Ugly Drum Smoker

[Jackal]

Just a little at the top which I'm burying in smoke after a 10 hour burn out. It can't be much worse than the Brinkmann paint that falls all over the food for the first 50 hours. ;)

[bluetang]

Originally Posted by Rover24

I should be doing the burn out on my drum at my Pop's place this weekend. He has got a bunch of old Oleander wood laying around that he wants to get rid of. What do you think about using this wood for the burn out, seeing as how it is supposed to be poisonous and what-not? I would also be using a couple old pallets, just using the Oleander to get rid of it.

If it's the same Oleander we have here in Fl, it is poisonous. Don't have a fact based answer for you, but if the word poisonous is involved, I ain't using it anywhere where food is.

[Smiter Q]

I'd advise against the oleander. Any part of that plant is poisonous, from root to leaf. Actually it is deadly to dogs. Burning it also releases the vapors in the air, and if you breathe it, may cause respiratory issues... just like poison ivy. It may not do anything, but then again.....

[bluetang]

Years ago, we had this witchdoctor that move to Ft Pierce. His magic elixir had, you guessed it. Guess what happened, you guessed it. Where is he practicing now. Yep, you guessed it.

[Dr_KY]

Skip the door mod and build a wider deeper basket. You will thank us for it later.

Doc

[Jackal]

Got a few magnets and bricks at Lowes today. With exhaust fully open I can only get it up to 230-235 and it's still way overloaded with cherry.

I think that with the addition of the water pan and having two racks as well as the deep probe thermo, going at this w/o the door would be somewhat of a problem...as would cleanup / storage.

I'm all ears yet quite stubborn and dead set on making the door work for me.



ETA: Looks like when I pull the magnets from the door, temp raises 10 deg. (240-245) Pull the intake magnets and pickup another 10 deg. (250-255) I put them back one at a time and temp dropped back to where it should be. This is awesome. Hope it's consistent.

[chaddie]

Not to be disrespectful, and I think I understand what you're trying to accomplish, but this thread is all about how to build a UDS, not a BDS with doors, water pans, etc. etc. etc.! I would suggest you start a new thread on how to do your drum project. If you want to build a UDS read all of the thread, it's K.I.S.S., you can build the best drum smoker for less than a $100. Just my 002 pennies!

[energyzer]

Ok, It appears that I am a few years late on this deal, but you guys have my attention! I am gathering the supplies for a uds as we speak. I have been cruising this thread (it seems that it just doesn't end). Lots of great info. I'm sure the info that I am seaking is in here somewhere, but since I am a newbie, I can not search the thread, so I'll ask:
I get it that you drill the holes in the bottom of the barrel, I'm doing 3-3/4 inch holes, then burn the $%^# out of it to get rid of the lining. Burn the paint off of the outside, sand and repaint with high temp paint.
When the drum is built, you need to test burn. This is where I start to have questions. Is there a standard procedure that has been developed over the course of this thread for this seasoning burn? How high of temp, and for how long? What works best to coat the inside of the drum?
What is giving the best results for the vents in the lid? I am considering using the 2" bung hole and the electrical plate and spring setup. I have seen the other theory of several holes drilled in the lid. What is the tread favorite?
Next question is about cooking on the drum. What are the cooking temps and times on the more popular meats? I am a complete rookie in the smooking world. I have never smoked anything, but love to grill. Can any of you guru's help me out?

[devious]

well, i use a weber lid, but the 2" bung hole will work, try getting a 2" pipe welded on that for a stack. I cook my ribs & pork butt, and brisket between 225 & 250, for chicken its a little higher. Now when I seasoned my drum I used PAM, coated the inside of the drum and just let it go as high as it could for a few hours. But thats what i did.

[chaddie]

energyzer, this forun has all the answers! You just have to spend some time exploring and reading.

[energyzer]

Originally Posted by chaddie

energyzer, this forun has all the answers! You just have to spend some time exploring and reading.

Chaddie - My wife would say "Check"! It seems that is all I have been doing. 14 kabillion pages takes some time to get through. Thought I would cut to the chase.

