Thanks to this ginormous thread and the wise people on this forum, I was able to complete my UDS this weekend! I made 4 of the 3/4" vents on the bottom, and I left them wide open for the burn in to see how high it would go, and within about an hour and a half, as it approached 600 degrees and reached the upper limit of my Maverick, I decided I had better start shutting it down! I was eventually able to regulate to about 230 for the rest of the night. The Pam sprayed on the inside was seasoned to a perfect black. Now I can't wait to throw a butt our brisket on to smoke!

My grate is 8 inches down from the top, but I want to add another above. I would like to be able to use my original flat lid, but I'm not sure if I can make another grate fit. I have an old Weber lid, but of course it's too small, and I'm not sure if I want to try the mods I've seen so far.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread, and in turn, to the build of my new smoker!

Sorry about the sideways picture. First post and from my phone, so not sure what happened...

Awesome thread, had two windows open on my computer for weeks. One read forward (1, 2, 3 ECT) and one Reading backward (649, 648, Ect)!!!

I lucked out and found a new unlined drum for $40. Should I still burn it out...or just season it? When the drum has been closed for a couple of hours I smell a light chemical smell...but It could be from the gasket in the lid.

Thanks!
Tony

I welded my first basket, just did hog rings on the second - second one works better. I misplaced my hog ring pliers (might buy a new one, they are cheep and rings are good for a lot of things), so have been using a vice grip - it is annoying but will work in a pinch. +1 for using valve stems - you will probably need to drill them out, but most are chrome plated brass (they drill out easily)

I think I can get 16+ hrs on a 10lb bag of lump.

I think I was in the same situation - a reconditioned drum with no liner, but it could have had a rust resistant spray inside. So I burned all the new paint off the outside (that I replaced with new high temp black) - and anything that might have been inside - with my weed burner that I bought just for that purpose at Harbor Freight for $25.

I used cut pieces of wire clothes hanger to attach the bottom of my charcoal basket to the sides, kinda like the hog rings. Cheap (as in I already had them on hand) and it worked well. Also used clothes hanger for a basket handle. They survived my 600 degree burn in, so I don't expect to have a problem with them.

My fire basket cost nothing other than 3 bolts to raise it off bottom. It is made from old gasser grills I got at junk yard. It is held together with pieces of grills bent around. The bottom has 2 grills turned 90*'s to each other. It won't win any beauty awards but has worked flawlessly for about 100 smokes. It holds 20 lbs of lump and to me is so ugly its pretty.

can someone guide me where to get a pan with a lip for the ash pan of my charcoal basket?

I use a flat pizza pan I got a Wal mart never saw a need for a lip I figured it would restrict air flow to the fire.

i only find 16" flat at walmart was looing for 1 with a lip to help catch ashes better

All my all fall on the 16" pizza pan.

+1. The walmart 16 inch cheapo pizza pan works great and doesn't restrict air flow. If you use something with more lip, prepare to gil the lip full of holes.

I used a 20" plow disk from the farm store. added some legs & a lifting rod. About $16. Will last forever.

I took one of the $10 charcoal grills they sell at walmart, and cut the edge of the pan, splitting the height in half, then slid the cut off half back over the bottom with the rolled edge up, and secured it with sheet metal screws. The end result was a 1" lip.

Actually I bought TWO of the grills and used the grates for the bottom of my charcoal basket, just rotated them to make a square hole pattern and bent the wire supports over the edge to hold it all together.