Processing Charcoal

[nater]

I'm curious - What kind of different methods do you use to process chunks of charcoal after it is cook before it goes into the mill? Meat grinders, stamp mills, bag and mallet, etc.. Giant ball mill full of bowling balls? Edited March 9, 2012 by nater

[joreed2]

We just cooked our first batch, my buddy crumbled it up and ran it through an old crank meat grinder, said it was very messy and dusty.

[warthog]

Well, balsa I just crush in my hand. Same with pinecones, they come out pretty much as dust. For m ore solid stuff, like willow I drop it into a bucket and smash it up some with a sledge hammer until I have small enough pieces to run through my hand cranked,sausage stuffer/meat grinder. It is messy and dusty and I think this is why I like it. I wear a full face respirator too as I am not fond of black boogers.

[Peret]

I use an old crank meat grinder, which is as joreed2 says very messy and dusty. Then I mill it before using it, because otherwise the BP comes out of the mill with hard charcoal granules in it and doesn't have the right proportions.

 

For quantity, I hear a dry kitchen waste disposal does a great job quickly.

[Algenco]

I use a large motor driven meat grinder

 

the grinder discharges into 3" pvc elbow taped on, it then drops through a short piece of 3" pipe that has magnets glued to the inside, I cut a hole in a kitchen trash bag and tape it to the pipe, the bag hangs down into a 5 gal bucket, very lttle dust escapes and virtually no chance of metal particles getting into the charcoal

[oldguy]

Quick clean easy method 1.

 

Assuming you are processing small amounts. Reduce any large chunks to finer material by pounding them with a 2x4 or 4x4 wooden post in a bucket. If you are fortunate enough to have or can acquire a commercial quality stainless steel blender. Simply use the blender to reduce the material finer (around 30 to 80 mesh & finer). If you want it finer yet, ball mill it down further.

 

Quick clean easy BULK method 2.

Stainless steel garbage disposal mounted in a metal or plastic drum top (open top type drum with lid & clamp ring). Reduce any large chunks to finer material by pounding them with a 2x4 or 4x4 wooden post in a bucket. Feed the material through the garbage disposal mounted in the drum top. Screen results for mesh size classification and/or ball mill.

 

Quick screening.

Build a shaker table with an electric motor, eccentric gear & springs that you can mount nested screens on.

Load top screen full, cover stack with plastic bag & secure with a bungee cord at the base.

Turn it on, let it run 15 minutes. Allow dust to settle & carefully remove the cover.

Presto change-o screened charcoal without turning myself into an black faced comic character.

 

The long drawn out "labor of love" old laborious many step dirty methods.

 

 

 

 

Wearing old clothes, gloves & a surgical face mask, I break it up by hand into chunks.

 

Then drop a few chunks at a time into a very heavy duty 8 gallon stock pot.

 

Them smash the chunks into finer material with a 4X4 wooden post about 5ft tall.

 

 

Once reduced to finer material, I store the results in plastic or metal drums for further processing later.

 

 

 

\

 

Then, when I get around to it. Sometimes, I feed the reduced material through an electric garden shredder-mulcher.

 

 

 

I sometimes also use my big bertha mill & billiard balls to reduce the material down further, then screen results.

 

 

 

If I want to make "air-float", I then use different jars & milling media.

 

 

Edited March 9, 2012 by oldguy

[WSM]

Quick clean easy method 1.

Quick clean easy BULK method 2.

Quick screening.

 

Serious business, oldguy.

I admire your stamina .

 

WSM

[oldguy]

I get bored, if I don’t keep my hands busy.

 

 

[nater]

Thanks for sharing, I like seeing the different methods we've all come up with. I've been just crushing it in a bag or bucket, but I think I'm going to look for an old meat grinder and set something up like Algenco. I don't need much production capacity, but something that breaks down easily so I can take it with me is right up my alley. It won't be long and I'll have a portable rocket shop that fits nicely in the trunk of my car to take to club shoots.

[oldguy]

After you crush any fairly soft charcoal to around 1 inch minus.

 

Any of the old style retro looking 2 speed (low/high) 3 Amp Waring blenders will do the job.

 

They will take down about 4 cup volume loads to -30+80 mesh in 30 seconds.

 

You can often find them in thrift stores or on Craig list cheap.

 

They are all over eBay, but heavy so shipping is a snag there.

 

Let container set 30 seconds for the fine dust to settle inside it.

