What a great idea for a forum! I can tell right now I am going to burn countless hours perusing this forum. I can already see there are many seasoned veterans here and tasty resources to be discovered. Hope you don't mind the meat smoking puns! I stumbled on this forum while researching improvements to make to my smoker. As my name suggests, I am a drum smoker, specifically an ugly drum smoker. When not smoking on my UDS, my weber Kettle grill is a close second choice, especially for smaller quantities of meat such as a single rack of ribs or a tri-tip roast. I only recently discovered the name for my kind of smoker is a UDS and how popular they are. I learned how to build one from my Dad who used to smoke spare ribs in an Aluminum garbage can when I was a kid. The galvanized metal must not have been too bad for us because I am STILL ALIVE to smoke more meat. I can remember neighbors who were not familiar with our brand of cooking in the suburbs running over to warn us that our garbage was on fire! My Dad learned to make his drum smoker from my grandpa who did use a 55 gallon oil drum. I've heard stories of him burning it out and then cooking in it. It only seemed natural when I got a place of my own that I would, in turn, craft my own drum smoker which I did in 2001. We had neighbors who had doomsday prepped for the Y2K apocalypse. When they moved, I picked up one of their food grade drums and made the smoker. I like to keep things really simple with my smoker. I use the stock lid which has two large bungholes for the exhaust. There are bolts in the side to hold the weber 22" cooking grills. I have one about 7 inches down or so and one near the top. I also have holes at the top to place re-bar through it to hang meat on some hooks. I like to make the drum as flexible as possible to smoke different cuts. Have done Brisket, ribs, chickens, turkeys, sausages, you name it. There is also a weber cooking grate I cut half out of so I can put meat on the grill and then hang meat on the other side of the smoker. This works well for spare ribs. I like to hang the St. Louis cuts and smoke the brisket pieces on the grill side. I have also set this thing up so I can sear on it by raising up the coals. But I do usually use my weber kettle for that purpose. One of the unique things I believe about my UDS is that I use an old plow disc as the charcoal cooking grate. It is very heavy gauge steel and sits on top of 3 clay bricks at the bottom. I typically stack the charcoal in a pyramid and light coals in the middle of it so the burn will progress outwards from there. I use another weber cooking grate on top of the disc so the ash from the coals drops down onto the disc. This makes it so the ash doesn't clog the fire and the ashes land on the disc so as not to burn out the bottom of the Drum. I have been using this same drum for almost 17 years now! I do usually put wood on top of the coals as well. I like to incorporate some of the local woods as I am here in the Pacific Northwest. Most common are Alder and Birch for smoking. I do like to mix those with the Hickories, Mesquites, Pecans, Oak, etc., more of the standard smoking woods. I will post a few pictures here of a recent cook to share and look forward to participating in the forum. One of my projects coming up will be to add a couple intakes with the ball valves as I have recently discovered that method from this forum, looking at other people's UDS, and it looks like a really good idea to give more control of the temperature. I have fixed holes which I have just been plugging up by putting sticks in them when needed. The valves should be a great addition to my UDS! I am already picking up some great ideas from this forum. Thanks!
