Ugly Drum Smoker

This thread has be great , i am pretty much done making the UDS but does anyone have a good tips on screwing the conduit rings down tighter ?they just get stuck on the nipple thread after a few turns . I thought about taking the Dremel to it to open it up a lil

Here are a few more pics-
This is the Big Lots Grill bottom with the rim flattened out. It works pretty well with only a small amount of leaks.

Here is the first cook - A pork butt rubbed with Yardbird and an Angus round roast that I had on hand rubbed with Bovine Gold. The food turned out good. I learned a lot from the first cook and will be making some adjustments. For example, I used a 19" pizza pan as a diffuser. The grease dripped on it and burned. I think I will try either some water in a pan or a clay tray on the next cook.

Great lookin pron !!! Hey I just wanna give a shout of thanks to this thread. I built my uds without the benefit of this thread. They work really well and no worries here. But I did learn in this thread that i was building the fire wrong... way to much lit charcoal. 2 or more chimneys at a time.
Did one chimney yesterday and it worked so next time I'll try half a chimney. Great thread here!!

Mextra55 said:

This thread has be great , i am pretty much done making the UDS but does anyone have a good tips on screwing the conduit rings down tighter ?they just get stuck on the nipple thread after a few turns . I thought about taking the Dremel to it to open it up a lil

Click to expand...

I know this was mentioned earlier in the thread somewhere, I will try to find a picture for you.

This is how I did mine.
The close nipples have a bulge in the center, you screw the conduit nut as far as you can on one side, put the nipple in the drum and put the other conduit nut on the same side making sure the points of both nuts will dig into the drum wall as they tighten.

Found the picture: http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showpost.php?p=931305&postcount=125

Thanks Norco !

Mextra55 said:

This thread has be great , i am pretty much done making the UDS but does anyone have a good tips on screwing the conduit rings down tighter ?they just get stuck on the nipple thread after a few turns . I thought about taking the Dremel to it to open it up a lil

Click to expand...

I only used the nipple on the hole with the ball valve. The other holes I just used magnets on.

Anyhow the one nipple I used went in so tight that I just skipped using the conduit nuts. I didn't need them.

Lotta discussion about locknuts on nipples.. dont recall if its been mentioned but conduit locknuts are made for conduit threads. They will work on pipe thread nipples but they are harder to thread on. Pipe threads are tapered so a leak free seal will eventually be made. Conduit threads are not tapered and are easier to thread together. Anyhow thats why locknuts are hard to use on pipe nipples. ,,,Just sayin......

New UDS 1st Cook

Finally had access to a good clean steel drum. Put it together and burned out it out good last weekend.

Seasoned it yesterday and tried a couple fatties. Was able to hold over 400 with all vents open, closed it down to 1 vent and held 300. Was burning lump.

New UDS 1st Cook pron

Today I tried a rack of babybacks and a butt.

Stuffed the butt with 8 cloves of garlic, scored the fat cap. Rub both ribs and butt with mustard and dry rub. Let sit while I started the fire. Aprox 10 lbs lump in the fire basket with 6 fist sized chunks of hickory. Temp outside today was about 45 and pretty breezy. Had one vent (the 3/4" ball valve) open. Temp was at 330 when I put meat on. Probe for temp monitoring is just above cooking grate. Cranked the valve to about 1/2. After about 45 min temp was at 287. Closed valve to 25% open. 30 min. later temp was 270, closed valve to about 10% open. Temp stabilized at 260. Sprayed with apple cider vinegar, coke, soy sauce, tabasco mix 2 or 3 times during cook. Foiled both at 3 1/2 hrs, butt was 190 internal. Let go for another hour, unfoiled for another hour. Results were great.

Nice drum and pron!

Thanks for the tips on the conduit rings . I did a test burn today and wow i couldnt believe how long you could go with little bit of charcoal . i didnt even cover the bottom of the fire basket . Cranked it wide open and got it up to 425 . capped both and opened the ball valve about half way and it locked in at 250 . I had heat for 5 hours and didnt even burn all the charcoal . I was amazed then I ran over and kicked my ECB lol

Used for the first time last Friday. Seasoned the smoker the week prior. Did pork spare ribs and chicken quarters.
Didn't hold heat as long as I would have liked. Had to add charcoal halfway through the cook. I think I didn't put enough in to begin with. Have to learn sometime. Ribs and chicken turned out perfect after all was said and done.
Now I just have to clean the outside and paint it.

mostwanted said:

Thanks. My biggest concern with this is drafts coming in through the bottom at the lid seam.
Did you do your pre burn after you cut the bottom out? I am concerned that doing the burn from the "new" bottom will cause it to warp. Maybe with it being clamped on it will be ok??

