Serial Charcoal Cooker

[Eagle66]

Like many others, I use gallon paint cans to cook my wood into coal. I load the wood into the can & put on the lid which has three holes to let the gases out. The usual next step is to build a fire around it and cook until it’s done. To do another can, you have to take out the first can and rebuild the fire around the next one. What makes my setup different is that it allows me to process several cans of coal without tearing down and rebuilding the fire.

Some pictures of my Charcoal cooker will show how it’s done. I started with a 6 gallon metal can. I punched a number of vent holes in the side a few inches above the bottom.

Then I put in a few inches of clay, with three pieces of fire brick to hold up the bottom support screen.

 

I cut a disc of ½” x 1” fence wire to fit into the can bottom on top of the brick pieces Then with the same wire, I rolled a cage 12” high and slightly bigger around than a 1 gallon paint can.

 

The cage goes into the can, centered.

 

Then I load the space between the cage and the can with firewood and/or super cheap charcoal briquettes, whatever I have on hand. (Personally, I like the irony of burning charcoal to make charcoal).Then I spray some charcoal lighter on it and fire it up. When it’s going well, I lower the prepared can of wood into the cage and sit back. In a few minutes, the smoke starts coming out of the vents, and a short time later, the smoke catches fire.

 

 

I cook it until the fire fountains die down, then lift the can out and turn it upside down to cover the holes while it cools.

 

Then I add some more wood to the fire and put in the next can. There are two important details. Add wood as necessary to keep the fire level above the top of the can or it won’t cook properly. Every so often, poke the ashes out of the vent holes to keep them open. Repeat for as many cans you want or until your wife or the neighbors call the fire department, whichever comes first. It took me around 7-8 hours to finish 5 cans.

 

A side note. With my pyrometer, I checked the temperature inside the cage without a can. Almost 2000* F. That may sound like way too much, but it's actually a bit cooler for the can than if it was buried in a fire.

 

Another side note. When I was done, I was hungry and hated to waste the good fire, so I strung a couple of brats on a wire and lowered them into the cage. Brown & crispy, perfectly even, in less than 2 minutes.

[dagabu]

After making a lot of charcoal in a very short time, I have to ask you. Why not use a TLUD instead of this method? Less waste, more charcoal, no fuel needed, almost ZERO smoke, etc. etc.

[Bobosan]

I use a similar method when cooking charcoal in the retort. Your fencing cage is nice and strong and will be upgrading mine to fence wire for a stouter cage for the charcoal. Only downside of the charcoal briquets directly against the can is that the cans eventually burn through after 5-6 cooks. Your setup should help with that issue.

 

I cycle three cans at a time during a cook, one cooking, one cooling and the last one being emptied and refilled. About 50-55 minutes per can using 1" square splits. I pull the can when flame dies to a wisp, take the cage off, seat and level a fresh can on the hot coal bed and place the cage over the can and work it down to the grill, finish off by reloading loose hot coals into the cage and adding fresh briquets that ignite from the the previous cook briquets.

 

It's an all day process and when done cooking charcoal, I put the main grill back on and cook some burgers on the last hot coals.

Edited November 7, 2014 by Bobosan

[dagabu]

I use a similar method when cooking charcoal in the retort. Your fencing cage is nice and strong and will be upgrading mine to fence wire for a stouter cage for the charcoal. Only downside of the charcoal briquets directly against the can is that the cans eventually burn through after 5-6 cooks. Your setup should help with that issue.

 

I cycle three cans at a time during a cook, one cooking, one cooling and the last one being emptied and refilled. About 50-55 minutes per can using 1" square splits. I pull the can when flame dies to a wisp, take the cage off, seat and level a fresh can on the hot coal bed and place the cage over the can and work it down to the grill, finish off by reloading loose hot coals into the cage and adding fresh briquets that ignite from the the previous cook briquets.

 

It's an all day process and when done cooking charcoal, I put the main grill back on and cook some burgers on the last hot coals.

 

Again I ask, why waste all the fuel, time, extra containers instead of making a TLUD? After switching over to TLUD, I can't even think about going back.

[Bobosan]

If I had a source for Paulownia shavings, I would use TLUD on that too.

 

TLUD overcooks larger sticks in my experience. I could get a chipper shredder and make Paulownia shavings but that is way overkill. A power planer on crooked branches is not wise. Any other wood that I can get in shavings or small pieces like pine cones, I use the TLUD.

 

Why do some use plastic hemis instead of paper? It's all a labor of pyro love.

Edited November 8, 2014 by Bobosan

[MrW]

+1 on TLUD. Once I tried...never gone back. Using a 20 litre drum, cooking willow 1/2" sqr 8" long full drum in 45-60 minutes. Same drum with west australian hardwood (jarrah) 5 hrs....but best thing... Not feeding the fire to cook via the old retort method... Its a plus plus for me.

[mikeee]

On larger pieces of wood it helps to have the pieces cut into cubes this provides better air flow around the materials to allow a better cook.

