I've read the first 500 pages of this awesome thread.
Thanks to the "If a redneck wanted to build..." thread and other ideas in this monster thread, I built my first UDS. Obviously I got a little carried away.
All thats left is some wood on the shelf brackets and a bottle opener.
The basket was made by rolling the expanded metal around a propane tank and and welded to a 16" pizza pan. The bottom is a charcoal grate from an smaller kettle.
The wheels, one of the grates, and the lid, all came from a new 22.5" kettle I purchased from Craigslist. I welded top 2" off the bottom of the kettle to the drum for the lid to mate to. I have two grates sitting on three stainless bolts just below the lid and 6" down.
The handle and the hinge where both made from scratch. The Hinge doubles as a handle to lean the drum back on the wheels and move it around.
I used High Temp grommets from Grainger to run the probes from a Maverick ET-73 to the inside. It didn't look like a UDS without the analog temp gauge on the front so I added that just for looks and a back up reference point.
My son gets credit for the awesome paint job.
The first two cooks, ( a Fatty then a Picnic ) turned out good, but the Wife wasn't fond of the taste.
For the third cook I did some ribs but switched from Kingsford briquettes to Royal Oak Lump. Although I had a little more trouble holding a steady temp with the Lump, she liked the taste a lot better. The ribs were about 6 hours with just a few spritzes with apple juice and I did not foil. I think they turned out pretty good.
I may experiment with a diffuser to see how that affects the taste.
My wife thinks its hilarious as I have never cooked more than frozen pizza until now.
Wow! What a nice build. I am impressed.