[Rodney]

Originally Posted by energyzer

Ok, It appears that I am a few years late on this deal, but you guys have my attention! I am gathering the supplies for a uds as we speak. I have been cruising this thread (it seems that it just doesn't end). Lots of great info. I'm sure the info that I am seaking is in here somewhere, but since I am a newbie, I can not search the thread, so I'll ask:
I get it that you drill the holes in the bottom of the barrel, I'm doing 3-3/4 inch holes, then burn the $%^# out of it to get rid of the lining. Burn the paint off of the outside, sand and repaint with high temp paint.
When the drum is built, you need to test burn. This is where I start to have questions. Is there a standard procedure that has been developed over the course of this thread for this seasoning burn? How high of temp, and for how long? What works best to coat the inside of the drum?
What is giving the best results for the vents in the lid? I am considering using the 2" bung hole and the electrical plate and spring setup. I have seen the other theory of several holes drilled in the lid. What is the tread favorite?
Next question is about cooking on the drum. What are the cooking temps and times on the more popular meats? I am a complete rookie in the smooking world. I have never smoked anything, but love to grill. Can any of you guru's help me out?

I'm not a guru, but I'll give you a few answers that I'm pretty confident about.

- Seasoning: Someone on here mentioned at one point that there's probably a law on the books somewhere mandating that you cook a fatty during your seasoning run. They're just too easy to cook, and since the drum is burned out and clean, there's no reason not to!

- The lid vent doesn't need to be variable... a 2" bung opening is perfect, and apparently so is Norco's 8x 0.5" hole setup. If your bung hole is threaded, you can get a 2" threaded pipe nipple (8" long or so) and thread it right in. Finish it off with a 2" cap to close it up when you're not using it, and you don't have to fabricate anything. Remember to lube up all of the threads with cooking oil or they WILL RUST. Same goes for the caps on your 3/4" inlet pipes.

- Charcoal basket: There's a video in my signature that I put together on making my charcoal basket. If you can weld, this design works well. Just do yourself a favor and cut the expanded steel sheet in the opposite direction that I did, i.e. make the diamonds stand up vertically rather than horizontally. It's MUCH easier to bend that way, so you won't have to go through the contortions that I did. In that case, my video is a good example of what NOT to do. ;-)

- Thermometer: I have in my build pics one example of many different ways that people install 12" turkey thermometers in a UDS, so take a look at that and see what you think.

- Starting the fire: I've only done about 5 runs on my UDS so far, so I'm fairly new at it too. My biggest impression? When starting the charcoal via the Minion method, don't use too much charcoal in the chimney! Load up your basket with charcoal and a few chunks of smoking wood, start NO MORE THAN 12 briquettes in a charcoal chimney, let them get gray, and dump them into the middle of the basket. 12 briquettes in a chimney is actually tough to start, because it only covers about half of the bottom of the chimney and the flames from the starter paper just go around the briquettes. You could even light more than 12 so you cover the whole bottom and then just pick 12 with tongs. I made the mistake of putting about 20 lit briquettes into the basket and it ran away from me a little bit during startup. As I'm sure you've seen in this thread, it's much easier to ramp temperature up in a UDS than to ramp it down!

Finally, here's an awesome post from Norco that was very helpful to me that summarizes the whole starting and cooking process: http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/sh...postcount=4937

Good luck!

-Rodney

[Dando]

Hey all. I recently discovered this thread and got hooked on the idea of the UDS. Started my UDS yesterday and I've got a question for y'all. I am using a "uniflame" dome lid and to get it to fit my barrel i had to hammer the rim flat. Now i was planning on using a wood stove fiberglass gasket to create a good seal between the barrel and the lid but I've read the fiberglass can flake off and get into the food. My question is, do you think it would be possible to just use cotton rope as a gasket? It would eliminate the danger of glass fibers and the smoker will never really be running temps over 275 so do you think the cotton would hold up?

[Rover24]

Originally Posted by bluetang

Years ago, we had this witchdoctor that move to Ft Pierce. His magic elixir had, you guessed it. Guess what happened, you guessed it. Where is he practicing now. Yep, you guessed it.

Hilarious! I'll go with your and Smiter Q's recommendations and try to find a safer way to get rid of the Oleander. Looks like it'll be pallets, oak and apple for my burnout. Again, all old stuff my pop has lying around his property.

[energyzer]

Awesome tips Rodney and Devious, Thanks for the help. One question, why the exhaust stack in stead of just putting a plate on the hole. What does the stack get you?