Done with the reverse flow, onto the UDS

bswisher · Post by **bswisher** » February 26th, 2018, 10:58 am

I finished my 60 gal RF smoker so i decided I needed another to add to the collection so I did a UDS this week. I watched a lot of youtube videos as well as read all of the posts here and hope it burns as well as i hear. I still have to disassemble for paint this week but it is 99% done.

I started off with this drum, unfortunately it had the dreaded red liner but it actually burned out pretty well. I got lucky that it already had a 2" bung at the bottom. That should help with getting it up to temp when firing it up.

Next I built a hinge for the lid out of a couple scrap pieces of angle i had laying around and a handle out of a 3" exhaust clamp i had.

Onto the charcoal basket, 16.5 x 9, this was the grate from an old Weber kettle i had gotten rid of years ago , found it in the corner of the garage. I wrapped it with leftover 3/4 #9 expanded metal from the RF build. Added a piece of flat stock and another exhaust clamp for a basket handle. I replaced the clamp afterwards with a smaller u-bolt because this one was too tall.

I made a defuser plate out of a stainless steel Chevelle hub cap i had laying around. It just happened to have a recess that will work to catch drippings and the slots around the edges should work to dissipate the heat.

Decided to use an old 6" air cleaner i had as a rain hat. Just cut the paper out of the filter element.

Added a 16 pizza pan for an ash catcher.

Added 3ea 4 1/2 x 1/4 eye bolts for the rack support, i put the eyes on the outside to give me somewhere to hang my basket lifter and a couple utinsels. I did have to buy a new rack.

Bought 3/4 nipples, elbows, 24 inch 3/4 black pipe and a couple gate valves. May change these to ball valves later. This is how it sits right now, has kind of a rat rod look going but I will prep and paint it this week.

All together I have about $75 in it. Going to do a test burn this evening. Have a side of beef to pick up at the processor tomorrow so it looks like there is a brisket on the schedule for this weekend. lol

ajfoxy · Post by **ajfoxy** » February 26th, 2018, 1:56 pm

Looks good. I do like the air cleaner as an exhaust, nice touch. I don't suppose you want to show a close up of your hinge do you. I've been mulling over several now, but have not found something simple and easy to make.

bswisher · Post by **bswisher** » February 26th, 2018, 2:15 pm

ajfoxy wrote:Looks good. I do like the air cleaner as an exhaust, nice touch. I don't suppose you want to show a close up of your hinge do you. I've been mulling over several now, but have not found something simple and easy to make.

I will take a closeup of it this evening for you.. Its is just 2 pieces of angle welded together to make a U-channel. I sat it on the drum lid with about 2" hanging off the drum and used a rotary file in my die grinder to shape it around the curve of the lid. Tacked it into place then took 2 more pieces and placed then on the inside with the edge against the drum and cutout about 1.5" below the ends on the lid (this will make it act as a hinge stop) and again shaped them around the drum bulge. Slid them on the inside of the u channel and tacked to the drum. Then I just drilled a hole through from one side to the other.

The picture i post tonight will show it is way more simple than trying to explain it. I like it because the lid is on a solid hinge and it doesn't flop around when i open it. I am not a fan of the single arm type hinges i have seen on weber lids. This one is easy to make and uses about $2 worth of materials.

Update: I found a pic that i had taken when I was roughing it in but you can see how it goes together here. I will still get you good pics this evening.

Post by **Rodcrafter** » February 26th, 2018, 3:12 pm

Post by **Big T** » February 26th, 2018, 4:08 pm

Nice!![emoji106]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Weldun · Post by **Weldun** » February 26th, 2018, 5:06 pm

It's nice when some of those items you've been tripping over for years become useful. Nice work.

Dirtytires · Post by **Dirtytires** » February 26th, 2018, 9:32 pm

So the parts list includes 2 muffler clamps, a pizza tin, a 70’s era hubcap and a used air cleaner????

I love it....nice job.

Squiggle · Post by **Squiggle** » February 27th, 2018, 2:06 am

Post by **Pete Mazz** » February 27th, 2018, 5:30 am

bswisher · Post by **bswisher** » February 27th, 2018, 11:27 am

ajfoxy wrote:Looks good. I do like the air cleaner as an exhaust, nice touch. I don't suppose you want to show a close up of your hinge do you. I've been mulling over several now, but have not found something simple and easy to make.

