Metal Casting Zone

As XL sugested, I started this. How do you make your own charcoal. I have about 5 acers of green wood just waiting to melt some metal. If anybody could explain the process my wife would be very thankful if I could make free fuel and quit buying propane.

no problems.i will look up some info for you.: the old way.... dig a pit and start a fire . make it a good hot fire with plenty of coals. next you pile on the green stuff... you then wait till it sorta gets alight and then you throw your soil on top to smother it! make sure there is no air getting to the fire. wait till it goes out and soil gets cold. you have to keep an eye on it as it builds gas and can erupt ! just put more dirt on it. there are some wonderful vids on youtube

Thanks ill look on youtube tonight.

another method would be to build a charcoal generator... basic design. out of brick or steel.. a place to start a hot fire and a means to shut out the air supply. for years i used our wood heater in the home. it worked great. i would make a hot fire and just before i went to bed i would load the fire box up with wood and close it down for the night! it would stay warm overnight. in the morning i would rob the fire box of a bucket full of charcoal!

just a word of caution about researching charcoal. in public lets keep info a bit vague and general and use pm for exact details if necessary. since sept 11 2001 common charcoal is limited in supply and info (who would have ever thought that!) charcoal is a key component to the making of gunpowder!! so its understandable. but its great as a fuel for a furnace! and a forge.

i think you are ideally suited to a woodgas operated furnace as well.

Why not just melt metal with the sun!
A large Fresnel lens gets very hot ... maybe 3000 F

xenotechresearch.com/Kyber/SOL01.htm

There's also a good book called "When Technology Fails" that talks about making your own charcoal ... activated charcoal at that. But it's more for filtering drinking water than for fuel.

And XL, is info about charcoal that big of a deal? I mean ... I've seen ppl talk about thermite here ... charcoal is like ... well ... burnt wood.

Woodgas burners do work for furnaces. I think I have a post on here about it. Once I get a few dozen projects off the board, I am going to work on Gassifier MKII. My ultimate goal is to have a gassifier-powered furnace that will melt iron easily.
One method for charcoal is called the retort method, take a 55 gallon drum with a top that will seal. Put a pipe coming off the bung that has a bunch of holes drilled along the length of it and goes back under the barrel. Build some kind of surround for the whole works (cinder block was used for the one I saw). Load the barrel with wood and seal it up. Build a fire under the barrel and stand back. The volatiles in the wood in the barrel will cook off and come out the pipe in the bung, and catch fire. when the external fire burns down, the gas pipe under the barrel keeps cooking the rest of the wood. Let it burn out and cool down. Ta daa! Charcoal. Or, for the low tech version, use the pit-bury method. That was used for thousands of years, and I am sure still is. You will be a seasoned ricker (someone who makes charcoal, I think that is the term) in no time.

Thanks for the info. Now the real question would it be worth the time to make up enough charcoal to power a furnace, or just burn green wood to melt the lower temp metals and to preheat for the higher temps to save on oil and propane.

making charcoal saves a lot of wood cutting and you can use the ugly bits. making charcoal isnt a "big deal" but some govt agencies put a "tag" on the subject! thermite might be the same i dont know??? but charcoal yes. if i had access to lots of wood i would make a woodgas digester. use the woodgas to fire my furnace and the by product!!!! low grade charcoal used in my forge. old blacksmiths made charcoal with their forge. (ive done the same) they had a "charcoal hood" . what it was just a hood that covered their forge. after they had done their forging they just piled the wood on top of the forge fire. blow the fire up then drop the hood on top. actually my propane furnace started as a small charcoal producer and developed from there long before i found this forum so you can imagine my delight when i found others who had basically done the same. i wouldnt plan on making enough charcoal for the furnace alone as your melt will be over before the charcoal and when you dowse the charcoal you lower its grade.i use charcoal and gas. the use of charcoal extends the life of a gas refill by two thirds. using a gas torch also supplies a blower for the charcoal