 

Remove the lid. Hold a plastic bag over the container top tightly & dump content in.

 

In 30 minutes you can make a LOT of fine charcoal ready for spark effect or ball milling.

 

It a fairly quick & clean method.

 

 

[nater]

I might look for a blender in a thrift store and give it a try. Although, I recently had a bad experience blending tomato soup when the seal on the lid failed and made my kitchen look like a crime scene.

[oldguy]

I do it out on the back concrete deck on a picnic table top.

I usually keep my hand on the lid.

Any spill or mishap can be hosed into adjoining flower bed or the lawn.

It's a lot less messy than a hand crank or motorized grinder, as all the dust is trapped in the container.

[WSM]

I do it out on the back concrete deck on a picnic table top.

I usually keep my hand on the lid.

Any spill or mishap can be hosed into adjoining flower bed or the lawn.

It's a lot less messy than a hand crank or motorized grinder, as all the dust is trapped in the container.

 

The blender can do double duty as a match comp maker, too. Start with starch solution and add the BP components with the blender on high till everything has the consistency of pudding. It makes great black match (depending on the charcoal used and degree of mixing and speed of drying, and so on and so on...)!!!

 

WSM

[allrocketspsl]

I have to say,your a mean machine mate everytime I see that operation I say I gotta do that but know its like years down the road,I admire your sticktuitiveness(SP) you know what i mean,lol! Im thinking how to scale the same thing down think its possible?

Edited March 12, 2012 by allrocketspsl

[oldguy]

LOL, you might edit out the double set of pictures.

 

You can scale it down in a heartbeat.

 

Use 30G drums (upper & lower)

Use a 16 or 18G drum inside the upper drum.

[allrocketspsl]

LOL, you might edit out the double set of pictures.

 

You can scale it down in a heartbeat.

 

Use 30G drums (upper & lower)

Use a 16 or 18G drum inside the upper drum.

 

lol yeah i see what you mean

[ollie1016]

A blender is great for small batches of good charcoal. If not all of the charcoal has been properly cooked you can ruin your blender badly... Like I did many years ago! It's a bit messy though! Make sure you wear a dust mask and rubber gloves. I've know that charcoal dust is carcinogenic.

[mikeee]

A continous duty garbage disposal works very good for grinding charcoal.

You will end up with charcoal between air float and 80 mesh, easily screen and sorted.

It is then ready to go into a ball mill as needed.

Disposal sits on top of a 5-gallon bucket and the discharge pipe runs thru the cover on top of the bucket.

You also need a vent pipe coming out of the bucket top to create an air flow.

[Bobosan]

hmmmm......knew there had to be a reason for saving that old disposal. I have one that has a cracked plastic lower case and leaked water. Motor is still good. Maybe slathering on some epoxy might plug the crack.

 

Mikeee, have you been using this system for a while? What drawbacks might there be? Safety concerns?

[Algenco]

Bob

if it isn't a continuos duty model like Waste King the thermal overload will shut it down after a couple minutes use

[Bobosan]

Thanks Al. No, it's just a cheap Badger. Probably would still be in use if a Waste King, or at least repairable. You've heard the expression "throwing money into the garbage can"? With a Waste King you throw garbage into the money can.

 

...but I digress...

 

Always thought water needed to be running to assist with lubrication in these things. Can't imagine running any disposal dry with charcoal.

[Nessalco]

I use a Waste King, and have never had any problems with it heating up. You can grind a lot of charcoal in a hurry using one. Ten pounds of black willow took about 5 minutes to grind.

 

Kevin

[Nessalco]

Here's an ebay sale that is a pretty good price. The lowest I've seen for a new unit is $88 shipping included.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Waste-King-L-8000-Legend-Series-1-0-Horsepower-Continuous-Feed-Garbage-Disposal-/121094136976?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c31c5e490

 

Kevin

Edited April 16, 2013 by Nessalco

[bob]

I heard some where that you can use a blender with a hole cut in the lide and a shop vac with the hose going a short way into the hole so you can just leave the blender on until the vac has sucked up all of the air float up, do you think that would really work?

Bob

[mikeee]

Worth a try.

I use the Waste King myself.

There are plenty of blenders out there at a fraction of the cost.

Some of the lids have a removable cap that allow you to extend a spoon for mixing.

That hole in the lid would work good for the shop vac hose.

Only one way to find out if it will work.