UDS Lid Problems / Alternatives

[Stuarty84]

Hello,

I am hoping for some help/advice... I have recently acquired a 45 gallon drum to make my UDS. I have drilled my holes, completed my 'burn out' but I i'm stumped on what to do with my lid!

*My barrel measures 23" across
*My barrel lid is locked with a collar, and may be galvanised (which i know is a problem)
*I bought a BBQ from ebay which has a 22" lid (as recommend on a different UDS post)
*The 22" lid is slightly too small (I was hoping the grill was 22" so the lid would be bigger, as again the other post stated that the lid was 4-5mm too big for his barrel)

Any ideas on how I can make the 22" BBQ lid bigger to fit? Or what would be the best metal to use for a lid to get made (last resort!)

Any help would be appreciated! Cheers!

Stuarty

[CyderPig]

Hi
Most bbq lids that come near fitting a 45 gal drum are 22.5 in or 57cm, they all need tweaking(ie with a hammer, or pair of pliers), you can trying spot welding the bbq lid to the drum top and then cut out the middle, tight to the existing drum lid, if the drum you have is a loose head?
If not you could try finding a tight head drum, and cut the top off and flange it out to fit.
Cheers
Si

[Stuarty84]

Hi Si,

Thanks for the quick reply, me and my mate are wrecking our heads trying to work this out!

Just to clarify, are you saying i should 'tweak' the lid or the barrel?

You are 100% correct, the lid is 22.5" but the barrel, measuring from the outside lip is 23.25"

Im thinking of taking the hammer to the barrel to chamfer the lip in... I would like to know your thoughts again!

Cheers!

Stuarty

[kwazulu]

I used an angle grinder to grind the lip edge of my drum and get my lid to fit. Other things I have seen guys do is weld or screw 1 or 2 inch wide strip of metal to the inside of the drum such that it protrudes out of the top, the lid then fits over this. Here is an example http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showt ... p?t=130329

[stretchie_]

I just bought a 57 cm one from B&Q, used mole grips then a vice to flatten the lip out and it rests on top of the drum fine. It's not airtight but that's not proven to be a problem. It's a UDS not a big green egg

I also used the coal grate as the base for the coal basket and obviously the food grill too

[Stuarty84]

Cheers for the help guys! I ended up getting another drum off a mate. There was just no way I could get my lid to fit on my original drum, and it would have been too much work to try and make it fit.

I had to widen the lip of the bbq lid slightly using pliers, but it now fits nicely on my new drum.

Here's a pic of the new one - https://www.dropbox.com/s/hw3u9zb9vu8bkoa/new.jpg

I'm a wee bit mad because in my original drum, I went to the bother of cutting air vents, doing the burn out and buffed it all down ready for painting! But hey ho these things happen...

That brings me to another small problem. This drum had oil in it. Oil for machinery in a factory (not used/waste oil). Will burning it out be good enough? Or what do you recommend I do to give it a good clean? I already have the air vent holes drilled at the bottom

[keith157]

I would think the burn out would clean out the barrel, but might not impress your neighbour. Have a go with detergent and maybe a pressure washer to get rid of any excess before getting the marshmellows out. Others may have different views.

[Stuarty84]

Cheers for the info Keith! I'll certainly try that. I'm just waiting on a mate getting me more pallets to burn.

What does everyone do to the inside of their UDS after they have burned it out? Do you just leave it as it is? Or do you clean it down?

[kwazulu]

Do you just leave it as it is? Or do you clean it down?

There was a load flaky ash and thin layer of carbon left from the paint liner left on mine so I just rubbed it down with some sandpaper. It was quite clean and shiny after that. Then a couple of seasoning burns. I don't know if others have sanded theirs down or not.

Before:


After:

[Stuarty84]

Do you just leave it as it is? Or do you clean it down?

There was a load flaky ash and thin layer of carbon left from the paint liner left on mine so I just rubbed it down with some sandpaper. It was quite clean and shiny after that. Then a couple of seasoning burns. I don't know if others have sanded theirs down or not.

Before:


After:

That looks really well mate. Excellent work.

How on earth did you manage to sandpaper the bottom!? I want mine to look like that after the burn!

I got pallets last night and I'm off work tomorrow, so I'm going to do the burn this evening then spend tomorrow getting her cleaned up. Looking forward to it actually, hopefully the rain stays away.