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-   -   Ugly Drum Smoker (https://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23436)

splastiko 04-21-2011 08:32 AM

Goodmornin' folks! First post here, and after reading through many, many pages of this thread I decided to build my first UDS.

Thank you for all the information you've provided throughout the thread. This is my first smoker ever, and it is all fairly new to me.

Oh and I know you guys like pics! So here goes...Hope you like!

The beginning
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j7...5/6664d659.jpg

Basket materials
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j7...5/5cad0824.jpg

Basket construction
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j7...5/f34d0fec.jpg

10min Basket complete (all scrap metal from shop)
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j7...5/748e7258.jpg

Complete!
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j7...5/5b78e9ad.jpg

Fattie & Ribs
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j7...5/4743db9d.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j7...5/e860b139.jpg

sjm845 04-21-2011 08:50 AM

The Big ONE!
 
3 Attachment(s)
Brothers...quick story about the power of the UDS.

My buddy borrowed my drum to cater a party he was attending. It seems his XL BGE couldn't handle all of the food so he needed my hillbilly smoker to cook 40lbs of chix...which it did flawlessly!

He picks up my barrel in the morning and stuffs everything into his truck. I get a frantic call about half hour later...he was doing 90 on the highway because he was late and the barrel lifted 100 feet into the air and crashed in traffic. He said cars dove out of the way like the BIG ONE at Talladega!! Charcoal, grates, lid, firebox, clamps...all over the road and not a single wreck! He tried to recover as much as he could frogger style but the grates were toast.

As he's on the phone telling me this story I hear a smash and a litany of four letter words. Yep...he smashed a deer while he was telling me about the destruction of my drum! Classic. Keep in mind he still had to get to this party and cook all this food (9 racks, pizzas, chix) and do it on a truck with the front basically ripped off!

I ran to the depot and bought 2 grates and headed to help him out. Got busy with a hammer and pounded the UDS back into round. Slammed the lid down and used a foil gasket to seal it up. Aside from some serious scrapes of the custom paint and a fat dent near the valve...it worked perfect!!!

This ordeal motivated me to finally break out my harbor freight flux welder and teach myself how to weld. Took a flat lid from another barrel and welded the weber dome to it and then cut out the inside. Tighter seal than when I used the lock ring and clamp!! Got a shoulder and a chuck roast in as we speak for a BBQ tonight! Pics included...remember, not one lesson on the god awful welds! NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF THE UDS!
Attachment 52004

Attachment 52005

Attachment 52006

expatpig 04-21-2011 10:14 AM

It's a Beautiful Thing!

CostaRican 04-21-2011 06:32 PM

Used this great info from you guys to build my 1st uds. I was using the top of the drum for a lid with the holes around the perimeter. I recently scored a weber lid and got it to fit on my drum my only question is do I watch the top vents or do I just leave them open all the time? Again thanks for the info guys.

PhilipW 04-21-2011 06:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CostaRican (Post 1617706)
Used this great info from you guys to build my 1st uds. I was using the top of the drum for a lid with the holes around the perimeter. I recently scored a weber lid and got it to fit on my drum my only question is do I watch the top vents or do I just leave them open all the time? Again thanks for the info guys.

I leave my weber vent open all the time. I never close it until my fire is out. I have read numerous times here to never use the top vent for any kind of control, only use the inlets.

landlocked 04-21-2011 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big Darb (Post 1616646)
How about a couple pots of boiling water to dissolve it.

Not interested. Too simple. j/k

It's still been a little on the cold side up here (NW Montana) and the corn syrup is pretty much solid from being old so I am not too sure hot water could do it, at least in the quantities I could manage to boil.

That being said, it's probably easy enough to give it a shot and see.

I could also see if I can borrow a turkey fryer burner to trow under the barrel.

Thanks for the idea.

Sterling 04-21-2011 07:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhilipW (Post 1616753)
Thought I'd share something I learned when I started in on my closed head drum.

I used a jigsaw to cut the top off. Easy, and quick. I cut right against the edge.

Then I got my angle grinder out to smooth the inside edge. My weber top was slightly too small to fit the drum, so I started in shaving down the lip. Around and around a few times, checking the fit as I went, and suddenly the part of the lip cut from the lid came loose and I lifted it right off the drum, leaving only the drum wall lip there. A little more grinding and the webber fit like a glove.

I didn't think much of this until I went to help my friend Adam open up his closed head drum a couple days ago. We were discussing how this lip came off and decided to skip cutting the top off and try to do it by just grinding the very top edge of the drum until we were just through the lids rolled edge. Sure enough, with very little effort, doing this easily separated the lid from the drum and made sizing it to his webber lid easy as well.

Here's a quick drawing I made of the way the drum wall is rolled and then the lid is rolled over that drum wall lip.

http://rebelscum.com/2011/lip.jpg

And here's a quick youtube video I made of Adam grinding the top edge, and how easy the lid separates.

http://youtu.be/OeaER0yLiK4

I did another drum like this yesterday for another friend, and his was made from thicker metal, but it still separated mighty easy.

PhillipW, yours may be the tip of the month. I'm building a couple more drums this month and am anxious to try your technique. I'll be sure to let everyone know how it turns out.

Sterling

CostaRican 04-21-2011 07:50 PM

Thanks for the tip, I just smoked a couple of fatties for the test "kids love em"....me too. Left the vents wide open and she held temp perfectly.

jkalach 04-22-2011 04:06 PM

UDS ready for maiden voyage
 
Well, finally got it done. Got the barrel for $25 and burned it out. Got sick of using the angle grinder and found a steel place near me that sandblasted it for $25. Money well spent!

Drilled out a bolt to accomodate a turkey fryer thermometer.

