aquired my barrel, now to start building

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twardnw

Fire Starter
Original poster
Jun 10, 2010
40
10
Vancouver, WA
Saw an ad on craigslist for $5 barrels w/ lids, raced down, picked 2 up. One with liner, one without :) The one without liner is also a tad smaller in diameter, so I am hoping the lid from my Weber fits right on it. Should have it built this weekend, if the weather cools down a bit, too hot to do anything but sit around right now. The other one will be built this fall, after the burn-ban is lifted, so I can take care of the liner.
 
Well, it is built, and working on a cure run. My phone is acting up like crazy, so no pics yet. I have to say, I wish I would have known about the mighty UDS before I bought that POS Brinkmann. This thing holds temp sooooo easy, I love it.
 
Ok, got my phone to work long enough to get the pic off. Nothing great to look at, it epitomizes the U of UDS.

IMG_20100710_214228.jpg


Right now it's completely unpainted. I used a turkey-fryer-burner to burn off the paint and whatever was stored in the barrel. Heated a spot till it was glowing red, then rotated. Worked real good, got the inside completely clean and the outside will be ready for paint after a going over with the wire brush on my grinder. Only one grate in it now, but I will add a second, cooking ribs for my brothers birthday in 3 weeks. Doing an elk roast right now :)
 
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so here's how it went the other night...

started up, got the temp to 225-230 fairly stable. Closed down all the vents, added the elk roast 5 min later. Temps dropped to 215, opened things up (1 cap and 3/4 valve) till the temps returned to 225, closed the cap, and then had a mental blackout, and 'closed' the ball valve down all the way.

Well, 'closed' was actually open. Next thing I know, the temp is at 300. This time I actually closed down the valve, pulled the roast out to put in the oven, and went to bed.

Got up in the AM, and the temp was 230 (with everything closed). Think I have air leaking in from the lid, couldn't get it to sit exactly flat and thought it wouldn't matter. This evening, I put some stove-gasket around the barrel lip, and am now running a second test-burn to see how it acts.
 
I think maybe I would leave it as is. Crack the ball valve if ya wanna raise it just a little, you have pretty good temps if it would run that way every time.

Curious to see if the gasket makes the difference.
 
The temps are ok right now, but I would like to have it's 'bottom' temp be closer to 200.

Going to cook up a Pizza Fatty tonight, for lunch tomorrow.
 
The rope-gasket definitely made things much easier to control. Took me about an hour, but I got it to stabilize at 225. Fatty cooked up real nice, gotta figure out what is next now :) Here's a couple of pics:

IMG_20100713_210452.jpg


IMG_20100713_211006.jpg


question, after loading the hot coals to the basket, is it best to get up to temp before the food is in, or can I load the food as soon as I dump my chimney into the basket?
 
Not sure which is proper, but I try to get close to temp before I load it. It seems if I am on the upswing, I hit about 200 and climbing, shut down the 2 low vents and load my meat, the cold meat vs the rising temps seems to balance out and hang in there about 230 ish.
 
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