How to make charcoal easy and cheap (pic heavy)

[Shirl]

Morning all. I hope its ok to post on this older thread. I'm really keen to try this after just getting myself a cheap Weber bbq. I put a baking stone in it and made the best pizza i've had in my life!

I notice lots of people were inspired to have a go, did anyone ever get round to giving it a go and is it possible to do it on a slightly larger scale to meet the full bbq'ing needs for next summer? I've spoke to a couple of friends about it and they are on the lookout for an oil drum so we can give it a go. The problem I have is that my neighbours dont understand fun. Is it incredibly smokey?
Thanks

 

[bhofmann]

I've done it a few times and the yield is good. In addition, I also use a tin without any holes as a store for charcoal after a BBQ. Rather than let it burn to ash, when I'm done cooking I load the charcoal into a tin and seal the lid. Without Oxygen the fire starves and the charcoal is spared to be used again. I find on average my charcoal lasts 1.5~2.5 times longer this way. I admit to doing about as many as 4 tins of charcoal at a time to make it worthwhile. One after the other of course because I do them in/on my Chimenia when we're just sitting enjoying an evening in the garden. It's certainly worthwhile.

 

[Shirl]

Thanks for that, its a good tip. What I have been doing is shutting down the vents on my bbq which seems to make the fires go out pretty quick. They do seem fine to relight in my chimney. I am a little scared at the thought of using a big oil drum as my first attempt as the garden isn't massive and the neighbours are not at all understanding of my DIY ways. I will be off to Tesco for a tin of chocolates then its experiment time. Besides, bonfire night is coming up so they will never know what i'm up to!

 

[slowworm]

An oil drum full of wood will give off a large amount of smoke, I wouldn't use one in a garden. I make a reasonable amount of charcoal in my woodland by simply using a cheap bbq with a lid, get a wood fire going well and then put the lid on.

I've seen specially designed small charcoal making devices about, such as this:
http://www.kadai.co.uk/shop/view/4_Kadai_Accessories/27_Charcoal_Maker but I've never seen one in action, you're still going to get a fair bit of smoke produced.

 

[Shirl]

Thanks. I did consider a cheap bbq actually, working on the same principle as the weber, get it going then shut off all the vents. This is certainly the right time of year to pick up something cheap. I will look around see what is on offer.

 

[mr walloping]

I am definately going to try that

 

[Shirl]

The points about the amount of smoke in the garden if I use an oil can is rather offputting with the neighbours I have, but I may be able to get away with it on bonfire night! Otherwise I am going to look out for a cheap kettle type bbq that I can fill up with waste wood and shut down once its going well. I love the chocolate tin idea but it means me lighting a fire and wasting wood to make wood. I need something fairly small that is self contained. I shall keep looking around at possible vessels.

 

[Tony]

Does the container need to stay on the heat source to retain combustion? I'd imagine that it wil be able to take it off when it catches and starts to burn itself, if that's the case then you'd be able to start the process with a small amount of hot burning wood and then let it get on with it, then the wood use creating the charcoal would be way less than what you make.

 

[Shirl]

Does the container need to stay on the heat source to retain combustion? I'd imagine that it wil be able to take it off when it catches and starts to burn itself, if that's the case then you'd be able to start the process with a small amount of hot burning wood and then let it get on with it, then the wood use creating the charcoal would be way less than what you make.

Thanks Tony. If this is the case then surely I could fill the chocolate tin with some waste wood and pop it on top of the bbq when I've finished cooking. Leave it there a while then continue on with the rest of the method. Arth does say he got charcoal within an hour so it shouldn't be long that I have to leave it on the bbq. Can anyone confirm this is the case as I'm bbq-ing tomorrow weather permitting... and i've now got an empty chocolate tin... we scoffed a tin last night!

 

[slowworm]

Hopefully someone with more experience will give a better answer, but here's my 2p's worth. Firstly as you can bbq happily on wood I'd err on the side caution and under-cook the wood - charcoal which still has the odd bit of wood visible should be fine to use on a bbq assuming you'd happily cook over the wood. If you over cook the wood you'll just end up with ash!