Made the basket from a Wally World pizza pan, Weber grill, expanded metal and stainless bolts, nuts, washers and zip ties.

The intakes are 3/4 in. pipe nipples held with conduit nuts.

Can wait to season her tomorrow.

http://flic.kr/p/9AHW9D

http://flic.kr/p/9ALQGo

http://flic.kr/p/9AHWax

http://flic.kr/p/9AHW8K

http://flic.kr/p/9AHW88

Dalek 04-22-2011 09:53 PM

3 Attachment(s)
Well, here is my UDS experience. I picked Dalek for my handle and if there are any Dr. Who fans out there, they will know what that is.

I started with a unlined used Olive oil drum I picked up for $16 and went to town on it. I used an angle to cut the lid off (it's in the video that PhilipW had shown). I used a weed torch to loosen the paint on the outside. Used a paint stripper / scotch brite type wheel from the orange hardware store and it made quick work of the paint on the outside of the drum.

Built the fire basket per recommended procedures on the forum with a minor tweak on the bottom of the ash pan, to make sure it didn't sag over time.

I went to a local fence/iron working store and found the stuff to make the arms. The bubbles around the drum are actually fence pipe weld on caps.

I still have some things I want to do to the weber dome but my family has been hounding me to get the UDS to a point that can start smoking!!!

I would like to thank all the people who have posted their experiences here and a special thanks to PhilipW for prodding me on this project!!!

Tomorrow is the day this Dalek comes to life :-D

amducious 04-22-2011 11:00 PM

Nice dalek I keep flipping between R2-D2 or a dalek. I know this is the wrong thred but 1 more day woot cant wait for season 6

Fornia 04-24-2011 08:08 PM

I shared photos of our 2 builds a few weeks back, but also wanted to show a little of the grub we've done so far.

My bbq pal has done a brisket, chicken, and baby backs. I've done sausage, baby backs, and some beef ribs.

The beef ribs were today, and I've done them on my Egg a few times with some success.

These were the best I've done so far. My drum got away from me a bit, and ran higher than I intended (270). Rubbed with Tasty Licks BBQ's Black Bart's Brisket and Redeye Meat Rubs.

Did 3 hours and then 50 minutes in foil. While the meat pulled back a bunch, they were not at all dry. Dipped some in sauce, they were Killer!

Truthfully.... I wanted to do these so I have some bones to make stock for some French Onion soup. :heh:

http://i760.photobucket.com/albums/x...S/IMG_3237.jpg

http://i760.photobucket.com/albums/x...S/IMG_3229.jpg
http://i760.photobucket.com/albums/x...S/IMG_3230.jpg
http://i760.photobucket.com/albums/x...S/IMG_3238.jpg
http://i760.photobucket.com/albums/x...S/IMG_3240.jpg
http://i760.photobucket.com/albums/x...S/IMG_3247.jpg

Claude 04-25-2011 02:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhilipW (Post 1616753)
Thought I'd share something I learned when I started in on my closed head drum.

I used a jigsaw to cut the top off. Easy, and quick. I cut right against the edge.

Then I got my angle grinder out to smooth the inside edge. My weber top was slightly too small to fit the drum, so I started in shaving down the lip. Around and around a few times, checking the fit as I went, and suddenly the part of the lip cut from the lid came loose and I lifted it right off the drum, leaving only the drum wall lip there. A little more grinding and the webber fit like a glove.

I didn't think much of this until I went to help my friend Adam open up his closed head drum a couple days ago. We were discussing how this lip came off and decided to skip cutting the top off and try to do it by just grinding the very top edge of the drum until we were just through the lids rolled edge. Sure enough, with very little effort, doing this easily separated the lid from the drum and made sizing it to his webber lid easy as well.

Here's a quick drawing I made of the way the drum wall is rolled and then the lid is rolled over that drum wall lip.

http://rebelscum.com/2011/lip.jpg

And here's a quick youtube video I made of Adam grinding the top edge, and how easy the lid separates.

http://youtu.be/OeaER0yLiK4

I did another drum like this yesterday for another friend, and his was made from thicker metal, but it still separated mighty easy.

Based on that picture, I'm wondering if you could grind the outer edge of the top of the barrel and use the top as a lid. Thoughts?

Yes, this is my first post. I've only made it 90 pages into this thread while monitoring the end of the thread as well.

mmcgough 04-25-2011 04:05 PM

New to the forum
 
Hey there everyone, I have been reading through your forum and there is a ton of good information in here. I have decided to start building my first UDS as a result of this forum. I have never had a smoker before, I will post pictures once I get going.

Mike

Dr_KY 04-25-2011 04:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dalek (Post 1619041)
Well, here is my UDS experience. I picked Dalek for my handle and if there are any Dr. Who fans out there, they will know what that is.

I started with a unlined used Olive oil drum I picked up for $16 and went to town on it. I used an angle to cut the lid off (it's in the video that PhilipW had shown). I used a weed torch to loosen the paint on the outside. Used a paint stripper / scotch brite type wheel from the orange hardware store and it made quick work of the paint on the outside of the drum.

Built the fire basket per recommended procedures on the forum with a minor tweak on the bottom of the ash pan, to make sure it didn't sag over time.

I went to a local fence/iron working store and found the stuff to make the arms. The bubbles around the drum are actually fence pipe weld on caps.

I still have some things I want to do to the weber dome but my family has been hounding me to get the UDS to a point that can start smoking!!!

I would like to thank all the people who have posted their experiences here and a special thanks to PhilipW for prodding me on this project!!!

Tomorrow is the day this Dalek comes to life :-D

Awah man I'm crackin up over here. Just wait toll the British guys see thin rig.

Well done my friend.
Doc


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