Alright, I'm new to smoking & the forum and I figured I'd upload some pictures of our first UDS build and smoke. A friend and I built our UDS last weekend (he's a forum member as well, smokinhonkers). We bought a steel drum we found on Kijiji for $10. This drum ended up being perfect as it was totally unpainted and the seller claimed it had never been used, in hindsight we should have bought 2 or 3 of these right away in case we wanted to build another UDS in the future. The steel drum also came with a lid that clamps on. We also used an old charcoal bbq I had kicking around the house and rarely used (I think I paid $40 for it on sale at Canadian Tire). We used the bottom half of the bbq as our fire box & were able to use the grill as well.
We cheaped out on the air intake (we're both dutch) and decided not to buy a couple 1" ball valves like most people do, and instead bought a 4" HVAC intake vent with a flap that opens and closes. Obviously it was going to let a little bit of air in, but we hoped we could still keep our temps low enough for some slower cooks (250-275F range). On our first go-round we couldn't keep the temperatures below around 325F so we bought a cap for the intake vent. We figured we would drill some holes into the cap & vent and then regulate the amount of air getting in by just spinning the cap to either open up or close off the holes. I realize this probably sounds like a hack method of doing things, but seemed to work out quite nicely & was pretty cheap. For the vent at the top of the UDS we just drilled a few holes and bought an electrical plate that can rotate to either close off or open up the holes.
All said, including the drum, charcoal bbq, and intake vents I'd say the whole thing cost us around $70-80.
I should have taken some better pictures of the firebox & vent system but I'm sure you can use your imagination. This past Saturday we cooked up a couple chickens & thighs and were able to keep the temperature right around 250F no problem! We cooked our chicken for around 4 hours (to get to an internal temp of 165) & I must say it was the most incredible thing we've ever made.
Cheers,
Brad
We cheaped out on the air intake (we're both dutch) and decided not to buy a couple 1" ball valves like most people do, and instead bought a 4" HVAC intake vent with a flap that opens and closes. Obviously it was going to let a little bit of air in, but we hoped we could still keep our temps low enough for some slower cooks (250-275F range). On our first go-round we couldn't keep the temperatures below around 325F so we bought a cap for the intake vent. We figured we would drill some holes into the cap & vent and then regulate the amount of air getting in by just spinning the cap to either open up or close off the holes. I realize this probably sounds like a hack method of doing things, but seemed to work out quite nicely & was pretty cheap. For the vent at the top of the UDS we just drilled a few holes and bought an electrical plate that can rotate to either close off or open up the holes.
All said, including the drum, charcoal bbq, and intake vents I'd say the whole thing cost us around $70-80.
I should have taken some better pictures of the firebox & vent system but I'm sure you can use your imagination. This past Saturday we cooked up a couple chickens & thighs and were able to keep the temperature right around 250F no problem! We cooked our chicken for around 4 hours (to get to an internal temp of 165) & I must say it was the most incredible thing we've ever made.
Cheers,
Brad
