Got some paulownia...

[jessoman]

Hi all,

 

I recently acquired a lot of paulownia wood shavings/dust/meal and I have been researching the methods of cooking it and have found its different to how we normally do it with normal pieces.

Does anyone do it? I have noticed people say to stir it?

 

If anyone can tell me any further first hand insight it would be great. I don't want to waste it all.

 

Thanks in advance,

Jess

[leedrill]

with shavings a tlud might be easier im very pedantic when it comes to the prep and cooking of wood and i prefer the retort method over the tlud but youd want a thin retort or some kind of way to keep it spaced maybe even if you had say a 18" drum and a 14 to 15 " drum you could just fill the centre of the retort with another tin/drum to have a nice couple of inches on the outer of wood shavings that will get a reasonably even cook

[jessoman]

Okay right so it would be like filling a sleeve and the inner tin would be empty?

[dan999ification]

I'm having no trouble cooking shavings on a tlud, I boiled snow last year

 

If you don't pack it too tight it's fine, I get 300g of pet bedding in my 2.5ltr tlud it cooks in 10mins, it holds 7-800g of willow and cooks in the same time.

 

A long chimney pulls more air and will get things hot enough to keep going, I switch to a short chimney once its going well to slow the burn a bit.

10 batches cooked recently, the first one went out because of the short chimney and dense packing.

I used no starter jut the draft ( and a blowtorch )

 

Dan.

[jessoman]

Great, well I think the next step is to build a decent TLUD out on the farm. I'm just using a basic paint tin retort at the moment. Really looking forward to using paulownia shavings. I've only ever used willow so some comparison will be exciting.

[Bobosan]

Shavings and dime sized chunks will work better with TLUD and as Dan said, don't pack it tightly. You need that airflow through the can so it cooks fast but doesn't overcook. I tried 25mm square by 150mm split Paulownia sticks which took longer to cook and ended up overcooking due to excessive heat generated. They crumbled when picked out of the can rather than retaining shape.

 

No starter is needed with shavings.

 

[dan999ification]

Bobosan, I was inspired by yours and picked up some pet bedding

If it makes decent bp this method will change the game, simple,cheap, fast and the best thing is no external fire needed which can be a problem.

Surprisingly the willow it produced is a LOT softer than my retort cooked stuff.

 

Dan.

[TYRONEEZEKIEL]

Is pet bedding made from willow?

[dan999ification]

No, sorry if I confused things. the bedding is some kind of pine.

The laborious willow is selected by me from trees.

 

Dan.

[Bobosan]

Most common pet bedding for small animals is made of red cedar and can be expensive in large quantities. Pine shavings can be as close as the nearest sawmill and sometimes free. White pine is supposed to yield a good batch of charcoal, especially for stars. Many times the wood used (ie. Balsa, Willow, Paulownia) to produce the hottest lift BP are not the best for star use.

 

@Dan, glad it helped. During the summer months, it's 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.

Edited December 20, 2013 by Bobosan

[dan999ification]

Mine is pine, smells quite strong and surprisingly clean to air float. It did not stick to my media or jar just like tha balsa I had.

 

 

It was cheap aswell £1.50 for the 3k, yielded 350g in an evening.

 

.

It may be expensive to ship cedar here?

 

Dan.

Edited December 20, 2013 by dan999ification

[jessoman]

What a great, simple TLUD in the video. The paulownia is very much the same size shavings. Looks like a very simple method; light it up, wait for flame to stop, put lid with hole on and allow to cool. All in a few minutes. Easier than retort method.

 

The flue, how did you couple it to the exact size of the can or was it a fluke? How much did that tin yield?

 

Thanks!

[leedrill]

the tlud i have to admit in theroy if it gives you servicable bp which it does in most cases is the best cheapest quickest option but my statement will probably be debated which i hope someone chimes in (wink wink) but the retort if done with some forethought is much more controllable for instance temp control is much more achievable agreed it is less efficent to cook with a retort fuel wise but as in algencos method it really does not take much wood at all and the temp is really controllable I.E. i can make half cooked wood for stars {300 degreres C to 300 ) or hot ass char at 350 to 450 it really makes a difference to how it performs and the spark it gives off for the one type of wood so in my opinion retort is the way to go and i have no real argument because tlud seems so much more viable

 

 

http://www.amateurpyro.com/forums/topic/7848-how-to-charcoal-retort-method/?hl=retort

Edited December 20, 2013 by leedrill

[dan999ification]

I'm on the fence for now, you can play with the airflow of a tlud and thus the speed and heat of the burn.

 

To couple the chimney I just cut a ring from a steel biscuit tin with scissors, the funnel option was expensive and over complicated to me.

 

Dan.

[LambentPyro]

In a conclusion, is there a better used process for cooking Charcoal for BP and then a process which works better for cooking Charcaol for stars?

 

I like the retort method, but I want to stop using a wood fire for it as the temperature is constantly changing. I see many people use a propane heater connected to a propane tank.

 

Where is a place to get just a propane heater besides a salvage yard? Does somewhere like Harbor Freight or Home Depot have it? (I do not recall for sure if I have asked this previously, b/c I cannot find the post)

[leedrill]

im going to say after thinking about it you can play with heat as much as you want with both setups but i really like the reassurance that i have let 0.000% air in whilst controlling the air flow im sure someone has this sorted with the tlud but for me the cheap setup would leave the cook exposed while changing airflow. while with the retort it has taken a couple of cooks to really get a feel for how to guage the temp of the actual retort and not the outer of the cook barrel but i feel im not far off having a thermostat controlled air flow valve i have no overcooked wood ever just under cooked wood in the center when cooking at a low temp like 300 degrees c

[Bobosan]

I tried the propane fuel source using a double burner camp stove. The retorts just did not cook the wood very well even though I had enclosed the cans with stovepipe and covered the pipe tops. Very uneven heating and lots of gas used. After some experimenting around, the best method for me was using BBQ briquets that surround the retort sides and bottom. Consistent results, retort after retort.

 

@jessoman - using a 6" to 4" reducer it fit the 1 gallon paint can perfectly in the lid groove. All I did was pop rivet the updraft flue pipe to the reducer and punch some holes. The lid in the video was one I use for traditional retort cooking. You don't need a hole in it for the TLUD...just have to choke off all air intake.

[jessoman]

Thanks for the help guys,

Why didn't I get onto this a lifetime ago:

http://youtu.be/Pexg56u_48s

 

That is meal around 2hrs in the mill straight out of the jar, an extra few hours is amazing and granulating is beautiful!

[pyrojig]

Just cooked some plum charcoal. I have been inspired to do a test against the paulownia . In the pyrotechnica articles #17 I believe , there is a comparison of 10+ types of woods and their charcoals and burn test. The top was Plum surprisingly, followed very closely by the paulownia. The power of the plum was a few degrees hotter than the paulownia. I hope that some tests prove these figures accurate . I will throw a wild card in there with some red cedar donated by a very kind pyro at our last event for a speed test.

[a_bab]

Please do get back with the results; plum charcoal is so much denser then paulownia and it would be easier to manage.

I hate low density charcoals (willow and especially balsa).

[jessoman]

That sounds really interesting about the plum! Using paulownia compared to willow has halved the amount of powder my mill can process. I understand what your saying a_bab, very low density. But it's worth it as it's very accessible to me (free, in perfect size) and I'm just about to triple the size of my mill.

[Mumbles]

I'm glad you're trying this out. Plum is one of the glaring absences from Danny Creagan's testing database. I know of a few people who have tried it with quite good results. The other sort of nice thing, is that it's somewhat available as wood for smoking meats.