UDS/WSM style vertical smoker?

[Sid Post]

I have been reading too many UDS, Hunsaker, PBC threads and posts while thinking about an offset stick burner! :loco:

I have the 14" WSM now which I like a lot. If I need to add charcoal or wood chunks, it is pretty easy to lift off the meat section and add whatever I need. Hanging meat in a PBC/Hunsaker looks like a really good option for a lot of people, and to be honest, if you don't want to tend a fire all day and/or night. People also talk about tipping grates to remove them with food not spilling out so they can add lump or wood so, that got me to thinking ...

With a Vortex basket, you could get a good heat and smoke source just like people that put them in their WSM or homebrew UDS. Putting a side opening door into a UDS would be a lot of trouble but, taking a ~24" pipe and cutting a vertical door into it with a plasma torch would give you easy access. With round grates with straight 'shoulders', you could slide them in our out without lifting them vertically past bolts holding other grates (avoiding the issue of dumping your meat and banging your knuckles). Putting in more charcoal or wood would also be very easy.

The downside, which is pretty minor I think, would be hanging things since you would need to unload the front to get access to the back. With some strategic loading, putting the faster cooking stuff near the door negates this I think. Plus, all the people using warmer boxes on their offsets to hang sausage seem very happy so, I'm assuming a vertical Franken-UDS style smoker would work out well for hanging stuff like you do with a PBC or Hunsaker.

No barrel sourcing, burnouts, or scrubbing for liners or rust inhibitors so that's a plus in my book. A welder is required so that's a drawback for most people. The plasma torch is something that can be outsourced probably where you buy your pipe, bottom and, top.

Things that are probably an even push are grates (assuming you use WSM style and can live with tipping "IF" you need to remove them), fresh air and exhaust ports, and charcoal baskets or a Vortex solution.

Is this whole line of thought duplicating some of the homebrew vertical air compressor smokers I have seen? Would this work as well as a PBC or Hunsaker? I'm not wanting to go down the cheap big box store cabinet smoker route (whether propane, electric, charcoal, etc.) and, I want something bit heavier gauge than an 18 gauge 'bendy' metal body. Yes, I realize a PBC is only $300 dropped at my door.

I can source virgin 24"x48" 3/8ths pipe for ~$230 so, while a bit more expensive than a 55 gallon barrel it is still within a reasonable price range. 3/16ths or 1/4" would obviously be a lot cheaper and, I'm looking in scrap yards to find an even better deal, ideally looking for something that doesn't weigh 95lbs per foot like the pipe mentioned above.

[Czarbecue]

Correct me if I am wrong, I think the closest match to this type of smoker is Smitty's BoomChugaLugga that he had at the North Texas Fall Bash where it was built from a water tank or something like that.

[thirdeye]

I think this is my 12th year of cooking on drums, and I have two of them but mine are 43" tall (I believe a standard 55 gallon drum is 35" tall), so this helps with hanging and I can use a second grate, although I rarely do. I really like drum cooking, I mean really like it. :mrgreen: Continuing on your line of thinking, I have been a welding inspector for 41 years and have customers that build tanks and pressure vessels and roll their own cylinders. So I've kicked around the idea of having a custom upright smoker built along the general idea of my drums because the design is so simple and the results so good. Here are some preliminary thoughts about your ideas:

24 X 48 pipe would work great, but at 3/8" thick, the pipe alone would weigh close to 400 pounds. If you went with 1/4" pipe the weight would fall to around 250 pounds.

You are right about using a plasma torch for cutting doors, vent holes etc. And I'm sure you could design some sliding racks.

I'm assuming you have a welder, so that will save you some serious money as shop rates might be $75 an hour.

My thoughts have leaned toward having a shop roll two cylinders out of something thin like 16 gauge, one cylinder would be 1.5" larger than the other. The smoker would be double wall with insulation in between, and seal welded top and bottom, and around any doors and vents. To avoid "un-loading" hanging meats to tend hanging meats behind.... how about having a rotating fixture (think wagon wheel) in the top of the smoker, then you just spin the assembly to tend anything you have hanging, and easily remove things as they get done. Weight wise, a thin skin double wall smoker would be much lighter and it should be almost cool to the touch when in use.

[Sid Post]

.. Here are some preliminary thoughts about your ideas:

24 x 48 pipe would work great, but at 3/8" thick, the pipe alone would weigh close to 400 pounds. If you went with 1/4" pipe the weight would fall to around 250 pounds.

