Modern Alchemy: How to make Charcoal in a retort
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ส.ค. 2014
- Here i present for you a demonstration of how charcoal is made with the retort method. this is not the only way but i see it as the easiest, if not simplest, and safest way. Do enjoy, don't forget to like and comment, i can't improve what I don't know.
2018 update:Here is where i got the idea and didn't follow the directions from
www.katanabuilders.com/katanab... - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
Videos like this are why TH-cam is the best. I've read about the process but it's good to see it in all its details.
Henry Ford.....didn't invent charcoal but he made it popular in order to be able to sell the scraps from the wood he put in his cars and basically made camping a family "thing to do" which involved perhaps buying one of his cars and his charcoal and heading out into the woods ....very ingenious man.
That steam escaping is the woodgas that is supposed to be burning in the pipe down below. Drill more holes in that pipe underneath and you won't need all that wood for burning at the bottom. Letting the steam release like that releases all of your unburned woodgas into the atmosphere.
Thankyou very much for the time and effort. Most viewers wordwide dont have the time, resources, knowledge, risktaking... etc to mess around.
I really enjoyed your style and the additional information. Keep on going!! Karl
Of all the charcoal videos I've watched I like your design the best. Simplest thing I've seen and super effective
i like youre humor,never heard about this device before so thanks for sharing.
This was amazing good laughs. Great job man. You bring happiness and joy to the world.
Thanks for the video. This is exactly the setup I need.
Resin, a little heat will soften it right up, even turn it liquid, afterwards, can wash the residual off with water. One good thing about it, it created a seal around the lid and union keeping the air out.
I loved it, all the way through, you were funny without even trying. Great vid! thanks :-)
you probably dont give a shit but if you guys are stoned like me during the covid times then you can watch pretty much all the new movies on Instaflixxer. I've been binge watching with my brother lately xD
@Forrest Walker definitely, I've been watching on instaflixxer for months myself =)
The top is flat and gasses are no more likely to accumulate at the centre of the lid then at the edge. Why not have your gas return start at the upper rim instead. Then you won't have to undo the pipe every time you load it. You can even put a slight lean into the barrel by propping it up on that side more to make that the high point.
Great video on how not to do it. Why connect the gas pipe to the lid? Come out the side and no need to undo it every time
It is so amazing to see this practical.
Like the video. Very informative. Thank-you for putting it up. TIP: Put some hi-temp anti-seize compound on the union and binder ring and they should come off easier.
thank you.
That's OK, if you are happy I'm happy too. up for you
I watched the whole video and it's really worth it. Most people don't even know that charcoal comes from wood... ;)
Thank you, i am really wanting to get more content up but it is just going to take awhile
You can use some high temp silicone sealant in the union to make a seal without having to tighten the threaded part as much. Not really water tight but it should be good for air since there is no pressure. when you do it just apply and let cure for a few days before you put the parts back together so they dont bond.
there is (supposed to be) pressure though, also there is not supposed to be a union. this one has since rusted out and will soon be un-usable so i am working on building a new one.
Thank you. This video has inspired me to build myself a charcoal rig. Going to do a bit more research.
here is a good place to start www.katanabuilders.com/katanablog/charcoal/?album=2&gallery=5
+ManOf1ThousandHats Thanks. I was watching a video on the Colossus of Rhodes....don't know how I managed to get here :/ Glad I did though.
+ManOf1ThousandHats That link leads to cooker that really works awsome
I use good ol lighter knot wood to start all fires..i made a bunch of charco..4 inch by 6 inch oak..ive got a big plastic drum of nice charco..im makeing a setup now that will get me 4 plastic drum full of charco...this will last me a long time
A pine knot does work quite nicely, it is what I use now.
I'd weld a 4-6 inch piece of pipe at a right angle to the recirculating pipe just below the union into which one could insert a length of smaller diameter black iron pipe or a steel rod to act as counter-lever when using the pipe wrench to tighten and loosen the union. I'd also consider putting a bit of anti-seize compound on the union threads and the threads of the bolt that holds the locking ring, which is readily available from auto parts stores.
Yes these are both very good suggestions, and obvious now that i am in a mechanical field. Oh well, it ia about time for a rebuild anyway
Me to. Great job
purty cool set up
I pray that you are made to watch this 10x’s may be then you will have a better understanding of yourself and what you are doing. Next video listen to audio and edit it before you release it
sweet rig!!! I hate paying for charcoal and this looks easy enough. Great instructions!
