Oh I meant to post some pics of my UDS build up some of you might not know about the gloriousness that is a UDS (ugly drum smoker).
Get a food grade drum, and burn out the lining:
I bought a 2x2 "grill screen" at Lowes, took my tin snips and cut it into 8" wide strips, then tack welded it into a long nearly 6 foot long strip bent it around a 5 gallon bucket, zip tied it to a 14" Weber charcoal layer replacement screen (from Lowes) and then welded it up and removed zip ties as they were replaced with tack welds:
Here I threw up the charcoal basket as high as I could then tried to film it taking a nice bounce but holding together! My welding skills are "rough" at best but I'm not doing body work, I'm tack welding an ugly drum smoker charcoal basket, ugly is good!
Get some SS hardware, I have a Lowe's nearby, the temp gauge was $8 the other stainless hardware is some wing nuts, and I got 1.5 or 2" long screws and I splurged and got capped nuts for the outside instead of just plain nuts, drill 3 holes evenly spaced about 2 inches from the top (I screwed this part up) and another 9 inches or so from the top (3 not 4 else it'll wobble).
For intake holes I drilled 2 1" holes with a hole saw bit for my drill on each side of the drum maybe an inch from the bottom, if I need less flow I throw a flat magnet over them, our fridge is COVERED in the damned things from insurance companies, restaurants, and credit card offers, I just steal them off the fridge as I need them, they only last for a couple sessions each. To control outflow I just put the screw in caps from the lid into the lid to cover up the holes, I also drilled some 1/2" holes on top with a pattern just large enough I can cover them with a 14" lid from the kitchen. To remove the lid I have a welding magnet I keep on the table next to it since I haven't bothered putting a handle on the lid yet.
Put a wingnut on the screw BACKWARDS and stick the screw from inside of drum to outside, put on the cap nut and tighten it down, then tighen the wing nut from the other side. This is what your grill racks sit on:
You'll notice my screws aren't 2" and 9" they're 9" and 18" I screwed up basically, you'll never ever want to use that bottom rack in my UDS one day I'll fix it and move those bottom screws to the 2 or 3" mark from the top:
2 replacement 18" (or was it 19" it's the standard size, one of tehse is a wal-mart special the other is from Lowe's and is a Weber and MUCH sturdier, and $1 cheaper, go figure put your basket in the bottom fill with CLEAN wood (no treated lumber, nothing painted, etc) or charcoal, light it up, put in your grill and burn the living snot out of it one more time to really make sure it's all clean of any chemicals/coatings/oils/etc:
Now clean out the ashes, put some good charcoal or wood in, let it settle into a nice batch of glowing coals, put in some meat, put on the lid and wait for good things to happen:
