Down here in Australia we have a growing community of people following the US BBQ Style of cooking, we have a forum.
http://www.aussiepitmasters.com.au/index.php
We are having a KCBS Sanctioned Competition next February here in Melbourne, the first outside the US in the southern hemisphere apparently, so that's pretty special.
Just thought I'd pass on to the board my UDS build.
Started with two open top 44gal (Imperial) recycled drums, these have been through a furnace @ 900 Degrees then sand blasted back to bare metal, makes life a lot easier and only $27.50 with new lids and bands.
The plan was to cut the base of one drum off at 1/3 and use it for the lid.
I tried "Stretching" the rib to fit but skills weren't up to it so ended up welding a ring around the lid and a rope seal to give a good fit.
Then fitted the rope seal and hinge.
I used the "Standard" plan for configuring the 3 capped vents and 1 valve around the base and made slide vents for the lid, then got a little technical but more on that later. It also got the two levels of grills and the level for the diffuser or I can sit the fire basket there and use the top level as a grill.
I made a largish fire basket, you can always half fill it but you can't add more basket if it's too small. I did go too heavy (1/8 plate) on the ash pan but it'll never wear out.
I saw this method of getting the fire basket going on Youtube and find it great. I start a chimney of beads/charcoal on a gas burner then dump it into the can in the middle of the fire basket then pull the can out gives a pretty even burn.
It controlled pretty good with the 1" ball valve and the slide vents on top, but then I found a design for an electronic controller that I could build.
It works really well on Primo Charcoal it can hold @ 105 to 110 deg C (220 to 230 deg F) with only occasional adjustments to the vents as the heat load changes in the fire basket, with lump charcoal the variation is wider to about 10 C (20 F) if you have a good mix of small and big bits.
I also built a Venturi Smoke Generator so I can use the UDS for cold and hot smoking.
And the results have been pretty good for a beginner, if I say so myself
Thanks for taking the time to have a look.