So, I'd do as you suggest, pop the tin on the embers and see how you get on. The worst that will happen is you might need to re-do the process again. I don't think it'll get hot enough to start combustion in the tin and I'm not sure you actually want that to happen, what you want is all the moisture and most of the volatiles in the wood to be forced off without it actually catching fire - just like making charcloth. On that note, the dryer the wood the less white smoke it'll produce and the happier your neighbours will be.

 

[Shirl]

Thanks Slowworm. I gave it a go yesterday. Cooked myself a fine bbq full english breakfast.. even did the egg on a cast iron pan. I filled my chocolate tin with some bits of wood from the garden and stuck it on the bbq. I didn't add anymore charcoal but did put a few bits of wood on there just to heat things up a bit. After a few mins I had smoke, but then nothing more. I kept checking but after an hour I was still getting just smoke and not even a great deal of that. I got bored and left it as the charcoal in the bbq had cooled down considerably by now.
I went back in the evening to check it out and was very surprised to find I actually had charcoal! Its not perfect, there are pieces of unburnt wood but I didn't expect anything as I hadn't seen it move onto the gasses stage. I shall do this everytime I have a bbq as the charcoal I bought was cheap stuff and mostly dust so I can make some quality stuff and gradually build up a supply.
A friend thinks he can find a half sized oil drum or similar, there was a 26ltr one at his work that had been thrown away. If its still there we are going to give that a shot before moving onto the big drum!

 

[northumbrian]

Instead of wondering about a "puddle of tar", is there no way to collect the tar, via some outlet, drip valve etc, to be used later?

i think uncle ray does that in one of his programs ?

 

[northumbrian]

just a thought but all of our neighbours will think the beverly hill billies have moved in ! k jonboy ! lol

 

[spandit]

Thought I'd give this a go with some of the willow that I've been trimming this week:

Put some random bits in a Roses tin, with 5 holes punched in the lid:

Put it on the fire in the snug:

Wasn't long before jets of white smoke appeared:

These went on for an hour or so. I kept testing the jets with a lit spill until they caught alight:

Let these burn until they went out, which didn't take too long (about 20 minutes) - not sure if I could have taken it off the fire at this point but didn't. I then took the tin out and covered the holes with a layer of wet newspaper. Only left it a few minutes before the temptation to open it was too strong:

I'd say that's pretty good charcoal! Certainly good to draw with, although the thin bits are very fragile and have bent - not sure if burning them inside thin steel tubes would help:

Next step is to obtain a larger barrel and do a big batch outdoors, using the willow brush as fuel

 

[Toddy]

Very good Interesting to see how effective it was just using a sweetie tinful
Does it burn to a glow in a bbq or stove ?

You can make drawing charcoal by wrapping up offcuts of basketry sized willow in tinfoil and just roasting that on the fire. It makes charcoal 'sticks', if I make myself clear. Usually debarked, rather than bark on, for drawing sticks, maybe that's why your ones bent a bit ?

Thank you for the photos

cheers,
M

 

[Russell96]

Great post! Thanks for sharing and I will be giving that a go.
Russ

 

[spandit]

I'll try debarking some but at this time of year they don't seem to strip that easily (and frankly, I'm not much of an artist)

Haven't tried burning any yet, been too busy trying to work in the rain, not been the most fun I've had, if I'm honest

 

[Toddy]

I don't think I'd bother debarking if it wasn't for drawing charcoal. It's just that willow's supposedly very wet, especially when fresh, so you'll lose a lot of volume as it dries/chars.

No, it's been sodden wet here too the burn out the back door has become a loch :yikes:
Not that cold, but cold enough that trying to work in it wet is not pleasant

You do realise that you have loads of people eyeing up the rest of the Roses tin, and giving serious consideration to scranning the lot just to have an excuse to play with fire ?

atb,
M

 

[spandit]

It wasn't this year's tin if that helps

 

[Coldfeet]

Thanks for the information, an interesting read, and certainly something most people can try at home