discada
 

I bought my disk at the ASC store in Petersburg, Virginia. I went on their web site and they will sell them and ship them ground. $43 plus tax plus whatever it cost to ship it to AZ, cant imagine its too much, depends on how much of a hurry you're in. I also noticed there are no ASC "Agri Supply Centers" in AZ but there are a number of other farm suppliers and ag stores there, I don't know if there are any disc blade distributors but I'd give it a shot.
I guess a discada is something like a bowl shape with three or for legs welded on it?

Yeah we had a Tractor Supply store open recently in the next town over. Went to check it out but no discs. I've never actually seen a discada in person but there's a thread or two on the forum that piqued my interest in them. A google search led to some interesting ideas.

discada
 

Yes, I think I saw something like that on Andrew Zimmer's "strange food guy" show and It looked like a big disk on re-bar like legs sitting directly over a camp fire. The were cooking hog guts or crawdads or may be they were frying cracklings but I thought to myself "Hmm, I'm purty sure I need one of them." When I was building my uds I was thinking about using the disk lid as a cooking surface, just invert it and your off to the races, kinda like a Chinese wok. I would set it up to mount the fire basket higher and let the disk sit right on it for extra heat or lowere the basket a couple inches for milder heat. could be worked out with a little experimentation.
ASC sells a 30" disk Brazilian made of 1080 steel but its a difficult fit for a lid on a 55gal UDS but would be Ideal stand alone.

Sounds like you have the right idea. Weld up the hole in the middle of the disc and create. :) We should take this elsewhere so we don't screw the UDS thread up though.

To keep this on track...Anyone have issues with excessive creosote?? or smell after a year or so of use on your UDS?

After months of reading "build a UDS" in every stinking thread, I broke down and made one. Managed to score a free unlined drum from work, borrowed a welder and went to town. I made 3 grate positions, even though I doubt the bottom one gets used much. I already have 5 22" OTS grills, so I figure grates will swap as needed. I used 2" long SS bolts to hold grates on, but on one of the 3 I used 1" bolts, and it allows instant grill pulls w/o removing any bolts if you're careful. Also, I made my diffuser as part of the basket, because I was trying to avoid extra holes. Diffuser and handle are removable of course. She gets seasoned in the AM, turkey at 2pm.

http://i791.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps4a4f2042.jpg

http://i791.photobucket.com/albums/y...pscb2a7574.jpg


My dad getting in on the act..
http://i791.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps9ba0cd67.jpg

http://i791.photobucket.com/albums/y...psd1fb411d.jpg

My helper, ready to get this baby smoking. He keeps asking me what's taking so long...
http://i791.photobucket.com/albums/y...psa1a9f340.jpg

http://i791.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps542d3999.jpg

http://i791.photobucket.com/albums/y...psd893eb9c.jpg

Thanks for lookin'

Real Nice!

Nice job...... now get cooking........

Ha ha. Already on it. Seasoned for a couple hours with crisco, then on went a bacon wrapped fatty stuffed with hashbrowns, onions, mushrooms and cheese.

Looks good, that lid handle may get hot though....

So far so good. Maybe because its only 20 degrees out, but at 325 the handle is cool as a cucumber. I was/am worried about that too, but am prepared to make a different one if I gotta.

Yep
 

Bingo

Pulling to open, spring return.

http://i901.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps135a0957.jpg
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nice paint job

What a great looking drum. You do good work!
One question. why the diffuser over the coals? One beauty of the UDS is that is provides different methods of cooking, including convection and radiant heat. I also have bolts for a third rack in my UDS, just over the coals, and I can stick a tile or different sized pizza pans on the bottom one so it can be used as a diffuser if I need to limit the radiant heat for the longer cooks.

Getting my drum ready to go. Same post that has been repeated over and over...read through *most* of this ginormous thread, and now ready to build.

I scored a "free" closed head barrel from a local fuel company. Only had to do like 3 minutes of computer hardware work for them. They were going to pay me but I turned it around and said "Say, I see you have some drums out back." Washed out the drum with water and soap. I took a metal cut-off wheel to the side of the lip and it came off after burning through 3 cheapo discs. Cut 3 1" holes in the bottom(***Special Note - Do not try using a wood bit to cut the holes. Seems like it would work until the side of the bit gets it's first good "bite" of steel. JB Weld to the rescue!)
Burned the barrel and lid out really good with a pallet and a half of wood. I bought a wire brush wheel, but didn't really need it. A few abrasive pads took off the remaining paint and got everything down to bare steel.
Right now, I'm planning on using the flat lid, at least until I can find a used Weber. I cut the lid carefully enough that it will go back on the drum, and looks to make a nice tight seal.
Also found an old grill rack in the shed. I guess I did use the wire wheel for that to clean the rust off. Then more abrasive pad scrubbing and will burn the rest off in the seasoning burn for the inside of the barrel.
Got the first coat of high temp paint on the outside, and all hardware ready to go. Last thing I need is the expanded metal for a basket, and I'll be ready to schmoke. Pics to follow.

Thanks!

My main objective in that little guy was trying to a very even temp in as large an area as possible when needed. When I do bacon, sausage, jerky etc, I need as much room as possible, so I plan on using all 3 grates for that. It's all removable via 1/2 ss nuts and lock washers, so I figured if I don't like it, away it goes. I don't plan on using this for ribs, butts, briskets etc unless I'm cooking 3 grates worth. Most the time I'll probably just use the low grate for diffusion if I even use diffusion. Looking forward to trying a brisket diffusion free tomorrow, see what that's like.

Fwiw, early tests show pretty consistent temps throughout. I may add a few small holes and tinker some more, as the outside was about 30 degrees hotter than the middle on the lower rack, but coming from a COS, I'm pretty happy with only a 30 degree variant.