UDS Picts for Nick

[Tri Tip]

Ok I promised Nick I’d post my smoker build. Sorry for the delay been busy. Mine did in fact have that tough Teflon like lining. I burned it out with a weed burner. Had to get the metal to a glow. After that I hit it with a grinder. My teammate tried lighting a fire and no luck. Had it sand blasted and it came out with no work at all. I wouldn’t waste my time with the Weber lid. Most don’t line up and you have to do some major mods. If you want more room build 2.
Exhaust and intake are 1 inch holes (buy a hole driller) they’re $40+ but worth it for clean holes. I drilled 4 around the bottom and 6 on top. Wide open it’ll cook at 450. Two plugs out of the top and one out in the bottom will hold 240-260 with 15 lbs of Stubbs or K for 20+ hours. It will cook high and uneven till fully caked with gunk inside. It will also run uneven without food in it. Before my first cook I coated the inside with Lard and let her rip with lots of Hickory and K for the whole night. Then I cooked lots of chicken pieces wide open to get it all gunked up.
My grill basket is simply a 24x24 (if I remember correctly) piece of expanded metal. Lowes sales it for about $20 and it’s stainless. All hardware is also stainless, $ pricy but why chance it. I heard you would need to get the zinc coated stuff to 750 before it breaks down. I would defiantly go stainless around the charcoal basket. Cut the expanded metal in half and bolt it together with 4 bolts on each side. I used 4, 3” stainless carriage bolts washers and nuts to bolt together two charcoal grates from a 22.5 in kettle. I used two in case I wanted to use lump charcoal. Lastly I purchased a 20x2 inch aluminum pie pan. (internet) to catch grease and ash and it makes clean up much easier. The charcoal grate and basket sit 2.5 inches above the pan. The basket with grate and bolts, sits about 15 inches tall. With a full 15 lb bag of Stubbs my top coal is burning 14-16 inches below my top rack. The top rack is 6 inches from the top. You can see I pounded my lid concave for another inch of clearanc but it's not necessary. The bottom rack is 6 inches below that and I don’t use it much but for grilling chicken. My grill grate is a 22.5 in Weber kettle grate from Lowe’s $15 non hinge kind. I also put 4 inch carriage bolts on a rack so I can get two top racks with 3 in clearance for ribs. I do this for competition cause we cook 4 to 6 racks. Lastly, I frequently rub the outside down with oil when it's hot to prevent rust. What you see in the photos is drippings on the outside not rust. The small hole in the top rim is for my Stoker thermometers. The outer thermomete is just for looks. It will read 40 degrees cooler than the center of the rack (keep that in mind). Any questions just message me. There has been many arguments that the rack needs to be 2 feet above the coal. Hay, my brisket just beat 50 teams for a 7th place call. A 13 lb packer took 10 hrs at 240 foiled at 160. I have two and have cooked on them a bazillion times. They cook better than anything i've ever cooked on. Our team cooks on a total of 4. One for each meat. They also cook chicken like no other. Wide open 10 min per side comes out perfect.
Good luck and most of all have fun!
Mike

[Nick]

Wow, this is a lot of info and I owe you one! I guess I will drop grate #2 into drum #2 and give my dad a free ride! Or maybe go with a second grate closer to the fire like yours. I wonder if putting a water pan on lower grate's bolts and setting grate #2 directly on water pan will make it usable for meats other than chicken.

Ps- opened them up today and I do hve the red liner of death. Sandblasting should come in the next few weeks. Will take pics along the way.

[Tri Tip]

Trust me, have it sand blasted. It won't be more than $50 probably more like $30. If you have the means take it one step further and have the outsied powder coated. I haven't needed to cook on the bottom rack since I have two uds's. Stay away from the water pan. A uds gets it's unique flavor from the meat smokeing above the coals. Also without the fancy door in a wsm how do you refill the pan? You get a grill/smoke/roast all in one. It's pretty cool when you have grill marks on your shoulder. Also your fat dripps into the coal and adds wonderful flavor as it does when you are grilling. I would stay away from hot and fast on a UDS. I read about it and we tried it. The brisket had a bad flavor. The coals were too hot cooken at 325-350. It was rendering the fat way too fast. It was smoken like we were grilling burgers in there the whole time. Yuck.

P.S. I don't use Kingsford Blue Bag. My clearance is only about 2.5 inches and it will clog the bottom with ash. I reccommend Stubb's or lump.

[Nick]

1) Yeah, there is no way i am cutting a door in this thing either...

2) Been listening to Rempe bitch too much to buy Kingsford at this point ("blah blah borax"....blah blah "creosote"...blah blah "ash content"). Even my dumb ass got the point there LOL!!!!!

3) I am pretty broke, so I will not be finding a weber lid (this cuts like 5 steps out of my process=awesomesauce). I gotta say though, it is slightly dissappointing to only be able to fit a single 22.5" grate in this thing. assuming 2.5" clearance+9" charcoal grate+24" standard clearance minimum=35.5" of space used...dilemma: i havent measured this bad boy yet, but i read that the standard height is like 35" tall (1 grate only by those rules)...I saw yours uses 16" of clearance which would mean we are using 27.5" total of the nearly 35" of space...maybe I can fit 2 usable grates afterall. I just need to know how close to the coal is too close to smoke on. I dont care about beercan chicken clearance on the top grate either cause I will spatchcock him anyway. Your mod for extra rib racks is nice BTW, I may try that as 3 butts would be more than enough for my purposes anyway. How is the cooking on your bottom grate (i know you said you dont use it frequently)?

