How to make Charcoal

[bingo1912]

We first cut out both ends of an old barrel
Next we placed it on the ground and put some bricks under it.
After putting in about 12 inches of dry wood we fired it up
After it started going good we loaded the barrel with scrap wood,it can be wet, green,bark, doesn't really matter.
Let it get good and hot until flames come out the top,ash out the bottom and there is no more smoke.
Then place a heavy metal plate on top, or a sheet of metal with bricks on top, just make sure its sealed up good.
Watch out for the backfire which comes out the bottom.
Then shovel sand or dirt around the bottom and pack it good.
Next morning, make sure it's cold, and pull the dirt away from the barrel, take off the lid, make sure it's cold and remove the barrel from the pile, take a shovel and a screen and screen out the lump charcoal.
Enjoy!,,, er well don't eat it,,,, you know what I mean.
I'll show you the finished product tommorrow

[SmokinAussie]

That's awesome. Can't wait to see it!

[Cheech]

Can not wait to see the finished product. Thanks for sharing

[dudz]

Cool..how well does it burn?

[blues_n_cues]

cool. i do that as well. we get split oak & hickory for $35 a rick delivered.

[buckinbbq]

Waiting to see the pictures of that

[KnucklHed BBQ]

I like it! Lookin' forward to the after pics!

What kind of wood did you use?

[bingo1912]

This was our first burn so we're going through the learning curve, he opened it too early today and it was still burning/on fire so we lost that barrel,, lol
I'm hoping to have better results Sunday. I'll keep ya posted.
Bing

The fellow in the pic is the owner of the place, he cuts wood for a living and has a lot of small pieces lying around. He didn't know what he was going to do with "all that junk" and as he's the guy I get my wood from I was more than happy to help him out.
1. It's lump charcoal
2. it's made from various hardwoods.
3 it burns just like any lump you get any where else, it's just cheaper
Hope that answered all of your questions.
Bing

[traildust]

Originally Posted by bingo1912

This was our first burn so we're going through the learning curve, he opened it too early today and it was still burning/on fire so we lost that barrel...

Was it still burning the next day because there was an air leak? Or as you said it was opened too early, should it be left alone and not touched for, say 24 hours?

[SmokinAussie]

Dang....

[KnucklHed BBQ]

Originally Posted by traildust

Was it still burning the next day because there was an air leak? Or as you said it was opened too early, should it be left alone and not touched for, say 24 hours?

That's what I was thinkin'... you might need to use wet dirt/sand around the base to keep out more of the air... maybe makesure that the drum has no holes in it on the sides and that the steel plate and the barrel top mate up well.

Remember the camping trick when you dont want to light a fire the next morning? bury the coals in the ash so that you'll have a few hot ones left in the morning. I think that's what you ended up with.
Just enough air coming in the keep a few hot spots alive.

[traildust]

Originally Posted by KnucklHed BBQ

That's what I was thinkin'... you might need to use wet dirt/sand around the base to keep out more of the air... maybe makesure that the drum has no holes in it on the sides and that the steel plate and the barrel top mate up well.

Remember the camping trick when you dont want to light a fire the next morning? bury the coals in the ash so that you'll have a few hot ones left in the morning. I think that's what you ended up with.
Just enough air coming in the keep a few hot spots alive.

I like that wet sand idea. Looking back at the image of the fellow shoveling dirt at the drums base you can see smoke coming out the top. That is going to be tricky to seal. Most likely a brave soul could put the original lid and retaing clamp on and toruqe the clamp down.

Another possible option could be to fabricate a means of putting a really wide and thick insulation rope like for wood burning oven doors around the top. Maybe that would help when that the sheet of metal is set in place.

Trying to create an air tight seal of metal to metal is almost impossible.

I'm looking forward to see how this thing works out.

[suprfast]

Looks good. Not sure if you checked out this site, but this is the route i plan to take.
http://www.nakedwhiz.com/makinglump.htm
kris

[buckinbbq]

Did you chunk the wood first or just like regular firewood logs

[bingo1912]

Yup we think thats what happened