Well the inevitable happened and after coveting one of these for sometime I took the plunge and had a go.
I managed to source some food grade 45 gallon drums. That's 55 US gallon size.
They had mango puree in them and had no liner inside just a coat of paint.
I had the two drums shotblasted back to bare metal by a local company. One drum was destined to be a smoker the other a jerk pan. They came up pretty good afterwards.
Next the holes were drilled for the 3 1" intakes and the exhaust holes. A daisy wheel was cut and drilled to control the exhaust and I welded the charcoal basket under the guidance of a good friend with a stick welder.
I made the charcoal basket 12"x12"x12" so as to hold enough lump and wood chunks to be able to do a long smoke for larger cuts of meat. Used M12 stud as the legs to raise it 3" off the base of the drum/ash pan. Once this was done I then installed a grill thermometer and a heat diffuser pan made out of a cut down drum lid with 1" holes cut into it. I then installed a Weber 22.5" stainless cooking grate.
The drum was then given several coats of Rustoleum grill paint and now started to look like a UDS. Used some copper pipe and elbows for the main intake which will eventually have a ball valve on it.
As soon as that was done I decided to do a test burn and season her with cooking oil. After digesting the wealth of information here lighting and getting her up to temperature and damping down the intakes was surprisingly simple. It worked like a charm. In fact later that day I felt confident enough to put on a Gloucestershire Old Spot pork shoulder and some pig wings. Here's a little Q view from half way through the smoke.
The Pork Butt came out brilliantly. It such a satisfying feeling to be finally cooking on my own UDS.
A very heartfelt thankyou to everyone that contributes to the forum. It really is a case of food bringing folks together. Needless to say my UDS is going to be bringing a lot of folks together! Tonight I'm doing a couple of ST Louis Rib racks for the family...awesome :) .
I managed to source some food grade 45 gallon drums. That's 55 US gallon size.
They had mango puree in them and had no liner inside just a coat of paint.
I had the two drums shotblasted back to bare metal by a local company. One drum was destined to be a smoker the other a jerk pan. They came up pretty good afterwards.
Next the holes were drilled for the 3 1" intakes and the exhaust holes. A daisy wheel was cut and drilled to control the exhaust and I welded the charcoal basket under the guidance of a good friend with a stick welder.
I made the charcoal basket 12"x12"x12" so as to hold enough lump and wood chunks to be able to do a long smoke for larger cuts of meat. Used M12 stud as the legs to raise it 3" off the base of the drum/ash pan. Once this was done I then installed a grill thermometer and a heat diffuser pan made out of a cut down drum lid with 1" holes cut into it. I then installed a Weber 22.5" stainless cooking grate.
The drum was then given several coats of Rustoleum grill paint and now started to look like a UDS. Used some copper pipe and elbows for the main intake which will eventually have a ball valve on it.
As soon as that was done I decided to do a test burn and season her with cooking oil. After digesting the wealth of information here lighting and getting her up to temperature and damping down the intakes was surprisingly simple. It worked like a charm. In fact later that day I felt confident enough to put on a Gloucestershire Old Spot pork shoulder and some pig wings. Here's a little Q view from half way through the smoke.
The Pork Butt came out brilliantly. It such a satisfying feeling to be finally cooking on my own UDS.
A very heartfelt thankyou to everyone that contributes to the forum. It really is a case of food bringing folks together. Needless to say my UDS is going to be bringing a lot of folks together! Tonight I'm doing a couple of ST Louis Rib racks for the family...awesome :) .
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