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Post by ogeezer on Sept 3, 2006 7:58:13 GMT -6
Making it not buying it:
You'll need a 55-gallon barrel for this, preferably one that's empty, been steamed cleaned or carefully burned out by fire + a length of threaded pipe (size of little hole) and a brass gascockspigot. Thread the pipe into the hole and screw the spigotvalve on the outer end.
Cut desired wood species into chunks small enuff to fit thru the larger barrel hole. Use green wood (freshly cut). Pecan or Oak or Mesquite are indigenous to this area and easy to come by. If youre making charcoal for black powder use willow (a soft porous wood).
Put enuff chunks into the barrel to take up no more than 15-20 percent of the space. Then, screw the large hole plug snuggly into the barrel. Roll the barrel onto an open earth pit of coals, positioning so the gascockvalve end tilts outward at about a 45-degree angle and the spigot is on the high side.
Be sure the valve spigot is open a little bit. Soon as the green wood chunks begins cooking, the heat will force the wood gases out of the barrel. After a few minutes, ignite the gases coming out of the spigot, using it as a flare. If windy, some kind of shield will be needed to prevent the flare from blowing out.
When the flare burns out the charcoal is ready. Carefully roll the barrel out of the firepit and let it cool. Dont douse the barrel with water as the barrel may split apart and any gas still in it is liable to ignite. After it cools, screw off the big plug and the flare piping, then empty out the contents.
This method might not appeal to you backyard cooks but its the quickest and cheapest way to do-it-yourself charcoal making yet this thread was initiated mainly to inform blackpowder hobbyists how to make one of the ingredients they'll need for gunpowder making. One should pulverize the willow charcoal and keep in airtight jars to keep moisture from spoiling your ingredients.
I'd tell you how to make blackpowder but then I'd get myself in dutch with the webmaster and ATF for disclosing such details, and doing so just isn't worth the headaches.
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Post by Mad Scientist on Sept 4, 2006 4:51:16 GMT -6
Makes sense - clean barrel keeps out stuff that you don't want in the mix. Just curious. Why green wood? www.connerprairie.org/historyonline/fuel.html and others say dry, aged wood for charcoal. That would eliminate the need for the spigot - as long as the bung hole was well cracked open. Internal pressure would keep oxygen out. Why flare it? That seems the hardest part of the process. . Do you ever close the vent? During cooling, that could collapse the barrel, but leaving it open lets air in and the charcoal could ignite. Do you take the bark off the wood? Have you tried one of the shipping drums where the whole top comes off? Loading / unloading would be a breeze with one of those instead of using the bung hole, and any size could be made. I just found a mod to your plan at www.twinoaksforge.com/BLADSMITHING/MAKING%20CHARCOAL.htm. He uses pine, but the rest is similar - he takes the off-gas and routes it back to the fire, using the heat. OK - it's on my list of projects. Thanks!
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Post by ogeezer on Sept 5, 2006 8:33:55 GMT -6
I guess you really don't have to flare it but doing so lets you know the gases in the wood have cooked off.
If the wood gases (methanol, phenol, sugars, etc) are completed cooked off, there's nothing to reignite the charcoal. I suppose you could close the vent but I never do and always get good charcoal.
Youre absolutely right, forgot to mention barking the wood off the willow (that is) -- cant make decent component for blackpowder with the bark on. Stripping off green willow bark is relatively easy using a drawknife. As for hardwood, demarking isn't necessary, simply because the best wood used in charcoal making is the inner cambium layers.
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Post by ogeezer on Sept 5, 2006 9:49:47 GMT -6
Let's assume you charcoal makers are doing so to come up with a decent source to make blackpowder. Willow is by far the best softwood for the process, mainly because of the porousity of the cell structure. But charcoal isn't the only ingredient you can make at home. Saltpeter which nothing more than the nitrates of potassium is the primary ingredient in gunpowder and way to expensive to purchase in volume for blackpowder making.
