Ugly Drum Smoker

SUMO PIG said:

Below are some photos of my seasoning burn, and some pron from my first UDS run this past weekend:

Introducing the finally assembled Sumo Pig Smoker, Ver. 1.0
during its innaugural seasoning run​

A peek inside a cool-burning UDS

A look inside a blazing hot UDS

Monitoring the temps

Cooking some dinner on the Weber during my UDS burn-in

Would you considered a perv for calling this kiddie-pron???

Dinner's ready, while the Sumo Pig Smoker burns on, and on, and on ...

Pipe dreams about version 2.0

Weekend results from my first UDS cook!

Brethren - hope all of your cooks are as joyful as mine has been this past weekend.

Keep on buildin' em and keep the home fires burnin' ...

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Cecil said:

Here is my question: Do you think air is getting past the inlet nipples since they are only attached with conduit nuts? Should I use hi temp silicone on the outside around the nuts to seal the nipple and the drum hole? Or does air get in through the exhaust holes and I'll need to plug them each time I want to snuff the fire? If so I can make a ring to put on the lid that would cover all the holes at once.

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Cecil said:

I had last week off and made myself an UDS. I did spare ribs that came out great this past weekend.

My exhaust is 8 1/2" holes in the lid. My inlets are 3 3/4" nipples with caps and a valve on one of the inlets. The nipples are attached with conduit nuts.

After I was done cooking I wanted to shut the fire down. I capped off the inlets and closed the valve. The temp went down to 180* and stayed there. I had to use foil to plug the exhaust holes to get the fire snuffed out.

Here is my question: Do you think air is getting past the inlet nipples since they are only attached with conduit nuts? Should I use hi temp silicone on the outside around the nuts to seal the nipple and the drum hole? Or does air get in through the exhaust holes and I'll need to plug them each time I want to snuff the fire? If so I can make a ring to put on the lid that would cover all the holes at once.

Click to expand...

Kubbie said:

I read all the way through #3367, so I feel I've earned a few questions...



$4 mod to see what it changes - I poured 2" of concrete in the bottom of the drum to act as an additional heat sink. Do you think I just created a longer get-up-to-cooking-temp time with little benefit ? (and just added 60 lbs of dead weight?) I was just trying to improve on the set-it and forget-it of the drum, and temp swings when opening the lid.

I only thought of this because I'm in the construction trade. Concrete/sand is often used to add thermal mass - "thermal enertia" for radiant floors, concrete filled cinder blocks for a greenhouse - or more closely related to this, a thermal mass wood stove, which is a 30 gal drum inside a 55 gal, with the space in between filled with mason's sand.

I'll let it cure until the weekend and give it a burn to see what happens. Whacha think?

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kubbie said:

i poured 2" of concrete in the bottom of the drum to act as an additional heat sink. do you think i just created a longer get-up-to-cooking-temp time with little benefit ? (and just added 60 lbs of dead weight?)

Click to expand...

Kubbie said:

I read all the way through #3367, so I feel I've earned a few questions...

I got a free drum last week, got all the liner off and it just need to make a coal basket and a handle for the lid. Today found out I have a freebee stainless drum available in a couple weeks, so I'll use the steel one as a test build.

I understand the 'KISS' and this is a proven design, but I can't help but tinker:

$4 mod to see what it changes - I poured 2" of concrete in the bottom of the drum to act as an additional heat sink. Do you think I just created a longer get-up-to-cooking-temp time with little benefit ? (and
just added 60 lbs of dead weight?) I was just trying to improve on the set-it and forget-it of the drum, and temp swings when opening the lid.

I only thought of this because I'm in the construction trade. Concrete/sand is often used to add thermal mass - "thermal enertia" for radiant floors, concrete filled cinder blocks for a greenhouse - or more closely related to this, a thermal mass wood stove, which is a 30 gal drum inside a 55 gal, with the space in between filled with mason's sand.

I'll let it cure until the weekend and give it a burn to see what happens. Whacha think?

Click to expand...

StayDown said:

Beerwolf, I agree that first time builds should be simple but some can't help but to tinker. I am one of those.

I kept nmy first build simple and am looking to make a second one but with some design changes I am still working on just to see the difference.

Click to expand...

Kubbie said:

I read all the way through #3367, so I feel I've earned a few questions...

I got a free drum last week, got all the liner off and it just need to make a coal basket and a handle for the lid. Today found out I have a freebee stainless drum available in a couple weeks, so I'll use the steel one as a test build.

I understand the 'KISS' and this is a proven design, but I can't help but tinker:

$4 mod to see what it changes - I poured 2" of concrete in the bottom of the drum to act as an additional heat sink. Do you think I just created a longer get-up-to-cooking-temp time with little benefit ? (and just added 60 lbs of dead weight?) I was just trying to improve on the set-it and forget-it of the drum, and temp swings when opening the lid.

I only thought of this because I'm in the construction trade. Concrete/sand is often used to add thermal mass - "thermal enertia" for radiant floors, concrete filled cinder blocks for a greenhouse - or more closely related to this, a thermal mass wood stove, which is a 30 gal drum inside a 55 gal, with the space in between filled with mason's sand.

I'll let it cure until the weekend and give it a burn to see what happens. Whacha think?

Click to expand...

ajmcedar said:

Cecil,

I have the same setup with the original lid and I just use these when shutting down the UDS, so my answer is, yes you also need to close off the exhaust ports.

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Beerwolf said:

There is nothing wrong with building a better mousetrap... my point is to make sure you understand the mousetrap first before you start changing it... you will probably find that it will do all you want and your mods might be reserved to a bottle opener, shelf or a set of wheels or a trick paint job

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