Making my own smoker, couple questions.

I'd make a midi UDS out of that 30 gallon drum if you haven't cut out the bottom already. Look for a donor 18" weber kettle on craigslist etc. The lid from the kettle will fit on top of that perfectly. Then you can use the cooking grate and charcoal grate for the project too.

For less than $100, you'll have an awesome cooker that will work just as well as a WSM.

Oh, and never paint the inside of any cooker.

^^^^
What El Ropo said.

Now certainly you could make something with those parts ..... But a few cations and a bit of advice first!
NO PAINT ON THE INSIDE !!! Really no paint ! What ever you make to cook / smoke food in you want no paint!

Now back to making a smoker......

You could put the parts together in all manner of ways and make something you could call a smoker, granted. There will be many that offer suggestions of how they would do it and why - and I bet they are all right

But one question, since you are just starting to smoke, do you think a one off contraption is the way to go?

Let's consider your fist butt.... It's got you feeing a bit uneasy about how it's going, perhaps temps are all over the place! No problem you say, I ask the Breatheren.... Now because you have a one off smoker you will get answers that conflict confuse and bewilder , all of them right in one way or another .....

If you build a mini UDS you know have a device that is well known and a huge knowledge base at the brethren - you questions will get answered with fire control, air management , and more targeted to you method rather than your cooker.

I highly suggest you build a UDS mini or otherwise and learn on it
then spread your wings if you must and build something custom
Really a small drum welded to a small air tank = COS which can be picked up for @ $100 at Wally World I'm sure welding and finding parts like grids etc will cost you more in the short run to build it.

Bottom line make a mini UDS with this drum or get a 55 and build a full size - you will NOT regreat it

Just my 2 cents

Making your own smoker

Ive built one that was about the same size and I used a 4 inch square tube to connect the fire box and the chamber. I actually built it for a buddy and he loves it. I use Rustoleum high heat paint its rated for 1200 degrees. I mainly use an indirect smoker but have been building UDS smokers for a couple of months now and they are alot simpler and maintain their temperature more closely than the offsets Ive used. I would suggest you build a mini UDS and if its not what you want you should still be able to convert it to an offset.

You're not getting it... Build a UDS, you'll be nothing but sorry if you don't. The fire basket is so far away from the food, it's just like cooking in an offset. I can't find a decent 30 gallon build thread after a quick search, but I know they are here somewhere. Maybe someone who has build one will chime in.

Any high temp rated paint in a rattle can will work fine for the outside. Krylon BBQ black.

You keep rust out of the inside by seasoning it like a cast iron pan. Spray pam or the cheapest cooking spray you can find all over the inside, then do a "seasoning burn" to set the oil into the metal. No more rust.

CustomBBQ said:

Alright, you guys are really adamant about the UDS, haha. A few questions about those then.

I wanted to have 3 racks for food in this thing, two where the barrel has those "ribs", then one on top. Is the heat from a UDS to hot for a rack that close to the bottom? And if so, would some kind of plate to difuse heat help?

Maybe I'll just cut the air compressor in half horizontally and use it for the coals, might as well get my 15 bucks worth, haha. I have the tools to cut a door (similar to the WSM) to access the mutliple racks if I can put them in. As always, thanks for the input.

Click to expand...

Your choice on the door, but the more times you cut into the barrel the more chances for leaks and harder time controlling temp.

Other people have put a rack low to the fire box, if you do that I am pretty sure you will want a heat diffuser of some sort. In the Mini WSM's placing a supported terra cotta plate seems to work great. Put it a couple of inches above your fire pit, wrap in foil and fill wtih apple juice when cooking or sand to absorb heat and distribute evenly.

Design it to your standards, have fun with it and let us know what works and what doesn't. we will all learn together.

Remember no one has failed on this site when designing a pit, we have all just learned several different ways to not design pits :icon_smile_tongue:... except for that one time... but we don't talk about that one time...:tsk:

You won't be able to have 3 racks in this thing if you do a UDS.

The terra cotta trays work great. Some people pick up a cheap pizza pan from wallyworld or some place similar.

Torch or weed burner is the preferred method of starting coals for a lot of people.

FYI, the way a fire basket is designed for a UDS, a door isn't really needed. You should be able to maintain temps for far longer than it would take to cook anything. Think 14-16 hours @260, depending on the type of charcoal used.

Some people have added a third rack close to the fire basket and use it for the diffuser. I don't see why you couldn't have 3 cooking racks, but most people go with 1 or 2. I've used my lower rack to place a diffuser on before.

You should consider that you are trying to learn 3 things at once:

- how to smoke meats
- how to build a smoker
- how to manage temps in your smoker

The ability to control temps is dependent on the design of the smoker. So you should consider that it may be VERY difficult to control temps if you don't have a good design......and this is compounded if you don't know what you are doing. And it will be difficult to get better at cooking the meat if you can't control temps.

So with that said, everyone is giving you good advice to build a proven UDS design. You'll learn to control temps AND learn to smoke great BBQ. If you build a wildcat design.......well, it could be the best thing since sliced bread.......or more likely, set back your progress as a BBQ chef and be a source of great frustration.

Keep in mind the cutting a door is a potential source for air leaks.......which cause out of control temps in your pit.....,

El Ropo said:

I'd make a midi UDS out of that 30 gallon drum if you haven't cut out the bottom already. Look for a donor 18" weber kettle on craigslist etc. The lid from the kettle will fit on top of that perfectly. Then you can use the cooking grate and charcoal grate for the project too.

For less than $100, you'll have an awesome cooker that will work just as well as a WSM.

Oh, and never paint the inside of any cooker.

Click to expand...

+++++1!

If you're kinda new to smoking you can't go wrong with a UDS. They're much more user-friendly and efficient than an offset of any kind. JMO.

I say you want it to be ALL holes . So yes more holes . I'm just now trying briq instead of lump (Kingsford sale hehe) and if you use briq you will want to be able to shake the ash out for longer cooks. I actually went 20 hours on a full load but I had to shake the ash out a couple times. With lump would guess maybe would have had to shake ash ONCE.

Bill

You're making this far too hard. The drum you have is the same diameter as a 18.5" weber kettle.

Find an old 18 kettle on craigslist or a yardsale. Part it out. The lid will fit perfectly on top of your drum. The charcoal grate is the perfect size to make your charcoal basket. Wrap the outer edge of charcoal grate with a 6" high strip of expanded metal available at lowe's. Connect a pizza pan on bottom of charcoal basket so when you lift the whole unit out of the drum, all the ashes come out with the basket, like this





That's for a 22.5" UDS, but the principle is the same. The cooking grate from your donor kettle is perfect size for your 30 gallon drum. Buy one more "cooking grate" for a 18" weber kettle", and you'll be set. No silicon, , hinges, latches, access door, no one off coal basket that doesn't even fit into the drum.

You don't need a farking access door to add fuel or wood. Leave the drum whole, the fire basket is loaded with unlit charcoal and wood, dropped into the UDS, then either lit with a torch, or a dozenish briquettes are lit in a chimney, then poured onto the top of the full basket. That right there will get you 14+ hours of cooking. No reason to have latches hinges, etc.