If I did a UDS knock-off, I'm thinking 3/16ths would be as thick as I would want to go due to weight concerns. 1/8ths would probably be a better idea considering how my little 14" WSM works. I guess I need to really decide on how portable I need this to be.

i'm assuming you have a welder, so that will save you some serious money as shop rates might be $75 an hour.

Yes, I have an old stick burner from our farm that will run up to 200A! :shock:
I would most likely use my friend's little Miller 180 TIG on a project like this.


my thoughts have leaned toward having a shop roll two cylinders out of something thin like 16 gauge, one cylinder would be 1.5" larger than the other. The smoker would be double wall with insulation in between, and seal welded top and bottom, and around any doors and vents. To avoid "un-loading" hanging meats to tend hanging meats behind.... How about having a rotating fixture (think wagon wheel) in the top of the smoker, then you just spin the assembly to tend anything you have hanging, and easily remove things as they get done. Weight wise, a thin skin double wall smoker would be much lighter and it should be almost cool to the touch when in use.

A daisy wheel in a vertical cabinet sounds like a good idea.

A double-walled UDS was something I thought about but, I never considered fabbing my own barrels. Connecting the air inlets is the other issue that sort to turned me away as I was unsure how to weld them in place, though I could use threaded pipe I guess.

With my 14" WSM and newly arrived 24" WSM+, I might have to rethink my 30 gallon UDS build put on hold for lack of a barrel. Maybe an insulated 18" UDS-like build to hang everything? Hmmm ....

And then hold out for an offset on a small trailer, skipping the vertical cabinet, though it looks like one of those could be fabbed pretty cheap if I get lucky at the scrap yard.

[thirdeye]

If I did a UDS knock-off, I'm thinking 3/16ths would be as thick as I would want to go due to weight concerns. 1/8ths would probably be a better idea considering how my little 14" WSM works. I guess I need to really decide on how portable I need this to be.

Yes, I have an old stick burner from our farm that will run up to 200A! :shock: I would most likely use my friend's little Miller 180 TIG on a project like this.

A daisy wheel in a vertical cabinet sounds like a good idea.

A double-walled UDS was something I thought about but, I never considered fabbing my own barrels. Connecting the air inlets is the other issue that sort to turned me away as I was unsure how to weld them in place, though I could use threaded pipe I guess.



I would think 1/8" for a single drum would be fine. The 200 amp welder is overkill but if it runs smooth at lower settings, some 6013, or 7014 rod is low penetration and has a nice finish. Your biggest enemy will be warping if you get carried away. The TIG would be ideal. I have a 150amp stick/DC TIG in my workshop, I'm just not that good at out-of-position TIG. A little wire feed would be ideal and you could use the TIG on things that you want to look pretty.

The spinning hanger, daisy or carousal style was the first thing I thought of when kicking around a design for a vertical smoker.

If you opted for the double wall style, the shop that rolled them will weld the long seam, or at least stitch it so you can finish it. If they weld it, they can put it back into the roll and true it up. They could also could cut the top and bottom for you with the appropriate overhang. In fact they could roll a section with the correct arc for your door too. The hinges might need a doubler plate for mounting. For your inlets or probe access, just layout and cut the side holes in line and use pipe cut to length, then just put a flush seal weld on the outside and inside. The TIG would be perfect for this, just favor the torch toward the pipe not the thin gage metal, and use small balanced tack welds first. Threaded pipe would work but you would need a fillet weld to seal the outside.

[Sid Post]

The 200 amp welder is overkill but if it runs smooth at lower settings, some 6013, or 7014 rod is low penetration and has a nice finish. Your biggest enemy will be warping if you get carried away.

I built a ton of cattle gates out of thin walled square tube with it as a kid in High School. I learned real quick not to warp the square tube! A heavy bead on the thick rod we had would warp a small gate to fit the end of a propane tank. After a few weeks, I got tired of stitching both sides of the weld and figured out how to turn the heat up and 'drag' the rod across the weld. I burned a lot of holes at first but, once I figured it out, it left almost no bead behind with a full penetration weld that did not warp and my production went way up.

