80% finished, My 1st UDS

OK, I put a handle on the lid and the back to move it with. I'll put wheels on later.Pix later too. I put a PVC ballcock on one of the inlets. I thought I'd take it out back to season it and see if it would hold any kind of temp. I opened all the valves and vents wide open to start the coals and oak chunks. Don't have a basket yet so I used a lg. chimney starter this time to hold the coals. Heated up to around 400 degrees and I let it burn there awhile. Then I shut it down and around 200 degrees I opened the ballcock and one plug on the bottom. Vent on top all the way open. Went up to about 260 degrees and finally held there for over and hr. Shut the ball-cock down to about a quarter and nudged down to 240. I far as I can tell it's gonna work. I wanted to do hook and cook temps if I wanted but also wanted BBQ temps too. So far the PVC valve seems to work fine. It's only on about a 3in. riser and it's painted flat black to match the barrel. One more temp./seasoning run and I think I'll try some ribs soon. It has attracted a lot of attention. Actually had a neighbor ask where I bought it. Not sure if it looks that good or he assumed I couldn't have built it myself from scratch. :)

P.S.  Sprayed the interior with a vegetable oil before the burn.

Finally finished! Put wheels, handles and a coal basket together. Used a hay hook to lift the basket in/out with. I set out to be able to open all vents and bbq hook/and cook style temp wise (still use grates to cook on) or shut it down and bbq at 200-250 low and slow style. I made my first attempt last night with a tri-tip so I opened all the vents used Kingsford briquets and a few chunks of red oak. After getting the coals started in a chimney It would barely crack the 300 mark and the meat was borderline too smokey flavored, but done perfectly. My hunch is I didn't have enough air and too many wood chunks on the coals so I'm gonna drill 2 more vent holes at the bottom and see if that will fix my temp issue?????  Fingers crossed!

And thanks to neighbor Jack for providing scrap material, technical know how, red oak and cold beer!!!

My first rack of Spareribs on the UDS this weekend turned out pretty good. Used the 3-2-1 method and the meat came clean off the bone.

Beef ribs this weekend. Turned out great !!!! 5 hrs. total