UDS Build Stall (Build Stalls Over, We're Smokin' w/Qview!)

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I lit 10 coals and will drop down to 8 next time I'm thinking (I've read many post folks say they start with 8 coals?).  I think one of biggest problems was the air from the lid.  Once I put the blanket around it to seal it up, the temps dropped dramatically very quick.  Since then I've been able to maintain 220s and low 230s.  Just spritz again a little bit ago and just as you said, the temps bumped up to 240* but soon settled right back down.

Thanks for the information!  
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Dean, as for the rubber ring how about a bike tire. Mine came with a metal ring with a locking bolt, I'm gonna look into a snap lock device to latch it open and close. I'll bet you could order one or search around for.

Nice looking Butt ya got there
 
SMC, I do have the lock ring (didn't think of that).  Hummm an inner tube may be just the trick!  The wife has this stretching bands for working but she stopped me going out the door with one of them! LOL

Got the spritzing down now without rocketing spikes so I've got that worked out.  Now if I could just convince this butt that being at 166* IT for almost 3 hours now is looooonng enough!  I'm getting hungry!  

And the wife has the nerve to say, "I hope you're not ruining our meat!"  Huh, you are kidding me right honey?  This is going to be the best butt of the 10 or so I've done guaranteed! lol  
 
Well, the 3 1/2 hour stall at 166* ended at 9 hours in.  Temps started dropping off at about the same time.  When she hit 217, I opened 1 cap with the BV still 1/2 throttle.  When temps started recovering back up to the 230* mark I closed the cap again and temps have been good and have held at 229*, the once trade was that apparently when I opened the cap is started burning new coals which began putting off a lot of smoke...the bad kind..lol  

After waiting about an hour to see if the smoke would clear itself and it didn't I figured it was time to foil it.  I had hoped to take it to the end (200*) without foil this time, but figured I didn't want to creosote this baby after all this today!  We're now at just over 10 1/2 hours of pure joy and happiness and she's climbed to 176*.  It'll be done when it's done!  But dang, come on baby, 24 more degrees to go, I'm starving!! 
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something i discovered after seeing it done on here is,when you load your basket with charcoal,place a 2qt juice can,with both top and bottom cut out,in the middle of the basket and put your charcoal around it,then dump your hot coals into the can,then use pliers and lift can out.this really made a big difference in my temp control. happy smokes,oh yea the butt looks great!!
 
11 hours and 50 minutes!! wooohooo...we're going to eat at 9 p.m.! LOL  But it's all good, we're starving.   First UDS smoke completed and still looks like a ton of coals left in the basket. Stay tuned for the final Qview...she's going to rest for hour max now and am I! lol

kaveman, thanks...I used a coffee can with the top and bottom out.  Done as you said with the can...but as pandemonium posted I may have used to many starter coals...I used 10.  Think a lot of post I've read folks mention 8.  Guess I just need to find that sweet spot.  But I'm still curious because when I wrapped the blanket around the lid the temps dropped like 36 degrees within like 20 minutes.  Could have been coincidence I suppose.

EDIT - Forgot the little joy I got in taking this picture!

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Man I'm rooting for you!

 but you got to admit this is part of the fun of smoking
 
Big Question on your build ? You decided on the smaller weber charcoal grill to make your basket ( They sell 2 sizes )  one is like 15 " and one is 18". Could it be the charcoal is piled to high and tight, and not enough wide and lower that it would fire a lot hotter??? I went to by mine and wasnt sure if one was better than the other.

Still rooting for you man, Got to let the wifey know your not going to ruin all the meat. 
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Dave - Thanks!  You betcha, beats any day of yard work!  And the end results is always worth the wait, just as tonights wait was.

SMC - Thanks again!  They have a 13 1/2 and an 18 1/2 inch Weber charcoal grate at least that I found.  I used the 13 1/2" primarily because I wanted to use it with the pizza pan and seen that no one in all the threads I've read really mentioned any preference.  I kept the coals the height of the coffee can (6 1/4") and then added 10 hot coals to get it started.  Not sure, I could have had the coals to tight. I was also wondering using the can if when I pull the can and everything falls over it, sort of smothering it, if that would cause it to smoke so heavily.  I also see where some folks just put the hot coals right on top, in the middle of their coals.

Something new I think is just to take some working with to perfect, just like the Q.  Speaking of the Q, no one was disappointed, even after waiting until 9 p.m. to eat.  haha...The daughter and her family came over.  Think everyone is getting the hang of it and know if I'm smokin', they may want to snack before coming over! LOL

The Q was great, moist and had a flavor I'm not used to obviously using the gasser.  I wasn't sure if it wasn't a little to much coal flavoring but everyone else insisted they loved the flavor of tonights butt.  I did as well, but I guess seeing a lot of that ugly white smoke early on and toward the end of the smoke, I was probably convincing myself it was creosote....Everyone from the wife on down to the 13 month old lovely granddaughter loved it, so it must have been good! LOL

Enough of the words, we'll let the pictures finish this one out.  After I get a chance to look at the basket to see a burn pattern in the basket, I'll probably post something on my findings.  I know there were still a TON of coals left and this thing I'm sure could have burned another 12 hours!  When they say these are fuel misers, they aren't kidding!

