BBQ Central "Official" UDS Thread

[Nick2]

I am not sure I have the authority to create anything "official," but here we go. This thread is meant to be a think tank of all the UDS knowledge members wish to throw together. This would probably be a good place to post questions about the UDS, build pics, and plans or links to plans. Initially some of this may be reposting the old info to get it consolidated, apologies.

If someone has a problem with this let me know and I will change it.

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Now onto the fun part- My build pics/plans will be comming up soon, although I don't now know if I will have time to finish this weekend.

What I have learned so far is how to recondition a drum and purchase one- the rules are as follows:

1) buy food grade drums, 55 gallon or bigger, steel only - be willing to spend $10-15 for a used lined drum.
2) buy reconditioned, unlined if possible (slightly more expensive)
3) craigslist and local warehouse type places are best to find these (cheaper) - ask what was in it when you call.

to recondition a drum with a liner-
1) pay to have it sandblasted if you can afford it (my quotes were well over the $30 people suggested I pay here)
2) you can burn it out with a weed burner (glowing red hot to burn liner out), the grind with angle grinder or wire brush on drill. Wash Drum. Make sure you paint/"season"(bake on oil) soon after exposing bare metal to prevent rust.

More updates to come. Thanks to everyone who answered my questions so far (I am sure there will be more to come). If I can help anyone with part of their progress to redneck smoker godhood...just ask.

 

[Tri Tip]

Your da man Nick. Thanks for starten it. In the future type in UDS in a search and it'll pull up this thread. We needed it. I'll post all my UDS cooks in here and if it's posted under another topic and involves my UDS i'll post the link. Thanks again.
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=20543

 

[Nick2]

I have a few intake ideas I wanted to shoot you guys' way. I think I saw these elsewhere, but am not sure how they did it:

Idea 1) After installig ball value, remove hand & install tubing from the nut where the handle attaches and extend the handle to the top of the drum for ease of use.

Idea 2) Use flaps over the hole instead of a pipe nipple&ball valve and attach a metal dowel as a long handle from the flap to the top of the the drum.

Any ideas if these would work? I dont want to extend the pipe itself, just the handles.

Issue: I have read a lot about calculating the amount of exhaust venting required. I think it I saw max intake=make exhaust, but I am not sure. Will the vent on the weber lid be good enough to vent the 4 3/4 pipe nipples going on the drum? I guess the only time it would really matter is if I have a lot of it open for chicken.

Issue: Suggested space between two stationary grates? should there be 6 inch clearance here?

Issue: I have specs for a firebox from pickledpig. Does the ash pan need legs to sit like 1/2 to 1 inch from the bottom of the drum? The fire basket is already 2 1/2 inches from the ash pan itself and I plan to use something really thick and get all welds.

 

[spott77]

I have a few intake ideas I wanted to shoot you guys' way. I think I saw these elsewhere, but am not sure how they did it:

Idea 1) After installig ball value, remove hand & install tubing from the nut where the handle attaches and extend the handle to the top of the drum for ease of use.

Idea 2) Use flaps over the hole instead of a pipe nipple&ball valve and attach a metal dowel as a long handle from the flap to the top of the the drum.

Any ideas if these would work? I dont want to extend the pipe itself, just the handles.

Issue: I have read a lot about calculating the amount of exhaust venting required. I think it I saw max intake=make exhaust, but I am not sure. Will the vent on the weber lid be good enough to vent the 4 3/4 pipe nipples going on the drum? I guess the only time it would really matter is if I have a lot of it open for chicken.

Issue: Suggested space between two stationary grates? should there be 6 inch clearance here?

Issue: I have specs for a firebox from pickledpig. Does the ash pan need legs to sit like 1/2 to 1 inch from the bottom of the drum? The fire basket is already 2 1/2 inches from the ash pan itself and I plan to use something really thick and get all welds.

The tube is just a long metal rod threaded on both ends to extend the handle. I just bought a 2 buck elbow and a 3 buck 18' pipe ad moved the ball valve up that way.
Not sure what you are talking about with idea 2 (got pics?)
the Weber is enough I only put 3 3/4in holes for intakes I've found i can run with caps on 2 and just the ball valve open to hold temp. The only problem i've had is when you take the lid off you can have a spike my first cook I could never recover it cruised at about 350 the rest of the day. Second cook i payed more attention adn was more careful when opening her up and she ran for 12 hours @ 230-255 and only used about 8# of kingsford blue.

My barrels were too short for a second grate so I just put one in @ 24" from the bottom of the fire basket.

I used a ~15x15 grill grate out of a smokey mountain charcoal smoker and just wrapped a 12inch sheet of expanded around it. had the grate welded 3in up from the bottom. I just sit that directly on the bottom I'm not really worried about an ash pan (shop vac mod works well getting the ash out of there). I think you'll be ok leaving the ash pan on the bottom.
I'll try to take some more pics of mine. I didn't take construction pics because it was so typical a build.

 

[Tri Tip]

They are affectionately known as the “Fat Man Valve”.

 

[Koopdaddy]

Ordered my drum today!

 

[Tri Tip]

Ordered my drum today!

Excellent. Just in case you hadn't seen this......

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=20543

 

[Nick2]

Is your ordered drum really stainless? Because yours will immediately be far more fancy a drum than the rest of us! Congrats!