I don't remember what that rod was but, it was the same stuff I used on the disc hanger that broke. I remember Dad telling Mom not be shocked by the electric bill that month because I had about 2 hours at 180A! The springtooth got the full 200A but, it was a much smaller job. A 200A 100% duty cycle welder will put a hurtin' on your utility bill if you use it much. :wink:

[ebijack]

Just from my experience.
If I need to add charcoal or wood chunks, it is pretty easy to lift off the meat section and add whatever I need. People also talk about tipping grates to remove them with food not spilling out so they can add lump or wood so, that got me to thinking You don't need to tip grates. Like N8man I went this route. Lift out and you can rotate/what ever. No meat touches the ground
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/640x480q90/904/aQBYU1.jpg (https://imageshack.com/i/p4aQBYU1j)
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/640x480q90/841/rk7i.jpg (https://imageshack.com/i/ndrk7ij)
... Putting a side opening door into a UDS would be a lot of trouble Not as bad as you think. Pretty easy really. This was my first try and I haven't changed it. It was an experiment that I didn't spend any time to make pretty
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/640x480q90/922/5Ddrzw.jpg (https://imageshack.com/i/pm5Ddrzwj)
With round grates with straight 'shoulders', you could slide them in our out without lifting them vertically past bolts holding other grates This is what a 22X14" grate with "shoulders looks like.
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/640x480q90/921/kGOKkp.jpg (https://imageshack.com/i/plkGOKkpj)
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/640x480q90/921/zuyGXY.jpg (https://imageshack.com/i/plzuyGXYj)

Putting in more charcoal or wood would also be very easy. If your charcoal basket is properly size for a 55 gal drum. There is no reason to have to add wood/coals. 15 to 22 hrs on many UDS's using one load. That is my experience

[Sid Post]

Just from my experience.

Thanks! Those pictures really help. The access door and basket comments are especially helpful!

For the grates, does the bottom sit on some stand-offs and have the top grate hard mounted to the bottom grate?

[pjtexas1]

Like this?https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180114/a55a9e00e98e03ed9d926ff83c1235a6.jpg

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[thirdeye]

Like this?https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180114/a55a9e00e98e03ed9d926ff83c1235a6.jpg

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Oh yeah.... more photos and details please.

[pjtexas1]

20x42, all 1/4", 2 racks, sausage hanger and another rack above the fire basket for grilling (that's where I put my holey pizza pan diffuser. Racks set on round bars that could be used for hanging meat. Make an offer. I have too many cookers... :heh:https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180114/247f96d52aa6966b9cfc3ac6c2b6506e.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180114/b4898ac830a42ef52c178b2e2caf4fe2.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180114/fe06d4276c453b46b0b565661c4f4222.jpg

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[ebijack]

Thanks! Those pictures really help. The access door and basket comments are especially helpful!
For the grates, does the bottom sit on some stand-offs and have the top grate hard mounted to the bottom grate?
I have one grate location using bolts 15" up from bottom. Plenty of room between the coal basket and that grate level. I use that for either drip pan and/or diffuser. Using 3/8X6" bolts,nuts,washers as legs for each cooking grate. That leaves plenty of room for #10 butts. Each grate stands on the grate bellow. Making for easier rotation. Lift grates straight up/out. NO tipping.
Bottom grate with diffuser and first cooking grate with the 6" bolts.
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/640x480q90/902/AhtSax.jpg (https://imageshack.com/i/p2AhtSaxj)
Back when it was new
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/640x480q90/5/7gh5.jpg (https://imageshack.com/i/057gh5j)

[ebijack]

20x42, all 1/4", 2 racks, sausage hanger and another rack above the fire basket for grilling (that's where I put my holey pizza pan diffuser. Racks set on round bars that could be used for hanging meat. Make an offer. I have too many cookers... :heh:https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180114/247f96d52aa6966b9cfc3ac6c2b6506e.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180114/b4898ac830a42ef52c178b2e2caf4fe2.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180114/fe06d4276c453b46b0b565661c4f4222.jpg
Ooooh that's nice.
Put that in the forsale page. It should go quick!

[thirdeye]

ebijack, thanks for posting that, I really like the features.

[SmittyJonz]

Most of them are charcoal HOGS but PJ says his ain’t so Bad....... if you don’t get the door to Seal Well it’ll Suck Air n Run Hot like a Grill.......

[pjtexas1]

Most of them are charcoal HOGS but PJ says his ain’t so Bad....... if you don’t get the door to Seal Well it’ll Suck Air n Run Hot like a Grill.......Yep, I had to seal the door or temps would just run away. Maze helps too.

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[Sid Post]

Like this?https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180114/a55a9e00e98e03ed9d926ff83c1235a6.jpg

Yes, that is the idea I had. It looks simple to construct and appears to be easy on the materials cost and, it has a small footprint if that was a concern.