UDS / Homemade Barrel Cookers

Sounds great! If you have any questions, I'll be happy to help any way I can. As far as drilling any holes, I highly recommend using a step bit as opposed to a hole saw. Much easier.

Otherwise, just make sure you maintain a distance of 24" from your charcoal grate to your cooking grate. Mine is set up where I can have 2 cooking grates, and that's the big benefit of using a kettle lid. The top grate goes right at the top of the drum, and the other goes about 7" below that one leaving it 24" above the charcoal grate.

Kenny 13 wrote:

Sounds great! If you have any questions, I'll be happy to help any way I can. As far as drilling any holes, I highly recommend using a step bit as opposed to a hole saw. Much easier.

Otherwise, just make sure you maintain a distance of 24" from your charcoal grate to your cooking grate. Mine is set up where I can have 2 cooking grates, and that's the big benefit of using a kettle lid. The top grate goes right at the top of the drum, and the other goes about 7" below that one leaving it 24" above the charcoal grate.

I'll definitely keep these points in mind, thanks! Will also post pictures once I'm done with it.

Sounds good. Looking forward to seeing it when you're done.

Before the liner burnout...

I picked up the metal for the coal basket. This project is underway.

I plan on the "Grill Trial" today...

Good luck!

Same here Murman... Good Luck!!
My only concern is if you have enough venting for the exhaust in your lid. No doubt you'll let us know how the first smoke in your UDS goes.

Thanks guys! All went well. The initial seasoning with Kingsford and hickory was followed by lump charcoal, more hickory and five huge chicken breasts. Lid temp was at 250*F, the breasts cooked for about an hour (I think, I used a remote thermometer and had a few beers, ya know...) and came out great. Momma liked it so well, she bought more chicken.

I need to cook a few pork butts to get a feel for the heat over time of the unit.

Murman

jazzspot wrote:

Same here Murman... Good Luck!!
My only concern is if you have enough venting for the exhaust in your lid. No doubt you'll let us know how the first smoke in your UDS goes.

I have another vent piece I could install...

Murman wrote:

jazzspot wrote:

Same here Murman... Good Luck!!
My only concern is if you have enough venting for the exhaust in your lid. No doubt you'll let us know how the first smoke in your UDS goes.

I have another vent piece I could install...

If your temp control is good and stable and easy to maintain over longer cooks, especially when your UDS has a nice sized load of meat smoking, don't worry about adding the other vent piece that you have available. Sounds good so far according to your reported smoking session to this point.

An action photo...

Murman wrote:

An action photo...

Dun dun DUNNNA!
(action music)

Looks good! I've heard the temps spike when the UDS is still being broken in, would be fun to smoke a big piece of meat and see how long you can keep the temps at an even plateua... plataue... platuea... level for.

Concur.

My wife picked up a kettle grill cover for $3.00.

This thing is starting to look nice.

Well, I did my usual Thursday Night Auction Run last night and I managed to score 6 metal bed frames, so I'm another step closer to building my rig. I've found that bed frames are a really cheap alternative to angle iron, and the ones I picked up were very sturdy. Plus, I got all 6 frames for the grand total of one whole dollar.

So it looks like I'll be spending a bit of time this weekend in the workshop trimming off the bits I don't need, but for the cost of a buck I'm not complaining. Plus, the rollers on the bed frames will be a handy addition to a couple of ouotfeed tables I'm working on - beats the heck out of paying $15 for 6 big ball-bearing rollers, or $35 for an el-cheapo roller stand for sure.

I'm not sure if I'll be welding a frame together or just bolting or riveting it. Using bolts sounds like the best plan as I should be able to adjust it as the frame shifts.