If you have vegetable oil you can use that as well...

Remember why you are seasoning it and throw a couple fatties on. The UDS will be nicely seasoned, you will have your first pron and your family will be sold after their first bite. Fatties are almost mistake proof so temp swings are not a problem.

WalMArt has weber knockoff 22.5 cooking grates for 12 dollars. My ribs will never know the difference. They are just a bit thinner than the weber grates.

I have mine on three evenly spaced bricks and it does not affect the wooden deck it's sitting on. The barrel doesn't really get that hot anyway.

When I purchased my Ole Hickory CTO Smoker I had an executive chef tell me to get a pound of bacon and lay on the racks and crank the smoker up. Just another idea.

You don't want to drill holes in the bottom of the barrel if you want to keep the missus happy. She won't be keen on dripping grease all over the deck or patio. Just prop the barrel up on three bricks and you're good to go. As has been said, the bottom does not get that hot.

Sterling Skouson

? fired up uds on sunday cooked 2 chickens and a fatty.could not get the temp below 275. usd RO lump 1/3 chimney to start and 7lbs in basket top vents wide open ball valve open about 1/8 why can't i get it to 225?

Tell us more about your design. Is you lid sealed well?

That brand also come with hinges!! I opted for the cheaper version @ biglots $29.95. The grills are for crap, but the lid is usable.

weber lid sealed well. 3 -1 inch pipe nipples welded into bottom of drum 2closed during cook also have flat lid have not tried it

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:

It it easy to try it without the silicone. Mine works great without it.

I picked up some of the RTV Red High Temp silicone and it says you can use it for oven doors on the back. Its easy enough to bolt it on though and try. I just feel like since it wasn't formed for the drum and needs to pull outward, that I may end up having some leaking if my bolt holes aren't dead on right.

I just gently bent it by hand to the larger radius and it fit like a glove. I bought high temp silicon too, but ended up happy without it.

The draft doors on my BGEs don't have a seal of any kind, by the way.

Pork's On!
 

5AM--Wake up
5:20AM--Coals hot and transfered to drum--1 intake + valve open full
5:45AM--Temp at 252 --2 Shoulders ON!
6:15AM--Temp at 261--Closed valve to 3/4 full. Want to run hot today
6:20AM--Back to sleep

This is all happening at 23 degrees F outside! HillyBilly BBQ Drum is KISS all the way with a weber lid and quick clamp holding drum seal. Amazing how well this works. You guys are awesome for posting all this info.

Guys,
I am in the process of building a UDS. Actually have a buddy with some time on his hands who is putting it together, but I'm pretty familiar with the process. I have a lined drum and burning it out several times with a big fire has done no good at all. A torch wouldn't even hurt the liner and it is extremely difficult to get it down to bare metal. I have done a LOT of internet research on epoxy phenolic liners over the last several days and I was just wondering if anyone knows of any specific reasons why the liner needs to be removed other than just general peace of mind. As far as I can tell, the worst thing in the liner is BPA, which is the chemical which got attention about a year ago for being in some baby bottles and Nalgene water bottles. I actually found one study which concluded that heating food in a can lined with an epoxy phenolic coating did not result in an appreciable increase in the amounts of BPA in the food. I personally don't think drinking out of a water bottle with BPA is harmful (and epoxy phenolic coatings are used in water tanks and such) but realize that when you bring heat into the equation it could change. With that being said, epoxy phenolic resins are extremely heat and flame resistant and are used in such applications as firewalls in airliners (where surely you wouldn't want people you are saving from fire in a crash to just breath a bunch of poison, right?). They are also used as heat resistant handles in certain types of cookware, and also in Bakelite which is used in a variety of applications including cookware. I also found this statement--"Phenolic resins have excellent fire resistance and when induced to burn will release only minimal quantities of smoke or toxic fumes. "

SO...Is anyone cooking on their's with the lining still in or does anyone with a background in Organic Chemistry or personal experience with someone getting sick care to chime in and tell me why I shouldn't do this? Obviously I don't feel 100% comfortable with it but I'm pretty close to it. The charcoal basket design does not expose it to the most intense heat of the fire and if it won't burn or react to heat much higher than the 250 F or so that I plan to introduce it to I feel like nothing is going be released from it...
Thanks for any and all opinions!
Cary

I think the answer you are going to get to your question is no. Burning out must be done. did you drill your holse before burning out so the fire coudl get plenty of oxygen. You have to have plenty of fuel in the drum so that it burns super hot. Make it glow red. It will come off.

Peace of mind is what made me buy a brand new unlined drum. For $40 - $50 I am not going to risk it.

Well I got the drum finished and coated the inside with crisco... Here's a final pic...

