New guy with a couple of UDS's!

Hey y'all! I've been lurking around here for quite a while and i've been reading alot. I first wanted to build a UDS, then a whiskey barrel smoker, then a pitmaker style smoker but due to finances and me luckily finding a couple of barrels after searching for months I went back to the UDS idea. I figure anything is an upgrade from the ECB i've been using for the last couple of years!
Anyway... on to my smokers! Found a couple of food grade 55's with the liners already removed and cleaned! They still had a greasy film on the inside so i burned them with a weed burner and then power washed them! They were closed head and i nobody seems to get rid of cheap kettles or smokers around here so i would have to find some sort of lid. Since we're pretty much surrounded by farm land around here i decided to use a 24" disc blade! With the slight overhang i immediately invisioned what my theme could be... SHOTGUN SHELLS!

I started with this (not pictured:about 50 feet of rebar and high temp paint)


Got these babies for 11 bucks at Lowe's! (if you ask they do price matching plus an extra 10% off!)


used 2" velocity stacks from a vw/porche engine for exhaust pipe...


50 feet of 3/8" rebar turned into one and a half charcoal baskets...






... i still am trying to come up with some logo designs for the lid and side of the shells so theyre not quite done yet! I'm just glad i finally have something to post!

Cool idea on the disk conversion for the lid.....add a few stops on the underside, and it wouldn't slide around as was mentioned above.

I bet it'll cook as good as any of the UDS. I spent $45 for a used Weber to get the lid for mine. I gave up on trying to find an alternative "dome" that would work. You my have hit on a very good one.

colonel00 said:

Looks good :thumb: How does the disk work as a lid? I would be concerned it would want to move around and potentially be bumped off.

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hankll said:

Cool idea on the disk conversion for the lid.....add a few stops on the underside, and it wouldn't slide around as was mentioned above.

I bet it'll cook as good as any of the UDS. I spent $45 for a used Weber to get the lid for mine. I gave up on trying to find an alternative "dome" that would work. You my have hit on a very good one.

Click to expand...

If you look in the first pic with all the pieces laying together you can see some 1/4 inch smooth solid metal bars laying in the front. i plan on making circles out of these and spot welding these to the bottom side of the discs. I'm hoping these will both seal off the top if there are any leaks and keep the discs from moving around.

BillywannaQ said:

How did you get the cooking racks for 11 bucks? Please tell!

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I'm glad you asked! Here's what i did...
1. look up cheap prices on the internet at hardware stores. i found mine at acehardwareoutlet.com for like 13 or 14 bucks. Print it out.
2. go up to lowes and pick up a couple of weber grates but make sure they're the same model number and everything.
3. as you go to checkout ask the cashier about their price matching policy. I found out thru a friend that Lowe's does price match and then discounts an extra 10 percent off of the matched price!
4. go home and enjoy your savings!!! :thumb:

Thanks for the tip on the racks. I've been looking for awhile now for cheap racks. I'll try this tomorrow, thanks again.