Fire and physics advice

[fatblokish]

I work for a community charity that has an interest in, amongst others, learning how to make charcoal.

Now, having researched a wide range of methods, the most suitable one for use uses two barrels, the smaller of which fits upside down in a larger oil drum.

Anyways, the oil drum will be stood vertically on its end and cut open (yes, the risks are known) about four inches below the top, all the way around the circumference to create two open ended barrels, one short the other tall. The side now measuring 4" will be tweaked with a hammer and or slits formed so that it telescopes into its larger twin, to create a tightish fit.

Now what happens when the whole barrel is subject to a great heat and the expansion that this will bring? Will the small twin slide downwards, will it pop upwards, will nowt happen? And when it cools, will we still be able to separate the two unequal halves?

As I say, fire and physics...

ta

 

[young Ed]

we have made charcoal many times with great success
one 205l oil drum/barrel

drill holes about 2-5 inches from base all around barrel
start a pretty good strong fire burning wood inside barrel and build it up
load up with hard wood for charcoal
attach lid and seal round lid with wet clay (plenty of it)
leave it be and wait until the clay is dry and cracked and there is pretty much zero smoke (this should be at least a few hours)
leave to cool for 24 hours or so and then crack the seal and hopefully you have charcoal!

i think this is how it happens but i will run it past my bro tomorrow
Cheers Ed

 

[Mark White]

This seemed a interesting idea to me. Not tried it out myself though. It looks like it can be scaled to suit needs.

http://charcoalkiln.com/55-gallon-drum-charcoal-retort/

 

[fatblokish]

This seemed a interesting idea to me. Not tried it out myself though. It looks like it can be scaled to suit needs.

http://charcoalkiln.com/55-gallon-drum-charcoal-retort/

Actually, this is much closer to the method we propose
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s3yevC9cB8

However, the barrel shown has a fancy lid whereas we will need to form our own, hence my questions above. Any ideas on the potential problems regarding expansion and the two barrels becoming stuck?

 

[vernon]

The barrel halves are made of the same material so they'll both expand at the same rate. The status quo will be maintained.