Click to expand...

McMaster-Carr (where you probably got those Carr-Lane latches) also has these:

http://www.mcmaster.com/#cad-2d/1889a22/

This is the latch that popped into my mind when I considered the idea of doing a detachable bottom.

-Rodney

Has anyone used JB Weld on their UDS cooker? :redface:

Sub said:

Has anyone used JB Weld on their UDS cooker? :redface:

Click to expand...

I saw a guy in this thread mention that he JB welded casters to the bottom of the drum, but I can't seem to find the post. Maybe he'll speak up.

-Rodney

Sub said:

Has anyone used JB Weld on their UDS cooker? :redface:

Click to expand...

What are you trying to do with the JB Weld?

TXAGGIE10 said:

Used for the first time last Friday. Seasoned the smoker the week prior. Did pork spare ribs and chicken quarters.
Didn't hold heat as long as I would have liked. Had to add charcoal halfway through the cook. I think I didn't put enough in to begin with. Have to learn sometime. Ribs and chicken turned out perfect after all was said and done.
Now I just have to clean the outside and paint it.

Click to expand...

See, it's so ez even an Aggie can do it. :laugh::laugh::laugh:

TXAGGIE10 said:

Used for the first time last Friday. Seasoned the smoker the week prior. Did pork spare ribs and chicken quarters.
Didn't hold heat as long as I would have liked. Had to add charcoal halfway through the cook. I think I didn't put enough in to begin with. Have to learn sometime. Ribs and chicken turned out perfect after all was said and done.
Now I just have to clean the outside and paint it.

Click to expand...

"I think I didn't put enough in to begin with"

Just load that basket up so you don't have to worry. Reuse what you don't burn the next time. These burn so long there would be no reason to worry about running out.

JMHO...........

Paul B
SS UDS
SS Auspit

Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences on your builds. Lots of information in this thread! I am at about page 210 but have throttled back on my reading cause there is a lot of repeat info and I had the info I needed to build mine last night.
There was only 1 tool broken and 2 injurys during this adventure. We bought a nibbler (to cut out the bottom) and broke the tip on it. Then I burnt my finger after I grabbed the side right after doing some grinding. I thought it was gonna blister up but it is fine today. My buddy must have gotten a piece of porcelien in his eye cause his eyes were giving him problems today and ended up going to the ER to get a sliver taken out of it.
As far as the construction goes, I wanted to use the Weber lid so I had to cut out the bottom for it to fit rights, then use the top of the drum as the bottom. I sealed it with some foil inside the lip. I decided to use the bottom of the Weber Kettle as my ash tray by cutting the kettle a few inches above where the grate sits without the factory welded tabs. We also drilled several 3/4" holes around the parameter for better air flow. All in all, the assembly went pretty good and I bought some new tools that I needed anyway. For inlets, I drilled 4 sets of double 3/4" holes with flaps to cover them made out of stainless I didn't take any pics during assembly because I have a hard time remembering to but I will take some pics after I paint it later.
I put the finishing touches on this afternoon and lathered some lard on the inside before I lit it up. I was a little worried about airflow using the cut-up kettle base but as soon as I put a 1/2 chimney of ashed briquettes in, it was only a matter of minutes before it hit 350. I closed off 3 vents and left the fourth cracked just a scosh before my temps finally dropped to 275 and held there. I probably have some leaks. It is 10:30pm and I am off to prep some fattys to throw on for a very late night snack!

Pics or it didn't happen!

I'm gonna blame my hole-saw (which I will never buy again, Unibit all the way) and say that the hole was too large for the pipe nipple and I didn't want to go and buy another barrell so I continued with the project.

While finishing I had the thought to use JB Weld to seal the nipple to the barrel, it worked perfectly during the seasoning process, I just wanted to find out if i'm going to run into any issues.