UDS Weber Lid Mod

[DDave]

After months of searching, I finally found a donor Weber kettle to use for the UDS lid mod.

Here they are getting to know each other.



It is an older kettle, not a One Touch. I may save the bottom to use for another lid mod. Use an existing drum lid and attach what is left of the bottom to it.



But on this one, I wanted to use the bottom ring so I can just set the Weber lid on it. (Bubba mod )

I cut the top couple of inches off of the kettle bottom -- or rather -- had a friend with the tools (and skills) do it for me.:blush:




The ring is slightly smaller than the inside of the drum so getting it to fit and stay straight was somewhat tricky. Wanted to document more of this procedure but I kept getting interrupted. Good thing I didn't video tape it as there was a fair amount of cussing involved.

Mounted the ring inside the drum and pushed in a length of wood stove rope gasket between the ring and the drum.



Not as straight and pretty as I would have liked but I figure if I squirted enough wood stove gasket goop around it I should be able to seal it up.



And here it is with the lid on.



The real test will be when I fire it up and check for leaks. May have to make some fine tuning adjustments in order to seal it enough to keep the temps from creeping up.

Now, I'll have to try and find a Weber rotisserie attachment.

Dave

[Slanted88]

Nice....got my eye on this UDS gig!.....Louie will kick my butt! Hell ain't like it's the first!

[Kingudaroad]

I was under the impression that you could tweek the rim of the kettle top to fit right on the drum.

Not speaking from first hand experience, just curious like everybody else.

[PreacherRodgers]

bigtime nice now that is real smoking on a weber ingenuity at it its best

[DDave]

I was under the impression that you could tweek the rim of the kettle top to fit right on the drum.

Not speaking from first hand experience, just curious like everybody else.

You are absolutely correct, and lots of people do that. But I also wanted to be able to use the Weber kettle rotissirie attachment which fits on the Weber kettle bottom.

bigtime nice now that is real smoking on a weber ingenuity at it its best

Thank you, but I can't take credit for the idea. I got the idea from Bubba.

Dave

[Bbq Bubba]

Looks great!
Mine leaked like a seive but got it close with a rubber mallet and some fine tuning.
Your gonna love the 2nd rack but let me warn ya, AGAIN, theres another learning curve with this set-up.

You'll figure it out fine!

[davidmcg]

Another learning curve? Thats just lovely. Well Bubba, gotta ask ya then. I was going to finish putting my UDS together this weekend and I have a weber grill that I was going to use the lid off of. Should I just go with the standard UDS set-up and learn it, then add the Weber parts and learn them. Or should I just put it all together at once and learn? I can do either, won't hurt me a bit to learn. I only work off site part time anyhow, so I do have extra time for smoking. Thats why we use the smoker 3 to 4 times a week now.

[gooose53]

That's a nice mod to the drum. So far I just set mine on it....it leaks a little but not enough at this point to worry about. Great job though!!

[DDave]

Another learning curve? Thats just lovely.

That's what I was thinking. But the weather's getting really nice here and no Saturday Little League games for my son this year so I'll have lots of opportunity to spend quality time with the drum to get to know it better.

Mine leaked like a seive but got it close with a rubber mallet and some fine tuning.

Do you think it would be worthwhile to put some wood stove rope gasket on the inside rim of the lid or just go with some carefully placed taps (whacks?) with the rubber mallet?

Dave

[Bbq Bubba]

That might be a great idea, guaranteed good fit that way.

[DDave]

That might be a great idea, guaranteed good fit that way.

The lid has a pretty good size lip. May be pretty easy to glue one in. I have a couple extra gaskets and an extra tube of gasket cement. (Wanted to make sure I had enough. :blush:) But maybe I'll see how it runs first before I get carried away.

That will be a switch for me. Usually, I'll jump in and change about 50 things, get it completely farked up and then spend a ton of time trying to "unfix' it.

It takes awhile for that gasket cement to firm up . . . apparently. I was futzing with it today at lunch time and made some nice dents in the "crust' with my finger. Had to do a little touch up after work. Hopefully Friday or Saturday I'll have time to fire it up and give the gasket cement a nice gentle heat cure.

Dave

[davidmcg]

Whats the deal Dave, you have to unfix stuff too? Kind of bites all don't it? Thats why we are at such a high level of proficiency man, our work is never done. We don't make mistakes, we just go back and mod a mod man. Sometimes it makes ya wonder where our JAFO hats are.

[DDave]

Whats the deal Dave, you have to unfix stuff too?

Yep. Sometimes I get all excited and start "thinking". Usually that's okay but sometimes I overthink and get carried away.

When I got my SnP I read up on all the mods and was busy trying to gather up all the bits and pieces and discussing it to no end. My wife said, "Why don't you just smoke something on it first before you go chainging it all up?" So I did and decided that it really didn't need ALL the mods I was planning. I did the ones I thought it needed and everything was fine.

So . . . I'll exercise some restraint here proceed slowly.

Dave

[davidmcg]

Well proceeding is probably right, but tinkering sure is fun. Maybe not rewarding but fun.

[cowgirl]

Great looking mod Dave!