BigButzBBQ
is Blowin Smoke!
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2010
- Location
- Northwestern Wisconsin
I figured I would throw up my UDS build.
First thing to know, I built mine a week before finding The Brethren. I had glimpsed on one quick pic of one and built it based off of my thoughts and how it would work best. All I could recall from the pic was that a ball valve was used and a fire basket to hold the coals w/ an ash pan and that it would be able to use 22.5 grates. From that I just ran went with what made sense to me. Imagine my surprise when I found the brethren and found out how close mine was to everyone else's. After seeing all the mods I am simply amazed and kind of glad I built mine before seeing all of them, otherwise I think I would have gone into mod overload instead of KISS design.
Second thing to know, my UDSs only cost $30.00 each to build INITIALLY. It was a pretty scrounge heavy build but, I'll point out the scrounge parts.
1. Scored a food grade oil drum, it wasn't nasty so, I didn't burn it out but, it was a non-returnable so, the lid had to be ground off.
2. I then drilled a 1" hole for a piece of black pipe to be welded to. (I later on ended up drilling two more holes and having more pipe welded in for better air flow.)
3. Next came the fire basket. It is constructed from a grill grate (extra laying around), expanded steal (leftover from another cooker mod), and channel steal (leftover from another project as well). The entire thing is welded.
4. A hole was then drilled for a screw on thermometer that I bought. Realized that an oven thermometer would probably be required as well but, wanted something to give a good ballpark temp.
5. Angle iron pieces (made from more leftovers) were welded in for two shelves. One for primary cooking grate and a lower one for a drip pan or other cooking area.
6. The ash pan, I picked up from a feed store, wasn't attached to my fire basket because I was worried I wouldn't be able to dump it. (I like this and hate this. works good but, is a pain to clean out right now.)
7. Putting it all together, dropped in ash pan and fire basket, followed by my two racks (both scrounges from thrown away webers).
8. For the ball valve, I went with a PVC one due to it being 1/3 of the price of a metal one and being it was away from the drum wall I wasn't worried about it conducting any heat.
9. Since I had removed the top of the barrel, it was a good thing I also had some kettle lids hanging around. Of course the classic bend out and forming was required but, it works pretty well.
10. Here it was in all of it's initial glory on it's very first run.
Just the way it was, it worked great except, I could not get temps higher than 250 w/out cracking the lid. So I decided it needed to have a couple more holes drilled in for vents on the bottom (like I mentioned before). My wife also decided that I should dress them up a bit with a paint job, here it is after paint with the two more intakes installed.
Cost list for this UDS build (NOT INCLUDING PAINT because, that was truly optional).
Barrel $8
Pipe and caps $6
PVC Ball valve $6
Screw on thermometer $6
Ash pan $4
Total $30
Everything else was scrounged and welding meant that there were no screws or other hardware that needed to be purchased.
First thing to know, I built mine a week before finding The Brethren. I had glimpsed on one quick pic of one and built it based off of my thoughts and how it would work best. All I could recall from the pic was that a ball valve was used and a fire basket to hold the coals w/ an ash pan and that it would be able to use 22.5 grates. From that I just ran went with what made sense to me. Imagine my surprise when I found the brethren and found out how close mine was to everyone else's. After seeing all the mods I am simply amazed and kind of glad I built mine before seeing all of them, otherwise I think I would have gone into mod overload instead of KISS design.
Second thing to know, my UDSs only cost $30.00 each to build INITIALLY. It was a pretty scrounge heavy build but, I'll point out the scrounge parts.
1. Scored a food grade oil drum, it wasn't nasty so, I didn't burn it out but, it was a non-returnable so, the lid had to be ground off.
2. I then drilled a 1" hole for a piece of black pipe to be welded to. (I later on ended up drilling two more holes and having more pipe welded in for better air flow.)
3. Next came the fire basket. It is constructed from a grill grate (extra laying around), expanded steal (leftover from another cooker mod), and channel steal (leftover from another project as well). The entire thing is welded.
4. A hole was then drilled for a screw on thermometer that I bought. Realized that an oven thermometer would probably be required as well but, wanted something to give a good ballpark temp.
5. Angle iron pieces (made from more leftovers) were welded in for two shelves. One for primary cooking grate and a lower one for a drip pan or other cooking area.
6. The ash pan, I picked up from a feed store, wasn't attached to my fire basket because I was worried I wouldn't be able to dump it. (I like this and hate this. works good but, is a pain to clean out right now.)
7. Putting it all together, dropped in ash pan and fire basket, followed by my two racks (both scrounges from thrown away webers).
8. For the ball valve, I went with a PVC one due to it being 1/3 of the price of a metal one and being it was away from the drum wall I wasn't worried about it conducting any heat.
9. Since I had removed the top of the barrel, it was a good thing I also had some kettle lids hanging around. Of course the classic bend out and forming was required but, it works pretty well.
10. Here it was in all of it's initial glory on it's very first run.
Just the way it was, it worked great except, I could not get temps higher than 250 w/out cracking the lid. So I decided it needed to have a couple more holes drilled in for vents on the bottom (like I mentioned before). My wife also decided that I should dress them up a bit with a paint job, here it is after paint with the two more intakes installed.
Cost list for this UDS build (NOT INCLUDING PAINT because, that was truly optional).
Barrel $8
Pipe and caps $6
PVC Ball valve $6
Screw on thermometer $6
Ash pan $4
Total $30
Everything else was scrounged and welding meant that there were no screws or other hardware that needed to be purchased.
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Actually my FIL is the welder. He's been doing it for years. Said it was tough at some points but just had to fill in. Here he is welding up the basket.
