Ugly Drum Smoker Feature

If you’ve spent any amount of time on the BBQ Smoker Site, you know I recruited the Team Unknown BBQ crew to help me pull together what I feel is one of the most comprehensive sets Ugly Drum Smoker plans available anywhere.  Not surprisingly, the plans have sold very well since we introduced them last summer, which is very cool.

What’s even cooler is that I just got an email from Kirk Sides, who bought and used my Ugly Drum Smoker plans to put together a sweet meat smoking machine!

I’ve included the contents of an email he sent me the other day, along with a pic or two of his new Ugly Drum Smoker.  I think you’ll agree it’s a winner!

Ugly Drum Smoker – Kirk Sides Style 

I’ve been looking for Ugly Drum Smoker plans for a while now, looking at this site or that site – finding bits and pieces here and there. I finally came across plans on Kevin’s Ugly Drum Smoker plans site and they looked the most promising, so I payed and downloaded the e-book.

After reading over the plans, it was clear that Kevin had done a lot of the leg work, as the plans were easy to follow and the entire process seemed quite simple.

I already had a drum with a lid and bung (I’m keeping my eyes open for a Weber lid!) that was just waiting to be turned into a smoker. I used the parts list from Kevin’s e-book and went to Home Depot.

Now, with it being winter here in the NorthWest, I wasn’t in any great hurry to make my smoker, as long as it was ready for Memorial Day.

While looking at the plans, I saw one thing I wanted to modify: my drum needed a door to access the firebox, so I cut a hole in mine, took it to a sacrificial drum and cut the door from it with a half-inch larger on each side for coverage. I then went and got marine-grade stainless hardware to attach it, as you’ll see in the photos. (Sweet Modification, Kirk!)

All in all, this was a great project for me. I had all the necessary tools, and total time for the project was minimal – thanks to Kevin’s plans.  Took only a weekend to make, and now all I have to do is to figure out how to attach a rotisserie…!!!

Kirk

PS… 

The Memorial Day ribs turned out fantastic! I used “The Minion Method” to build my fire and was able to hold 250-degrees on the dot for as long as I wanted to!

That’s powerful stuff!  

Time and time again I hear from folks who have purchased my Ugly Drum Smoker plans that the completeness of the parts list, instructions, and add on suggestions make for easy assembly of a smoker they are very proud to call on they built themselves.

What I hear most often is that the pride of craftsmanship factor when they use their self-built UDS is off the charts.  Friends love to ask about them, and the smokers dead solid effective!

If you’re interested in a cool Ugly Drum Smoker DIY project, check out my UDS plans.  If you’ve used the plans to build your very own smoker, or plan to – please do as Kirk did and send the results and a few pics to me here!

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