UDS / Homemade Barrel Cookers

IronStomach wrote:

my wife and I don't like the idea of the difference between 100% and "most of it" coming out

The bolded part reminds me of a joke:

A driver was pulled over for running a stop sign. While trying to get out of the ticket, he had the following exchange with the police officer:

Officer: "I'm giving you a ticket for not stopping at that sign back there."

Driver: "What! I did stop."

Officer: "No you didn't, what you did was slow down, not stop."

Driver: "Oh, c'mon, what's the difference... slow down or stop?"

Officer: Feeling agitated with the driver at this point, the officer whipped out his baton and began to beat the driver over the head with it repeatedly and asked, "Well, what do you want me to do... slow down or STOP!"

JD_Smokes wrote:

IronStomach wrote:

my wife and I don't like the idea of the difference between 100% and "most of it" coming out

The bolded part reminds me of a joke:

A driver was pulled over for running a stop sign. While trying to get out of the ticket, he had the following exchange with the police officer:

Officer: "I'm giving you a ticket for not stopping at that sign back there."

Driver: "What! I did stop."

Officer: "No you didn't, what you did was slow down, not stop."

Driver: "Oh, c'mon, what's the difference... slow down or stop?"

Officer: Feeling agitated with the driver at this point, the officer whipped out his baton and began to beat the driver over the head with it repeatedly and asked, "Well, what do you want me to do... slow down or STOP!"

Hehehe, the devil's in the details, neh?

Guys---I'm getting close to making my own UDS...question though...i'm looking at designs for the charcoal basket and all I can find here locally is 18ga expanded metal. Has anyone used this light guage before? Is it thik enough to hold the heat and not loose its shape?

What gauge does everyone else use?

naterea wrote:

Guys---I'm getting close to making my own UDS...question though...i'm looking at designs for the charcoal basket and all I can find here locally is 18ga expanded metal. Has anyone used this light guage before? Is it thik enough to hold the heat and not loose its shape?

What gauge does everyone else use?

Go out and buy a Weber charcoal grate -- I used the one for the 22.5" Weber, it's a tiny bit bigger than 17". Use that for the bottom.

If you can, get the 3/4" expanded metal, as opposed to the 1/2". Less restrictive airflow.

For a piece of expanded metal that is 24"x24", cut the expanded metal into 8"x24" sheets, overlay them until you get one rectangular sheet that's 8" x 57" (mine has quite a bit of overlap, I didn't feel the need to trim it, I just overlapped it). Use six 1.5" or 2" long ss bolts, 12 2" ss fender washers, and 6 ss nuts. I also used ss locknuts, but don't think locknuts are important for this.

Bolt the assembly up, making sure you put the bolts about 2" from what will be either the top or the bottom of the charcoal box sides. Make sure the nuts are all on the outside, that way when you bring the expanded metal ends together to make a ring, all the bolts stick inward.

Once it's bolted up, you can just lay the Weber charcoal grate inside. You can also wiggle the bolts around before you tighten everything up to get it snug against the grate.

But to figure out the proper circumference for the ring around the grate: take the diameter of your charcoal grate bottom and multiply it by 3.14. I rounded up so I could have some leeway. Worked perfectly for me.







Note that after I took the last picture, I had to lower one of the bolts in order to drop my charcoal grate down to the 2" mark.


Anyway, the point of all this: it doesn't matter what gauge expanded metal I used. I used 13ga, but could definitely have used 18ga because the Weber charcoal grate is stout enough to take the brunt of extended use. The expanded metal is just for the sides.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the info.

13ga WOW that's heavy. My charcoal box from my silver smoker is made from 16 ga and I couldn't change the shape of that even if I drove my truck over it. I'm surprised you were able to work the 13ga material that well.

Anyways...I'm just afraid that the 18ga metal would be too light to take the heat and start to warp/melt even. 18ga is all that's available from Lowes and metal distribution centers only sell 6' x 8' sheets here in STL. Plus I can't work with 16ga material with the tools I have to 13ga is out of the question for me.

