A mini adventure

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flashhole

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So I bought a new charcoal grill from Pilot Rock. Lump charcoal at the local supply store is $27 for 20# of charcoal. Heck with that, I researched how to make charcoal and thought I'd give it a try.

I picked up a 30 gallon steel drum for $28. It was somewhat difficult to find but it has a remoavable, replaceable top. A 55 gallon drum for $15 with both ends cut out so it was just an open ended cylinder and 4 cinder blocks $1.29 each (4" x 16" x 8"). I'm into this project for about $48.

My firewood adventures usually result in burn piles left in the woods or field and I burn the scrap when there is no wind. I thought I could kill two birds with one stone ... burn the burn pile and make some charcoal at the same time.

The burn pile. Shown is the top of the 30 gallon drum with a 3/4" vent hole drilled in the center. I scribed the ground with a stick.



I placed 3 cinder blocks 120 degrees apart and close enough to one another that they would support both the 30 gallon drum and the 55 gallon drum. Then set the 30 gallon drum inside the 55 gallon drum. The 55 gallon drum is open on both ends and acts like a chimney.



Here's the 30 gallon drum filled with maple. The wood is seasoned at least a full year and has no bark on it.

 
I put wood under the barrels and started a fire. The chimney action burned really, really hot, like 3 rocket stoves.



It took about 3 hours to burn to the point where there were no more volatile organic compounds (VOCs) jetting out the top. It roared quite loudly for a long time and the fire was intensely hot. I raked the coals from under the barrels, blocked the vent hole and let it cool.

This is the result. Next time I will cut the wood a bit more uniform. This time I just used fireplace size lengths.



I filled my homemade (made in the USA) charcoal chimney with my lump charcoal (made in the USA) and my new grill (made in the USA).

 
good work! I'm purely guessing based on what i see in the photos, which is a few big lumps of charcoal and a lot of litle stuff, that maybe the wood at the outside of the inner barrel got a lot hotter than the stuff in the middle and was burning away. Maybe a longer slower cook would be more even?
 
Nice job.

Seems like a lot of work, though. Are you happy with the results? What kind of maple? Do you think different wood would make better charcoal?

I have to burn the burn pile one way or the other. Results with the hard maple were good for the first attempt. I need to use smaller chunks of wood to get more uniform pieces. I have both ash and hickory to try too. My original thought was to use hickory but the maple was very convenient.
 
good work! I'm purely guessing based on what i see in the photos, which is a few big lumps of charcoal and a lot of litle stuff, that maybe the wood at the outside of the inner barrel got a lot hotter than the stuff in the middle and was burning away. Maybe a longer slower cook would be more even?

I understand what you are saying but there is no such thing as a longer slower cook when doing this. You need all the heat you can get so I just kept feeding the fire as long as the burning gasses were coming out the top.
 
Does the food taste the same as cooked over regular store bought charcoal?

I notice the taste is different based on the kind of wood used to make the charcoal. Lump charcoal does not have any of the binder additives briquette charcoal has. The chimney helps a lot too. No lighter fluid.
 
Nicely done! Did the chimney have the tornado effect? I have had some brush piles do this and the heat is intense.
 
Not so much the tornado effect if you are referring to cyclonic action. The cinder blocks made a super draft like a rocket stove and it burned really hot. It was not pleasant getting close to the barrel to load the wood with the intense heat. It was 37 degrees when I started with clear skies and no wind. I was worried about generating enough heat with the low ambient air temp but that did not turn out to be a problem.

The barrels held up well. I was particularly concerned about the lid on the 30 gallon drum and the jetting action of hot gasses going through the hole but it did great and I will probably not have to put any kind of nipple in the hole to extend the life of the lid. If I get 5 or 6 burns from it I am way ahead of the game with the cost of lump charcoal. I have 4 other burn piles on the property so I will do at least that many more charcoal burns.
 
LOL, the sound came out just fine in the video.


Sent using mental telepathy.
 
Second charcoal session today. At the advice of someone on another forum I went with less heat and a longer time. Lump charcoal came out in much larger pieces. These work much better on the grill.
 
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