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UDS Build

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lecheminant

  • Karma: 1
Well I took the plunge and decided to make a UDS.  Unfortunately I only have after pictures.  I wish I took some before.  I did a bit of research trying to find out how I should make the UDS, and found a how-to on another forum and more or less followed it.

The hardest part was finding the drum.  I knew a place that would give me one for free, but it would not be food grade and they were a little beat up.  So I broke down and bought an open topped drum with a lid for $20 that was once used for honey.

I fired the drum last Friday using wood that I found from a construction site dumpster.  That was fun.  After that the liner and paint brushed off pretty easy with a wire brush attachment I have for my drill. 

I am using 4 - 3/4 inch holes at the bottom.  Three have plugs and the other has a valve.  I originally planned on cannibalizing an old weber grill that I had for the grate and lid.  But the lid was slightly too small.  I ended up using a hammer to flatten out the lip of the lid and then put the lid on the drum and hammered the flattened lip around the lip of the drum.  It now fits, but it isn't the prettiest thing in the world.  The porcelain coating was chipping off like crazy, so if you try this be careful.  Some porcelain cut my hand and some got in my eye. 

I also made a lid using the drum lid.  I plan on using the drum lid most of the time and using the weber lid when I am doing something big like a turkey.  Plus eventually I would like to add a second grate or maybe a rotisseie and I would want the weber lid for that.

After that, I drilled the holes, painted it with automotive enamel spray paint, and assembled it. 

I still need to make the fire box.  I have a friend that is going to help me weld something together (hopefully this weekend).  Does anyone have any recommendations for the size?  I was planning on doing 16" diameter and 9" tall and sitting 3 or 4 inches off the bottom.  Also I was thinking about attaching some kind of tray to catch the ashes, but is that overkill?

I was thinking about attaching castors to the bottom of the drum.  Will they melt? How annoying would the castor's bolts be while cleaning it (especially if I don't use a tray to catch the ashes)?

Are there any other recommendations?



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#1 - February 17, 2010, 09:09:57 am
Gabe LeCheminant
Team: Cloud of Smoke
Smokers: Backwoods Party, ProQ Excel, and UDS

Skouson

  • Karma: 0
I'd pass on the casters on the bottom of the drum.  Any holes you poke in the bottom will lead to leaks all over your patio.  This is a huge no-no with the missus's.

For a quick and dirty charcoal basket, go to the closet organizer section at Home Depot and look for this:

I found this hint for the basket on another forum and think it is a great idea.

Sterling Skouson

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#2 - February 17, 2010, 04:40:06 pm
Green Weber One-touch Platinum 22.5"
Green Weber One-touch Gold
Black Weber Silver Kettle 22.5"
Red Weber One-Touch Silver 22.5" (The Redhead)
Black Weber Silver 22.5" converted to a gasser pizza oven, on wheels
Weber 1970's vintage Bar-B-Kettle, converted to a rotisserie cooker
Twin UDS: Blue

lecheminant

  • Karma: 1
Thanks for the heads up on the casters.  I was wondering why I never saw pictures of any with casters attached directly to the drum.  My wife wouldn't be happy about bbq drippings leaking onto the patio either.  Also, thanks for the hint about the closet organizer.  I had my mind set on welding a basket, but it is hard to argue how easy the closet organizer looks.  I don't know what I am going to do now.

I attached a picture of my UDS with the Weber lid and a close up of the lip of the lid where I bent it.  It doesn't look as bad now, because I painted it.


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#3 - February 17, 2010, 06:07:43 pm
Gabe LeCheminant
Team: Cloud of Smoke
Smokers: Backwoods Party, ProQ Excel, and UDS

chefrob

  • Karma: 2
nice build.....for the charcoal basket you can use expanded metal and a pizza pan for an ash catcher, i'll look for some pics.
#4 - February 17, 2010, 11:36:06 pm

chefrob

  • Karma: 2
here are some different ones..........











i like this one best but you get the idea...............
#5 - February 17, 2010, 11:51:35 pm
« Last Edit: February 18, 2010, 12:09:41 am by chefrob »

azkitch

  • Karma: 9
That last one is basically what I did, only that looks a little cleaner...I could only get a 14" pizza pan that had a lip, so that's the size of my coal basket. It's way plenty big. I cooked for 12 hours at 240, fire was about out, pulled basket out of smoker, let it re ignite, cooked another 6 hours. Still had 1/3 of a load available. I was staggered!!

 
The grate is a Weber charcoal grate, available at Home Depot. Basket is bolted into a circle w/1/4" stainless hardware, J bolts thru the bottom of the pizza pan, j part holding the basket down onto the grate, all separated by washers. Nearly all the hardware is SS, but I didn't find stainless J bolts. I figgered baptism by fire was likely good enough. And it's all proven to be very durable. I've used this thing a bunch. So much so, that I'm considering letting someone adopt Eileen, the Brinkmann S n P.
#6 - February 18, 2010, 07:39:55 am
« Last Edit: February 18, 2010, 07:44:37 am by azkitch »
CBJ # 53779
For cooking, lower and slower. For spices, mo' hotter, mo' better. Habaneros rule!

jim

  • Karma: 0
For the few that have not worked with expanded metal -- it can bite -- rolling it our sauce man let it get away from him and yes the chunk was very big out of his leg ---
#7 - February 18, 2010, 08:23:28 am

toys4dlr

  • Karma: 5
The pizza pan thing is nice, but I am too lazy.  I got a New pooper scooper from Pet Smart and use that to scrape out the ash every once in a while.  Easy, don't have to reach in or really bend over.

