vertical Keg smoker-up and smoking and smoking wonderfully

[uhoh_45]

hey everyone... i am rather glad i came across this site and signed up ... i am currently building a smoker made out of 2 SS kegs... this is my first smoker build and i'm rather stumped

so far this is what i have to work with
a 35L keg for smoke box




cut out door and welded in door backing and 8" damper





just some test fit ups of smoke box and meat cooker



now the cooking box isnt welded to anything yet only thing welded is the damper to smoke box



now before i go any further i cut up some 3/8" plate 14.25" to act as a "heat sink" now my question is do i have it in the fire box to help disperse the heat or or up top in the cooker to help keep the heat in and evenly spread the heat out from sides ??
(its sitting on a 12" round x 2"? stainless crop at moment see bottom of comment)



i'll be using a 12" round stainless crop with welded up some nice wood inserts and use them as accessory holders and beer holder

[The Czar]

Welcome aboard… And dang that is a sharp looking thing you got going on there… I like it!

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[Rodcrafter]

I really like the damper you made since you have that door in the FB or as you called it smoke box. There are some guys on here that have a lot more UDS experience than I do. Until they respond, I would just like to say, I would put the BP in the CC because you will benefit from the radiant heat that comes off of it. I know you said "heat sink" but it is only that until it gets hot, then it becomes you friend in the CC helping to protect your cooking food and keeping temps nice. I would not have it right on the bottom, but let one of the UDS pros talk about elevation. Nice work, don't forget to seal that door on the FB really good.


jmtcw

[uhoh_45]

thank you guys i appreciate the supporting comments i'm new to this whole smoker thing and just going from what i've seen on the internet , as for the BP (burn plate i take it?) its 14.25" round and the keg itself is 15.5" round so i have roughly .625" all round for smoke to fill box ... i dont know if that is enough and like you said rodcrafter i'm also unsure of the height from the dampener
the bottom of the kegs taper down so i've got to be min 1" off the base of keg...

i am still working on a way to seal off the doors i was thinking a door handle to keep closed enough to where i can get the latch clamps on and tight.... may need that fiberglass heat tape

i also had a question for anyone with an answer out there.... i want to insulate around the void next dampener on the firebox and under the smokebox what would the best stuff be to use???

i have these cloth insulated pipe wraps at work for post heating after welding would something like that cut up and shoved in there work or is there a better rout? ???

[uhoh_45]

after looking around the site i found some awesome ideas which i'd like to incorporate into my smoker and was wondering if it was a good idea or what...


i want to put in a nice fine grate a little ways up about an inch or so off the bottom of smoke box
for the coal to funnel down onto once fire started to keep it going and have a great ontop of that for the wood chips to go into so i dont have to open the door to add coal and wood chips

any ideas on if this type of idea would work
i can build whatever... my sketchup was just a quick rough draft to get my thoughts out there

[uhoh_45]

or even have a chute on each side maybe??
my plans for my firebox air intakes were to build a little rectangular box that gets welded onto the rear of FB with 3 3" holes with dampers on them
i want to do a light layer of some sort of lava rock or some form of brick insulator so i dont loose a lot of heat on the bottom... then inch+ of air for my ash to catch then a grate for my coal box and up at the top a grate for my wood chips

as for my vent at work i have a whole lot of this 4.5" round stainless steel jacket material (they come in little 4" tall pieces so i'll have to weld up a couple to make this work)

my plan for this was to keep that strip of holes on the top and make a horizontal slide damper on top of that so when its fully closed it can still breath ... but heres the kicker

the stack will be inside of that mini keg (can you guess the theme here) and the bottom of keg/lid will be a part of my slide

i will be cutting mini keg along the bottom line and welding it to kegs its purly astetics/will hold up my lid


do you guys see any problems with this??

[Rodcrafter]

This is a link to our data base, it will help you with terms we use;
http://www.smokerbuilder.com/forums/vie ... =70&t=2649

Now, I was really speaking of the elevation of the "BP" I believe as small as this CC is that the square inches around the BP should be nice. I saw you are looking at using a pretty large stack, I would let one of these UDS guys speak to the size of that but for a 55 gallon drum it is normally only a 2 inch diameter opening and you are looking at 4 inches, I'm not sure but that may be big enough to cause a back draft allowing air in as well as out. This would cause you to loose control of temp in the CC. On this style of cooker air control is everything, much more than any other style of cooker. I've noticed you mentioned a couple of times about adding fuel to this while cooking, this is also the most efficient style of cooker. I can't imagine you would have to add fuel if it is at 225 for a very long time. Ask Frank Cox he will help you with more UDS info.

jm2cw

[Frank_Cox]

Looks Great and welcome to the site!
I for one love the idea of the gravity feed chute on the side of the drum but I would say to do it just like the graity feed chutes and don't let the chute feed charcoal into the firebox area. build an ash box under the chute and the fire burns inside the bottom of the chute while sitting on a grate right above the ash box. it will need to be insulated well because it will be extremely hot! also the chute will need to be air tight top and bottom. your BP should be a couple inches above the inside bottom of the CC and it should have about a 3/4" gap all the way around it. good idea on the stack... I like it!

[uhoh_45]

so if i were to cut some plate and weld it to the bottom ring of the keg/SB and cut out a round area in the floor for my basket to sit on and have my ash catcher under the plate and my intakes on the bottom ring so i can get some ventilation under my basket

i also have a question about exhaust port ... do i need a damper on exhaust??

[uhoh_45]

built coal box today (13"x5")




and bought 2 grates for a wicked deal 5$ each

[uhoh_45]

and does this look right to you guys ??

[Gizmo]

Does someone know for sure if the pit calc applies to UDS style cookers?

[Miketheforester]

I know for sure that the intake size that the calculator spits out is larger than you need for burning charcoal, and I am fairly sure the smoke stack size doesn't apply either.

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[Rodcrafter]

I don't think so, it is for an RF. OB1 would have to chime in I think about the calc. This looks like some of the cool stuff you make Rick.

[Smokeone]

Definitely set up for RF. Frank may not see this for a day or so, but I'm sure he will.

[uhoh_45]

ah i figured was worth a shot haha
got some more work done today



welded up the dampener to CC





then i made this little holder for my BP out of some stainless




but didnt like it cause i tacked it to keg wrong and taking it apart i ruined it so i said screw it and just made an X out of some 5/8" SS bar


i re used the handle from my old BBQ and cut 5" out of it and tig welded it back together but haven't mounted it to CC yet.. it should handle the heat eh??

[Gizmo]

That thing is really shaping up nice!

But I'm afraid it will never hold beer again … so sad ….

[uhoh_45]

That thing is really shaping up nice!

But I'm afraid it will never hold beer again … so sad ….

sadly they will not ..... but i still do

[Gizmo]

I like the way you think….


Hey DC! NOW who has the most clamps… ?

[The Czar]

I like the way you think….


Hey DC! NOW who has the most clamps… ?

I still think you do buddy...

[uhoh_45]

haha clamps you say??
my mom tells me i have a problem with clamps haha

so i built ash catcher/air intake today

how i made my dampeners for intakes (washers)








and i put in a spring to keep tension on the dampener

[Gizmo]

Heck of a nice design! Me like!

[The Czar]

I'm liking it!!!

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[Rodcrafter]

Nice, but you see how one word can cause us to loose focus. "clamps" what happened to the keg cooker? lol

[Gizmo]

I did NOT loose focus ……


what were we talking about ….. ?