Finally built my UDS!!!

Yay... it's another "I built a UDS" thread... ;-)

I finally quit planning and started building, and got it done today. Here are some pics: (WOW... they're huge... sorry about that!)

The new unlined drum. The lid was pressed by the drum dealer the day before I bought it, and they left the gasket out for me and didn't put paint on it, which is good for me!


The charcoal basket. This was actually really fun to make... I got to dust off the welder, use my air-powered abrasive cutoff saw, etc... The mesh is 9-gauge 3/4" size. How did I bend it? I took a video of me doing it, and will update this caption with a link after I put it on YouTube.


A view inside the UDS


I mounted the turkey thermometer in a drilled-out 1/4-NPT pipe plug in the side of the drum. It simply slides out when I need to remove the charcoal basket.


Inside the drum, also showing the "wiggle rod" that I made from 3/16" zinc-plated rod. I welded it up by the handle too... I felt like such a rebel. ;-) I held my breath, don't worry...


Completed UDS. I still need to buy handles (Home Depot didn't have any stainless ones), and I actually painted the lid after I took this photo, so it's black now. I have a 6" long 2" pipe nipple to attach to the 2" bung hole (insert Beavis and Butthead laughing here). As for the inlets, even though people usually distribute them 120 degrees apart, I can't see a good reason for this. I figure that if a single 2" inlet works well, three inlets 45 degrees apart should work fine too. I plan on mounting the UDS to a side table structure, so I don't want to have to go behind it to play with inlet caps.


Gonna probably season it tomorrow!

-Rodney

MariettaSmoker said:

is that turkey therm mounted? If so, you are going to have a few problems like I did. I have to turn my basket sideways to get it out, which means I spill some. Cant get it out because the therm is blocking it. So, I took the therm out when I got my et73's. Also, my turkey therm worked pretty good until it got all smoked up and got some creosote on it...now it doesnt register like it should. Its about 75 degrees off from the et73's.

Just my experiences with the turkey therm...YMMV

Click to expand...

Thanks everyone! Glad you like it. I too think it looks too clean... Gonna dirty it really soon!

About the thermometer: it just slides into a hole drilled in the brass fitting, and easily slides right out whenever I need it out o the way. ;-). Thanks for the warning about accuracy... I'll be sure to keep it relatively clean, and I'll check it against boiling water from time to time. I'm going to pick up an ET73 too... I just like to have a sensor on there that can get wet, etc...

-r

Alright... so in trying to replace the images in the original post (which I found out I can't edit AFTER I deleted the images that are inserted into the post), I basically screwed up the original post. Here it is with resized pics:

The new unlined drum. The lid was pressed by the drum dealer the day before I bought it, and they left the gasket out for me and didn't put paint on it, which is good for me!



The charcoal basket. This was actually really fun to make... I got to dust off the welder, use my air-powered abrasive cutoff saw, etc... The mesh is 9-gauge 3/4" size. How did I bend it? I took a video of me doing it, and will update this caption with a link after I put it on YouTube.



A view inside the UDS



I mounted the turkey thermometer in a drilled-out 1/4-NPT pipe plug in the side of the drum. It simply slides out when I need to remove the charcoal basket.



Inside the drum, also showing the "wiggle rod" that I made from 3/16" zinc-plated rod. I welded it up by the handle too... I felt like such a rebel. ;-) I held my breath, don't worry...



Completed UDS. I still need to buy handles (Home Depot didn't have any stainless ones), and I actually painted the lid after I took this photo, so it's black now. I have a 6" long 2" pipe nipple to attach to the 2" bung hole (insert Beavis and Butthead laughing here). As for the inlets, even though people usually distribute them 120 degrees apart, I can't see a good reason for this. I figure that if a single 2" inlet works well, three inlets 45 degrees apart should work fine too. I plan on mounting the UDS to a side table structure, so I don't want to have to go behind it to play with inlet caps.



I also took a pic today with the painted lid, but didn't get a chance to season it yet.


-Rodney

sdb25 said:

aNOTHER DRUM IS BORN!!!

You obviously read through the entire thread before embarking, CONGRATS!!!

Instead of drilling out the fitting for the thermo, just get a brass mpt x hose barb fitting in the appropriate size.

Click to expand...

Glad you like it! I didn't read the whole thread, but I did look at about 3/4 of it. ;-)

I looked into using an NPT to barb adapter, but there was no appropriate hose barb fitting. The hole needed to be 5/32" for this probe, and there's no barb fitting with this ID...

-Rodney

Derek said:

Nice build Rodney, 1 thing though please make sure your photo's are not too large next time. I had to scroll to see them....

Click to expand...

I fixed it. ;-)

NoviceBBQmovinUp said:

do you mind taking a picture of how you did this. i have been trying to find a good way to mount mine, as well as have the option to remove the thermo when i need to

Click to expand...

I'll take a pic next time I have a chance, but here's what I did:

1) I drilled an appropriately-sized hole through the center of a plug like this one (except it was square drive, from Home Depot): http://www.mcmaster.com/#9171k47

2) 1/4" NPT threads (as measured by my caliper) vary from about .49 to .51" along the taper

3) I just drilled a 1/2" hole and screwed the fitting in.

That's all there is to it! I was afraid the steel would just carve off the brass threads, and I didn't check to see if that was happening, but it's in there really tight, so I don't really care. A stainless fitting would probably work better, as it would be able to (maybe) cut into the drum as you screwed it into the unthreaded hole.

-Rodney