Rookie building UDS smoker

Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2009 12:16 am

Hello all,
I'm a rookie at the bbq and new to the forum. I need all the help I can get.
I'm planning on building UDS smoker with a 22" Weber lid. I have some questions:
#1. What does UDS stand for? Ugly drum smoker?
#2. What should my top grill height be?
#3. Lower door size?
#4. How can I make or buy a door handle?
I guess I need some good plans.

Thank you all,
Chuck Confused

Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2009 4:52 pm

Welcome chuckied. Although many of us here have build a Ugly Drum Smoker, I don't think anyone took alot of time to post pictures and give advice. There is a great tutorial here :http://www.thepickledpig.com/forums/general-bbq-grilling/832-our-uds-cooker-how-build-one-part-1-a.html

Keep asking questions, we love to help when we can.

Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2009 7:08 pm

The tutorial that Jet_deck linked to is really quite good. I used it for my build with the exception that I had my neighbour weld on the intakes instead of using the conduit nuts.

Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2009 7:31 pm

chuckied wrote:

Hello all,
I'm a rookie at the bbq and new to the forum. I need all the help I can get.
I'm planning on building UDS smoker with a 22" Weber lid. I have some questions:
#1. What does UDS stand for? Ugly drum smoker?
#2. What should my top grill height be?
#3. Lower door size?
#4. How can I make or buy a door handle?
I guess I need some good plans.

Thank you all,
Chuck Confused

#1-correct; #2- about 24-26" above the fire; #3-no need for a lower door. It is just a source of air leakage; #4- not required.
BTW- the fire grate should be 1.5-2" above the bottom of the drum.

Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2009 11:14 pm

Smokin Jim,
Thanks for getting back to me.
My brother built a UDS, on his third cook he had a grease fire. I thought a door would be good for cleaning the inside. One thing I did observe is that he didn't have a pan under his basket. Is that for catching the grease too? How often do clean the drum?

Thanks for the help Jim,
Chuckie D. Confused

Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 6:22 am

Quote:

My brother built a UDS, on his third cook he had a grease fire. I thought a door would be good for cleaning the inside. One thing I did observe is that he didn't have a pan under his basket. Is that for catching the grease too? How often do clean the drum?

I have never heard of anyone I know having a grease fire in a UDS. Not to say it can't happen, just never heard it before. I have a fire grate that sits about 2" off the bottom of the drum with a 9"high x 13" diameter expanded steel sides. There is no pan under the basket. As far as cleaning, all I have ever done with mine is to empty the ashes after every 2nd cook. There is not much else to do except clean the grill.

Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 9:01 am

smokinJim wrote:

I have never heard of anyone I know having a grease fire in a UDS. Not to say it can't happen, just never heard it before. I have a fire grate that sits about 2" off the bottom of the drum with a 9"high x 13" diameter expanded steel sides. There is no pan under the basket. As far as cleaning, all I have ever done with mine is to empty the ashes after every 2nd cook. There is not much else to do except clean the grill.

I agree I have never had a grease fire in mine yet to date. I have the same setup as Jim where I have basket made from expanded steel and it works great.

Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 10:47 am

I built a few drums this summer .. I built the fire baskets just like the ones in the link jet_deck posted above .. By having the catch pan underneath the fire basket all you have to do to clean is lift the unit out .. I couldn't imagine not having the catch pan .. Would be a pain too clean .. The pan catches all the ashes and most of the grease ..

Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 7:42 pm

My bro uses the small weber charcoal grate on the bottom of his basket, it seems to have alot of space around it. Oh well, I hope to get started on this thing this weekend. I have 2 new drums, some stainless bolts and a old 22" Weber (10 bucks on craigslist)and two 1" ball valves sitting around. That should get me started.

There is more to come later!
Chuckie D. Wink

Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 9:53 pm

How do you post pictures to this thread?

Thanks,
Chuckie D. Question

Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 10:01 pm

chuckied wrote:

How do you post pictures to this thread?

Thanks,
Chuckie D. Question

You have to post them somewhere such as Flickr and then put [img]URL to PHOTO GOES HERE [/img]. You can do that for each photo.

Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 1:59 pm

Question for y'all:

If you are going to use (3) .75" openings to control but on average only use 1 of these openings. The area of 1 opening is approx. 0.44 sq inches. So in theory 3 of these give you a total square area of 1.32 square inches. To make a long story short if you reverse it down to get a total area of 1.32 square inches you could use an 1.25" valve.

I only ask because I have a 2" threaded bung on my barrel and if I don't need to add any unnecessary holes in my barrel that would be awesome!

What do you think?

DarrinG

Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 2:23 pm

DarrinG wrote:

Question for y'all:

If you are going to use (3) .75" openings to control but on average only use 1 of these openings. The area of 1 opening is approx. 0.44 sq inches. So in theory 3 of these give you a total square area of 1.32 square inches. To make a long story short if you reverse it down to get a total area of 1.32 square inches you could use an 1.25" valve.

I only ask because I have a 2" threaded bung on my barrel and if I don't need to add any unnecessary holes in my barrel that would be awesome!

What do you think?

DarrinG

Is the 2" opening on the lid of your barrel or at the bottom where you'd put the intakes?

I put three 3/4" intakes on the bottom and use the 2" bung on the lid as my exaust.

Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 2:39 pm

The bung is on the barrel itself pretty much 2" off the bottom. I don't have a bung in the lid. I've actually got a special plate made up for making the stack and damper system.

I just called about an 1.25" valve. Holy crap they want $30 for it. An 1" valve is $11. Thats an area difference of about .5 square inches.

DarrinG

Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 3:53 pm

Using 3 3/4 holes or valves you get air movement all around your fire for a much better burne ounce it gets going you can close 2 of them same as a WSM if it works well why fool with it keep it simple stupid. Rolling Eyes