Well, bought the drum in May, finally got a couple days to work on it in October. Better late than never I guess. Used to have a old charcoal box, rotted that out, now I have a masterbuilt electric that I love for convenience and the fact I can smoke in frigid temperatures but have wanted to get back to charcoal/wood for some time. Really want a nice offset smoker from Lang or one of the other fine manufacturers out there but this is going to have to do for the time being. Everything I've read on UDS smokers seems fantastic, people love em, they are cheap to make and I've heard they turn out some mighty fine Q. Will probably get to season it tomorrow and hopefully do my first cook in it this weekend. I still have some finishing touches to do but it's mostly complete. I don't have a welder and instead of asking to borrow a friends I just bolted the charcoal basket together. Anyone wanna enlighten me about exhaust port size? I've heard you want about double your intake size, anyone? I've got 4 3/4 inch intakes. Probably will never have to use all of them at once but figured why not. Three of them are capped and one has a ball valve on it for fine tuning. Open to any and all suggestions or comments. I know the color is quite bright but pigs are pink and I cook pigs in the smoker! Plus I have one finishing touch that should really set off the pink, just waiting for the man in brown. So here's some pics. Don't mind the pink on the inside, was spraying in 25 mph winds. Who else has a UDS?
i am learning more about smokers so, i will be following this build with interest, thanks for posting.
Have the flat lid that came with the drum which will be good for ribs and smaller cuts. I still have to figure out the exhaust situation. I have a Weber charcoal lid from my grill but it doesn't fit tight. I guess you have to massage it with a BFH to get it to fit righ, I'd rather not do that as I want it to fit on my grill still. Gonna look for cheap one on Craigslist or maybe out to the curb on big garbage day. UDS is fun to make, I took a little of everything I saw and read and then put together what I thought would be best. No right or wrong way. Hope I can get it dialed in and it cooks well. I'll post a pic of the lid later for ya.
looks good so far.....mine has three 3/4 intakes after its up to temp i can run it on one(without the blower).as far as the exhaust 2-1/2 exhaust pipe will be plenty
Awesome. That thing looks serious. I appreciate the advice. I'll start with the 2/1/2 in the barrel lid. If I get a Weber one the standard exhaust should be good, right? How did you make that one fit more air tight? I put mine on and it's a little small still.
yes standard weber exhaust is fine.....the drums im using are russian so they are 22-1/4"OD so a weber or other brand top fits perfect.....a domestic barrel is 22-7/8 or so heres a pic,i used flat wood stove gasket for the lid......its critical that everything is sealed!!!!!!!!! not for smoke,but for safety and efficiency!!!!!! DO NOT FORGET THIS!!! even the small like 3/16" holes for yer temp probes are enough to keep it smoldering for days. i dont see a heat deflector in your pics......you need one!!!!!or else..... also youll be fine with a flat top,just put your first grate down in the drum farther so you can do beer can chickens.
I copied the pit barrel & I put a weber lid on it. I like the rebar for hanging meat on. That way I have 2 grills plus a hanging rack ! I've run 24 hrs on half bag of charcoal. works good. I also made a fire deflecter to keep direct heat down.
I bought a second pizza tin to use as a deflector. That should work, right? Just place it on top of the coal basket? Drill a bunch of small holes in it?
i wouldnt drill any holes in it,if grease drips in the fire it makes a nasty smoke that taints the food especially pork grease and burnt spices. my deflectors are cut from 11ga steel(i have a template,i build a bunch of these) it is about 3" above the basket. you want the grease to vaporize on the deflector or run off to the sides,not in the fire.
Love my UDS! A friend and I built two of them several years ago and they've been Rick solid. Very efficient smokers and capable of long steady cooks.
One intake is typically your control. The other two I usually leave open and I make adjustments with the ball valve. It's extended up for no other reason than I'm lazy and didn't want to bend over...
I thought of doing that also. We'll see how it works out bending over to make adjustments. I still like to think of myself as young and in shape, not that you aren't!! Haven't had a chance to get mine fired up yet. Headed to camp tomorrow and rolled a couple fattys to smoke but gonna have to use electric masterbuilt. Good looking UDS's guys.
You never have to adjust it much anyway. I've done 18 hour briskets without much adjustment at all. If I did another I'd make it as simple as possible.
So I ran the UDS for about 5 hours today, it's actually still going. Just wanted to get a coat of seasoning on her and play around with the temperature control a bit before I put some meat on it. It's actually still running, gonna go check in a bit. I drilled 2 1/3/8" holes for the exhaust which is the biggest my step bit went. I filled the basket a little more than half with briquettes and chunked apple. Lit about 20 briquettes in my chimney and dumped it in the middle when they were ashed over, put the lid on. Had the ball valve wide open and one more 3/4" vent open. After 35 minutes I was at 244. Closed the ball valve about 1/4 and at 55 minutes I was still at 244. Left it there till 1:13 where my temp was at 248 at that point I capped the 3/4 valve and opened the ball valve fully. It was around that point the the wifey came out and wanted to see what I was working on out in the garage the last couple months. So, I took the lid off to show her how it worked and once I put it back together she spiked at 272. After that it seemed like I couldn't get it much lower than 250 unless I really shut down the intake which seemed to stifle the coals, and hit a low of 225. I usually cook most things around 230. I'm sure I just need to play with it more to get it dialed in. There was some condensation built up on the lid when I took it apart along with some in the bottom. Exhaust too small? Was about 45 out today with 15-25 mph winds.
