Charcoal Making Report

[m_brothers]

I use charcoal for my forge. It costs me $10 for 20lb. $10 every 3 1/2 hours.
I have access to 13 acres of trees. Dead ones to. Lol. Since I have to get up at 630 to leave by 7 for school at 8, I am going to get up at 5, and make charcoal. Once it's going, put the lid on, and head to school. I will be taking pictures and making a report on this. Easy way to supply your own fuel. I'm hopefully going to be able to start this either by friday or this coming monday. I am going to get it going....watch it for about an hour, once I can see that it's in the burnout stage, I'll put the lid on, plug the holes at the bottom with dirt. Take a shower, eat, go to school. Any things I should know before this. I've read tons of guides.

55gl Metal Bucket. And tons of wood.


Best Regards,
John

[m_brothers]

I'm going to use this post for the report. So that people don't have to go to another page or to the bottom of this page. Thanks.

[JohnW]

Good luck to you, m_brothers. I've never been able to make charcoal quite that easily. I've tried that method a few times, but, apparently with the wrong air supply, which leads to a barrel full of wood or a barrel full of ashes. My wife tells me other men are smarter.

[Jymm Hoffman]

I would not try to leave it. Do it over the weekend. I would not recommend leaving the property at any time. You should be closer to it in case something does go wrong, maybe set the woods on fire. Not a good idea to leave any fire unattended. This is not the same as an air tight wood stove.

[matt87]

Don't forget to forge a potholder. You can cook your breakfast, brew coffee or tea while watching it!

Good luck, be sensible and play safe,
Matt (who would gladly swap his 12'x10' concrete yard for 13 acres of woodland)

[ThomasPowers]

There is a learning curve for each coaling set up that you have to learn by experience just how much fuel to put in and how much you need to let it burn before cutting off the air. (Also size of fuel, how long to let it sit, etc)

You won't learn this on one or two tries; but you should be getting pretty close after a dozen if you pay attention!

I concurr with Jymm: DON'T LEAVE IT ALONE!

[Frosty]

John:

Leaving it is a BAD idea for a number of reasons.

Number one is safety, even with the lid on there's just too much potential for something to go wrong. Losing a load of charcoal isn't even on the scope.

This isn't an enclosed kiln without being there to read the progress you won't get much if anything.

Don't worry though, there's no reason in the world you can't be forging or doing other things while you keep an eye on your retort, it's not like you have to stare at it 100% of the time. Look every couple minutes yes, stare no.

Frosty

[m_brothers]

Okay, I'll expierement this weekend and see what I come up with. My mom will be home and my brother will be home as well. He goes to school around 8 or 9 can't remember. But my mom will be home to check on it. But I wasn't planning on leaving it without watching. Mom would be home...ne how

I got about 120lb of wood split, hopefully going to do two burns this weekend.

60lb-50lb of charcoal as a result.

[Frosty]

Good decision John.

For your first few attempts, especially using the semi-direct method you'll be doing well to recover 25-30%. Heck the commercial colliers brag about getting 50% from semi-direct conversion.

Personally I think the better % from indirect is calculated without figuring in the wood used to heat the retort. It's still quite a bit better.

In any case you'll do better if you're on hand to keep an eye on the process. Keep a notebook!

Best of luck.

Frosty

[m_brothers]

Thanks Jerry. Ill take notes, and post the first, second, and third rounds in the post I reserved for the reports. I'm going to split more wood tomorrow, and I got two 55gl drums from my grandpa. I think I'm gonna do two at a time.