leaking lid
 

it seems to me that a door would lose temp , my lid looses enough , i dont know the answer

Hey man.. I just have to say that your smoker is fantastic! Not necessary, but at this point looks like you're having fun and being creative. I do wonder why the 3 air intakes to come from the bottom of the barrel and all coming out the same side.
As for the need, like the dude from MN wrote, I too smoke in very cold temps (from CT) with or without wind and I still am able to get a good 10+ hours on 1/2 a bag of charcoal without any additional insulation. The insulation idea I was trying to figure out with my POS offset smoker because THERE it matters. So I have a welder's blanket for that.. but once I built UDS I am not really looking back.

hey man.. you were exactly right. I was not understanding the mechanics of draft. I ran a burn with the 2" bung open and closed down some of the intakes and the temp held within 10 degrees for hours.

And jcinadr posted about using BBQ Guru computer system to control temp. :) Here's what I'm going to try to do:

A friend of mine made mods to his offset smoker but putting in a flap inside his chimney attached to some wires that poke through the chimney walls, allowing it to kind of sway. He positioned it just right so that it seems to work like a carburetor and self adjusts by opening more or less based on the temp. I have to learn more about it, but it's tied with my desire to attach some pipe to the bung hole to create the negative pressure at the top for creating more draft.

But another idea I may do, is to use one of the 3 nipples that I put on the side of the barrel at the top... I can put an elbow on the inside and another pipe extension (this is 3/4 inch) downward inside, and then also elbow on the outside and some pipe extension going up.. Resulting in something like an elongated "S" with half of it on the inside pointing down, and half on the outside pointing up. My theory :) (and I'm having fun with mods) is that this will still create some negative pressure at the top to create the draft, and also not rob so much smoke and moisture from the top where the food is being cooked.

BUT WAIT THAT'S NOT ALL! Another idea, after reading a lot about draft and combustion :) (http://www.wedlinydomowe.com/smokeho...ehouse-firebox) I'm also thinking of adding a 3/4 inch nipple somewhere in the middle, above the heat source and under the food. Point of that is to try to bring in more moisture by drafting in cool air from the outside. This in turn may also increase the heat created from the coals by allowing for a secondary combustion.

Who knows.. but it's easy and cheap to try, and if it doesn't work I just cap the holes!

I own and compete with one 18.5 WSM and two drums. I only use the WSM for chicken and am thinking about retiring it completely this Spring. The pros to me are: drums to me burn more efficiently, ability to cook a lot more meat than the 18.5 WSM, able to burn for longer periods of time with the larger charcoal basket. The cons: drums are a little more difficult to travel with if you don't have a pickup or trailer.

I don't think you can go wrong with either so don't spend too much time making the decision. :thumb:

Here she is, I am just about finished up. I am seasoning it right now and it is holding steady at 350 degrees. Still have to paint it. All I need now is a nice butt to throw on there.... or maybe some ribs..... or maybe brisket.... Decisions decisions...

http://i386.photobucket.com/albums/o...-32-16_293.jpg

Don't forget about the fatty.:thumb:

I've read many comments referring to the inability to "shake the coals".

Why don't Y'all just kick the bottom of the drum to knock the ashes down?

No need to open up the drum, just give 'er a couple swift kicks at the base. Ash will drop, and she'll start purring again.

Now you tell me LOL:cool:

Actually I don't know what the problem is with ash. I never kick mine or have a need to shake or anything. My fire basket I made is just simply wrapped around a coal grate for the 22 inch Weber; the coal grate measures out to be under 18 inches. And I made feet using long bolts.. which make it stand like around 2.5 inches. The whole thing sits on top of another smaller barrel lid catching the ash that falls, making it a snap to clean by just lifting the whole thing out.

This is nothing different from what everyone else seems to do, and I never have a desire to shake anything. :) Maybe it's a personal problem? haha But the thing will run just fine for 10, 12 hours whatever.

I'm not going to lie, I didn't read the whole thing. I did spend the better part of 10 hours yesterday into this morning reading a lot of good stuff. Well I was able to drag myself out of bed this morning and found what seems to be a great deal on drums on the otherside of town in Tempe. Closed head, used to have soybean oil in them, for $20. I thought I read that the one's with mineral oil etc. don't have too thick of a coating and maybe just a rust inhibitor. So I'm going to cross my fingers, hope my Dremel 400 can cut through this thing and let the journey begin.

Also the guy had 8 barrels left at 2 pm local time if you need his name and # shoot me a p.m. Seemed like a good guy and was a real easy transaction.

Found a $10 drum on Craigslist today, formerly filled with Hawaiian Punch in a plastic sock liner. Just picked it up and cannot believe how well the old Weber dome lid fits :thumb: like a glove. Stopped at the local hardware store to estimate total price for parts and was shocked at the cost of expanded metal for the coal basket - around $60! Is that about right or should I shop/scavenge around?

Think outside the box and come up with something else. Me...I used an old milk crate, weed burned the bejesus out of it and went to town. It holds enough coal to go at least 16 hours.

Late on when you stumble upon some expanded go for it and have a basket like everyone else.

Just sayin.............

Paul B
SS UDS

Well Dremel isn't exactly like a hot knife through butter on this thing but it is making progress. I'm going to google search this as well but do you think I could use my sabre saw and just get a metal cutting blade? It's either that or about 50 of these metal cutting dremel disc's.

Sabre saw blade will work fine and do a quicker job to boot!

Oh heck yeah. I used a jig saw on all my UDSs. Either that or my recip saw w/a bi-metal blade.