Ugly Drum Smoker

[Fornia]

Hoping to use 2 gurus on our UDS' for an upcoming kcbs competition.

Although I'm an Egghead, I have little to no experience with a Guru and hoping someone can ease my mind/put us in the right direction. In our newness to competitions, we need to get as much rest as possible...and last year was a constant worry about our drums bumping around all night.

I bought Guru's 3/4" threaded adapter for the ball valve....We have 1 cooking grate, with a grate slight below, where we normally place a deep dish pizza pan as the difuser.

-Am I capping all other intakes?

-Any advice on how to light when using a Guru?
Note:Without a Guru, we normally light 1/2 chimney, and place on top of the full charcoal basket.

-Any advice on how/where to set the pit temp probe? (I did buy the rubber grate post Guru sells)

-In regards to the deep dish pizza plate 'heat difuser' we've been using...should we keep it in? I'd actually like to replace it with an aluminum pan with water for the contest....so same deal I guess, right? Ok to use this?

In the end....I guess it'll be advantageous to test these out this weekend...so I guess I'm just looking for any general yeas/no's with using a Guru on a drum.

Thanks for any and all help....and my apologies for going well into things. The mind of a guy trying to chase the bbq dream? ;)

[Mister Bob]

Originally Posted by Fornia

Hoping to use 2 gurus on our UDS' for an upcoming kcbs competition.

Although I'm an Egghead, I have little to no experience with a Guru and hoping someone can ease my mind/put us in the right direction. In our newness to competitions, we need to get as much rest as possible...and last year was a constant worry about our drums bumping around all night.

I bought Guru's 3/4" threaded adapter for the ball valve....We have 1 cooking grate, with a grate slight below, where we normally place a deep dish pizza pan as the difuser.

-Am I capping all other intakes?

-Any advice on how to light when using a Guru?
Note:Without a Guru, we normally light 1/2 chimney, and place on top of the full charcoal basket.

-Any advice on how/where to set the pit temp probe? (I did buy the rubber grate post Guru sells)

-In regards to the deep dish pizza plate 'heat difuser' we've been using...should we keep it in? I'd actually like to replace it with an aluminum pan with water for the contest....so same deal I guess, right? Ok to use this?

In the end....I guess it'll be advantageous to test these out this weekend...so I guess I'm just looking for any general yeas/no's with using a Guru on a drum.

Thanks for any and all help....and my apologies for going well into things. The mind of a guy trying to chase the bbq dream? ;)

Yes, cap all other intakes.
Light it the same way you always did.
I run my probes through the vent holes in the dome, but a hole and grommet is in my future
I use a 16" clay pot base wrapped in foil.

Here's my hot rod UDS.

[pwa]

Thats a nice looking drum^
pwa

[jcinadr]

I am no BBQ Guru guru - but I do use one on my uds.

When I had 3 plugs - I would occasionally open them all for lighting (use weed burner method). My current UDS only has one hole - and it works fine.

I use a weed burner for lighting. I light just enough for the guru to catch and bring it up to temp. The weed burner preheats the uds, so it is a bit of trial and error. I do stick burns, which complicates matters a bit - they will ignite and spike the temp, but not have enough coals to stay lit once it is dampened down.

I use a drilled out tire stem as a grommet, it is just below the meat rack - I also have a second mechanical probe to double check temps. You don't have to drill out the stem much for the pit probe, you do have to shorten it and drill it out a bit more for the curved meat probe (I have 2 stems in mine, the second is 2" above the meat rack).

For the most part I keep my exhaust fairly closed - and let the fan force the air through (I am not using the guru fan, and mine does have a little draft when it is not running-mostly closing the top of the pit helps with this.

[Airborne_R6]

Whoo hooo!!! I just finished reading this entire thread. I have a drum: free, closed end tan liner; and a Weber grill: $20 from the classifieds and now I just need to finish finals this week and I can build it next week. Will post up pictures when its done.

[Smokendink71]

Okay, got me 2 drums today for $20 and 8'x16" expanded stainless steel that a friend gave me but I have a questions about the bolts that I need for it, can you use zinc bolts and nuts? HD doesn't seem to carry stainless steel hardware in very large sizes and I have not got a welder so bolting the fire basket is the only way I have of doing it.

