wood placement in a UDS

[bruce1334]

I am currently building a UDS. My fire box design is expanded metal inside of a 5 gal bucket. Most of the sides of the bucket will be cut out for air circulation. The reason I have the expanded metal fuel holder in a 5 gal bucket is to catch the ashes and conveniently remove. The  bottom of the bucket and the sides up about 2" will be left for catching the ashes. I plan to have about 1" of sand in the bottom of the UDS under the fire box and bucket. The rest of the UDS will not be much different than what I see on the web.

My question is how to install the wood chips in the fire box. I see there are metal chip boxes available to buy. Do they set right on top of the coals? Some sites say mix the chips with the coals.I would like to get off on the right foot and not ruin anymore ribs than necessary. I do not have any feel on where to put the chips. I understand that about two fists of chips is enough, but don't know how long they will last before they are burned.

Also, is maple wood any good for smoking? I am loaded with maple trees but will have to look for Oak, etc. I have good access to mulberry wood. Is that any good for smoking?

Bruce

 

[jrod62]

Wood chips would not be good in a UDS. because you would have to replace chips every 45 min or so and to do so in a UDS you would have to take everything out of it to get to the wood chips.(your fire would get out of control by the time you got the wood chips replaced)

 So wood chunks would be a lot better. You will want to fill your charcoal basket with unlit charcoal and the wood chunks mix in with it. Or the mailbox mod like on mine is a good way to get smoke in it. you would use AMNPS in it.

If you need more info on the mailbox mod or the AMNPS just let me know.

Not sure why you want sand in the bottom of the UDS.

Lot of good info here on SMF on building UDS. If you need more help on the build just PM me and I will help you out on it.

by the way Welcome to SMF. Great place and great people that love to help here.

good luck on the build.