Don't confuse the stuff they put in food (a preservative) or that is used in home canning or that soldiers say is put in food to keep the libido limp from the stuff blackpowder makers use. The food additive is sodium nitrate (NaNO3); for gunpowder, its potassium nitrate (KNO3). McVey used KNO3 in his bomb but the stuff he used is hard to come by these days and is too hydrated to be of much use to blackpowder enthusiasts.
Sources for the KNO3 you need come from any of the following: * Soil containing old decayed vegetable or animal matter; * Decayed stone or mortar building foundations; * Totally burned whitish wood ash powder; * Totally burned paper (the black ash); or * Old cellars and/or farm dirt floors. I get my raw materials from decayed mucked out stalls composting heaps and from winter shelters in the pasture livestock use during blue-northers. A couple of wheelbarrows worth is enuff.
Process: 1 - In a 5-gallon metal or plastic bucket, punch a bunch of 1/8th inch or smaller holes (inside out) with an awl or small Phillipshead screwdriver - the more the merrier. Line the bucket with two pieces of fine woven cloth slightly larger than the bottom of the bucket.
2 - Spread a layer of fine wood ashes (about 1/2 cup) on cloth so that the layer is about the thickness of the cloth. Place a second cloth piece atop the ashes. Now, fill the bucket with sourced dirt, leaving about 1/2-inch from rim.
3 - Place bucket over shallow catch container. Bucket may be supported on sticks or a clean grille from a BBQ pit to separate the two.
4 - Boil water and pour it over soil in bucket a little at a time. Don't empy all boiled water at once. Allow water to run through holes in bucket and into shallow container. Be sure to water all of the soil. Allow drained liquid to cool and settle for 1-2 hours.
5 - Carefully drain off liquid into a heat resistant container. This liquid contains dissolved KNO3. Discard any sludge remaining in bottom of shallow container. Repeat steps 2-5 until all the collected soil has been processed.
6 - Boil the liquid over a hot fire (outside of house) for at least 2 hours or until the liquid has boiled down to half or a third its original volume. Remove from fire and let sit. After half an hour add an equal volume of alcohol - ethyl (whiskey) or isopropyl (rubbing).
7 - Pour the alcohol-liquid solution through a large Mr Coffee paper filter. Small white crystals will collect on top of it. These crystals are slightly impure potassium nitrate (aka saltpeter or KNO3).
8 - Further purify by re-desolving crystals in smallest possible amount of boiled water. Repeat Step-7 using a different coffee filter and let it dry in the air ... OR ... gently heat the concentrated solution to dryness and remove crystals. Store the KNO3 crystals in an airtight glass or plastic container until ready to use.
You will find, saltpeter making in this process will yield enuff for about a couple pounds of finished gunpowder, depending upon soil fertility yields, but nowhere the amount McVey needed.
HINT TO WISE: if you do plan on making gunpowder, remember blackpowder is unstable and extremely sensitive to heat including friction generated during mixing of ingredients (charcoal, saltpeter, sulfur). Reducing the flash potential is best had with addition of a little alcohol which can be evaporated of by air-drying (never by heating).
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Post by ogeezer on Sept 12, 2006 3:42:33 GMT -6
While on the subject of substances made to go BOOM it seems the MSM is hellbent on pushing terrorists and wannabees toward 3400 Nitrogen fertilizers for bombmaking. Monday night after the ABC miniseries, the Nightline news segment went back to bombs employing ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) as if it in its raw form can be converted into a Timothy McVeigh - Al Qeada bomb which it cannot since the stuff one can buy a some feed stores and agricultural suppliers is hydrated with atmospheric moisture (humidity) that renders it worthless for explosives but invaluable to farming interests and gardeners.
Me, I'm more concerned with bombmakers getting hold of nitric acid, glycerine, 70% hydrogen peroxide, aspirin, and mercury which are more dangerous for weapons making because of small volume needed to do a dasterdly job than a couple of tons of fertilizer-fuel oil concoctions.
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