The Retort Kiln Charcoal Charlie How it Works Today Blacksmith Video 53 of 365
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 พ.ค. 2024
- I still get a lot of comments about this build on the original video I posted about it. A lot of those comments are about how I should have or need to change this or that. I go through some of the most important changes and biggest faults with this build. I know people that comment over there won't check it out over here. But, I tried.
I use this for making charcoal to use as fuel for the blacksmith forge. I'm sure it could be used to make biochar and even fuel for barbecue grills. It you decide to make your own charcoal for food prep, be sure not to use anything that has been treated with chemicals.
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By the way, I apologize for this video, they are all better than this one. I swear.
Cheers!
Justin Jennings
Music:
"RetroFuture Clean" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
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Thank you clear comment
Not too old to learn
Increase the height of the stove pipe for more draft! Great Job.
Nothing wrong with that set up bro. Charlie is a BEAST!!!
Nice design, great how it burns the gasses for better efficiency!
Interesting with the angle iron, thx for update!
Very interesting
Charcoal Charlie is the best noncomercial made retort I've seen.
Thanks for the update.
intresting update keep them comming pleaze
High praise. Thank you.
Yes
Agreed
This video had so much of the information I’ve been looking for. Thanks so much.
Charcoal Charlie looks like a simple and efficient setup with draft management problems. Ithink the most I would do is to increase the clearance around the retort to improve the draft and maybe insulate the fire box to make the heat gneration more efficient to get more charcoal by burning less wood for process fuel. (I might even see if V-belt - another channel- would sling an a occasional load of branch hardwood my way in return for some trade work)
I think a problem with insulating it is that the charcoal might start to burn. The lack of insulation means the rest of the metal is acting as a heat sink when the main fire goes out.
Thanks for sharing your experience. You're bringing the average age of the internet up and making us smarter at the same time.
Your honesty is refreshing. I need to build one for and wife here in Thailand , here its used as every day cooking material and she wishes to sell it each day.
Thats a nice little home retort. Great video.
Thanks.
Very well done , thanks 🙂
Great update.
Put kaowool around the outside to concentrate the heat and you might not have to reload it so much.
Great stuff mate.
Very interesting design!
That great improvements
Thanks. Very helpful as I am to build one soon.
Regards Den
Thanks for the idea of a rocket stove retort!
best one i've seen less fuel less time more fuel...great job ...
Excellent.
so grateful for the update, i started building a larger one based on your design, just got to the pipes bit! great work.
Best of luck to you. Thanks for the comment.
One thing that comes to mind is that you are probably loosing at least half of the wood gases out the chimney, simply because the gases from the two holes closest to the door consume all the oxygen before it reaches far enough back the firebox for the second and third holes.
It might be better to either just have the two first holes, counting from the door, or you could put some sort of air intake, possibly just open the old gas pipe, at the back to get air to those gases before they go out the chimney.
Great work! It's similar to those swedish kilns. Doesn't look like there's much to improve!
Thanks for the update. I am going to start making my own black powder.
Are you planning on blowing up the White House ?
Looks like what I engineered in my head.. I might put perlite/Portland around the fire box to insulate it if I build one, but like you said it might melt the steel.
Thanks for this update video! I was wondering If you had revamped anything after the first fire and earlier update.
Great video. Maybe try to incorporate a place to heat metal for doing forge work on your next build . Food for a thought.
Justin, I've been looking for this update for two years. I love simple solutions for problems....four half inch holes and a length of angle iron! No more creosote. Brilliant! I've been recommending your Charcoal Charlie videos to dozens. There seems to be a lot of interest in making charcoal and especially biochar of late. When it comes to biochar, flame cap kilns or open pit burns seem to be the route to go. You can use a lot of crap wood, there isn't a whole lot of cutting of wood....just throw it in the pit and when you have a layer of coals throw another layer of wood on top. Keep doing this until you fill the pit or run out of wood. Extinguish or snuff out. Not very efficient and constant work during the entire burn.
