Another First UDS - Dreaded Liner of Doom!

I hate to post another UDS, but I am extremely excited I beat the "Liner of Doom". I picked up a $20 drum well before I had researched enough to know what to get. When I dug a little deeper and heard about the liner I got a little nervous. There were so many conflicting posts on numerous sites about burning it, torching it, and leaving it that my head was spinning. I contacted the manufacturer and got word that the liner was safe and inert, but the purist in me had to get it out. It may have been the competitor in me too!

Two hard wood pallets were broken down and put in the drum. I used my weed torch to get everything going and also made a few rounds around the drum. The drum was hot for two days and had enough hot coal late on the second day to start a small fire for smores...yum. Once the drum cooled I looked in and the inside was still red. I just about lost it!! Then I remembered on one of my study sessions someone broke out the commit cleaner and a scrub pad and the liner came right out (once burned). Darn if it didn't clean right out.

I thought I had a before picture, but must not have saved it. The drum was bright blue with the red liner. Now she is Grey all over! I have installed one 3/4" x 24" intake with a valve. The second will be put in today (threads were jacked up so I need to replace the pipe). I have a third intake where I'll install my PID contolled fan. I am a tinkering fool so I have all types of gadgets and part laying around. The PID is actually one I ordered by accident while making my curing chamber for capicolas and sausage. It runs a small fan perfectly. It's a work in progress!

I got a few free hours and went back to work on the UDS. I attached screws to a large fryer basket. It's up about 3" inches with stainless bolts. These fryer baskets came to me for free from a vendor. I have 5 or 6 of them that I have stored for a couple years now. I use one in a make shift smoker at work and it has about 7 or 8 burn on it. Still holding up nicely. If I need to get another later on at least I'm not out anything.

I used unpainted shelf brackets to give me a little versatility inside the smoker. The brackets on the bottom are longer and can hold a water pan or diffuser if needed. The other brackets will go up and down based on the size of what is on the smoker.

I made my first mistake (sure there are more to come) when I punched the holes for the rebar near the lid. I wanted to be able to cap the holes off with 1/2" pipe nipples and black caps, but I didn't account for the space the lid needs on the inside. The lid fits perfectly when the rebar is in, but the nipples block the inside lip when installed. I could have kicked myself. I have some magnetic tape so my daughter cut out some circles and they close the holes nicely. Lesson learned. If I ever find a weber lid I'm pretty sure I can use the caps since it doesn't sit lower then the rim of the drum

I still need to attached the chimney and a couple holes for my thermocouple. My grates should be coming in today. A fresh coat of paint and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!!

kls44 said:

Nice build. I too have adjustable shelf brackets in mine, love 'em. You can cut the brackets even shorter than you have, makes it easier to get the second rack in and out.
Lets see a cook!

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Thanks for the info on bracket length and ease of shelf removal/install. I went conservative on the length since I didn't have my grates yet. Hopefully they will be in this afternoon and I can try them out.

SmokerKing said:

Just a thought, instead of drilling holes in the side of the UDS for the rebar, couldn't you just use the the long bracket arms for the adjustable rack as your hanger? Just drill some holes in the bracket for the S type meat hangers? I know you can get some long brackets that should reach the center of the drum.

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The brackets, before I cut them, reached well into the middle. I didn't think of using them for hanging. Honestly I had just watched a bunch of videos on the Pit Barrel Cooker and thought the rebar looked cool:biggrin1:

So I seasoned the drum up Saturday and took it for it's maiden voyage on Sunday. I picked up 2 racks of baby backs and a whole chicken. I split the chicken in half and hung it and the ribs with "s" hooks. I had some hickory so that's what I used for the first go. I filled the basket half way with unlit natural hardwood charcoal and fired up some briquettes in a chimney. Once the coals in the chimney were ready I poured it in the basket, added about 4 good chunks of Hickory and dropped the basket in the drum. Once the coals settled I hung the chicken and ribs (no diffuser) and sealed her up.

I was initially having a hard time getting the temp above 220. It's not the ideal temp for chicken, but I wanted to try and maintain 250 as a middle ground. I opened all my intakes and still couldn't get temps up. After a couple hours around the 215-225 mark I put a few more lumps of charcoal in the chimney and added it to the basket when they were ready. I was able to hold 230-240 for a while at that point, but still couldn't hit my marks. When I took the top off the coals would heat up to 260-270, but within a couple minutes after putting the lid back on they were back to 230.

The chicken was pulled after 4 hours at 165. Next time i'm hoping to get my temps near 300 and cut the time to 2.5 hours or so. Even at the lower temp and longer cooking time the chicken was great. The bones pulled right out and the flavor was amazing. I had to pull the ribs a bit early (174f) cause it was getting late. I was aiming for 180-185f. These will be eaten later in the week so a little foil and sauce on the grill and they should be OK. I did cut a few ribs off the end and the flavor was great. The smoke ring went almost all the way through and the meat pulled off the bone. At 180 I think they would have been perfect.

I came away with a few questions, but thought the first smoke was a success. Is it possible to have the basket too high? my basket sits 3-3.5" off the bottom. I'm not sure I was getting the airflow to get my heat up. My ashtray might be restricting the air a bit. It's a half sheet pan so it has a raised edge that might be blocking the air coming in. From looking at it I thought the intakes came in above the lip, but I'll check again. I think the charcoal was also an issue. I got some cheap walmart charcoal for the initial burn and I used the little that was left to get everything fired up. The natural lump charcoal was very inconsistent in size. There were chucks the size of a baseball and some the size of a marble. Next burn I'll use good charcoal.

Any other insight would be greatly appreciated!

Learning to BBQ said:

What they said above. Plus those valves look like globe valves and if that`s the case then you are seriously cutting off air flow to your drum through those. I think between those valves, the elbows and the risers your drum has a pretty serious case of COPD. Let it breathe and you`ll find the temps you are looking for.

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Thanks! The valves are actually gate valves. I have used a few gates valves and ball valves in other builds (coffee roaster) and had more success with gates when looking for air flow. I'll definitively try without the pipes.