don't know if the 12" is necessary, but its nice to have the capacity if I want to try 24-hr jerky or chipotles smokes...

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