UDS Help

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countryrocker212

Fire Starter
Original poster
Mar 11, 2010
31
10
Illinois
I know there's a lot of posts but I couldn't find anything telling you how to know if your drum has a liner or not. I thought I got one without one but I was reading a post about a reddish liner and mine is a deep red on the inside with a flat finish that I thought was paint. Are there any other ways to tell if it's a liner?
Chris
 
Basically if it's not bare metal there's a liner. You will need to build a fire to burn it out, a few pallets will work, then wire wheel it.
 
Get the grinder ready, mine also had the red liner its some work getting it out of there, but i found the wire cup brush for the grinder didn't work as good as the abrasive type not sure what its called.
 
That's what I figured but I really don't want the fire department at my house. I gave it to my uncle to sandblast it. There's no way that it will still be on there right?
 
do it at night so no one will see the smoke. sandblaster will probably work but eveyone says those red liners are no joke. so keep your fingers crossed
 
That should do it. And if it works, you owe your uncle LOADS of Q because that liner is a pain to get out.
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Umm . . . wouldn't the flames show up at night??
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Dave
 
I had made a nice fire pit from some bricks that were lying in my backyard and I was burning an old deck that I tore down, at about 3 in the morning and the cops showed up to tell me if I'm burning anything in the city I need a fire pit with a lid and I need to be right next to the fire.....Cops always ruin all the fun
 
Glad i live in the country where i can burn anything i want wherever i please...well...at least to a point. I try not to catch anything on fire unintentionally!
 
that sucks i lit my drum at about 8 just after dark burned for about 4 hrs no cops. lucky me i gess in refrence to (countryrocker212) mesed up the quote thing
 
Ok I got my smoker back last week the liner came right off with a nice sand blasting. I got it all put together and was waiting on my tru-tel and it finally came yesterday so I had to try it out. I'm having a few problems though. Yesterday I filled the charcoal basket with 10 pounds of lump and 12 nice chunks of hickory. I lit 5 pieces of lump set it on top and closed it up. I also put in a digital therm. I started with all 4 valves open and closed them as the temp started to go up I started keeping track after it got up to 250. For the first couple hours it was running hot between 275 and 315 at grate level but the temps on the tel-tru were between 50 and 85 degrees lower. I closed it down because it was getting late and started it up this morning. I followed the same steps as yesterday except I closed the valves earlier to try and maintain a lower temp. I would like the temp at the grate to be between 200 and 250 at the highest. The problem now is while trying to maintain the low temp. there have been 2 times now where I thought my fire was out and the temp was 130ish but I left it both times and both times it comes back up to 210ish.
Anyways when it was running hot the first day so I switched from the big cap being open to the small cap for exhaust and that seemed to help but is that enough?
Also to help with the temperature gradient I was thing about either using a plate setter of some sort or making a wide charcoal basket using a 22 1/2 in. grate.
Any help would be appreciated I don't know if I'm expecting to much out of it but I'm used to using a cheap offset but at least the temperature was fairly even. Please Help
Chris
 
It's pretty common for a dial thermo on the side to read 40° or 50° lower than a digital in the center. It's just a drum thing. Temp is hotter in the center than at the edges. You can try a difusser if you want, but It's never caused me a real problem though. I've cooked a brisket that would barely fit on the grates and it was fine.

Using a larger basket won't really help even out the temps because you will end up with a bigger fire and will have a hard time keeping temps down. As far as regulating temp, I would leave the big cap off the lid and regulate the air with the intakes. You want more exhaust opening than intake opening so that you have positive airflow and a good draft.

If you were getting up and down variations in temp it could be because often times lump is not very uniform in size. Also if you had 12 chunks of hickory, they may have be catching fire. Most people use 4 or 5 fist sized chunks in a basket of fuel with a UDS.

Stick with it, you'll get it.
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The UDS is a little different animal and takes some getting used to.

Dave
 
Some folks mount another rack about 1/2 way up the drum and put a perforated pizza pan or something on it. I used a piece of steel on top of my charcoal basket a few times.

It takes longer to warm up and uses more fuel with a diffuser but it does even out the temps.

Mine was easier to control as far as taking temps up and down with the intakes but seemed to require more attention and fiddling to hold a constant temp. But then again, I've only ran it with a diffuser a couple of times.

Dave
 
Ok I'm thinking about getting a flower pot base for a diffuser but I have one more question how far from the bottom of the drum should the basket be. mine is about six inches high I'm thinking that might be contributing to the higher temps.
 
I made my basket with 12 inch expanded metal. I put the grate about 3 1/2" to 4" from the bottom and I have only run briqs in my drum. So far i have had steady performance with great results.
If your basket is six inches from the bottom, then you may have a stronger updraft through the bottom of the basket, let alone the shorter distance between the fuel and the grate..

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