Thinking of having a crack at making charcoal.

[smiles]

nice vid Woodworks - how long does the gassing phase last with your set up?

 

Do you find that both barrels process at the same rate,mine seem to do it at very different rates,sometimes one finished nearly an hour before the other!

[Ian Leach]

Here you go Ian.

 

It would be nice to sell 100 bags even if cheap. This would recoup the cost of the bags, stapler and barrels.

 

I think mine hold about 3.5kg - 4kg, I did make charcoal with a friend but busy doing other things now that I brought it off him for £5 a bag. Only got about 3 bags left now, won't be buying any more as lost contact with him:001_rolleyes:

[Woodworks]

nice vid Woodworks - how long does the gassing phase last with your set up?

 

Do you find that both barrels process at the same rate,mine seem to do it at very different rates,sometimes one finished nearly an hour before the other!

 

Had some variation with some burns. One was an hour from start to finish then the next burn 1 barrel needed another 30mins.

[Woodworks]

I think mine hold about 3.5kg - 4kg, I did make charcoal with a friend but busy doing other things now that I brought it off him for £5 a bag. Only got about 3 bags left now, won't be buying any more as lost contact with him:001_rolleyes:

 

Sounds like I was well overpriced at £5 for my 2kg ish bags. Never worth it for all the work involved and wood needed. Hats off to those of you that make it pay

[Ian Leach]

Sounds like I was well overpriced at £5 for my 2kg ish bags. Never worth it for all the work involved and wood needed. Hats off to those of you that make it pay

 

Or way under priced mine I brought it in so I was probably getting a bargain, was bulk tho.

[Ian Leach]

Plus we where burning in these

[Ian Leach]

Pic would be nice

[billy_wizz]

Ok im thinking of giving this a try but have a few questions!

1) can i make usable charcoal from softwood as i have a load of dry off cut 4 x 2 from gate making?

2) i understand how the double barrel method works as your using a gravity 1 way valve to let out burnable gas but not letting oxygen/fire in but how do you achieve this with the horizontal barrel method?

3) is there a reason why you couldn't make one square rather than round as i think we have a load of tanks and plate at work that are spare?

[openspaceman]

1) can i make usable charcoal from softwood as i have a load of dry off cut 4 x 2 from gate making?

 

Define usable?

 

It probably won't be saleable to the barbecue market, softwood is too light, doesn't last as well and too friable to travel but it's ok to cook on.

 

I made some sticks of pine char that would light with a match and burn out on there own to just white ash, wrap a few in cerablanket, stick them in an old tobacco tin and they work as a hand warmer.

[timbernut]

I sell about 2000 bags of mostly s/wood charcoal a year, odd complaint about it burning out faster but for the most part people like it as you can be cooking on it in under 10m and it's good for continuous cooking. Not much more friable than birch n sycamore, I think the problem big producers have is it breaks down being handled more if you're selling locally it doesn't matter so much. I started using it when hardwood prices started to climb ( I can make as much on a cube for logs as for a cube for charcoal. )