My First UDS Build, In England

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euromir

Fire Starter
Original poster
May 10, 2015
51
18
Kent UK
Well as i said in my intro thread, just ten days ago id never even heard of a UDS.! I was merely looking to buy a cheap offset smoker off ebay and then of course i read many topics suggested for the money a UDS build was far wiser.

So here i am just days later building my UDS already! Hoping to have it usable and smoking next week!

I decided to get the Big Poppas UDS Kit, as frankly i was feeling lazy and the thought of hunting shops etc for all the right size parts etc and then awaiting deliveries etc AND then working out measurements etc... Yea so well i just went easy option and bought the kit!

Got my drum off Ebay, managed to get an unlined open top drum so thankfully no horror lining to get out.

So far this weekend i have drilled out all the holes for the parts, had a burn out, sanded/grinded down the drum. Hopefully get a first coat of VHT paint on it before the end of the day too..





And i must go and find the UK Group whilst im here too!
 
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All Good, just about done for the day. Inside scrubbed out and oiled (Canola, not yet seasoned) and two coats of paint on it. Not sure how good my paint job will hold, ive never been good at painting even with sprays, but its protection and looks reasonable..

I shall leave it to dry, put it in the shed later.

And tomorrow evening when i get home i shall bolt on all the parts etc and hopefully fire up some lumpwood to season it all up. Not bad for 48hrs. Im chuffed.



 
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popcorn.gif
  I'm in.


Danny
 
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Looks good. Spray paint on bare metal sticks really well so I'm sure your paint job will hold up. As for buying a UDS kit, it actually is a really good deal when you add up the cost of the parts. About half way through my build I thought "man I could have saved a bunch of money with a kit".

Good luck. 
 
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So i rushed home from work to use a couple of hours of daylight....

Sadly im still not happy with my paint job, the paint was meant to be more of a "satin" finish but its very matt finish and getting very scuffed already! So long term i will look at a different finish, but admittedly it will do for now, want to get cooking! Haha

Bolting all the parts from the BP kit was fun, as there was only me i had to think how to get the bolts on when you really need two people! Voila the ratchet strap idea came to me, worked like a charm. I didnt manage to find any shop today that sold HT Silicone which i wanted for the bottom vents, so will have to see how it goes without, seems to be sat pretty tight to the drum so might get away with it.



So once i had it all built, i wasted a can of spray cooking oil coating the inside fully and fired her up for a seasoning (and hopefully cure the paint too!)

I discovered my first small hurdle! Buy better charcoal, as the stuff i got from supermarket is very small chunks and 1/2 of it fell straight out the bottom of the BP fire-basket. I dont have a chimney yet (its on the wish list) so i used my pro blowtorch to get the top layer of coals going.


Must get used to this American temperature malarky!  hahaha (or get a therm in Celsius)

So here she is, the paint job may change at a later date but i present my first ever smoker.....


Will leave the seasoning burning overnight, should be safe enough id assume on the patio...

Totally loved the Big Poppas kit, so easy to follow templates and everything fits perfectly, managed to build the whole thing in couple of days, yet sure if i tried a full self-build id be messing about for weeks getting it all to fit, so big up BP.
 
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That looks great.  Good job.  As far as the thermometer goes, if you're going to take all the tips and recipes off this site, you might want to just stick with fahrenheit.  It's cheaper that way, too.  
 
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Funny i was just thinking that myself before i saw your post, this site is all in F, so may as well get used to it...  :)
 
Howdy, Euromir!

I think all the thermos I have will display either Fahrenheit or Celsius. Even the dial ones have both printed on their face.

Like many here, I have the Maverick thermos ET-73, ET-732, and ET-733 for monitoring cooker heat and meat temps. I also have a Thermopop (UK product from ThermoWorks) and a couple other stick-and-read types.

Looks like you did a great job on your UDS. Thanks for the post and the pics. Don't forget to capture the first cook with pics and share them and your experience with us!

rh
 
So the first seasoning burn was partly successful.
As say partly as temperature didn't hold, but to be fair I wasn't paying attention to it and left it be.

So I lit up about 1/3 basket of lumpwood and opened all vents to leave it to season up the oil coating. After about an hour I was happy as it was at 350-400 degrees and basket was nice and red coals but when i checked before bed about 90mun later it was right down to about 100 degrees and not much signs of burning in basket.

So had there been food cooking it wouldn't have end d well, that said it was a first try seasoning so not end world.

I guess it's down to cheap supermarket charcoal and just opening all cents and leaving it be.

I'll give a clean out tonight and if time go for a second coat of seasoning.
 
So the first seasoning burn was partly successful.
As say partly as temperature didn't hold, but to be fair I wasn't paying attention to it and left it be.

So I lit up about 1/3 basket of lumpwood and opened all vents to leave it to season up the oil coating. After about an hour I was happy as it was at 350-400 degrees and basket was nice and red coals but when i checked before bed about 90mun later it was right down to about 100 degrees and not much signs of burning in basket.

So had there been food cooking it wouldn't have end d well, that said it was a first try seasoning so not end world.

I guess it's down to cheap supermarket charcoal and just opening all cents and leaving it be.

I'll give a clean out tonight and if time go for a second coat of seasoning.
When the temp dropped to 100 was there unburnt charcoal? If so, then you probably had some bad charcoal. If I open all my events it shoots up to 400ish and stays there until it burns through all the fuel.
 
I had some of that charcoal from the supermarket one time and it was a nightmare to keep lit. It either wanted to go out or go full flames. No inbetween. Stick with the good stuff and use that crap charcoal for camping or grilling.
 

That's how the coals looked this morning, so yes it didn't all take and burn. But I ordered two bags of recommended charcoal today, so get that in there.
 
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Hello.  Looks GREAT!  Don't rely too much on that therm..  They are usually wrong.  Get a good dual probe digital therm.  It will save you lots of heartache.  You need to hold certain temp ranges and cook to a particular internal temp.  Keep Smokin!

Danny
 
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