When it comes to efficiency, quality and consistency, I don't think you can beat Charlie when it comes to making cooking or forge charcoal. On the rocket stove approach let me relate my experience. Based on a design similar to yours, only instead of a firebox under the retort, I fed an 8" rocket stove exhaust under the retort. Exhaust temps were in excess of 800 degrees F. The retort was an old 300 gallon water tank...in retrospect way too large. After 13 hours of continuous firing the retort leveled off at 140 degrees F. In essence, I built a good wood drier and became an expert on rocket stoves. ( It was gravity fed, fueled by wood chips...ran over two hours unattended.) The lesson learned is you need a BIG flame under the retort. If you should go this route, calculate the BTU's you need for your size retort first. I'm converting my creation to a Charlie this spring.
I agree with your comment on the baffles disrupting the air flow around the retort...don't think they are necessary and probably create a little more smoke until you are outgassing.
Thanks for doing the update. You've got a lot of interest because it's a well thought out project that works! I've seen a couple of videos similar to your design, but not as well functioning. Best of luck in your continued adventures, O.J. in Oregon
That's a lot of text. I'm glad you found the kiln videos useful. Thanks for the insight regarding the rocket stove.
One big benefit of flame cap kilns is that you achieve a higher temperature and thus higher quality biochar if that's what you are after.
For forging however char from a retort like this is more ideal because not only is it dry from the start but due to having been cooked ad a lower temperature the energy density that remains is higher.
I remember you building that some time ago
The one thing i noticed was the treads on the charcoal chamber are rusting if you will and can access just a bit of some copper shield it holds up to 2600 degrees centigrade so it is a great preservative against rust and gaulding I first ran across it for use in the food industry brewery for wet environments and again in the gas and oil industry which is perfect for your usages
Молодец всё просто и понятно. Спасибо.
Excelente!!!! É possível aproveitar os gases da camara de pirolise para realimentar a fornalha, é uma sugestão para melhorar o desempenho do equipamento.
Would love to see a rocket stove variation? Also would you be able to use the fire from the gasification once its burning to heat metal to forge? Get an extra burn out of your wood so to speak? Great vid.
Thank you for making this! I have seen the other videos and this update helps a lot. I can’t wait to build my own, unless...I mean If you really want to build another one I will buy the new one or the old one!
I wonder what the eBay listing for this would look like.
@@JustinJennings well if you consider the time it took to design and build, and the cost of materials, how much would you like to get for it if you were to sell it? Hypothetically..
No idea really. So much of this project was just a proof of concept type experiment. And, so much of it's build cost was determined by donated hot water heaters. If I were to sell it, I would likely not ask much. If someone asked me to build one, I'd have to charge real rates for time and materials and that could easy be 2 or 3 thousand. But, without sitting down and running the numbers, I'm just guessing.
@@JustinJennings $3k would be really cheap if it was powder coated or painted, ready to ship. No body has a similar setup for sale right now thats within reach of most peoples budget.
@@JustinJennings Look up Exeter Retort in the UK - South Africa now builds them for $13,000 excluding VAT, delivery and trailer. They last 10 years without needing any work done to it.
Subcriber from 🇵🇭
Awesome video. I watched the first and had to subscribe.
Very cool Justin, I should build one but my list of things to do is about the size of a phone book!
No home is complete without one.
I don't think I've ever seen the first video... guess I'll have to look for it on a rainy day. Finally got a day above freezing here so I did a cold start on my forge. It fired right up and in the afternoon I was down to my flannel shirt and worked up a sweat making tong bits examples for tong classes.
Well, by June we'll be in the high 90's with a few days in the 100's. By the end of July there will be more days over 100 than below with lows in the mid 80's. By the time August gets here everything will basically be on fire.
I you put a venturi in the chimney it will draw just fine ,
look up chimney venturis
Looks like a very effective bit of kit, I do wonder though about the potential for an explosive atmosphere to develop as the wood gas burns off and the pressure equalizes allowing the flame to enter the charge chamber ?
