Chad McMullen

I did have one burn where the bottom of some of the interior logs didn't completely convert to charcoal. I've since elevated the drum a little bit to allow the heat to get under the drum. My theory is that allowing the drum to sit directly on the ground prevented heat from penetrating into the lowest, most interior part of the drum -- the earth acted as a heat sink. I also put a small amount of charcoal under the drum now (the fines discussed above work well for this) to make sure it gets nice and toasty here too.

A minor note for the post above: I really pack the wood into the enclosed drum -- not loosely as shown in the 4th photo of 01Tundra's post. I tip the drum at an angle and load the logs in so that when the drum is tipped back up, the logs stand vertically. Anything less than about 4-5 inches in diameter is left unsplit. Because the maple I have is really dry, the bark is loose and so I choose to pull it off. This is not really necessary, but it reduces the amount of really fine stuff in the finished charcoal, which is good for the BBQ. I've forged with coal/coke when my dad had the forge in Colorado (I was in high school at the time), but I have yet to forge with charcoal. Any opinions or thoughts as to chunk size for charcoal? Maybe the fine stuff is what I want? - Cheers, Chad McMullen

My very first post, but I've been making charcoal for a few months now, both for BBQ and for an old farrier's forge my brother's currently storing for me. I've seen the 30gal inside the 55gal drum trick, but decided to up-size it. I had a bunch of corrugated steel lying around from the walls and ceiling of two shipping containers I cut into pieces when I built my shop. I built a steel box around the 55 gallon drum, yielding almost twice the volume per batch. Instead of inverting the drum, I put the lid on and clamp it (you need to hold the lid on, as I found out during the first batch). I tapped the 3/4" bung for the retort gas and, using some 3/4" EMT conduit, led it down and around the base of the drum. I drilled a bunch of 1/4" holes in the retort cane, so the whole thing works like a really big burner. The box is about 30" x 30" x 40" tall and attached at the corners with angle iron from an old bedframe. The roof is made out of the same shipping container material and just rests on top of the sides of the box. The chimney is cut into the roof and is a 5ft section of 7" galv duct pipe I had lying around. After loading the maple (I have a big pile of it from homesite clearing) into the drum and lidding it, I attach the retort cane with a union fitting, bolt on the fourth side of the box, and pack the area between the drum and the box to about the height of the drum top (I've discovered that any more fuel than that is unnecessary, even with punky wood or plywood scraps). Then I put on the roof and the chimney and then light just a single bottom corner. This seems to reduce the smokiness factor. Then I just walk away and let it do it's thing. Or I would, except that it gets scary-hot, so I find myself with a garden hose in hand, spraying down the grass around it and watching for sparks. Yeah, you'll want to not do this unless you can keep an eye on it for first 1.5 or 2 hours. After that, things mellow down, the wood from the starter fire is done sending embers, and it's mainly just combustion of the retort gas keeping things going. It's amazing how much of the gas is produced. I'll try to post some pictures of my setup tonight, including the results of the batch I made last night.