British BBQ Society Forums

I'm a keen food eater and love BBQing foods.

I built a BBQ out of an old oil drum a few years ago that turned out to be very shoddy. I've just started building an Ugly Drum Smoker. In researching it I came upon this site. Fantastic!!

I have spent many years in America and made many 'redneck' friends and as a consequence became very familiar with some very tastey BBQ nosh - including squirrel. I've been back in the UK for 16 years.

I am hoping that there are a few on this site who live near-by and who, maybe, wouldn't mind a family of 4 droping in to checkout their version of how BBQing's done. I am also looking for advice about where I'm going with my UDS. I am hoping to chuck some pics up on here of my progress.

But, most of all, I have always loved the society of it and I am glad to have found this site.

Cheers

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

Looks like your family of four just got a bit bigger lol.

There are a few people on here that have built UDS cookers already and have a great experience in getting awesome results from them.

I have a family of four with my kids aged 12 & 13, they absolutely love the BBQ events and BBBQS make it a real family affair, especially at the competitions with young people categories.

Welcome to the forum, you'd be welcome to sample my food but we are all the way up in North Nottinghamshire.

All the best

Adie

Welcome Mate....looking forward to the pics of your UDS

Cheers for that.

Can't figure out which would be the most appropriate forum to go with my UDS. I have some questions that I want to put out. One inparticular is about the drum. I have a drum that contained a synthetic lubricant. I have some South African friends who all say that all the bbqs they had were on old oil drums that were very well burnt out as part of the construction of it. There are some web sites that indicate that you can use drums that had oil in - just burn em good. Some sites say to only use food grade drums.

I would like to very much work within what is thought appropriate in here. Should I leave the lubricant drum alone? Does anyone know where I can get a food grade?


Cheers

Cheers Doc

Even the 'food grades' need to be burnt out.
I'm in the middle of my last night shift and I'm hoping to have the lid ground off tomorrow afternoon - weather permitting. Maybe go for an all-day burn monday and I hope to get some pics along the way.

I've a good assortment of wire wheels including a cup to bung onto my drill.

Thanks

Andrew

welcome Andrew. Looking forward to seeing your pics and I'm sure there are plenty of people around to help you out in your build.

Helloooo helloooo

I've so far managed to grind the lid half off. It's really hard work and I'm not sure if there is an easier way. I have the drum up-right and I'm basically grinding with the flat side of the grinding stone. I've never used the grinder like this and my hands are still aching today. It would probably be easier if the drum was on it's side so I could use the weight of the grinder to do the work. However; I can't do that because there is a bit of oil in the drum. As the drum came without the main cap on the lid rain water got in, The oil - presumably now floating on top of this rain water - was skimmed off the top and out of an air vent hole when I tilted the drum to pick it up - onto our deck leaving a nice big stain. (I've been working hard to convince my wife that this is a very worth while endeavour and the oil on the deck did nothing to help persuade her). Any way - it is no way as easy as I thought and it takes a while to know how deep is deep enough before you start grinding merrily away at parts you don't want to be ground.

One thing I really want to be able to do is make sure I can get a really good hot burn when it comes to burning it out. So I've figured that the more air vent holes the better so I went for the 4 vent option. These I placed 2 1/2 inches from the bottom. I did wonder if I would only need 2 vents as some I've seen. Some only have one and a good number have 4. I supposed that 4 would be too many for cooking with but, for the initial burning out and subsequent seasonings 4 might give that little bit extra air draw for some higher temps. I hope anyway. This was all just supposing on my part - not based on any science and it maybe that sufficient air flow can be had from just the 2 holes. I intend to do lots of practice burns to hopefully find any hot/cold spots within the UDS and see if a heat diffuser is needed to even any temp variations out. I was thinking about making a diffuser out of the base of another oil drum.

I haven't got a Weber lid. I am going to use the drum lid until I can find a used 57cm Weber lid or maybe a 'second'.

I have 3 racks designed for the 57cm Weber. They were on sale and I managed to get a bit of the price knocked off as I wanted 3. One is just above the charcoal box. This one will have the heat diffuser on it and, possibly, a water tray. I'll then have two racks for the nosh. In the event that I can get a Weber lid I have made extra holes for another level at the top. (1 1/2 inches from the rim). I'm imagining that this top level could also be used to grill on with the charcoal box raised.

It took me a long time before I realized that the 57cm, written on the 57cm grill packaging, was NOT the size of the grill rack but rather the size of the Weber drum.

Back to the grinder in a minute - but just a bit at a time.

My images are too large to upload. Not sure how to reduce image file size.

Pictures

Cheers Doc
Lid's nearly off. I am just grinding through the rim just enough to get the lid off in the hope the the rim of the drum will be intact - if that's what you mean. The edge of the lid appears to be very sharp and I'm going to set my file on it. The rim of the drum seems to be rounded - although I can't really tell yet until I get all the lid off. I did wonder about how the Weber lid would fit. I imagined that the lid would be hard to get hold of and so in the interest of getting this thing done I've gone for the actual lid of the drum. If/when I do get a Weber lid I could get the rim welded back on perhaps? I know a couple of people that weld for beer (not whilst welding - it's important to add ).

Warping of the drum is something I'm worried about and I'm just going to go for burn with my fingers crossed. I am also considering possible heat expansion of the lid, whilst cooking, causing the lid to lock in place.

I've drained out the water and oil. Going to leave it for the night on it's side to give the slow moving stuff a chance to drain out.

Here we are. It seems that it should be a very snug fit.



I do have assess to more drums