Shut UP Dean and post the pictures already!!!!!

That 3 1/2+ hour stall and not foiling until 173* definitely generated some bark which was quite tasty!

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And the money shot, this little darling Carolina Girl, loved papa's Q! (she was getting a little sleepy waiting..lol) 
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Thanks again to everyone for your input and all along the way.  Looking forward to next weekends smoke already!
 
SMC - thanks!  It was nice and tender...think that flare up of heavy smoke 9 hours in kind of tainted the overall taste a little, but everyone enjoyed it said they liked the flavor.  

Do any of you get thick coal smoke late in your burns?  Think I've figured out how I caused, after running the screw caps covered almost the entire day, when the temp started to drop at almost the 9 hour mark, I open the 1 cap and it seemed to maybe pull the fire to a section of the coals that igniting through the natural course of the burn and it cause them to flare up quickly instead of gradually?  Would that or does that even make sense?  Sometimes it's hard to express your point through the keyboard! LOL
 
im not sure i have had that problem really, you will get that fresh coal smell from time to time but cant say i noticed smoke from the new coals being lit?
 
Good lookin spread man. I was so glad to read that everything started working out for you. I kept thinking that you had air entering the drum somewhere but I could not for the life of me think of where it may have been getting in. I never thought about the lid.
 
pandemonium - thanks!  Wow, just read my previous post and guess all the typo's didn't help in trying to explain what I was trying to say! lol  But yeah, at the 9 hour mark, when I opened the 1 cap for about 10 minutes, it seemed that it ignited another part of the pile of coals and it began billowing heavy white smoke...real heavy.  I tried to bare with it to see if it would burn clean for nearly an hour, but it didn't so I went ahead and foiled to try to protect the meat from becoming a chunk of creosote.  Of course it seemed within minutes after I foiled the butt, the smoke settled down.  lol  Previous to that flare up though, after the initial start up, I had nice TBS going for most of the day. 

Tom - thanks!  After a while of trying not to go into panic mode, I figured ok, you can either give up or figure it out...glad I decided on the latter because it did end up being something so simple.  I still have the gasket that came with the lid and I'm going to try to clean it up a little and reinstall it.  I don't remember reading anything about not using it or it being a hazard?  And I'm going to make a decision on how I'm going to run my probe cables so they aren't interfering with the lid sealing up.  I hated pinching them like that too because I didn't want to damage them.  

I was hoping to check out the fire basket and coal burn pattern this evening but the grandson had his tonsil's out today so we spent time with him this evening.  
 
How the grandson is doing well, probably jello and icecream as a main course unless that has changed in the last 30 something years LOL.

I read a while back that someone drilled a hole and used a frig magnet with a slit in it for the probe entrance. I think I am going to try that method and see how I like it.
 
He's doing great thanks.  Lot's of changes with the procedure over the last 30 years as I learned with him.  It's about a 20 minute procedure and you go home a couple hours after recovering from the anesthesia, no more hospital stays, but the ice cream and jello is still a part of the procedure.  LOL

On the probe cables, I've been thinking along those lines more myself too.  I was thinking of notching the lid, but I don't want anything more to do with the lid! LOL  Hoping to get me a nice shelf built this week.  Your wheel setup is sweet on your setup!
 
 
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I drilled one 1/4 inch hole for my probes and it works good with or without the magnet it seems, just pay attention unlike me as to where you drill the hole lol. I didnt have the shelf on mine at the time so the hole is opposite the shelf so the cords barely reach the shelf to set the thermos on.
 
panedmonium - thanks, I just tapped a 1/4" hole near the front (thanks for mentioning about placement I was thinking of doing it on the backside!).

Scrubbed her out last night because I thought she had to much creosote buildup.  While I was at it I added the old smokey thermo and drilled the 1/4" hole for the probes.  The son was home so I let him and his buddy paint her for me.  I'm going to hate to part with her but after tomorrows butt I guess I'm going to stick with the plan and hand her off to my son-in-law.  They came over last weekend and he was raring to build one so I know he'll enjoy it.

Today, seasoning it again and I learned a lot from the last 3 burns so this one is going well and I should be tuned in for tomorrows smoke. She's been holding great at 230*.  Only lite 8 coals in the chimney, set the basket in, closed the lid.  At 180* I closed 1 cap, at 200* closed the second cap and at 225* I closed the BV to 1/2 throttle.  She settled in at 240* and then dropped off into the 230*'s and has been holding.  Think I'd let her settle in for almost an hour before putting the meat on in the future.  Allow it time to settle the temp and initial smoke down.

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I am not sure where in NC you are Dean but if you near the Triad I have a great source for lump. I also have a source for some open top drums used for shipping honey with no liner. Congrats on the UDS! I haven't used my offset since building mine a year ago.
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