Well, we'll see what's in the drum tomorrow. Filled it with pine 2x4 scrap, it gassed at about 45 minutes and continued for about 2 1/2 hours, I kept the fire fed for about 2 hours with same scrap pine. It worked as supposed to I guess.....The mouse family living in my Lively style forge has been displaced, rather than burned out.

looking good let us know how wel it turned out.

nice open air smithy, much more organized then mine. lol

Drat.....although I kinda expected it, about 1/4 of the wood charred. Made about a 1/2 gallon of pine tar in the meantime. I bet my fire wasnt wide enough or long lasting enough by a couple hours and the cement block stand was what I had on hand, it limited the coverage of flame-to-barrel. I'll try agin in a couple weeks, using a stand built of pipe instead of the block.

Every time I have seen that setup pictured the barrel is in a dry stacked cinder block "house" with the roof blocks supported by rebar or pipe.

I haven't tried myself though.

much easier to stand the open barrel on end with the open end up. Cut four 2" round holes in the sides near the bottom of the barrel. make 4 steel plugs to pit the holes tightly.
Fill the open barrel over flowing with 2 X 4 Scrap any length.
Light from the bottom of the barrel through the holes and let burn for 1 hour or slightlty longer. The burning red coals will bread when grabbed with tongs.
Plug the bottom holes and cover the top of the barrel so it is air tight.
The next day it will be cold and you will have 40 to 60 % yeild of charcoal

If the plugs get a little loose I cover them with dirt

781, I'm adjusting as I type.....the pipes were actually clogged with pine tar- like substance, and very crispy pine tar-like substance. Took them off, stood the barrel on end, re-lit through the hole the pipes ran out ofin the lower side, I'm letting it burn for a while before plugging the two holes in the lid. Of course there is always room for CM#3, hope it doesnt take as many attempts as WD40 (the true cologne).

781, I'm adjusting as I type.....the pipes were actually clogged with pine tar- like substance, and very crispy pine tar-like substance. Took them off, stood the barrel on end, re-lit through the hole the pipes ran out ofin the lower side, I'm letting it burn for a while before plugging the two holes in the lid. Of course there is always room for CM#3, hope it doesnt take as many attempts as WD40 (the true cologne).

The tar-like residue is creosote, don't get it on your bare skin.

Can you dig a trench to lay the drum in? make it so there's room for wood under it and something to cover it like a piece of steel roofing sheet. Put a short length of pipe in the 2" bung, put an elbow on it with a pipe nipple that extends beyond the close side of the drum, put another elbow on it and another nipple on that long enough to extend about to the first chine.

When you fill it try for uniform sized, DRY wood. Hardwood charcoal will last longer but softwood charcoal will burn hotter so it's a little easier to weld or cast with. Anyhow, pack the drum and lay it in the trench on a couple red or fire bricks over the firewood with the pipe thingy on the bottom aimed towards the center. Push the drum so the other end is within an inch or two of the end of the trench and when you cover the drum leave a gap over that end to act as a chimney.

Okay, the last part is the draft, that needs to be at the end of the drum the pipe is attached to so incoming combustion air passes along the pipe. I'll explain what this is about next.

alright, here's what's going to happen. When you light the fire it'll heat the drum and wood inside. The sheet metal cover will contain the heat and the gap towards the rear will help direct the fire so the entire drum is more evenly heated. Once the interior temp rises to more than 450f it'll start driving off flamable volatiles like wood alcohol, turpentine, creosote, etc. There's more, lots more but those are the biggies. The water will have been driven off much sooner but it takes a lot of energy to boil water so use wood as dry as you can.

Now the fun part, as the volatiles are driven off they'll exit the pipe you plumbed into the barrel bung and be directed under the drum with the incoming combustion air. Did I mention this is VERY flamable fumes? SURPRISE! Now it's now a self supporting process and you don't need to add anymore fire wood, just hang around and keep an eye on it. When the flame coming out of the pipe changes from a vibrant yellow to light fairly transparent blue the retort is down to burning Carbon gas which is your charcoal being consumed so cover the bottom of the drum with dirt so no more air can get in and let it cool. At LEAST 24 hours!!! 48 is better but if there's so much as a spark in the charcoal when fresh air hits it, it'll light back up and burn like your BBQ. This is a BAD thing so to be extra sure store it in a sealed drum OUTSIDE your shop.

Frosty the Lucky.

781,
I used the barrel as found with one hole in the side, two in the lid, your advice works great, it took two burns sorting thcharcoal from the un-charred but I do have about 50-60% yield. Now to look for local discard bins at contruction sites.

781,
I used the barrel as found with one hole in the side, two in the lid, your advice works great, it took two burns sorting thcharcoal from the un-charred but I do have about 50-60% yield. Now to look for local discard bins at contruction sites.

I sorted through and burned the uncharred wood a second time.
Final tally is one full 55 gal drum of pine scrap various shapes and sizes yielded one full 30 gal metal trash can of useable charcoal. Now to re-locate that mouse living in my forge.

Almost 60% recovery, not bad at all.

Frosty the Lucky.

Are you counting you yield including or discounting the wood used to start the fire under the barrel?

Glad you have a good,easy to use, safe process!
Phil

I dont start a fire under the barrel, it's in the barrel. But if you mean the first attempt with the pipes, no I'm not counting the wood for the fire under the barrel, which was also scrap, and the barrel wasnt full anyway. I won't be trying that one again.

Zampilot, how well charred is your charcoal? If there're any sticks of charcoal, and you break one is it charred all the way through?

Zampilot, how well charred is your charcoal? If there're any sticks of charcoal, and you break one is it charred all the way through?

John, it's well-charred. You can tell by how little it weighs, usually! The stuff that wasnt 'done' got burned again. The second fire in the barrel was small splits of oak firewood and old charcoal briquets as I didnt want to waste my pine scrap for the actual fire. When it was going good I put the pine in and let it go 10 minutes then sealed it up.

John, it's well-charred. You can tell by how little it weighs, usually! The stuff that wasnt 'done' got burned again. The second fire in the barrel was small splits of oak firewood and old charcoal briquets as I didnt want to waste my pine scrap for the actual fire. When it was going good I put the pine in and let it go 10 minutes then sealed it up.

Okay, great -- I don't quite understand how you can burn it so fast, but great.

Get a rip-roarin' fire going then dump in the scrap, cover it after 10 mins or so, open the next day!