Happened once to my retort kiln, it wasn't worse than a 1 foot plume of smoke coming out of the firing pipe.
A thermometer?
That was smart.
The people into biochar are talking about the burn temperature so that thermometer should lead to a better quality I'd the necessary controls are in place
If the holes were not at the bottom I am thinking one can then meter the gas to have the pyrolysis happening at a relatively constant temperature.
Also by controlling the rate of burn it is possible to save some of the excess gas for subsequent burns, reducing the need for fuel wood.
Build another one! In my kid voice🎉
I produce charcoal for blacksmithing as well. It sounded like you had a few problems with efficiency, to solve that you need to insulate the whole unit. I have mine buried in my hillside. Retaining as much heat as possible from charcoal Charlie will greatly improve efficiency and productivity.
Insulating would help greatly. But, I originally built it as a proof of concept. I was jazzed it worked at all. But, you're right.
We are doing the coconut shell charcoal process in small scale using metalic Gallon, and we are moving these days wood based charcoal and trying to make a similar setup like this by watching your guidlines, if you dont mind, can you help us to construct the same.
Really we need the layout plan with your valuable technical aspects.
Good
Can you show us how to build one?
I Thank u for this video..and i have some questions to ask...first- did u tried new cut tree wood?
nice update, I wonder how a small hole (1/8") in the tort chamber directly under the flue would act as a jet and increase draft during the pyro stage. I our steam traction engines, we have a valve to shoot steam up our flues to get the fire going better..an 8" flue would do the trick, your firebox and door are big enough to need 8"
I agree the small jet hole, or an 8" flue. Quick and easy fix might be to cover the top 4" of the firebox door, directing airflow through the firebox area instead of escaping the front creating some unwanted draft.
This is an awesome follow-up to the first retort video. I like the holes on the bottom of the sealed chamber, the k.i.s.s. always seems to do it!
These comments are funny how everyone is telling you "what you shudda done". I like the person telling you to "save the gas for using in your forge". some of these people need to go out and make their own damb retort.
I'll often encourage them to make a video. Thanks for the comment.
You should make charcoal brikettes with that charcoal as best result for your forge, some extra work, some better fuel...
I was thinking some sort of pelletizer might be the way to go, actually.
Making briquettes requires some sort of glue or resin to hold the shape. A pine resin should work.
Hi Jennings - congratulations for your project. Unhappily I live in Brazil, if not would like to buy one of this. You see, I always think about using the process gaz firing to finalize the carbonization process. My fear was with the return of fire to retort chamber...huge kboouummm.
Otherwise, have you ever thought about partially returning the burning gas from the chimney into the retort, to help heating the wood and speeding up carbonization? each feedback looping gives a minimum gain of 20%, in the process ... think about it and let me know
You've thought about it more than I have.
How is it getting rid of the water vapor before the gasses become efficient?
Thank you for putting this on UT so everyone can see it. I designed one with a similar theme but you helped me a lot by showing your mistakes and corrections. Thanks again for your time skill and patience.
I'm thinking if you could direct flames up one side of barrel by inserting a plate to guide flames down into fire from other side. Block wholes at bottom and drill holes at top of barrel so gas exits and ignites, burning down other side of barrel to have a circular fire process around charcoal barrel, would this give more efficient, even heat around char barrel ?
I like the thought.
Hi you need the air to enter under the wood cheers
if closing the door is a real problem add a couple of air tubes into the lower sides of the burn chamber weld them to the frames they will drw infinite air like a jet into the fire...maybe even a faster heat and burn...
You need to use rocket stove concepts.
You should be preheating combustion air. Wrap air Chanel’s around char barrel to feed combustion. Insulate charbarel.
You might consider a turbo charger to force the fire and get cleaner burn.
Very well made burn barrel.
Funny you should mention the rocket stove. I have been thinking about designing another around a rocket stove. As for need, I don't think I need to do it. I originally built this as a proof of concept. It was never intended to be efficient. If I ever build another, I definitely want more efficiency. Cheers!
