There is no law (that I can think of anyway) to keep you from owning a smoker AND a grill. You can smoke and grill on either one- but one will be better at grilling and one will be better at smoking. Guess which?

I have a flat top UDS... I *could* raise my coal basket up to make it a "passable" grill. BUT since my grate is 6 inches below the lip of my drum it is not very food flipping friendly.

It's your thing - do what you wanna do.

Hi all
 

So about a month ago, I bought an electric smoker on sale at WallyWorld for $89 because, as a displaced Texan, I am sick of the endless cycle of no more than one BBQ joint in my area (and those always go out of business). After one run, I was beyond annoyed. Having to reload chips every half hour is for people with kids, not me. After a little bit of searching, I ended up ordering a BPS kit and buying a new drum. I operated under the principle that it was better to beg forgiveness than ask permission from She Who Must Be Obeyed, avoiding any chance of a veto. Original,y, her response was 'we could have had a burn barrel.' After having some pulled pork and a fatty from LGE, she has stopped muttering.

In hindsight, I wish I had discovered this forum before I'd built Le Grand Orange because I wouldn't have needed a kit. But now, having the process figured out, I'm rearing to make me a small fleet, once I finish reading the thread. I'm on page 532. I've attached pictures of the smoker and the pork butt from the first cook.

Uds paint
 

Hey all,
I just found this forum and I'm in the process of my 1st uds build. I'm at the painting stage and this may sound dumb. But my question is do you paint the inside of the drum with the high temp grill paint or do you suggest just seasoning it with cooking oil or should I do both. Can't wait to hear back from you all. Oh yeah one more thing should I prime the drum 1st, I see online that rustoleum has a high temp primer. Thanks Dave

Don't paint the inside. Clean it down to bare metal. You want to oil it and season like cast iron.
Welcome to the forum!

Ok, so I've read through 137 pages of this thread so far. I've located a source for new unlined open top drums for $60 each. Do I need to strip the exterior paint, or will it hold up to the temps it would see during normal smoker use? Living in the city I'm pretty sure the new drum is the way to go. Much easier to drill some intake and exhaust holes and make a basket.

I've done it both ways- stripped/re-painted and just left it alone. /shrug- you will end up re-painting it eventually was what I found. Just used the flat black hi temp stuff to keep it from rusting- not a show piece.

I've seen a lot of barrels used to cook with over the years, the paint on all of them has burned off to some extent. I guess it depends on how eager you are to cook in it, and if you expect to modify it as you go.

I just figured with an unlined drum I wouldn't need to burn it out. In my neighborhood guaranteed the fire dept would be showing up, plus I don't really have a good place to do it anyway. My thought is that with this approach I could build the UDS and get cooking, then re-paint later.

In my previous career I was a machinist and would have had access to all the tools and probably quite a few materials from the scrap bin to complete the build. Or if I were closer to my parents he has all the tools (including a Smithy lathe/mill) to weld, cut, machine whatever was required to make a UDS. Matter of fact he could burn out all the drums he wanted to on his property in Montana!

With your back ground, if you are anything like me, you will have ideas after a few cooks. A UDS is easy enough to disassemble to paint that I'd go for it!

Yes I sure do! When I worked in the machine shop we had a powder coating station and my boss asked my if I wanted anything I wanted painted. I really liked the wrinkle finish paint, and thought a red wrinkle finish drum with stainless hardware would be very cool. Also I thought a through hole screw would be nice and clean to put a probe through without drilling an extra hole. Of course I'd tap the exterior to put a screw to cap it when not in use. Even without all the the tooling my experience would be of use in a UDS build. Sure would be nice to have a crew of welders, sheet metal mechanics, and a powder coating pro at my disposal though!

They like BBQ, you know.:-D

Good point, but the shop I worked in was in Virginia and I am now in Florida. I could probably find some friends with equipment locally. Matter of fact I contacted a friend who I thought might know where to locate materials for a UDS and he had himself built this one.

If you make more than one UDS a deburring tool would be on the short list of tools I'd pick up. Really they are very helpful if you drill holes in metal very often. It makes removing the metal burr very easy. No filing, and it makes the hole look nice and neat. When my dad was visiting years ago I showed him this and he had to have one, so I got it for a gift next opportunity.

https://static.grainger.com/rp/s/is/..._AS01?$zmmain$

Thanks for the advice. What cut of beef is that?

Top pic is chicken breasts.
Second pic is sinta.