Check out the urban Alchemy video if you havent yet, it is even simpler
I like your design. I take it you used the cut-off bottom to create the barrier between the char chamber and the burner cavity at the bottom. If you use cinder blocks or the like to support it higher off the ground you can devote more of the barrel to the char chamber. Of course that means more wood and a longer burn.
What size are the holes you drill in the top of the "T" burner? I'd just take the entry pipe across the barrel and use it as the burner for a simpler design but you might get broader heating with the T.
You might get a more even char if you put a chimney pipe up the middle of the barrel from the burn chamber. ?You'll definitely get a better draw and hotter fire but this has its' own complications.
I've seen some retort design with an insulating fibreglass blanket around the outside. This loses less heat to the environment and keeps the char chamber hotter. By keeping the ouside wall and lid hotter you might cut down on the amount of wood gas that condenses there as resin. You'll also get more gas to the burner.
In terms of elbow grease, this is about the best bang for the buck I've seen for a retort.
I actually stopped using this and went to a two piece design. As soon as I get a computer with an editor suite set up I will upload a video showing more detail
Great one,i learnt a lot...on the other hand,how much biomass are you using to fire the Retort?
For this one my ratio was pretty high, probably 3lbs fuel to 1lb fodder. With my improved method(that i keep intending to film) i can produce 16lbs of charcoal with the wood from 2 brokendown pallets. I think I am close to 1:1 if not better. but on the other hand what i burn for fuel doesn't really matter. So i can go clear brush and put oak saplings and Mesquite in the chamber and burn Huisache, black brush, scrap lumber, old fence posts, cardboard boxes, limbs too small to bother charing, nothing goes to waste and nothing has to lay around being snake habitat.
Interesting no chimney? Run a chimney up through the hopper, more heat and more even burn, and may burn the resin more thoroughly, although to keep from burning completely into charcoal, you'll have to snuff your fire earlier, as for starting the fire, I like to make a T.P. of slivers with a layer of twigs, then a layer of small branches over the tinder before I light it through the T.P. "door".
A long handled sccop for adding charcoal bits around the centre of the fire woud avoid smothering it.
This's good, sensible and scientific idea! I think you need improve the manipulation is better. Thanks!
Modern???? You know man has been making charcoal for centuries 😂 but I do like you design, the way it re-uses the off gas👍
Wrap the wood vessel with fiber glass insulation. And better results 👍
If you eliminated the union and made the hole into the side slightly larger then you could remove the lid and you wouldn’t have the problem of a ‘Tight joint’ ..... bung the side hole with a bit of heat rope.
This design could be simplified by placing the gas tube a few inches below the steel clamp ring. This would make the union unnecessary, and serve the same purpose. No more messing with the piping.
yes that has been a tought of mine. also i could have just built it like the instructions said and used a whole barrel with a side bung in a horizontal orientation with a brick enclosure. but I got "smart" and tried to "improve" it
Congrats on the kids, good video too.
cool, i love that you used a u pipe to burn the gases
Yeah, that is how a retort is supposed to work. This one doesn't work so well but it does the job
ManOf1ThousandHats retort , ive herd the word but never really seen one till now i guess , thanks for posting
Thanks for the info on the retort. It should have been that the escaping gasses carried all of that sticky gunk away. Maybe a hotter burn would have accomplished this. You said that the instructions had the retort piping to go into a burner rather than just some teed pipe that ended nowhere. Maybe that would have made the difference. Bravo for going to the trouble to do it and for going to the trouble to show us how. Do you still have the instructions? Where can one find them? Also, sorry to say it, but, man, take better care of your tools! Thanks again, Bill.
Well firstly, the tee'd pipe is supposed to be a burner but I think I have the size and number of holes wrong.
Secondly I found the instructions online at www.katanabuilders.com/katanablog/charcoal/?album=2&gallery=5
Thank you for responding. That brought me to a site that had some interesting other retorts as well. Thanks! B.
Weighing before and after firing will tell you how much mass is lost, not volume.
Watching this guy is torture...once I saw if contraption worked I will never waste that time again. lol
It doesn't work, the concept is sound but the execution suffers from my inexperience and incompetence at that time. One day when I am not under a burn ban and the kids are out from under butt I will show the way that works.
This was funny at least! I'll thumbs up just for the smile it gave me...you breaking the 5% charred wood . I wonder if you sawed disks of the log before seasoning it to split into chunks. then use grates to make layers inside the hopper...
HunterNugent I just so happen to have some oaky discuses in the hopper right now, i'll whip up some movie magic and show you how it turns out. i can even do Costers vs. pie slices
ManOf1ThousandHats Cool. Engineering is so fun...