Did you ever redesign with a rocket stove and make it more efficient? If so please post link
You should have put the gas pipe a little on angle rather than straight 90 degrees. This will encourage free flow of hot kerosene and wont clough
👍👍👍
Would utilising the top rear pipe again to vent off some gas reduce the temperature. I do that with my hookway retort
Why would you want to reduce the temperature?
I don't want it cooler.
What percentage of the yield value was generated?
Looks like high grade prime fuel for my gassifier truck 😁
done subcribe
Try an oil burning smudge pot sending its heat through the barrel
Do you take requests? I'd love one of these!
How long does charring take?
@Whoop!!
Hello,
I have some questions about Charlie
How does it look when it comes to conversion rate? From what I know the yields can vary from a fifth to a third of what's pyrolysed, depending on the speed and temperature of the process, and I wonder how Charlie fits into that
Also, would some kind of insulation of the fire chamber help in lowering the amount of fuel needed?
In a retort almost always 25% yield or 4:1
What if you were to use the forge the same time your making charcoal. Kill 2 birds with one stone so to speak? Or use the bottom as a forge when the gases are burning for the extra heat? A rack to set your metal on close to the gases.
So ... a question: the 1/2" holes that feed wood gas to the firebox to improve the burn don't appear to be able to be blocked when the burn is complete so how do you keep oxygen rom going back into the retort and causing the charcoal to burn up?
Oxygen going into the firebox wont have the chance to go into the retort from these tiny 1/2" holes before being burned, and if we assume that oxygen did enter inside the retort its really hard to ignite.
Kiln does not have a chimney, so even oxygen could entry, the burning would not take a place due to lack of exchanging gasses.
May i know the design of your chimney from inside
I built one right after you 1st showed it. I used a 275 oil tank and it is still works great. I run it about 4-5 times a year just for grilling. I like the idea of drill the holes in the bottom of the oven. How many did you drill?
3:44
Four 1/2" holes.
Garry Jerry, You make charcoal for grilling? Where I live in Canada we have very little hard wood. No oak, or hickory. Poplar is very abundant, and free to cut on crown land (foothill wilderness areas) and white paper birch is also available. Have you tried making charcoal for cooking with either of these?
@@lpeter5781 no I have not
@@lpeter5781 Birch is better, but poplar is quite acceptable. There are few natural woods that are not food-safe, like juniper should be avoided,
Okay... I got a big question 🤔
Can you design a solo style top for charcoal Charlie, that is smokeless and patio style enjoyable 😉
What's the science behind blending oxygen at top to get a clean burn 🔥
Is fire at the bottom starved and oxygen + smoke getting pulled straight down the middle for a reburn
I'm not sure there's a simple way to make any fire smokeless. Injecting oxygen into a heated stream of unburned hydrocarbons will allow them the opportunity to burn off. The fire box is having flow issues. The gasses from the pyrolysis are being injected into the fire box as a fuel source. I hope I understand your questions and I hope I answered them.
Well I wanted to combine solo style patio enjoyment with
Biochar prodion, plus a clean burn of the fuel would be better anyway
I don’t believe I see a grate under the fire in your fire box. Without a grate, your just burning from the top. Get some air under that fire. Maybe a draft vent under the fire, and an ash receptacle. If you have a grate, it must be filling up underneath with ash, blocking air flow. (Although, that is a lot of metal to heat up before a good draft can develop.)
It sure does make fine charcoal. The only thing that concerns me is how smoky it is while starting up. Have you ever made a load of charcoal using charcoal in the fire box? It would nearly eliminate smoke. (It would make an interesting video👍)
Thanks a lot for sharing this. I was thinking about using the external pipe. What you’ve done looks good and it helped me understand some other configurations I’ve seen.
I still think you should make a pizza oven insert.