4) Thermometer issues: Your non-digital thermometers are just for looks??? Does it matter if they are at grate level or in the lid? I guess I need to break down and go get a digital thermometer to read the meat and the cook temp at once and mount it on the drum...There must be a way to use a regular thermometer for this reliably.

EDIT: Am I to assumed that your exhaust holes are always open BTW?

[Nick]

Okay- ran into a snag today. I called all 6 powder shops in town and the lowest price quote was $75 per drum. Moving on to plan B- bought a weed burner, filled my 2 tanks, driving my equipment and drums to the woods tommorrow for a Liner-Burning.

If I am going to get gouged for that amount of cash I am comming out of it with a new toy!!!!!!!

[Tri Tip]

Dude hit it with the weed burner in the back yard. I just ran in the house when I saw the police copter coming. Luckily my neighborhood is pretty ghetto so the neighbors never complained. Hell what's a little burning pint every now and then? :P In California you can do 10 years for that kind of thing. Shoot we can’t even smoke cigarettes at a park. But a 900 sq foot house is only $700,000 dollars so it’s all worth it. Anyway after the weed burner you’ll still have to hit the residue with a grinder. Don’t forget earplugs and a mask. As far as the exhaust, one open in the bottom and two in the top will hold about 240-260 once fully seasoned and filled with food. You can also use a flat refrigerator magnet wrapped in foil, to slide the hole open and closed. You can also drill a 1/3 and ½ inch hole along with the one inch holes. In the beginning you’ll need less than a one inch hole otherwise it’ll cook at 275-325.

P.S. your elevation will have an effect too. I live by the beach and I'm only 100 feet above sea level. You may need more plugs out if your at a much higher elevation.

[Nick]

It is perfectly legal to burn trash outside of the city limits here...and smoke cigs (a favorite passtime I need to give up soon).

[Tri Tip]

Originally Posted by Nick

It is perfectly legal to burn trash outside of the city limits here...and smoke cigs (a favorite passtime I need to give up soon).

Al Gore must love you guys

[Nick]

Long ad Algore stays out of my state...

Update: cleaned out the drums yesterday- burned both completely, then dad and I hit em with a wire brush on a drill. Washed remaining red epoxy dust off with dawn soap and water. Then dryed with weed burner and applied 2 coats of peanut oil and hit outside of drum with weed burner again to quazi-season the inside. Cooled off the drums and applied Rustoleum BBQ paint (2 coats).

Also, my grandfather donated a weber kettle whose legs rusted off in the backyard- actual kettle is fine. I am using the lid and dad is going to use the bottom as his lid(huge clearance and actually doesn't look that bad).

We have all the grates and supplies and just need to find time to drill holes and install parts. Still working in firebox and thinking about thermometers- I want a maverick.

I took pics on my phone along the way, just need to upload.

AND I DIDN'T EVEN DIE IN A HORRIFIC WEED BURNER ACCIDENT AS MY FAMILY AND COWORKERS PREDICTED. If anyone ever reads this and is trying to build a UDS, be careful, this isn't that complicated, but removing liners is hard and time consuming. Took about 5 hours to get a drum from rusty and lined to painted/oiled.

[Tri Tip]

Yep took me 5 hrs too. Seasoned after the paint with charcoal and hickory.

As far as the thermometer I got two of these. My teammates have Tru Tel but mine are just as accurate.
Plus we use stokers so they are more for looks.

http://cgi.ebay.com/3-BBQ-THERMOMETER-T ... 230875297e

[Nick]

Drum Before:



Drum While It was being burned-kinda red in back left corner.



Drum while sanding with wire brush:



Final Drum- oiled, baked in, and then painted:



Both drums in the back of Dad's car with my free weber kettle:



Apologies for the iphone pics, but this will be the only camera I have for the forseeable future.

[Tri Tip]

Great picts. That's exactly what the inside of mine looked like when I was done. Outstanding Nick. You still got black bugers. Mine took about 4 days to clear out! Congrats the hard part is over. I'd cook some chicken pieces to get some more gunk in there than some sholders will get it good and caked with even more gunk. Also you can cook a roast wide open at about 300. (that's 300 on your outer thermometer it'll be about 340 above the coal) Just turn it over once halfway through the cook. It'll come out perfect with no effort! Don't just limit it to low and slow. It's the best chicken cooker ever. Get it up to 350 with all plugs out. 10 minutes per side with thighs. It'll cook clear through with perfect grill/char. No need to sear and move indirect like on a kettle.

[Nick]

yeah, smoking while doing that thing lined my lungs with teflon...feels great.......

now onto drilling and assembly, but probly not this weekend because wife wants me back. I have a hard time believing that there will be 40-50 degrees difference between the grate temp and the thermometer if the thermometer is mounted directly (1/2 inch) below each grate. I could believe that about one mounted on top...which I plan to do as well.

Upcomming project- buy 3 thermometers(2 grate, 1 top...cause I got kettle lid)-where are the cheapest ones that are still reliable and not crap?

[Tri Tip]

What happens is the thermometer probe is only 2 inches into the drum on the side. Your fire is in the center. The closer you get to the center of the drum the hotter it will be. For a more accurate temp put your electronic probe clip on the center of the grate. Test it. We usually get 30-40 degrees difference from the side of the drum to the middle.

[Nick]

Sucks- I need to go buy a maverick or guru...$40 bucks seems high fr a thermometer....end of complain session

[Tri Tip]

Maverick's are cool cause your wife gets woken up by the alarm next to your bed at 3am when your smoker temp drops too low.

[Nick]

glad she will, cause I would straight sleep throught that.