Charcoal from twigs...simple, quick and effective without smoke










today we moved our nomade coalery down near to the ram-pump…
now with double bath tub system…the fork loads always in the middle, nearly nothing falls beside…
less than 2 hours the whole work was done…really the method of the lazy coaler…

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Gioegio, now that is the way to make engine grade charcoal. Good job on using the two tubs for more and faster producion.
Bob

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I planed to clean some land on the other part of the property today, and l thod it wuld be nice to have a nother bathtub. Wife insisted on an morning walk, since it was her day off work. We went exploring a bit in the nearby woods, and behold.

A old bathtub, probably ment for watering animals, that must of slid from the abandoned farm above. Coincidence?

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I gave my old bathtubs away as i had always made most of my charcoal indoors in my slow combustion fires , but i do have a large round cone for the bigger branches and this is my smaller continuous retort with auger in the bottom .
This was a old stainless steel filter box i use the bottom flange for the 80 mm auger and the top one is for a chimney should i ever put the lid on and need it to vent .



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I would call it a answered prayer.
Bob

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gratulation !!! also in our area there are bath tubs, once used for give water to the sheeps…since there has been introduced wolves by WWF nearly all people had to give up sheep-keeping…
also a good use for bath tubs : using as a little mice -safe " green house"…filled to half with earth and covered with a old window…

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bob, indeed, my wife asked jesus for a bavarian beer-garden table…not easy to find here…
she goes to search mushrooms about three kilometer away and found a place where people trow away stuff in the forest - and there was the desired table!!!
also she found a old “gas motor”, she told us when she comes back…my son and i, exited, because in this time we began thinking about gas production, hurried to the place, but the" gas motor " was only a damaged air compressor…
i dont know till now if it was a trick from her in way that we go immediately with the horse cart to take her table…but we found also some other things as 5 liter bottles for our wine…and the table was really nice and well conserved…
of course i have not prayed for a gas motor…otherwise…
ciao giorgio

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today we emptied the bath tubs …in the middle is to see how the coal in the hotter center shrinks more down as on the side, where the coal cools down faster…i think important is to close the ash splits every day - i have done only one time- so that through the splits not can enter air to the coal…

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sieving the charcoal…

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I see that hot baths is really becoming a trend now :smile:

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nomade coalery part 2…recently we made charcoal from 4 piles of twigs from the fruit trees with the new coaler cart…advantages: hot bath tub is easy to move to the next pile,
cool down of the coal is faster because the bath tub has no contact to the ground…
sieved we got 450 volume liters of charcoal
the cart is originally our wood transporter with wich we bring the stored wood pieces to the band saw,…
it becomes a third removeable wheel, and the 4 angled iron pieces from the wood transporter were very convenient for loading more twigs over the fire…nearly nothing falls down besides

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What a good idea to make a garden cart/moveable fire pit, out of an old bathtub. :+1: :+1: :+1:

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I like that idea. The least work moving wood the better. When you do move it the weight of the moisture is gone and it is now Charcoal ready to bag up and store.

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here some calculations about charcoal from twigs…
liters in kilogramm
and kilogramm in liters…

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Indeed, charcoal made this way is a lot less dense. Kiln made charcoal l expect 200g/liter. But doesent metter, twigs are free and plentifull…

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I like the idea too. you can just process it right there, dump the ash and fines right in the orchard, and just take what you wanted. As a side benefit, you can clean up, by bathing right in the middle of the orchard. :slight_smile:

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@giorgio
@KristijanL

Are you talking about hardwood, softwood, or maybe a mix?

Edit: I feel like the only guy on the planet without bathtubs on my property :slightly_smiling_face:

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Since Giorgio showed us his methods l used it many times. Twice l run out of fuel mowing grass at a friends place and we set a quick charcoal operation and made enaugh fuel over a lunch break to sustain the mower for a nother 5 hours.

Yes its all mixed together. Also, down side to this charcoal is higher ash content. But still worth it

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my twigs are all from hardwood, a part from maple tree, the most from oak and a kind of oak, what grows relatively fast, but the wood is not worth for other things , only for firewood…
real oak with the years gets inside darker, a cind of core or nucleus, if this is the right word…
this is the only part of oak that is used for woodwork, the outer less dark ring is not resistant, and therefore not used, the same is with the twigs, they have no core, therefore i cannot say if it is really hardwood ,- in sight of using for coal making-, or something between hardwood and softwood…

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