Using charcoal to make charcoal uses up the product you want. I used to live in a city that had a street lighting system that was powered by gas made from making charcoal in retorts similar to this. The retorts were cast iron with a pipe exiting one end while the other end was full diameter for sealing similar to charcoal charlie. The retorts were mounted over an oven of brick. The exit pipe went to a tank with a cast iron can with the open end down so the gas bubbled up through the water and was caught in the can. The water cooled the gas and kept the gas in the can under pressure. Pine knots and other parts of the trees not used for sawn lumber were packed into the retorts. The retorts were sealed. The charcoal made from the previous day as well as any additional fuel was used to heat the retorts. The street lamps were connected to the gas supply and in the evening, the lamps were lit using the gas. When the charcoal-making process was finished, the retorts were allowed to cool some then opened and the charcoal was pulled out and new wood packed in to repeat the process. There are a number of those retorts still around town because they cracked after being used many times for firing. The town is Jefferson, TX, and was the first town in Texas to have street lighting in the 1800s. Of course, the object was the gas. One of the tank pits is still there.
That's a great story. Thanks for sharing. I bet they couldn't even permit a system like that today.
Hi, can you help to make this machine justin
Hello
dear sir kindly give me info about the time of carbonization . size of retort capacity of wood for making charcoal
I don't actually have that information.
Greetings Sir, am Sunil from India, am a silviculture farmer by profession. We have been cultivating casuarina crop in the farm. Am planning to convert to wood to charcoal. Kindly seek your help in setting up a charcoal kiln.
So I’m new and this is a question could u use forces air to raise the temp?
Absolutely, you could.
That’s for this update video, I you willing to build two for export to other countries
I have no plans to manufacture or sell these.
No worries about gas pressure or explosions due to clamping it off?
I'm not worried. There's a T on the back of the upper chamber from how it was originally plumbed. I could open the top of that T and set a ball bearing or a piece of plate as a pressure relief. But, it seems unlikely that material could block those holes venting to the fire box.
صديقي أنا احد متابعيك ومعجبيك لأكن لدي سوال
كم سمك الصفيحه الداخليه وكذالك الخارجية الفرن
ارجو الرد
How many kilos of hardwood you used in thr and how many kilos of charcoal you got ?
you can assume that each 1kilo of wood turns into 200 grams of charcoal.
What to do when we start heating with wood gas above 300 degree celcius but temperature starts falling down..?
That usually means the reaction is complete because there is no more wood gas to generate. But, I'd toss in some more fire wood if I though it needed more time to convert.
Can you so us how to build one ?
Perforated sheet metal is used so you can look outside and see who is at your door.
Install another chimenea or exhaust pipe a little shorter it looks like it is breathing through one nostril
I would love to have charcoal Charlie if he isn't used anymore
I'll have to think about that.
@@JustinJennings Well that was a serious offer I put out so think about it, because your design is the only one I've seen that will work for me.
After drilling those holes and seeing how much better it works, I realize how unnecessary all this work is to build such a stove. I take a 35g drum full of wood with holes in the lid, stick it upside down in a 55g drum, and have a fire around it(around the 35, inside the 55). Same results. Works perfect every time.
I'm sure it will.
@@JustinJennings don't get me wrong, your concept is awesome and the stove is clearly very well built. I just think I could get as good of results with an easier and simpler method. Not trying to criticize 👍
I've no doubt there are easier ways. 👍
TH-cam is full of videos of that method being a huge smoky mess Don.
One huge potential benefit with a more advanced retort is the potential to extract wood vinegar, py-oil and run the remaining gas into an engine.
⁷
no one will make such a furnace for heating ....
you can warm a house or a greenhouse and get charcoal
Model rent for you why not design large size
This was built as a proof of concept. Also, I don't have space that I want to dedicate to it.
At the four minute mark I can see what I suspect is your door gasket material. What material is this and where obtained? I followed on site that suggested for lack of better material, aluminum foil rolled into rope form and packet in, that seems quick and dirty one time use.
The door gasket is a woven material sold for fireplace doors. It's woven, round and I think impregnated with graphite.