It turns out if you cut the wood up and get it in the hopper and leave it for two weeks till it stops raining andthen try to burn it with wet wood then get rained out and busy for two more weeks you get moldy dank charcoal.
Soldiering on.
lol
I an actually cutting all my wood into disks now I makes a more uniform product.
I'd suggest you use a meter-Long one-inch pipe for blowing on the fire.
Bill Kibenia i have found a way of naturally ventilation that works quite well. but the pipe would certain help het the air in just the right spot.
Oh. Does that work well for you Bill?
Where did you find how to build the retort??? that looks like the easiest way to make charcoal that I've seen so far and I've watched hours of videos on making charcoal.... I need to make up about 4 or 5 30gal. garbage cans full. :P
I did a Google search and ended up here: www.katanabuilders.com/katanablog/charcoal/?album=2&gallery=5 his retorts are much better then mine and when i rebuid mine will be much closer to his design.
Yeah you definitely have to seal your joint well otherwise you’ll get weed all over the place
wax the union when it is hot enuf to melt......the best rust prevention and lube
commonconservative it is kind of irrelevant now, the whole union seized up but good. I have since quit using it in favor of a different system i hope to demo soon
could you add a link to how to build your retort
well i got the idea here www.katanabuilders.com/katanablog/charcoal/?album=2&gallery=5 and if i did a build video it would be for one closer to this but still unique to my needs
❤🎉🎉❤
Paper towel core s work too, I got busy body kids too, scared of lighter fluid
No need for a backflow valve on the burner pipe?
No, first this is a highly flawed design and second there is no oxygen in the top chamber so it wouldn't burn long
Can this be done using bagged charcoal ?
Not sure why you would want to, but i guess you could. Perhaps i am misunderstanding your question, do you mean can you retort sackcoal? No, it has been charred so there is no reason to. The purpose of retorting is to reduce the wood down to oil and carbon, kingsford is just pine sawdust and glue supercompressed and burned in an oxygen free environment. They don't even retort it, they use a petroleum gas flame.
Or do you mean can you use sack coal as a fuel source? Absolutely, you can use wood, waste oil, paper, heretics, anything that will burn hot enough. If you have Kingsford that has gotten wet or is some how unusable or undesired, burn the bag and all.
Im haveing a bit of a problem figureing out your system..
That is ok, it isn't great. It has some fatal design flaws. Ask away, I will tell you what I was thinking and why it was wrong and how to do it right.
Get a second wrench to work the union with.
That would have been a great idea. And easy too since there is a mechanic shop 100ft behind the camera. Unfortunately I was young and dumb.
instead of putting the vent gas pipe on top why didn't you put it in the side of the chamber so you wouldn't have to disconnect it
that will be fixed in the redesign. the simple answer is hot gas rises, to capture all the gas i wanted the pipe at the highest point
نريد ترجمه الى العربي لا نفهم التفاصيل وشكرا جزيلا
I have to say,what is what tiu know about building a fire I could right on the back of my thumb nail.
+SLA7664 i would love to see your video on the subjet. Hopefully i can learn something.
Not bad for a small amount of charcoal but you should think about greasing that pipe nut. A lot of trouble for a small amount of charcoal and not a through job. I've seen better but your entertaining. Thank You Loader.
I have learned a lot in the in the intervening years. But i have also changed jobs, moved, and had two kids so i haven't been able to do a demo recently. Updates coming soon though.
seriously, this was amazing a 29:55 video and I'm 90 minutes dumber.
Debo avisarte que el Torque con la llave estaba mal, era al revés, estabas apretando en vez de soltar, debiste empezar la filmación de nuevo, saludos desde Chile
gracias por mirar desde Chile Aprecio tu observación, siempre he luchado con "izquierda para aflojar, derecha para apretar". Ahora, sin embargo, ya no uso este dispositivo, he construido una versión mejor, pero no he tenido tiempo de filmarla en uso. gracias por su apoyo.
is that unseasoned wood?
commonconservative it was fairly fresh at the time it had been on the ground 3 or 4 months before i bucked it down and slivered it.
This time I will use woodprix instructions to make it by myself.
Not burning hot enough
True enough, though I have fixed that now.
Although i appreciate the upload, there are easier and more efficient ways and better designs.
World's largest crack pipe
I appreciate the video but it was a three minute video in thirty minutes...
Dennis Compton Well I'll acknowledge that this video could be shorter but i don't know about THAT short.
A boy scout....he is not!
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No, a chimney would not work. I need the smoke to be burned again.
