ThrownBiscuit Posted February 9 Posted February 9 I'm showing off my new TLUD that I made from a milk can that I bought at a yard sale. I cut gaps in the base for the 1" inlet pipes to and 4 1" holes in the bottom of the milk can. Cut out a round piece of plate to fit in the bottom of the milk can and drilled holes and cut it in 3 pieces. (So, it could be hinged and fit down throat of milk can. It looks like a wider gap over near the cat side of plate due to my use of sharpie to mark where I was cutting.) Wrapped the outlets of the pipe with a bit of stainless mesh and used steel zip ties to fasten around the nipples. Put a few standoff pillars to leave a gap between baffle plate and pipe nipples. Bought a second lid off amazon and shoved a 4" stainless exhaust pipe with some holes drilled through it. (Original lid is sealing lid.) For test, started basic with Eastern Red Cedar pet bedding. Ignited easily, burned down in ~45 min. Now, I am waiting on it to cool and will let you know how the charcoal turns out.(I may not know myself until some point next week due to work, but without work how could I afford to indulge my hobbies.😃) 2
cmjlab Posted February 9 Posted February 9 That's an impressive flame too! I assume you are forcing air through it vs. just using updraft?
cmjlab Posted February 9 Posted February 9 Either way, I agree it's a sharp looking TLUD. Way nicer than any of mine (cobbled together with cheap metal trash cans and old steel stove pipe.
ThrownBiscuit Posted February 10 Author Posted February 10 Not forcing air, it really is just updraft. Thank you both for the compliments. 😊
cmjlab Posted February 10 Posted February 10 That is quite the impressive updraft. What are the 4 pipes with valves for? Or what function do they serve?
ThrownBiscuit Posted February 11 Author Posted February 11 They are the air intake; the valves are for adjustment of air flow and to seal off the air intake once it has burned down. The charcoal is looking good, but it won't be until late next week before I am able to make some BP with it and check results.
OnlyFuse Posted February 11 Posted February 11 Very nice design, do you have any more photos of the inside or the base? I'm unable to find a cross section of the milk can, is it multi layered with insulation? I've love to replicate one of these for myself.
ThrownBiscuit Posted February 12 Author Posted February 12 I will take some more pictures but the earliest I will be able to take them will be Friday. (Covering for someone's vacation at work) The milk can is a single layer of stainless steel that does not have insulation, so it gets quite hot when burning. The interior of the wide section is a hair greater than 14 7/8 inches in diameter. I hadn't bothered to measure the throat yet since spare lids were easily available from amazon, but I will get that information for you as well. 2
Boophoenix Posted February 14 Posted February 14 It’s funny how forgiving TLUD designs can be. I’m my little bit of tinkering with then the secondary burn can be adjusted to meet the lower intake. Which is a little contrary to what I first thought on my first one. I still set mine up for a gently rolling flame at the secondary burn. I’ve always liked that look. A test or two seemed to indicate that may also be an ever so slightly cooler cook than the stack that looks like a jet engine. I for giggles even tried one attempt that didn’t have much updraft as it had to be drawn in around the top into a void half the container high. It was breezy that day so was difficult to keep lit. It did create a lot of resins in the pot though. I was wondering how starved of airflow one might operate. I also tinkered a little with bell reducers. While most of mine are a little to the large size for the containers I was using there didn’t seem to be much change with them. When I was first deliberating some of that setup which is all stainless I wanted adjustable stack height a little. I cut some stainless pipe and notched the inner and outer joints to stack and kind of seal. Since I went the stainless route with much of mine the above setup is a little of eye candy too. One of my setups I had an aluminum defuser plate similar to above described I do believe since that design also was piped with a valve. A cousin dropped by during a cook and wanted to visit her aunt in the cemetery. Needless to say I neglected the cook and lost the charcoal, but also lost a portion of the defuser plate too, lol. I should have snuffed the whole thing when she pulled up, but the pyromaniac in me has trouble with doing that.
Zumber Posted February 14 Posted February 14 Is it intended to produce charcoal? I am new to this thing.
ThrownBiscuit Posted February 17 Author Posted February 17 As promised, the throat diameter is 9 13/16 inches, as well as pictures of the base, diffuser stand-off pillars, diffuser and unmilled product. Yes Zumber, it is intended to produce charcoal. I would be testing the charcoal this weekend but weather is not conducive this weekend for running my ballmill. (I run it outside and it is going to be a wet weekend.😔) 1
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