Our UDS Cooker (and How to Build One) - Part 1

[jdintn]

About the peanut oil, I read on the bottle that it's flammable, is that a problem or since the oil never comes in close proximity to the "fire" it's not a problem?
Also I got my fire basket welded today(pictures to come soon, I'm having a hard time with the ash pan. Short of going out and buying some kind of metal and basically making something I can't find anything else big enough to work. Cake pans are too small. Any ideas?

[sweept]

Would it be alright to build a UDS from a barrel that had brake cleaner in it?
I was told to put Dawn dishwashing soap and fill with water tip over and it would be ok. Sounds iffy to me.

[The Big Pig]

Would it be alright to build a UDS from a barrel that had brake cleaner in it?
I was told to put Dawn dishwashing soap and fill with water tip over and it would be ok. Sounds iffy to me.

I don't know what the dish soap would do but it seems a little hokey. I tend to think that if you burn out the drum and season it, any chemical residue from a prior life should be minimal. But I'm neither a chemist, poison control specialist, doctor, scientist, etc. and I have nothing solid to base my speculation on. Maybe it would be better to find a different drum just to be safe.

[fedex]

To be 100% safe you should take over to anyone who does powder coating and have them do a "Burn & Blast". Cost me $20.00 and for another $20.00 they put on a Porcelion Coat to the outside. Looks pretty fancy LOL.

[Mike W]

To be 100% safe you should take over to anyone who does powder coating and have them do a "Burn & Blast". Cost me $20.00 and for another $20.00 they put on a Porcelion Coat to the outside. Looks pretty fancy LOL.

Yeah my team mate did the same. Out here they'll blast inside and out and put a high temp powder coat on the outside for about $130. I decided to spend 5 hours with a torch and grinder on mine. Mine had orange juice concentrate and had the though as nails Teflon like inner coating. She's a bute now both of em. We cook on four for comps one for each meat. My other team mate got the one like at the beginning of this blog metal inside infused with oil so it wouldn't rust. He is using it with the factory paint. We've got it up to 400 and the paint is still though as nails.

[TXAGGIE10]

I just picked up my drum last night. It was a closed drum, so I'm going to have to find a lid, or get a Weber. I think it's gonna work out. The drum was better than I thought. Brand new, never used, for free!

[TXAGGIE10]

Worked on it last night. Didn't take long at all. Two hours max. And I was being slow.

I'm gonna switch to a 22.5" food grate. 22" was too small. All I need to do now is get a lid, meat temp gauge and fabricate a charcoal basket.

[The Big Pig]

Lookin good txaggie!

[TXAGGIE10]

Thank you!

Did the burn out the weekend. Just going to add some high heat paint, chamber thermometer and lid. Hopefully going to cook on it this weekend.

[Rebel Q]

Looking good, yeah it's a fairly easy process if ya follow the guidelines that Big Pig sent out. My biggest problem was trying to keep it simple, it tend to want to go bigger and better on everything but so far I've done ok . Great Job man!