Wood Furnace

[m_brothers]

It's winter right now and there is a lot of snow, so all of the wood is wet. Wood usually takes a year to dry out for it to be "safe" to burn in your fireplace according to some regulation. I use charcoal for my fireplace, as the nearest coal is 117 miles away and costs $22 a bag. Centaur Forge, in wisconsin. And we live on a good chunk of forest, and I've been doing some logging and make small pieces that I will use to make charcoal. What I wanted to know is if I could make a furnace out of plywood -- it's okay if it burns a little bit to -- and pile the wood up inside of it and have two vents one on each side and have two fires going with the smoke and heat being vented into the plywood furnace to dry it out and get it ready to make charcoal. Is this a crazy idea or should I dry it? Any better ways or ideas? It's oak, maple, and pine wood if anyone is wondering. Dimensions are gonna be an 8 foot cube

[ApprenticeMan]

if you are going to make charcaol, then it doesn't matter if the wood is wet just burn it in a pile outside, then douse with water, no weirdo furnace needed.

[nthe10ring]

Hers a good link on making charcoal, lots of folks use this method.

Making Charcoal

[m_brothers]

Okay. Will try that instead.

[Paragon]

Making Charcoal is just the burning of wood with little oxygen available. Nothing fancy is needed from what I have read. You can dig a hold in the yard, fill it with wood, start it on fire and cover it over. Mass production is done in large piles of wood and covered with dirt or sod after starting the center on fire.

[m_brothers]

So if i cut down twenty trees and cut it up, i could start the middle on fire and cover the whole up with dirt? Or am I lost. I will try the indirect method. I'ev done the direct method and it was okay.

[jayco]

M-brothers........I don't know if I can help or not, but here goes.........
In the winter, with rain and snow, all wood usually is wet. Wood that has been lying on the ground will be saturated...and difficult to burn.

We heat our home with wood, and a couple of times ran out in February. Not a good time to have to find 'dry' firewood and cut it.

A dead tree that is still standing or dead limbs which have not laid on the wet ground will offer the driest wood.

The problem with using really wet wood to make charcoal is that the burn is often so slow(using the direct method), that the outside of wood chunks burn into ash while the middle of the wood is 'frying' and still spewing water. result.........little charcoal.

You mention a 'plywood furnace'........sounds sort of like a drying kiln as you desribe it.
I wouldn't know how to go about making something like that.
Sounds like a difficult project.

Hope this helps.
Be careful!

[Glenn]

if I could make a furnace (8 foot cube) out of plywood -- it's okay if it burns a little bit to -- and pile the wood up inside of it. have two fires going with the smoke and heat being vented into the plywood furnace to dry it out

Cut, split, and stack the firewood. Stack it two rows deep and cover it with clear plastic leaving the ends open. This will keep the wood from getting wet and acts as a solar collector to dry the wood.

Collect the limbs and cut them into 4 inch lengths or chip them. You can forge by using raw wood. It takes a lot of wood to keep a good bed of coals going the the radiant heat is a serious factor to deal with, but it can (and has) been used as a forge fuel. Not efficient, but it works.

Buy the coal and be happy.

[m_brothers]

I don't have the money unfortunatly. Thank-you jayco, will take that into mind

[stretch]

Originally Posted by nthe10ring

Hers a good link on making charcoal, lots of folks use this method.

Making Charcoal

This web link is how I made charcoal when I first started smithing. It works real good, if you can get good coal from centaur forge then what are you thinking of making charcoal for? Good smithing coal is so much superior to charcoal. You will burn up a lot of charcoal compared to coal. Charcoal is much better than bad coal though. If you are going to blacksmith full time, and use charcoal, then you should find someone to make your charcoal for you, cause you will spend a lot of time making charcoal.