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z...d/a008232d.jpg

I went to dinner with the family and then decided to check my mail... I was shocked to see the Tel-Tru thermometer in there since I ordered it Thursday.

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z...d/6e3b2eb9.jpg

I have the drum fired up and seasoning right now... I put a good layer of charcoal in the basket and then added some large chunks of hickory that I had laying around... The lid doesn't seal all that well and I can see smoke coming out of the edges... I may have to make a seal of sorts if it becomes and issue... Tomorrow I'll drill the hole for the Tel-Tru, but for now I have my BGE thermometer from my Weber on there.

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z...d/1053cb9b.jpg
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z...d/fd8b9cd3.jpg

I'm making a stuffed fattie tonight to throw on there tomorrow... This will be my first fattie...

Very nice and simple UVaJester. I like.

She's a beaut! Another drum is born.

UVaJester-

Good stuff! So, what exactly did you do to get that lid to fit? It looks like you used the drum upside down and cut the bottom out of it, and then fit the lid around the bead at the bottom of the barrel. Is this what you did? Did you end up having to tweak the edge of the domed lid to fit easily?

Thanks! Great work!

The drum I used was a 55 gallon sealed drum. So I cut the top out and then I used an angle grinder on the bead to get the lid to fit better. It fits tightly, but it leaks a little. I can hold any temp 200 and up.... and I only notice the smoke coming from the lid seal when I have my intake wide open.

Big Lots 29.00 donor lid? Priceless!

the UDS looks great! Happy smoking!

Exactly...!!! $29 for a lid, cooking grate and a charcoal grate... Can't complain about that...!!!! hahahaaa

I wonder if I could cut the top flange off of the base of that Biglots grill and mount it into the top of my open-head drum... I know I've seen it done with Weber grills.

I tell you what I am doing with the Big Lots Kettle. I am in the process of building my second UDS. The drum that I got seems to be very narrow. Almost not true 55 gallon it's so small. Anyways I tried the "lid" that came with the Big Lots Grill and it would've worked, but had a lot of "slop" in the fit. I honestly never expected it to be too big. The weird part is I tried it on the UDS that I already have and it was way too SMALL. Weird huh?

I then just took the "bottom" of the Big Lots Kettle Grill and made a lid out of it. Where there is a flange built into the bottom, I just took a pair of pliers, and bent that flange up and over in a way to create the lid.

It is definitely not the prettiest bend in the world, but I tell you this, it's a great fit and should seal really well once I get it up and running.


Brandon

I just got 2 barrels and I was wondering how can you tell if there is a liner? The barrels I got contained either juice or flour and the inside looks like it's painted red. Does this need to be burned out?

thanks

The red is a liner and needs to be burned out, have fun with it.

It is probable that you have the "dreaded" red liner which is extremely difficult to get rid of. Others will chime in if I am wrong. If it is, you will be better off finding barrels with no liner, even at a higher cost.

Man I burned my barrel twice and it still had some liner in it. So I did a red neck sand blast. Sand in a bucket with some orange citrus cleaner, then with a green scratch pad, I went to work scrubbing, It came off after lots of elbow grease. Good luck

Are conduit fittings ok to use inside the drum..?? I needed to pick up a conduit nut and washer to install my tel-tru and they don't have anything noting whether there bare steel, zinc, etc...

Here is an online source for stainless conduit fittings.

http://www.gibsonstainless.com/

I went ahead and used the conduit washers from homedepot... I don't really want to wait and order anything since I have a fattie sitting in the fridge right now...

I did look over the fittings closely and I noticed some of the fittings did label zinc and a few labeled steel... Everything I got either said steel or no label at all. The washers look to be same finish as the steel conduit nuts... Maybe someone here has been down this road before...

(Edited to add)
After typing this I searched the part number on the bag for the conduit reducing washers (#26820) online and found a pdf catalog from Halex... They list it as just steel...!!! Thank goodness I didn't use the lock nuts from that company because even though HomeDepot had them listed as steel, the part number brings up a zinc coated lock nut in there catalog...

YES THEY ARE ZINC COATED!!!!

use a charcoal starter chiminy with 10 or so briqets in it, put in your parts and burn the zinc off of them.
i have done this many times with nuts and bolts.

Dude, you need some high temps to burn the zinc off. You really don't need to worry about it though. People make a big deal out of the zinc, and unless you are breathing the fumes while welding on it, it really poses no risk. If some zinc manages to get on your food, it's fine. You aren't going to get toxic levels of zinc, even if you just ground up and ate the conduit nuts themselves.

I'm sure there will be several people saying otherwise, but I'd like to see the evidence.