I thought I would post all the tools I needed so far:

Gloves
Weed Burner (if burning out-best charcoal lighter ever now that Im done burning)
Propane tank (see above)
Step Bit that goes up to 1"/1" hole saw
Power Drill that doesnt suck
wire brush bits/course sanding bits

optional:
angle grinder
welder (or at least a friend with one)

This probably looks dumb, but I didnt have some of this to start with as my wife and I have been married for less than a year and I was a care free college guy a while back.

So far I have spent:
$12 Drum
$30 2 22" Grates
$50 weed burner
$15 propane
$44 step bit
$20 bolts, nuts, pipes, and ball valve
free weber lid
---------------
$171 and all I am missing is the fire grate

paint and penut oil was free from dad cause I bought his drum.

if I were to do it again now that I had the tools it would only be like $77...for a smoke with the same capacity as a $400 WSM. I also imagine it would take me less than the 5 hours it took to burn out. I anticipate about 8 hours total to put this together, which makes this a saturday project.

 

[Tri Tip]

$12 Drum
$30 2 22" Grates
$50 weed burner
$15 propane
$44 step bit
$20 bolts, nuts, pipes, and ball valve

The look on the wife's face when she sees a public park's trash can smoking in the back yard,,,,, PRICELESS!

 

[Koopdaddy]

I may have missed it, but what do you coat the inside of your barrel with? The one I am getting is unlined and just has the rust inhibitor on it. I am guessing I need to do a pre-burn and then re-coat it with something?

 

[Nick2]

I did mine with Penut oil and then lightly applied heat to my unpainted outside to bake it in

 

[Tri Tip]

I may have missed it, but what do you coat the inside of your barrel with? The one I am getting is unlined and just has the rust inhibitor on it. I am guessing I need to do a pre-burn and then re-coat it with something?

My buddy got the same drum from Uline. Don't burn it you'll bubble the outer paint. The oil that comes in the drum is petroleum based.
You can wash it with some heavy duty degreaser once it's built. Then rub it with Lard and do an overnight cook without food. Put a lot of hickory in there too. The more seasoned it is (caked with goo) the better the temps it will hold. A shiny new drum radiates heat and cooks hot. I have never cleand mine. I just brush out the flakey carbon once in a while.

There are two best methods in my opinion and you are doing one.

1. Buy a new drum without a lining $150. with shipping.
2. Buy a used drum for $15 and have it sand blasted and powder coated for $130

My teammate with the Uline new drum has to fight rust.
My teammate with the powder coated drum leaves it in the rain all winter and not a spec of rust!

 

[Nick2]

Did the next phase of mine over the weekend. We got the grates installed on mine and dads. Dad is kinda playing this by ear...so his will be way different from the norm. He is installing 3 grates, each 6 inches apart. the rack holding the bottom grate is going to hold his waterpan (he wont let go of this concept). this makes his specs-

------------------- top of drum (33.5" from bottom, 30" from bottom of charcoal grate)
-_______________- rack #1 (1" below top, 29" from bottom of charcoal grate)

-_______________- rack #2 (7" below top, 6" clearance from grate 1, 23" from bottom of charcoal grate)

-_______________- rack #3 (13" below top, 6" clearance from grate 2, 17" from bottom of charcoal grate...will hold grate + water pan

charcoal grate will have 1" legs under ashpan, 2.5" clearance from ashpan to basket, 9" basket.


mine was pretty standard with first grate as close to top as I could get and next one like 6.5" down from first. We both have dome lids.

For future reference, the step bit works, but you should probably use a drill with a cord instead of a battery. Also, 1/4" x 1 1/2" bolts for the inside grates are the perfect size. Mine were 2" and I had to cut them with a hacksaw(also fun), dads were 1" and they work but are very scary. Measure twice, drill once...we somehow managed not to drill in the wrong place. To get the intakes working correctly, you dont actually have to have washers and conduit nuts. Ours threaded in cleanly and tightly after checking relgiously to see if we had taken the hole large enough with the step bit. It was a pain to get those the right size, and I used a rag and a pair of channel locks to screw em in...but they arent going anywhere and are not warped. Air tight. Sorry I didnt get better picks, but I was getting ready to be done. The formula for equal spacing is:

pi (3.14)xdiameter of drum...this gives circumference (the distance around the drum).

circumference/#of intakes or bolts for your grate=space between.

 

[Tri Tip]

In the future don't mention the water pan. The whole purpose of the UDS is how it cooks without a water pan! Cook 2 shoulders witout the pan. Open the lid half way throught the cook and notice the puddle in the bottom and the water built up on the walls. Should have just baught a WSM!

 

[Nick2]

Yeah, I didn't say I would do it that way...but dad's is.

 

[Koopdaddy]

Look what showed up on my doorstep today....

My wife asked me if I had any plans this week, now I have my answer.

 

[Koopdaddy]

What fuel do you use for your first burns in order to get it hot enough to burn off the inside of the barrel?

 

[Koopdaddy]

So tonight I finished drilling the holes and got a good fire going....was a beautiful sight seeing the flames!

 

[Nick2]

Looks good! I just won the biggest loser contest at work. So I think I may have enough cash to get the firepan fabricated!!!!!!!!

 

[Nick2]

Questions on creating the fire pan:

I thought I saw something about using parts from a $10 grill from walgreens to make a firepan. Anyone know anything about this. Here is the tenative plan-

Buy grill, remove legs and any lid that may come with it. Go to lowes and grab expanded steel small sheet. Bolt sheet together and place on cheapo grill...not sturdy, but will probly work.

I hate to do this to my otherwise good build of the UDS, but a welder has not been forthcomming.