If you stand a bunch of ripped cut wood splints into a TLUD it is hard to get an even flow of air between the wood pieces.

It is easy enough to sort through cooked wood splints and throw the uncooked ones into the next batch.

[Eagle66]

Well, up until now, I've never heard of TLUD charcoal cooking. I looked it up and it sounds interesting to try out. The main thing I wonder about is how, with the fire on top, the wood gets cooked to CC instead of burned to ashes . Guess I'll find out. Hey, even if I make a complete botch of it, all I will lose is a gallon can and less than 1% of my black willow stock. Big deal.

 

Right now, the worst aspect of the way I've been doing it is the very real possibility of trouble from neighbors over all the smoke I make. Eliminating that problem alone makes it worth the try.

 

Another question about TLUD. How easy is it to scale up? I have hundreds of pounds of willow that I'd like to get rendered into cc, if for nothing else than needing less storage space. One gallon at a time could take weeks of long smoky days.

[dagabu]

EZPZ! My 5 gallon TLUD on our deck.

 

http://youtu.be/6dDTE7wKW1c

[Bobosan]

A 1 gallon TLUD.

 

[pyrojig]

I have heard the same thing about the TLUD charcoal retorts( overcooking ) . In your guys experiments is there any way to keep this to a minimum.? It seems that the shavings( small material) is a need for good air flow. Have you guys compared the ending result of TLUD v.s. the stand. retort method? I have been apprehensive to do the TLUD , and stuck with the retort method. I am ready to give a TLUD cooker a chance , just want to make sure not to roast some of the precious paulownia chunks I have. I may be able to get chipped paulownia here soon from a local farmer( hence the interest in the TLUD) . I have a very similar retort ( almost identical to Dags.) The only diff is I have holes drilled in the top rim and the bottom about a couple inches up v.s. the underdraft holes . I may have to do another retort sadly as to control the air flow from below to the chimney. Ill try to post pics at some point , but is it pretty much Dags setup with the extra holes/./ opinions welcome...

[MrB]

Personally i don't like these cookers. I think they create to much ash, and over cook the charcoal.

 

On the other hand they are dead simple to use, and provide a 100% reliable result. It's just what you need to make, lets say, consistent performing BP. Not something a pyro is to concerned about, now is it...

(Yes, it's a rhetorical question. Of course it is)

 

It also helps that there is virtually no detectable smoke, and it doesn't smell that bad. There is a crapload of good things to say about it, but yet, i don't fancy it.

B!

[Bobosan]

You'll eventually find a use for both TLUD and conventional retort. If I could find or safely make paulownia shavings or any other high reactive wood, I would not hesitate to use the TLUD method. Yellow Pine and Red Cedar are two reactive woods that can be found as shavings and ideal for TLUD use. Paulownia splits overcook in a TLUD and crumble when removed from the cooker. Too much heat created with large splits sends the wood beyond ideal pyroIysis condition and that doesn't happen using splits with the conventional retort method.

 

TLUD with adjustable airflow may be the answer but have not experimented with that.

 

In the pic, you can see weak and crumbling TLUD paulownia sticks in the lower quarter of the box. Some even have visible ash, a sign of too much heat. Upper 3/4 of the box has conventional retort cooked paulownia. Sticks are cohesive yet cooked completely, hold close to original shape and do not break apart when handled or dropped. They sound like fine china when dropped.

 

 

 

[mkn]

I like Mikeee's idea of the chunks for larger pieces of splints, that may replicate my experience with heating pellets. I have some sumac drying now that I want to try the chucks as well as long splints cooking. For my one gallon TLUD based on Bobosan's video, I had some of the best results with wood heating pellets. The TLUD was packed to the top with pellets, I thought it may not burn properly, but quite the opposite, I ended up with 1hr 40 min burn times on multiple cooks, and perfect coal if you can imagine the tiny pellet pieces clinking lightly like china, glass. each one gallon can provided 1# of coal.

Matt

[pyrojig]

Ya, the over cooking may be a issue as for hot bp. I have some of the hottest paulownia bp ever, but I believe that it is due to the precise cooking method of the retort. It has not lost any fuel (carbon) value. I use this mostly for burst.

 

The Pine idea may be one of interest for the TLUD. I have a local private saw mill I can request pine sawdust for the cooking . It is not the super-fine crap, but almost shavings . I can get this free by the truck load. I love the rich sparks and reactive bp it produces . I will have to produce a TLUD like Dags ( no side hole venting on bottom) and see if this does the trick . As silly as it is I have used the same looking setup to cook a retort, and the chimney serves well to get a hot fire going.

SO,,,,,,,,,,,,,I guess this winter I will take the "plunge" and give the TLUD a shot. I have a couple 55gal drums that may be used for cooking a 16-20gal ( retort method) for larger materials . I use quite a bit of CH every year, and this might actually keep up with my heavy use .