Told you Im lazy
#8 - February 18, 2010, 09:02:53 am
Toys 4 BBQ'N
Competition BBQ Team - Anthem, Arizona

Comfort is King with our team

Q-TO-U-BBQ, Anthem AZ
North Valley Magazine's Reader's Choice Best BBQ for 2010 and 2011

azkitch

  • Karma: 9
For the few that have not worked with expanded metal -- it can bite -- rolling it our sauce man let it get away from him and yes the chunk was very big out of his leg ---

This too, is true. Nasty sharp little corners. And lots of 'em.
#9 - February 18, 2010, 10:41:02 am
CBJ # 53779
For cooking, lower and slower. For spices, mo' hotter, mo' better. Habaneros rule!

RangerJurena

  • Karma: 0
The pizza pan thing is nice, but I am too lazy.  I got a New pooper scooper from Pet Smart and use that to scrape out the ash every once in a while.  Easy, don't have to reach in or really bend over.

Told you Im lazy

Ditto....
#10 - February 19, 2010, 07:34:38 pm
2 Award Winning UDS's
Pappa Charlies Barbeque

lecheminant

  • Karma: 1
Thanks for all the fire basket sugestions.  I used some of those ideas and put my own twist on it.  Originally I was going to have someone help me weld one, but that wouldn't happen for another week or two.  I don't have enough patience.  So I attached some pictures.  I used a replacement charcoal grate for an 18.5" weber.  It is about 13.5" diameter.  I then wrapped it with expanded metal.  The metal created a 14" diameter.  I bought some angle brackets and the attached them to the expanded metal.  The charcoal grate sits on them.  In hind site, I should have just used bolts for the grate to sit on.  The grate sits 3" off the ground and the expanded metal extends 9" above the grate.  I used a steel rod to create a handle.

I wanted to have an ash pan attached to the basket so that I could easily dump ashes.  But if I permanantly attached it to he basket the expanded metal would keep me from being able to dump it.  So I decided to hinge the pizza pan to the bottom.

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#11 - February 20, 2010, 07:45:51 pm
Gabe LeCheminant
Team: Cloud of Smoke
Smokers: Backwoods Party, ProQ Excel, and UDS

lecheminant

  • Karma: 1
I attached a close up of the hinge and latch.

So today I decided to season and test the UDS.  It worked like a charm.  I was able to easily keep the temperature near 250. Then I got it to 350 and was able to keep it there. Then I went full bore and it got to a little over 400. One thing I found was that after I got it to 400 I couldn't get it back below 350. But I wouldn't normally be going to 400 and back to 250 to cook anything that I can think of.  

Compared to my offset smoker this was easy to use. The offset is very touchy, if you add too much fuel. it goes past 350, not enough it burns out. And when you made any changes the temperature would change immediately. ON the UDS, any changes in temperature happened slowly. Which is a good thing.

Tomorrow I plan on making ribs

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#12 - February 20, 2010, 07:56:51 pm
« Last Edit: February 20, 2010, 07:58:34 pm by lecheminant »
Gabe LeCheminant
Team: Cloud of Smoke
Smokers: Backwoods Party, ProQ Excel, and UDS

azkitch

  • Karma: 9
I attached a close up of the hinge and latch.

So today I decided to season and test the UDS.  It worked like a charm.  I was able to easily keep the temperature near 250. Then I got it to 350 and was able to keep it there. Then I went full bore and it got to a little over 400. One thing I found was that after I got it to 400 I couldn't get it back below 350. But I wouldn't normally be going to 400 and back to 250 to cook anything that I can think of. 

Compared to my offset smoker this was easy to use. The offset is very touchy, if you add too much fuel. it goes past 350, not enough it burns out. And when you made any changes the temperature would change immediately. ON the UDS, any changes in temperature happened slowly. Which is a good thing.

Tomorrow I plan on making ribs
That's a nice touch! I've got my pizza pan attached to the J bolts that hold the XMetal to the charcoal grid, so I just have 2 vessels to dump into--one catches the ash, the other catches the used charcoal. I bought some blue K to use as starter, but after using it a bit, I'm back to "too much ash!"
#13 - February 22, 2010, 09:41:58 am
CBJ # 53779
For cooking, lower and slower. For spices, mo' hotter, mo' better. Habaneros rule!

Spicy Mike

  • Karma: 0
I really like the hinge idea and all the pics by chef rob. It's a basic design idea but you take all the different designs, mash'em together and pull what you want from it and you'll be happy with what you end up with. I'm planning on making a single barrel UDS like I've seen here but I just have to get my drum liner sand blasted and the lid cut off. I've seen a link somewhere that shows the hardware set up for the intake caps and ballvalve, does anyone know where that is and if so, could you post it again?
#14 - March 24, 2010, 07:05:56 am
Salad!?! Salad ain't food, it's what we FEED food!

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