[retired trucker]

I have some zinc bolts in mine, and some stainless also. I have cooked on it for over a year and a half, and I am still around along with my family. You would have to get it awfully hot to get enough bad fumes to hurt anything.

If it's only bolts there isn't enough area of the zinc to matter anyway. Now if you were using a zinc coated grill, you might have a problem. That is my opinion, but wait for the "zinc police" to chime in. Good luck! Welcome to the DRUM CORPS.

[Hook_Line_and_Sinker]

Originally Posted by Smokendink71

Okay, got me 2 drums today for $20 and 8'x16" expanded stainless steel that a friend gave me but I have a questions about the bolts that I need for it, can you use zinc bolts and nuts? HD doesn't seem to carry stainless steel hardware in very large sizes and I have not got a welder so bolting the fire basket is the only way I have of doing it.

I used zinc bolts on the fire basket but stripped the zinc coating off with pool acid , in a pinch drop them in vinegar for a few days

[pwa]

Originally Posted by Smokendink71

Okay, got me 2 drums today for $20 and 8'x16" expanded stainless steel that a friend gave me but I have a questions about the bolts that I need for it, can you use zinc bolts and nuts? HD doesn't seem to carry stainless steel hardware in very large sizes and I have not got a welder so bolting the fire basket is the only way I have of doing it.

I'm one of the few that uses regular bolts. I don't cook at 700F+ so not worried about zinc off gassing. so guess if you cook at 700F+ I would get stainless. Otherwise don't sweat it :)

O for those wondering Zinc melting point is 787F

pwa

[jldozier]

Usually, if there's a Home Depot, there's a Lowe's nearby too. My Lowe's had stainless 1/2" up to 3.5 inch long.

I burned the zinc off a large eyebolt in my basket design. Used a plumbers torch and MAP gas. The shiny goes away quickly, then the bolt turns yellow like a post-it-note. And eventually the yellow burns away and the bolt was cherry red.

[brickie]

Why chance the zinc? Drop the bolts or whatever in some $2 gal muratic acid and in about 10-15 minutes zinc will be floating around in plastic cup. When you rinse bolts you will see them start to rust almost immediately. No more stainless for me,but still gotta be safe!

brickie

[hamiltont]

So, I've read most of the bazillion posts over the past year and rather than going back through all of them to answer my question/idea I'll ask it here. I have the drum & I'm slowly making progress on the design and accumulation of "stuff" to finish it. I got a 22.5" donor grill (Char-Broil I think) and will need to add the 2" aluminum bar to the inside of the top of the drum for the lid to fit.

I don't relish the idea of leaning inside of that thing to clean the bottom. An ash pan will only catch so much and I want easy access. SO! Here's my question/idea. Cut the drum into two halves at ~2" above the fire basket height and add 2" aluminum bar around the outside perimeter of the bottom section so the top section will slide inside of it. If you can picture it the top and bottom will meet at the middle of the 2" aluminum bar and rest on each other. The aluminum bar will serve as a seal and a guide, and will hold it all together. I might also add 2-3 clasps to hold it all together. Has anyone done this and if so what was your result? Cheers!!!

[brickie]

There are designs where I've seen them put 2 drums together but really seems like it's asking for trouble from air leaks..

brickie

[hamiltont]

Originally Posted by brickie

There are designs where I've seen them put 2 drums together but really seems like it's asking for trouble from air leaks..

brickie

I'm thinking with a good clean cut and some sort of a guide so the 2 halves can be lined up exactly as they were before the cut, and with the 2" aluminum overlapping the top & bottom that there would be minimal leakage if any. But as a backup I could attach a gasket with RTV to the top section right where it meets the aluminum bar??

[10_Bears]

Originally Posted by Mister Bob

Yes, cap all other intakes.
Light it the same way you always did.
I run my probes through the vent holes in the dome, but a hole and grommet is in my future
I use a 16" clay pot base wrapped in foil.

Here's my hot rod UDS.

Hey Mister Bob, awesome looking drum. I'm also doing a hot rod drum, a little different to yours though, and I was wondering what your method was to paint the flames. I'm tossing up on a few ideas, but just cant decide. Would love to hear about your flame painting experience.

Thanks mate.