Ugly Drum Smoker

[HomebrewTJ]

Read the whole thing. Thanks to all for the 5 plus years of tips.

Wish I could print out this whole thread!

 

[Kaptain Kadian]

Love the thread. I have been cooking on a standard uds for years now with a bbq guru attached to it. I absolutely love it. I have build and sold probably 10 or so. I recently decided to make one for my cousin for his birthday. His was a little different. He has been in love with this t shaped uds that he saw years back. Well, this is how it turned out. Let me know what you think. I have a bunch of pictures of the build if anyone would like more info on how it was built.

 

[Smoking Pill Doc]

Kaptain Kadian - Nothing ugly about that one. One day I plan on building one like that. It looks like a rib cooking machine. How much space between each rack?

Also, where do you get the lid/door handles from?

 

[Kaptain Kadian]

My cousin is a big rib cook guy. They are his favorite to cook. I think he will be able to get around 12 racks of spares on there. He can also pull out the middle rack to cook briskets and pork butts. There is 3.5 inches between each rack. I used some welders magnets to space them. Worked like a charm. He seasoned it last night and is cooking for the 1st time this weekend.

 

[Kaptain Kadian]

Missed the 2nd question. I got the springs off of Amazon and made the plates out of some steel I had laying around. I bought some full thread rod and cut it to length and attached it with lock nuts

 

[wood-n-coals]

30 gal build

Wow-I am only 55 pages into this thread, and have gone through many others by some such as norco and n8man, and have learned so much. Did my burn out last week on a 30 gallon drum-cleaned it in and out like a charm. Drilled 4X 7/8 holes 2" oc from the bottom, and the amount of ash that was left at the end of my burnout was nearly nothing-super efficient. Lots of wire brushing on tap for today, drill for rack supports, and prep for paint tomorrow. Thanks all for the help, and will def. post images when I'm done. Now back to page 56!

 

[BBQClyde]

Love the thread. I have been cooking on a standard uds for years now with a bbq guru attached to it. I absolutely love it. I have build and sold probably 10 or so. I recently decided to make one for my cousin for his birthday. His was a little different. He has been in love with this t shaped uds that he saw years back. Well, this is how it turned out. Let me know what you think. I have a bunch of pictures of the build if anyone would like more info on how it was built.

I would love to build one like that! where could i see the build pics, etc?
That thing looks awesome.

 

[biggs98]

Love the thread. I have been cooking on a standard uds for years now with a bbq guru attached to it. I absolutely love it. I have build and sold probably 10 or so. I recently decided to make one for my cousin for his birthday. His was a little different. He has been in love with this t shaped uds that he saw years back. Well, this is how it turned out. Let me know what you think. I have a bunch of pictures of the build if anyone would like more info on how it was built.

Looks Awesome!!! Any and all info on how to build one of these would be greatly appreciated. I have 2 drums sitting in my backyard waiting to be used!

 

[Kaptain Kadian]

I decided to create a new thread for the build. You should be able to find it

 

[tenoeight]

I have been wanting to buy a new offset smoker for a few years now, my older ones were more than I could handle and were not practical with my low usage; they were both built for competitions. I was attempting to build an offset drum smoker when I found this thread and I must say THANK YOU to the Brethren. I built my smoker with leftover parts I found at work and my only purchase was a thermometer! My first instinct was to over build it, welded basket, fancy handles, dampers, diffusers, etc... but I stayed true to the ugly nature of the beast and knocked this thing out on less than an hour. It was burned in last weekend with oak, charcoal, and whatever else I could find. While the fire was raging I coated the inside with lots of cooking oil, and hours later after it has calmed down I threw a 2lb brick of lard on the coals and watched the new blaze erupt. So I played with the damper and valves and then over the weekend I had my halloween treats ribs and tenderloin! love this thing.

 

[tenoeight]

maybe this link will work...

https://twitter.com/tenoeight/status/529348798435581952/photo/1

 

[tenoeight]

a few more shots

https://twitter.com/tenoeight/status/529348602708389888/photo/1

 

[Dr. Trout Bum]

Finally got serious about building my UDS (want to do my TGiving Turkey on it).

Holes drilled, fire basket built. Now for the burn out.

My friend Jesse feeding it some wood

Making some progress

Fire in the hole! Obviously this is one of my holes for the pipe nipple air inlets. Liner and paint both seem to be coming off nicely.

 

[swamprb]

15 Gallon Mini UDS - Big Drum Smoker Clone

Here we go! Another Mini! Big Drum Smoker clone - no ball valves, no caps no bull****!

This is an unlined 15 Gallon barrel, it contained wheel bearing grease in a plastic bladder, no burnout required. Drilled three 3/4" intake holes 2.5" OC from the bottom of the drum. 3 stainless steel bolts to hold the grate 6" OC from the top lip. Ground magnets for intake vent covers.

Weber 14.5" Smokey Joe cook grate. Part # 7431

Weber SJS Charcoal grate Part # 7439. 9" x 9" dia. Expanded metal ring wired to grate.

4" Carriage bolt legs raise the basket 3.5" high. 1" above intake vents.

Four 1/2" exhaust vents, repurposed Weber handle for the drum lid.

A Sears Companion kettle lid adds 4" for a total 10" grate height. (Weber lid adds 3")

Thats how you do it!

 

[Dr. Trout Bum]

Finally got serious about building my UDS (want to do my TGiving Turkey on it).

Holes drilled, fire basket built. Now for the burn out.

My friend Jesse feeding it some wood

Making some progress

Fire in the hole! Obviously this is one of my holes for the pipe nipple air inlets. Liner and paint both seem to be coming off nicely.

The liner seems to be coming off pretty easily. I know my fire was very hot, which I think may be the key. This was after hitting it for a few minutes with the drill with a furniture stripper attachment.

 

[Dr. Trout Bum]

Here are a couple of shots of the fire basket. Just finished putting on the center post so I can grab it with a hook and pull it out of the drum.

 

[vatoloco]

Not getting enough smoke !!! After a little while mine stops producing smoke, but temp is fine. Don't know what im doing wrong. Is this normal??

 

[TXLX]

Not getting enough smoke !!! After a little while mine stops producing smoke, but temp is fine. Don't know what im doing wrong. Is this normal??

What kind of raw wood (type & size) and what kind of fuel are you using? I liberally mix in raw chunks in the fire basket with lump and it keeps light smoke going throughout the cook. Sometimes it will flare up with white smoke, but not for long.

 

[AussieMatt]

Not getting enough smoke !!! After a little while mine stops producing smoke, but temp is fine. Don't know what im doing wrong. Is this normal??

What type of smoke, white or thin blue?

Sometimes you can't even see the thin blue that you want.

 

[vatoloco]

This is my second time to fire this thing up. In the beginning it is white smoke then turns into blue. I have used Kingsford mixed with chunks of mesquite the first time the second time i used lump mixed with chunks of mesquite same problem. I can take the lid off for a little while and then put it back on and it will smoke good for about 20 min then quit.