AZ Barbeque.com
Smokers, Grills, Pitts & More => BDS & UDS Smokers => Topic started by: Crashs Wife on March 22, 2011, 10:53:23 am
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Crash bought me a gift......2 55 gallon drums!!!! Now he tells me I need to figure out how to build it!!! Figures!! So start posting pictures here and at HIBarbeque.com on the best and easiest and cheapest way for me to build my first UDS!!! I can't wait!! I got here in Hawaii with 5 smokers.... after 5 months we know own 9??? How does that happen!!!
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Since it was his idea for you to figure how to build I would start with another Stoker and two sets of probes as you will want them delivered before your first cook. Just thinking ahead! ;)
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And I can personally deliver them for a fee... ;D
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Since it was his idea for you to figure how to build I would start with a Guru and two sets of probes as you will want them delivered before your first cook. Just thinking ahead! ;)
We roll with a Stoker. Guru's are so 2005. :D
Why do have a feeling that Tim with BBQ Bullies will be chiming in on this one?
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years ago. before they got really popular we built one for my dad. Since he didn't have access to a welder, we used stainless hardware to secure the brackets for the grates. We bought flat stock and bent it in a bench vise with a little heat from a torch and a hand sledge. drilled two holes in the leg that attaches to the side of the drum to keep them from spinning. cut internal washers out of header gasket using shears and put wing nuts with lock washers on the outside so we could tighten them from the outside. drilled out holes at the bottom and on the lid then used metal pop in plugs to fill them. we put a eye bolt thru the middle of each so you had a handle to push them in and pull them out.
little bit of foil around the top to fix the crappy seal and we were ready to go. Did the whole thing in one day, burned in the next and cooked the day after that. Can't remember what we spent but I know it was less than $100.
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I drilled 4 vent holes in the bottom, 1/2 inch. I could've gone w/3@3/4", I think. Many put 8 holes around the edge of the top, within inches of the edge. I clustered 'em together, so I can cover all at once. Bolted a 4 foot by 10" piece of #9 X 3/4" expanded metal into a circle with stainless, bolted to a Weber charcoal grate and a pizza pan with long stainless J hooks. 4 bolts about an inch and a half long to drop the cooking grate onto. Done. I plug the vent holes with magnetic steel balls I got at a gas station for 3/99 cent or something. And it works well. Best ribs I've cooked in a long time tonight!
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Here's how I do it, I have 12 out there working away, (well 11 really #1 sucked and I cannibalized it for parts) 9 x 55 gallon, 1 dead 55 gallon, 2 x 85 gallon!
Shopping list
1 x open top 55 gallon drum, (if it has a colored liner once you have the holes drilled, burn the heck out of the barrel, use cardboard or cardboard and wood, get the whole thing as hot as you can, or you can use a weed burner, nasty fumes DON't breath them), better to find unlined food grade drums if you can.
Use the charcoal grate out of a Weber kettle, 17.5" diameter, wrapped in 60" x 10" of #9 expanded metal.
3 x 1/2" x 1.75" stainless nuts bolts and washers.
3 x 1 1/2" U bolts, with plates and nuts, (Don't use Nyloc nuts, use standard nuts, I use galvanized U bolts and weed burner the heck out of them... WARNING don't breath the vapors though).
3 x 15 Oz Tomato sauce cans, topped and tailed.
2 x 22.5" grill grates.
3 x Cheap metal handles from Lowe's or Home Depot.
1 x Turkey fryer thermometer (WalMart $5.00).
Fridge magnets or 1" round rare earth magnets, Lowe's or Home Depot.
Tools
Tape measure.
1 x 1/8" drill bit.
1 x 1/2" drill bit.
1 x 3/4" step drill bit.
1 x electric drill.
1 x sharpie.
Wrenches to match the nuts & bolts
1 pair heavy work gloves
Weed burner.
Build instructions
Turn drum upside down, measure 2.5" down from the bottom lip.
I like 6 evenly spaced holes, some like 3 some like 4, pick what you like, as once you have it running at temperature you will mostly only be controlling it with 1 hole. I like the 6 holes for a couple of reasons, 1) symmetry the 6 holes works well with the 3 grate supports. 2) You can alter the choice of hole to use in blustery or windy days. 3) You regulate the intake on the side away form the wind, with 6 holes, I twice as much choice as with 3 holes.
