My charcoal

[sofasurfer]

Made charcoal once with sticks. Turned out good. Tried with cut up chucks of log and it turned out mostly under cooked. Yesterday I made another attempt using mostly cut up 2x4s and similar pieces of lumber.

Packed a 5 gallon pile with the wood. Started a fire in the bottom of a trash can. Placed the bucket on the fire and then packed cut up pallet wood around the bucket. 15 minutes after the fire was going pretty good I saw smoke coming from the barrel. 16 minutes later the gases from the bucket ignited. They continued to burn as an inferno for 40 minutes. At that time the fire went out a couple of times and I reignited it. When it went out for good I removed the bucket and placed it up side down on the ground. The wood cooked down about 30 percent or so. Maybe 1/3 of that was under cooked. I still ended up with enough good charcoal to make me happy with this attempt.

Here is what I think would make a better batch. I think that uniform sizes would be better. I think the best would be cubes. Anything bigger and I would need to pre heat the wood on a low fire to allow a uniform drying of the wood after which I would crank the heat up. I also think that if I started with more uniform and dryer wood I would need a lot less of an inferno to cook it over. My pallet wood was extremely hot and did not finish the job completely. I think I had a very inefficient set up.

Heres some picks of the bucket of wood, my kindling pile and the end result. Give me your thoughts.

[crusher]

Thanks for the post, I have always thought about trying it but just havent took the time to try.
Now with your motivation I might have to

[zeroed4x]

You're on the right track. I would not load your bucket so heavy, you need the hot gases inside to circulate. Rack the pieces criss cross fashion and leave space between them. More wood for the fire under your bucket loaded with the soon to be charcoal.
I'd use an 55 gal steel drum and then build a fire pit and suspend the drum down inside the fire pit with rebar mesh. The heat still needs to be around the sides of the drum so you'll need to wood stacked around the sides too. A good ol' Dakota fire pit would make a good hot fire for the job and as long as your drum is vented properly with even heat. You would want the drum or bucket deep inside the fire pit with wood stacked all around it. You'll have a better char through the wood. My grandfather used to make me help him make charcoal when I was a young'n.

[sofasurfer]

I am going to get a 35 gallon barrel to put into a 55 gallon barrel. I also think that I had too many holes in the bucket. As the gases were expelled there was plenty of room for oxygen to get inside to dilute the gases.

Also, this is something I want to try one of these days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBYaP5K0AkE

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