I took a couple more pictures for you. If you need me to i can remove the lid and get you more pictures. Hope this helps. Ignore the rough welds etc, it is still basically a mock up.

ajfoxy · Post by **ajfoxy** » February 27th, 2018, 4:26 pm

Thanks bswisher... appreciated. Those pics will be fine.

Dirtytires · Post by **Dirtytires** » February 27th, 2018, 11:18 pm

Agreed...much more stable than a single strap hinge. I like it.

Post by **Rodcrafter** » February 28th, 2018, 11:30 am

oh yeah

bswisher · Post by **bswisher** » February 28th, 2018, 2:09 pm

quick question for the experts... I have 2ea 2" bungs in the lid, right now i am using the one in the center of the lid. Would it be better to use the one that is on the edge of the lid under where my hinge is? My thought was by using the center one I would get more even temps and smoke distribution. I have read a few posts about condensation dripping from the stack, is this something to be concerned about?

Dirtytires · Post by **Dirtytires** » February 28th, 2018, 10:03 pm

My 2 cents is it wouldn’t matter for the heat...top is top.

And, for what it’s worth, I never put meat under a chiminey.

Post by **Big T** » February 28th, 2018, 10:35 pm

My stack is top center and I don't have any issues.

ajfoxy · Post by **ajfoxy** » February 28th, 2018, 11:23 pm

I built one stack centre and another offset to the back. Do not notice any difference or in fact condensation dripping. Not to say they weren't there, just I did not notice them.

bswisher · Post by **bswisher** » March 3rd, 2018, 5:15 pm

She is done. Wife said no more smokers!!!! Lol

Sooooo, what to build next lol.

ajfoxy · Post by **ajfoxy** » March 3rd, 2018, 7:38 pm

Looks great. Nicely finished.

Sooooo, what to build next lol.

As the "keeper of fiscal matters" has spoken, clearly a smoker disguised as anything else...

Post by **Big T** » March 4th, 2018, 12:29 am

Post by **Pete Mazz** » March 4th, 2018, 5:00 am

Post by **Rodcrafter** » March 4th, 2018, 5:55 pm

Oh now you need to build some Q silly. Nice work!

Making memories!

bswisher · Post by **bswisher** » March 5th, 2018, 10:59 am

Thanks everyone, I fired it up yesterday and put it through it's paces. I did ribs, brisket, and some beef shanks. Sorry, didn't get a chance to get any pictures. I put about 8lbs of kbb in it at about 4:30 yesterday morning and got the temp stable at right at 230 by 5am. It was a nice morning Big T, it was 34 degrees lol. Went fishing with my son for a couple hours when i came back at 9 it was still right at 230. About 3:30pm she dropped just a bit so i shook the drum a few times to settle the ashes and it came right back to 230-235. Finished up about 5:30 and shut it down, there was still about a dozen half burnt briquettes in the basket. I am really happy with it other than getting use to the smell of the kbb. The wife went shopping yesterday so i had her pick me up a couple bags of RO lump. I am going to try a basket full of it next time.

My gas grill is about on it's last leg so i am thinking maybe the next project will be a t-shaped drum grill

That way i can tell the wife "Well, you said no more smokers, this is a grill" LOL

mp4 · Post by **mp4** » March 5th, 2018, 6:57 pm

sweet!

ajfoxy · Post by **ajfoxy** » March 5th, 2018, 7:47 pm

"Well, you said no more smokers, this is a grill" LOL

You're treading a fine line there...

One side of the line is "OK fine" and the other side is a lot of hot lip and cold shoulder.

SmokerBuilder.com

Done with the reverse flow, onto the UDS

Done with the reverse flow, onto the UDS

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Re: Done with the reverse flow, onto the UDS

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Re: Done with the reverse flow, onto the UDS

Re: Done with the reverse flow, onto the UDS

Re: Done with the reverse flow, onto the UDS

Re: Done with the reverse flow, onto the UDS

Re: Done with the reverse flow, onto the UDS

Re: Done with the reverse flow, onto the UDS

Re: Done with the reverse flow, onto the UDS

Re: Done with the reverse flow, onto the UDS

Re: Done with the reverse flow, onto the UDS

Re: Done with the reverse flow, onto the UDS