UDS build

[bstomper]

Well got the mini seasoning and I am happy so far. I installed 3 half inch intakes and am using the stock lid exhaust which consists of 4 half inch holes. With everything wide open I it 375* in -16c outside temps. I'm happy with that. Looks like it was a successful build.
Will be painting the 4 full size ones tomorrow night with a seasonings of them the next day

 

[bstomper]

Been seasoning for 3 hours now at around 350ish so I decided to help it out with a little extra. Split up some diamond willow chunks and threw some chops on with a bit of cavenders spice.

 

[mchar69]

OH YEAH! Those chops are probably gone by now! Nice builds.
As far as WIND and that hinged lid, gotta watch it. Could blow over.

 

[Happy Hapgood]

Very nice builds all the way around! Thanks for posting.

 

[bstomper]

The end result. I pretty much grilled them hot and fast instead of a slow smoke but I am impressed with this little guy none the less. It is so easy to use that I will be using it lots for smaller cook. Been going for 3.5 hours now at 350 with half of a basket of charcoal left. On a low temp smoke I'm sure I could get 6-8 hours easy.

 

[THoey1963]

Looks great! And the UDS's aren't bad either...

 

[bstomper]

OH YEAH! Those chops are probably gone by now! Nice builds.
As far as WIND and that hinged lid, gotta watch it. Could blow over.

Yep should have been 12 instead of 6. Good point about the lid but I should be ok as I like in a very sheltered area

With 2 ball valves open it hold steady at 305

 

[bstomper]

Haven't had much time to work on the smokers but I got one of the ones I was building done and delivered to it's owner. Mine is still waiting for paint and my buddy has been having some issues with the function of his intake slides.
Here is the drums with slides in question. When they were installed for the initial fit up they worked perfect. slid real easy and looked nice and clean on the barrel. They were riveted on and then removed for the painting of the barrel. After paint they were riveted on again and for what ever reason we could not stop them from binding. We got the one close but he was not 100% happy so we removed them and he is building intakes like I have on my barrel. I think that the edges of the stationary peice had gotten pinched too tight with the second riveting because we used an air riveter and it sucks the rivets in real tight. Don't really know, but it doesn't matter as they are garbage now. . So thats where we sit with the smokers right now.


Here is the only done smoker and i delivered it to the customer yesterday. He was super happy. I must admit I was impressed with it myself.

 

[ebijack]

With the long radius you have with the slider, it doesn't take much at all to stop it from working correctly. Looks like you were using pop rivets before going to the solid rivets. Definite difference in tension. Also were all holes deburred? Did you radius the front edge of the slider? A sharp edge will stop that sucker from sliding. You could add a thin aluminum shim plate between the holed plate on the drum and the outside cover ( not around the holes) to give added gap/slide space that should not leak air. Just an idea.

 

[bstomper]

Yeah we tried the shim idea but it still wasn't perfect. Everything was deburred also. I agree that it is a long slide though. Oh well we scrapped that idea anyway.

 

[Deltaboy]

Cool Build.

 

[bstomper]

Well I finaly got mine done and seasoned it today. I'm quite happy with it so far. The lid fits the drum perfect but the exhaust doesn't close up tight. Wonder if that will cause a problem with shutting it down. With all the vents wide open it hit 550F in -24C (-11F)temperatures. I wanted the higher temp so that I could cook pizza. I don't think I should have a problem with that, especialy in the summer. I used rustoleum engine paint that is good to 2000* and cured it the best I could according to the instructions but I am still disappointed in it. I can scrape it off with my finger nail. Not sure what I have to do to get paint to stick. I'm going to do a cook this weekend to see how well the intake will control the heat, hopefully it works well. I just realized that I don't have any pictures of the finished product but I do have some to prove my temps.

 

[ttix]

Nice! Keep the photos and results coming!

This please!

 

[ebijack]

I haven't found an imperfect sealing exhaust affects putting out the coals. I'd bet your fine there.

 

[bstomper]

Well I had some time cooking on this thing and I am not as happy with the intake as I thought I would be. It is a pain to use. The operation is easy but it's hard to control the temps. With my old UDS I could leave the exhaust wide open and control everything easily with the ball valves. Not the case with the slide action. I could shut everything down on my old one and it would be cool to the touch in about 15-20 minutes. This one takes about an hour the drop temperature and is still warm and that's at -25c. Gets a bit tough on the charcoal use. I guess it will need some getting used to. You just can't beat the simplicity and function if the ball valves. Function over looks