Drill the pilot hole with the 1/8" drill bit, then run them out to 3/4" with the step drill, (I find the 1/2" holes a little small to control the pit with only one hole, and you don't need to go as big as an inch).
Eyeball the position 180
Don't know where the rest went, so here's a link to the full version http://www.thesmokering.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=49419
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And SoEzzy gets bitten by the apostrophe bug. I kept editing, replacing apostrophes and quotes, until the whole message comes thru. And weird punctuation mark, a fraction, a degree thingie, etc. will dump the rest of the text out into the nowhere...Good luck!
I measured 180 across, eyeballed the 90 degrees between...or I figured out the length of a chord 1/4 of the 24 inch circle...or 24 inch diameter times pi divided by 4, you can measure around the lip...I do that crap for fun, cuz I know how. I enjoyed geometry and trig...
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This was my build...all hand tools until I decided to make custom Weber lid, then I had to braze ring to lid. Only did that to get more room inside for two grates as far from firebox as possible.... The paint cost me more than any other single item, scrounged for all the rest...
http://www.azbarbeque.com/forums/bds-and-uds-smokers/uds-build-first-attempt/
Quiggs
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We did it!! Still isn't painted but first burn done and have two pork butts cooking as we speak. More pictures to come.
(http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m497/hibarbeque/20110417173334.jpg)
(http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m497/hibarbeque/20110417172929.jpg)
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nice. ya'll have the chance to use that Hawaiian wood yet?
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nice. ya'll have the chance to use that Hawaiian wood yet?
Kiawe?? Nope, we're sticking with Apple and Cherry from Colorado.
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Kiawe is just laid back mesquite. It lives in the islands, fer pete's sake.
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I personally think Mesquite sucks for smoking......same for Kiawe.
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Yeah, what he said.
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I personally think Mesquite sucks for smoking......same for Kiawe.
Crash, I hope you buy ALL your pork products in Honolulu for that, AND take them home on the Pali highway! :D
(Guys, a mean menehune will get you if you take pork over the Pali.)
On a different note, I remember seeing big massive Huli-huli chicken roasts taking place, advertising "kiave" cooked chicken, and seeing the BIG stack of MEXICAN 40 pound bags of mesquite chunk charcoal. (Same kind I have a big stack of, incedentally.)
Crash, if you haven't cut up the second drum, look at my brother Sterling's (Skouson here) posts, for his directions to set up a real UDS. Also, look for a weber kettle as a donor rig, on CL or wherever you can find a semi-rusted one.
With the weber-based UDS, you effectively get another 10 inches in height. The Weber lid will (almost) fit a regular 55 gal drum. You can easily run 2 cooking grates. And, with the patented "fatboy" mod, you don't need to bend way down to adjust the heat.
steve
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Crash, I hope you buy ALL your pork products in Honolulu for that, AND take them home on the Pali highway! :D
(Guys, a mean menehune will get you if you take pork over the Pali.)
On a different note, I remember seeing big massive Huli-huli chicken roasts taking place, advertising "kiave" cooked chicken, and seeing the BIG stack of MEXICAN 40 pound bags of mesquite chunk charcoal. (Same kind I have a big stack of, incedentally.)
Crash, if you haven't cut up the second drum, look at my brother Sterling's (Skouson here) posts, for his directions to set up a real UDS. Also, look for a weber kettle as a donor rig, on CL or wherever you can find a semi-rusted one.
With the weber-based UDS, you effectively get another 10 inches in height. The Weber lid will (almost) fit a regular 55 gal drum. You can easily run 2 cooking grates. And, with the patented "fatboy" mod, you don't need to bend way down to adjust the heat.
steve
That's the old Pali HWY....the new one is fine to travel over with pork. Still, I try to get over the Pali as fast as possible and I don't mess with that crap at night. I'd like to keep Pele and her ex BF as far away from me as possible.
Thanks for the tip on the UDS, I'll check it out.
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Crash, if you haven't cut up the second drum, look at my brother Sterling's (Skouson here) posts, for his directions to set up a real UDS.
Umm... Although I really like my UDS builds, the original ideas were not mine, and I make no claim they are the way to make a "real UDS". It's just what works for us. (Especially the fatman mod.)
Skouson