Who in the name of GOD would use diesel to start a cooking fire...
Clown Whisper I used to work a labor job and the guys were either dumb as rocks or too smart to do anything else. one of the dumber fellows would always start his cooking fires with a tomato-paste can full of diesel. 90% of the taste would burn off but you could still identify it if you were looking for it
A complete waste of time but I smiled.
Link to instructions you didn't follow? :P
Yep, it is somewhere down here in the comments. I'll find it and put it in the description.
Thanks a ton. :)
@@piousminion7822 keep an Eye out, as soon as the burn ban is lifted here i will put up a new video that shows a better way that works even better and is so much simpler.
@@ManOf1ThousandHats you mean to tell me that you can't have a fire that's enclosed on your own property? That's crazy. So much for freedom.
@@piousminion7822 my neighbors don't take kindly to me setting the county ablaze, and the wife likes the lawn not on fire.
If i was still in this barren spot i might but i have moved.
This is the same spot Walter White parks his van no?
No that was outside Albuquerque New Mexico. This is in the suburbs of Podunkton Texas
50% weight loss. It ain't cooked through, charcoal yield should be around 25, but if you're happy with that level, ok.
yeah, i have been getting more complete chars lately with smaller batches.
+belson alan What is your rig? I'd love to see your videos!
dude when you build a fire you can carefully build the whole thing all the way up to large logs like ONE MATCH and walk away.
paper cardboard (LOTS)
shavings bark tiny twigs and grass,
Small sticks (LOTS)
Medium sticks and twigs large pieces of heavy bark,
Large sticks Small branches
Large branches splintered logs
Splintered logs and 3 medium split logs. or so
throw down the MIC and what the hell away
I know, it CAN be done. I have done it before, but i am not always the best prepared. I was never a boy scout
With so many hats why wear that one?
well, that is my cruddy hat, it is the one i wear when i am going to be getting really sweaty or something (or maybe it was the closest one to me when i need a hat, either way)
newspaprs burn better than glossy paper
true
6 minutes to light a fire super .....
looks like this would cause heavy creasote buildup in a chimney if i were to make charcoal in bulk in my woodstove , eh?
commonconservative not if you do it right. I refer you to my Urban alchemy video. That retort works better and now that i am using a giant version of that i anm getting no residue
Dude it is painful watching you make a fire.
thats what i thought , but a funny guy anyway
It is painful being me making a fire.
G
very old way !! use the SUN around you !! think about it !!
So many better retorts. But Heller good try
Too dragging with no reason..
, be ok mom
I am sorry, i don't understand your comment
Why all this time far a simplistic demo?
Because I was young and dumb. I haven't rewatched it in years but I could probably do an edit.
your charcoal process is way too incomplete due to lack of proper firing and venting tech.
GETREAL! Actually the size of the wood, cook time, and heat also play a big role. But for the purposes of bbq incomplete is fine. as a forge fuel it is not so good, but better then nothing.
this experiment is failed, hahah
You can learn more about it on WoodPrix webpage.
fail
so slow
Unfaedah
near idea. ...but way too long of a video.
i don't necessarily disagree.
I should have read the comments first. I lot thirty minutes watching ten minutes of failed charcoal making.
Needs more black bars ... and a fucking lavalier microphone! Also ... isn't a cavity always hollow?
as far as i know a cavity is not by definition hollow. if you want to send me a mic, or send me money for a mic o won't say no. as to black bars, segregation ended a long time ago, and this vidjo has nothing to do with drinkin'
YOU make this shit, YOU sort it out. What attitude is this anyway? "Hey there, I'm on TH-cam, presenting my shit. What? I hear criticism about my sub-par effort to be intelligible? Well, fuck you, then. I can be as shit as I choose. If you want me to not be shit, give me money." Cheap fuck.
+Anvilshock sir, i am trying to point out to you in a Humorous fashion no less, that i didn’t have the money at the time for a professional rig. as you may notice this was filmed on a cell phone with a home-built tripod adapter. my point is if you have an issue with the quality of my equipment i am sorry. youtube has yet to pay me for my content, and trust me every dime they send me will go to improving the channel. i am not a professional TH-cam presenter, i have never claimed to be. I have a real job, a house payment, student loans for an education i can't use, and a family to feed, i have a $5 a week i can spend on myself.
+Anvilshock Holy hell calm down. Angry ignorant fuck.
+ManOf1ThousandHats word of advice..dont respond to ignorant people..idiots people are better educating
Not worth the twenty nine minutes, only five were more than enough....try to value urs n others precious moments nxt tym around...