I'll try 18ga and see what happens.

naterea wrote:

Guys---I'm getting close to making my own UDS...question though...i'm looking at designs for the charcoal basket and all I can find here locally is 18ga expanded metal. Has anyone used this light guage before? Is it thik enough to hold the heat and not loose its shape?

What gauge does everyone else use?

I used #9 (10 gauge) 3/4" 48" X 8" on a 22.5" Weber lower charcoal grate. 48" is a standard width.



I think the Weber PN was 307441 for the grate.

From Home Depot
Weber Charcoal Grate
Model # 7441 Internet/Catalog # 100657906
Store SKU # 102857
$10.99

If any one is interested, I was bored at work tonight so I made a Power Point doc. on one of the Build-Ups on this thread. Just picked up my Drum for $10.00 in Huntington Beach today. Im going to start work on it this weekend if it ever stops raining here. email me it you would like a copy of this program.

Bob

bwhitney99@yahoo.com

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I just got my barrel. So I'm looking at starting today. (if I get off this computer)

I'm considering building a UDS. I am deciding whether or not I will get a new drum or a used food grade drum with a liner. How difficult is it to remove the liner from the drum? If it's a big hassle, I think I will just get a new drum.

Here is a pic of the inside of a drum I am considering. Does the liner appear to be typical?

Here I started with welding the 3/4" inlet nipples

Then drilled the rest of the holes for the handles, grate hardware, etc
Then I did the first burn now that was fun

riznfall wrote:

Then I did the first burn now that was fun

Heh, heh heh, heh heh...yeah yeah, yeah, fire, fire fire...heh heh...

Tosprops wrote:

I'm considering building a UDS. I am deciding whether or not I will get a new drum or a used food grade drum with a liner. How difficult is it to remove the liner from the drum? If it's a big hassle, I think I will just get a new drum.

Here is a pic of the inside of a drum I am considering. Does the liner appear to be typical?

The liners appear to differ: some of the food grade liners are more difficult to remove than others. Some people use a weed burner on the OUTSIDE surface of the drum to burn off the material on the inside. The weed burners starve of oxygen after a minute inside the drum, which is why they use them outside. If you don't have a weed burner, drill your intake holes, do no install hardware, and get a chitload of hardwood: NO PINE or walnut. A tip: wood pallets are generally made from hardwood.

Anyway, burn that drum out for a while. Mount an abrasive wire brush to an extension rod for a power drill and wire brush out the inside. It will take a while.

The liners take work to remove, no doubt about it. I bought an unlined one, brand new for $60. Figured it was a good deal.

I'd prefer a new one, for sure. I noticed some of the new ones are coated with a rust inhibitor. Is that stuff food safe? Also, what have you all found works best: bolt lock ring or a lever lock ring on the lid?

I was thinking of using Crisco to season the inside. I use that for all of my cast iron cookwear and is works really well plus I have a boat load of it.

Tosprops wrote:

I'd prefer a new one, for sure. I noticed some of the new ones are coated with a rust inhibitor. Is that stuff food safe? Also, what have you all found works best: bolt lock ring or a lever lock ring on the lid?

I took the lock ring off... and forgot where I put it. It's not necessary.

Most new drums will have the rust inhibitor. It's basically a clear coat sprayed inside the drum. My drum had it, I burnt the drum out with about $20 of hardwood firewood after drilling my intake holes. I then ran a bag of RO lump through the drum after it was built. Wiped it down with olive oil, then I cooked three pork butts and a mess of spare ribs and now the drum's all seasoned.

One thing: make sure you remove the rubber gasket inset into the drum lid. There's a sticky goo that's used to hold the gasket in place, you won't be able to get it off, but don't worry, it'll get covered in food grease soon and is out of the way of the heat if you drill your exhaust holes right. An interesting thing: when smoking at about 250-275, the edges of the drum lid stay cool enough to grab and remove with bare hands. Even after seven hours.