And So It Begins

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tbrtt1

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After ordering and acquiring parts, along with a heavy travel schedule at work, the building of my UDS has finally begun in earnest. Got a new unlined food grade drum from Sooner Containers in Conroe, TX, just a couple miles up the highway from where I live. Ordered the Big Poppa kit, but I will not be following the plans exactly on this. Gonna add a dome lid and extra racks and have the ability to use a Weber hanging rack as well. 

It will have 3 racks for cooking, one of which will double for the placement of the hanging rack. I will also put some bolts down low for a water pan or second level for coal basket for searing. 


The Big Poppa Kit with a shelf too. 


Picked up this puppy and I should be able to use the hing for the dome with just a tad bit of modification to the hinge attachment. $48 at Sam Walton's place


Got some 1/16 inch thick aluminum for the flashing so the lid would fit:


Will use 3 of the bolts attaching it as a grate holder. I will replace one of the long ones where the seam is with a shorter one. Just there for holding purposes



The lid hinges will need a spacer which I just got so it will align with the bottom hinge braket (not shown). Lid fits nice and tight. I will likely add a small bead of high temp silicone around the rim just to be sure. You can see my tape for the various measurements. 



 
Looks like your project is going to end up being a nice UDS. Get that thing together and start smoking.
 
Got some more done last night and should be able to finish up the drilling and assembly. Then I will break it all down,have it sandblasted and I'll paint it. I should be off the road for much of the week so I may get her done in time to use this coming weekend. 

This is the hanging assembly I will use when I want to hang stuff.


I was able to get some 1/2" Spacers to push out the top henge assembly and it fits nicely. So I have a hinged dome lid.


The 2 cooking racks. The second rack with the U-bolts will double as a sear level for the coal basket. I will add a 3rd level just above the basket for a drip/water pan. I will also add 4 bolts to fit the hanging assembly, as it was designed to fit in the rim of a Weber and won't fit on a typical 3 bolt layout.

 
You just can't help yourself can you? Have fun hope you don't run out of room for your stuff!
 
Update on progress. Got some more done since I last posted. Essentially just need to get the outside sandblasted and painted. That will have to wait for a couple of weeks when I can get it blasted and get it home to put high temp primer on it right away. But I will go ahead and do a light seasoning on it Friday or over the weekend. Having touched the inside of the barrel working on it caused some surface rust. When I get it blasted I may have them do the inside too if it needs it and just put another coat of Pam and season her up. 



Added some stabilizers to it. I can screw them up a little when I need to move and down again when it is in place. I fount with the shelf I have, and I may add another, it was a tad top heavy. 

 
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