Not too mention it really does not produce very much smoke. Once the fuel really gets going its nearly smokeless. Only when you add new fuel or are starting it up is when there is noticeable smoke and even then its too alarming.
The video will not play back for me and I tried re copying the link a few times. It might be on my end I dont know. If anyone else is having issues please speak up.
Video played fine for me Matt ,
The fun Police are cunning they will wait around and walk in when you least expect then , we had a few over the years doing there
health and safety inspections without notice
Dave
You are a man of few Words Jan. Are you sure you are from Finland? We have American Finns up here and they all have about 3 aaa’s somewhere in their names.
I think Jan is from Holland, Jan is a very common name here. And Penninckx sounds/looks dutch too. The boat that got stuck on Nova Zembla, were you on board Jan?
Ok in anticipation of warm weather on the way, I am ramping up projects for demo and also for DIY.
I have parts ordered for the next version of my kiln system. If that is the appropriate terminology? So anyway this next version will be the kit I offer as it is a sold unit. So we are going to build it completely test it and demo it and then when this order is complete we will tear it down and ship the kit portion. The barrels we will keep for our own or we may just build a fresh one for the client.
Ok so basically the change is this version will get a second barrel that will house the fire tube. So imagine a giant TLUD if you will. The fire tube will have an array of holes about a 1/'4 to 1/3 its height from the grate. The outer barrel will serve as a bypass for the majority of the combustion gas to exit out and around the fuel feed stock. So basically it will cook the fuel in the upper portion of the fire tube like a retort. The gas produced from the raw fuel will exit out the top and will have to combine with the combustion gases, so they should ignite. then with the bell on top that heat is then still retained internally as it migrates to the bottom of the bell and out the chimney port. So Im hoping it will be much more efficient with less fuel burned off converted to heat leaving a higher charcoal yield.
There is 3" of fresh snow on the ground and we are going to have a fire out in the back yard around the metal fire pit. Enjoying the evening with some friends. It will be cold so the fire will be large. When we are done for the evening I will shovel all that charcoal into my barrel and close the lid.
Very Nice!! Yeah I wish I had one out back to melt all the dang snow we got out there!! lol
Yeah If I had two or three out there no doubt they would melt the snow away. My generator melts a 5 foot radius around itself; thats running it all day and every day.
Well had to crank out the CAD model so I can quit thinking about it. here is where I am at. I need to draw Mock up 55 gal and the new 20 gal 19 inch diameter barrel. Done for night and have the basic design down, Ill work on creating those drums this weekend.
Ok done with this thing: well design wise anyways. Still need to create the CNC files and work orders to crank one out. Hope to be building and doing the tutorial by next weekend along with start up videos of the Ute and networking a few Max units with it. Busy busy!!
So what I think I have here is the BLUD CFCK (Bottom Lit Up Draft Continues Feed Charcoal Kiln)
So here is the grate set up. Note the chains are not drawn but those will be hung from the fire tube. There is a flange that bolts to the bottom for the grate to follow and stay centered. It will be very loose so you can shake radially and back and forth. The grate is made from a solid flange and the flange side will rest on the catch barrel to seal it under operation.
Here is the fire tube with the vent holes roughly one third the total height of the barrel. The four tube surrounding it are the second stage air tubes to provide air for the pyrolysis gases produced from the raw fuel in the hopper and combustion for the second stage burn process.
Not sure what call this outer barrel; Just calling it a shroud barrel. So here the fire tube is housed with this shroud barrel to transfer the combustion gas away from the raw fuel feed and bring it to the top. Then mix with pyrolysis gases given off of the raw and the second stage air feed for the second stage combustion process.
One mod I may explore is placing a lid on the the fire tube. I can put a vertical rod that can attach to it that will extend thru the top of the bell. When loading you pull up the lid and lock it in place and then you can load fuel in, then drop it back down to close it back off. Not sure if that will add any efficiency or not.
Im working on the next version of the kiln. This is also going to be kit I offer. So basically what Im trying to do with this is integrate a TLUD concept into this kiln but with a bell over the top to contain the smoke and also reclaim more heat . I have few issues but I think the concept was working. I have a few issues I need to fix, one is there is interferance with the grate as thing gets hot grows or warps or what ever its doing. haha. I just cant shake the grate, I think the centering is too deep and is grinding on the grate bars. The grate spacing I think is too tight. So Ill address both when I re build this grate. Right now it has 4 inch spare spacing. Im going to measure the proto type and build to that spec and then cut down that center ring and hope that fixes that issue.
Ok I fixed the interference issue and widened the grate. Started test running and there was just too much smoke!! So opened up the second stage air feed by a lot! Went from four 3/4" tubes to twelve 2 inch holes; It worked but still a bit of smoke. So pulled it outside and took the top off. After running it that way I think I was just fiddling with it too much!! Need to just let it be and do its thing haha.
On the outside run I easily got a 1;2 yield I would say thats pretty good considering this is factoring in the energy to produce the fuel? I still had fuel in the fire tube when I harvested the barrel;. So 20 gallons of chunked wood in and 10 gallons usable charcoal out. Further development and automation Im sure will improve this.
!
This here I think is before I started tuning the second stage air feed
!