Victor's UDS

[victor65]

Hi folks,

I just started building my first UDS, got hold of a food grade barrel (open lid and used to store Rhubarb Juice).

Drilled 3 20mm holes around the bottom and  burned it out.

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• victor65
• Jul 25, 2013

View media item 242287
Got 2 Weber 22.5" grill racks.

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• victor65
• Jul 25, 2013

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• victor65
• Jul 25, 2013

Sanded down the paint residue inside and out and washed the barrel with water (shows a bit of surface rust right now).

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• victor65
• Jul 25, 2013

Enlarged the bottom holes to 31mm to fit three 1" ball valves.

Drilled holes for the grates 7" and 14" from the top and inserted stainless bolts.

I'm still waiting for the charcoal crate.

Pictures will follow.

Regards from north-west Germany, Victor

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• victor65
• Jul 25, 2013

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• victor65
• Jul 25, 2013

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• victor65
• Jul 25, 2013

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• victor65
• Jul 25, 2013

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• victor65
• Jul 25, 2013

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• victor65
• Jul 25, 2013

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• victor65
• Jul 25, 2013

 

[bobank03]

Looks like you are off to a great start, Victor. I am interested in building a UDS myself someday so I am watching your progress. Keep the pics coming. 

 

[jrod62]

Nice start.

 

[fwismoker]

Looks good! Wire brush it good. ...I hope you meant charcoal basket not grate? ..or making a basket from a grate?

 

[victor65]

Looks good! Wire brush it good. ...I hope you meant charcoal basket not grate? ..or making a basket from a grate?

Yeah you're right, I meant a charcoal basket, as English is no t my native language, I still have to get used to the right names for the different grill parts.

The basket will be made from an old wash machine drum, here in Europe most household wash machines (for laundry) are front loaders, the drums are stainless steel and very suitable as charcoal baskets, I'll post pictures as soon as I have mine.

Regards, Victor 

 

[bobank03]

that sounds like a great plan! Keep up the good work!

 

[victor65]

Painted the Barrel with high temp paint this morning.

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• victor65
• Jul 29, 2013

Installed the 1" ball valves and the thermometers which arrived from South Korea this morning.

Covered the inside of the drum with a light coat of vegetable oil.

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• victor65
• Jul 29, 2013

Lighted the charcoal around 1pm, will try to burn in the paint and season the drum.

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• victor65
• Jul 29, 2013

Added a couple of chunks of dry oak. The charcoal basket is just the pan of an old grill, not the coal basket I will use in the future.

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• victor65
• Jul 29, 2013

A close-up of the thermometer.

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• victor65
• Jul 29, 2013

Light smoke is visible.

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• victor65
• Jul 29, 2013

Temperature difference is about 10° C, dialed in at 130°C (around 2:30pm)

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• victor65
• Jul 29, 2013

Rechecked the temperature at 7:00pm, it just dropped 7°C, about half an hour before this we had a heavy rain shower for about 30 minutes. 

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• victor65
• Jul 29, 2013

Stirred up the coals and added some chunks of oak, let it smoke again.

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• victor65
• Jul 29, 2013

Because there is still a lot of heat left in the coals (1/3 left), I want to try something simple, dried tomatoes.

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• victor65
• Jul 29, 2013

Regards, Victor

 

[fwismoker]

Not sure how the washer basket looks like Victor but hopefully it has holes in the bottom as well as the sides. Normally a basket never needs stirred. If it doesn't work to expectations then fashion a basket from expanded steel.

Your build is coming along great..GOOD LUCK!

 

[victor65]

The basket I used has no holes in the bottom, that's why I stirred up the coals.

I'm still waiting for the washer basket, as soon as it arrives, Ill post some pics.

Regards, Victor

 

[victor65]

Hi again, this morning the postmen brought the washer drum I'm going to use as a charcoal basket.

Diameter is about 20", hight about 10"

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• victor65
• Jul 31, 2013

High resolution pic of the side

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• victor65
• Jul 31, 2013

I cut the top of

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• victor65
• Jul 31, 2013

Because the bottom does not have any holes in it, I added a bottom of stretched steel about 1.5" from the bottom, the whole basket sits on 3 bolts about 2" from the bottom of the drum.

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• victor65
• Jul 31, 2013

Added a handle and hook to the lid

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• victor65
• Jul 31, 2013

Filled the basket with about 4 kilos (8 pounds) of charcoal, plenty of room left for more :-)

The little basket in the middle is from IKEA (called ORDNING)

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• victor65
• Jul 31, 2013

Because I want to increase the patina inside my smoker, I added some chunks of oak

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• victor65
• Jul 31, 2013

Removed the center basket to create a hole for the hot coals

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• victor65
• Jul 31, 2013

Filled the hole with about 3/4 of a charcoal chimney

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• victor65
• Jul 31, 2013

After adding the hot coals, the temp rose to about 350°F

leaving all 3 ball valves (1" each) the temperature dropped to about 270°F

after closing the valves about halfway the temp rose again to 325°F

After closing 2 valves and leaving the 3th a bit (aprox. 1/3) the temp dropped again but this time to 250°F.

Regards, Victor

 

[bobank03]

Victor, that is pretty sweet. How did you cut the top off of the basket? Let us know how long it runs at 250. Nice job. 

 

[victor65]

I cut the top with an INOX grade 1mm disk on my small angle grinder. Cut from the top down just inside of the rim, so that the basket stays rigid.

I can't tell how long it stays at 250°, I'm playing around to get used to the setting of the valves in respect to the temperature, between each change I'll let the smoker stabilize for at least 45 minutes.

Regards, Victor

 

[victor65]

After firing up the UDS yesterday afternoon, I played around a bit with the valves to get a feeling for its temperature behavior.

At 22:00 I had it dialed in at 250°, at 00:30 it still hold that temperature despite a bit of rain.

This morning at 07:00 I found the UDS sitting at aprox. 200°, the whole garden was wet, so it must have been raining lightly for a couple of hours.

I opened valves all the way and the temp rose to 400°, closed one of them and let it sit a couple of hours at 300°.

24 hours after lighting it, I opened all valves again and the temp still rose to over 350°.

27 hours after lighting the coals, I closed all the valves to extinguish the coals.

Can't say how pleased I'm right now.

This evening I prepared 3 half racks of baby back ribs and a armadillo egg for cooking tomorrow.

More to come.

Regards, Victor

 

[fwismoker]

Nice Victor!!! I'm happy it worked out good!

 

[themule69]

Victor

Nice UDS Nice basket.I see many years of great Q in your future.

Happy smoken.

David

 

[webowabo]

Looking good. I like the basket..