Well that all sounds good. Ok, what about the accuracy of your thermometer? Have you tested it in boiling and ice water?

Marty, I think RO burns hotter. I would use less lit on start up and catch the temp on the way up. Then throw your grub on and keep an eye on temps. When I use just plain ole kingsford I only use about 8 coals to start and catch my temp on the way up.

Paul B
SS UDS

I have tried both methods of firing up my UDS - catching the temp on the way up vs. lighting a big fire and choking it down. I liked the second method better because the groceries tasted less like charcoal smoke.

Fire it up as you described. Let things get nice and hot with all intakes open and the lid off. Once you've got a good fire going, close all intakes, put the lid on with the vents closed. Wait a while until the temp is about 200ish. Then open the lid vents and adjust the intake(s) to get it up to 225-250. I use a turkey fryer thermo placed at grate level to make these adjustments. When the temp is back down to the 200s I place my Maverick et-7 and et-73 accordingly (the probes will not tolerate temps >400).

This has worked for me, but different folks have different preferences.

Finally...
 

Finished the entire thread! Someone should publish this in book format and retire rich! Tomorrow night will be my first try with pork shoulders on my drum. Anyone have any tips or things to watch out for?

Watch out for boredom. :biggrin: And, no, the thermometer is not stuck - it really is that steady.

Looking forward to hearing how it goes.

It definitely is a POS... but I got the lid to fit pretty well. It went from a really tight fit to a somewhat loose fit, so I hope it seals when I test it out Saturday.

Tonight I got a decent amount of work done on the UDS. Finally got home before it was dark and was able to focus... I scrubbed the inside out again with a scrub brush and then prepped for paint. I almost forgot that I ordered a Tel-Tru black face gauge today, since the BGE didn't quite work out...

Here's a pic with the hardware mounted to the inside...
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z...d/73c8d962.jpg

I used the black grill paint and it came out looking like this..
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z...d/91ffd800.jpg

I ended up not really liking the flat black paint and I ran out of the first can after 2 coats.... So I decided to pick up the high heat grill paint that was semigloss... After 4 more coats of paint the UDS is looking not so ugly. hahahaa....
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z...d/98fa84ae.jpg

I also was able to get my expanded metal bend into a somewhat circle... I was going to mount the charcoal grate to the pizza pan, but the bolts I bought are too small for the washers to span the grate. So for now I have a circle of expanded metal, pizza pan, and charcoal grate....
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z...d/1077ac94.jpg

Tomorrow I'm going to use the RTV and mount the BGE vent and then finish the charcoal basket. Then it will finally be time for seasoning on Saturday...

I like the u bolt idea, think I'll borrow that idea from you.:-P The UDS looks like a great cooker and fun to build. Hopefully my buddy picked up the barrel yesterday so we can get started this weekend. I'll be posting pictures as soon as I figure out how. Do I just copy and paste the img code?

Re: Ugly Drum Smoker
 

I forget who mentioned this originally (it may have been uvajester), but using acorn nuts on the ends of those u-bolts would look really good. That's what I'm gonna do... I can't tell from the pics if Uva did or not.

Someone did mention that... I ended up just using a regular nut on the u-bolts, then came bak and cut the bolts close to the nut and rounded the edges a little to keep someone from getting snagged. It came out looking great and the regular nuts sit a little closer to the drum. I wanted them to dissappear... If I was planning on leaving them bare SS then I would have definitely used the acorn nuts.

It's best not to paint the inside of a UDS- infact after one fattie its not needed either!

Never paint the inside of the drum....!!!!

Allthe painting I was referring to was for the outside of the drum...

Good call.

Hmm... To bling, or not to bling... :wink:

-r

People have said to use high temp silicone to seal my BGE vent to the drum... Is that the same thing as the automotive RTV high temp silicone..??

[QUOTE=UVaJester;1204843]Tonight I got a decent amount of work done on the UDS. Finally got home before it was dark and was able to focus... I scrubbed the inside out again with a scrub brush and then prepped for paint. I almost forgot that I ordered a Tel-Tru black face gauge today, since the BGE didn't quite work out...

Here's a pic with the hardware mounted to the inside...[\QUOTE]


Looking pretty good so far!!! Keep it up, hopefully your U bolts are spaced enough to let the bottom grate in, Mine almost were too close together...:redface: