Interesting with the angle iron, thx for update!

Nothing wrong with that set up bro. Charlie is a BEAST!!!

Charcoal Charlie is the best noncomercial made retort I've seen. Thanks for the update.

Increase the height of the stove pipe for more draft! Great Job.

Charcoal Charlie looks like a simple and efficient setup with draft management problems. Ithink the most I would do is to increase the clearance around the retort to improve the draft and maybe insulate the fire box to make the heat gneration more efficient to get more charcoal by burning less wood for process fuel. (I might even see if V-belt - another channel- would sling an a occasional load of branch hardwood my way in return for some trade work)

Your honesty is refreshing. I need to build one for and wife here in Thailand , here its used as every day cooking material and she wishes to sell it each day.

This video had so much of the information I’ve been looking for. Thanks so much.

Thank you clear comment Not too old to learn

Nice design, great how it burns the gasses for better efficiency!

Thats a nice little home retort. Great video.

Justin, I've been looking for this update for two years. I love simple solutions for problems....four half inch holes and a length of angle iron! No more creosote. Brilliant! I've been recommending your Charcoal Charlie videos to dozens. There seems to be a lot of interest in making charcoal and especially biochar of late. When it comes to biochar, flame cap kilns or open pit burns seem to be the route to go. You can use a lot of crap wood, there isn't a whole lot of cutting of wood....just throw it in the pit and when you have a layer of coals throw another layer of wood on top. Keep doing this until you fill the pit or run out of wood. Extinguish or snuff out. Not very efficient and constant work during the entire burn. When it comes to efficiency, quality and consistency, I don't think you can beat Charlie when it comes to making cooking or forge charcoal. On the rocket stove approach let me relate my experience. Based on a design similar to yours, only instead of a firebox under the retort, I fed an 8" rocket stove exhaust under the retort. Exhaust temps were in excess of 800 degrees F. The retort was an old 300 gallon water tank...in retrospect way too large. After 13 hours of continuous firing the retort leveled off at 140 degrees F. In essence, I built a good wood drier and became an expert on rocket stoves. ( It was gravity fed, fueled by wood chips...ran over two hours unattended.) The lesson learned is you need a BIG flame under the retort. If you should go this route, calculate the BTU's you need for your size retort first. I'm converting my creation to a Charlie this spring. I agree with your comment on the baffles disrupting the air flow around the retort...don't think they are necessary and probably create a little more smoke until you are outgassing. Thanks for doing the update. You've got a lot of interest because it's a well thought out project that works! I've seen a couple of videos similar to your design, but not as well functioning. Best of luck in your continued adventures, O.J. in Oregon

Very interesting

Thanks for the update. I am going to start making my own black powder.

so grateful for the update, i started building a larger one based on your design, just got to the pipes bit! great work.

Thanks for sharing your experience. You're bringing the average age of the internet up and making us smarter at the same time.

Great stuff mate.

Great update.

Very well done , thanks 🙂

Thanks. Very helpful as I am to build one soon. Regards Den

Very interesting design!

That great improvements

I don't think I've ever seen the first video... guess I'll have to look for it on a rainy day. Finally got a day above freezing here so I did a cold start on my forge. It fired right up and in the afternoon I was down to my flannel shirt and worked up a sweat making tong bits examples for tong classes.

Thanks for the idea of a rocket stove retort!

Excellent.

Great work! It's similar to those swedish kilns. Doesn't look like there's much to improve!

best one i've seen less fuel less time more fuel...great job ...

Looks like what I engineered in my head.. I might put perlite/Portland around the fire box to insulate it if I build one, but like you said it might melt the steel.

Thank you for making this! I have seen the other videos and this update helps a lot. I can’t wait to build my own, unless...I mean If you really want to build another one I will buy the new one or the old one!

The one thing i noticed was the treads on the charcoal chamber are rusting if you will and can access just a bit of some copper shield it holds up to 2600 degrees centigrade so it is a great preservative against rust and gaulding I first ran across it for use in the food industry brewery for wet environments and again in the gas and oil industry which is perfect for your usages

Very cool Justin, I should build one but my list of things to do is about the size of a phone book!

I remember you building that some time ago

Great video. Maybe try to incorporate a place to heat metal for doing forge work on your next build . Food for a thought.

One thing that comes to mind is that you are probably loosing at least half of the wood gases out the chimney, simply because the gases from the two holes closest to the door consume all the oxygen before it reaches far enough back the firebox for the second and third holes. It might be better to either just have the two first holes, counting from the door, or you could put some sort of air intake, possibly just open the old gas pipe, at the back to get air to those gases before they go out the chimney.

Awesome video. I watched the first and had to subscribe.

This is an awesome follow-up to the first retort video. I like the holes on the bottom of the sealed chamber, the k.i.s.s. always seems to do it! These comments are funny how everyone is telling you "what you shudda done". I like the person telling you to "save the gas for using in your forge". some of these people need to go out and make their own damb retort.

Excelente!!!! É possível aproveitar os gases da camara de pirolise para realimentar a fornalha, é uma sugestão para melhorar o desempenho do equipamento.

Subcriber from 🇵🇭

Thanks for this update video! I was wondering If you had revamped anything after the first fire and earlier update.

Молодец всё просто и понятно. Спасибо.

Looks like a very effective bit of kit, I do wonder though about the potential for an explosive atmosphere to develop as the wood gas burns off and the pressure equalizes allowing the flame to enter the charge chamber ?

You should make charcoal brikettes with that charcoal as best result for your forge, some extra work, some better fuel...

Good

Build another one! In my kid voice🎉

Hi Jennings - congratulations for your project. Unhappily I live in Brazil, if not would like to buy one of this. You see, I always think about using the process gaz firing to finalize the carbonization process. My fear was with the return of fire to retort chamber...huge kboouummm. Otherwise, have you ever thought about partially returning the burning gas from the chimney into the retort, to help heating the wood and speeding up carbonization? each feedback looping gives a minimum gain of 20%, in the process ... think about it and let me know

A thermometer? That was smart. The people into biochar are talking about the burn temperature so that thermometer should lead to a better quality I'd the necessary controls are in place If the holes were not at the bottom I am thinking one can then meter the gas to have the pyrolysis happening at a relatively constant temperature. Also by controlling the rate of burn it is possible to save some of the excess gas for subsequent burns, reducing the need for fuel wood.

Would love to see a rocket stove variation? Also would you be able to use the fire from the gasification once its burning to heat metal to forge? Get an extra burn out of your wood so to speak? Great vid.

I produce charcoal for blacksmithing as well. It sounded like you had a few problems with efficiency, to solve that you need to insulate the whole unit. I have mine buried in my hillside. Retaining as much heat as possible from charcoal Charlie will greatly improve efficiency and productivity.

nice update, I wonder how a small hole (1/8") in the tort chamber directly under the flue would act as a jet and increase draft during the pyro stage. I our steam traction engines, we have a valve to shoot steam up our flues to get the fire going better..an 8" flue would do the trick, your firebox and door are big enough to need 8"

Thank you for putting this on UT so everyone can see it. I designed one with a similar theme but you helped me a lot by showing your mistakes and corrections. Thanks again for your time skill and patience.

Put kaowool around the outside to concentrate the heat and you might not have to reload it so much.

You need to use rocket stove concepts. You should be preheating combustion air. Wrap air Chanel’s around char barrel to feed combustion. Insulate charbarel. You might consider a turbo charger to force the fire and get cleaner burn. Very well made burn barrel.

I you put a venturi in the chimney it will draw just fine , look up chimney venturis

Looks like high grade prime fuel for my gassifier truck 😁

Can you show us how to build one?

👍👍👍

done subcribe

I Thank u for this video..and i have some questions to ask...first- did u tried new cut tree wood?

I don’t believe I see a grate under the fire in your fire box. Without a grate, your just burning from the top. Get some air under that fire. Maybe a draft vent under the fire, and an ash receptacle. If you have a grate, it must be filling up underneath with ash, blocking air flow. (Although, that is a lot of metal to heat up before a good draft can develop.) It sure does make fine charcoal. The only thing that concerns me is how smoky it is while starting up. Have you ever made a load of charcoal using charcoal in the fire box? It would nearly eliminate smoke. (It would make an interesting video👍) Thanks a lot for sharing this. I was thinking about using the external pipe. What you’ve done looks good and it helped me understand some other configurations I’ve seen. I still think you should make a pizza oven insert.

@Whoop!!

We are doing the coconut shell charcoal process in small scale using metalic Gallon, and we are moving these days wood based charcoal and trying to make a similar setup like this by watching your guidlines, if you dont mind, can you help us to construct the same. Really we need the layout plan with your valuable technical aspects.

I'm thinking if you could direct flames up one side of barrel by inserting a plate to guide flames down into fire from other side. Block wholes at bottom and drill holes at top of barrel so gas exits and ignites, burning down other side of barrel to have a circular fire process around charcoal barrel, would this give more efficient, even heat around char barrel ?

You should have put the gas pipe a little on angle rather than straight 90 degrees. This will encourage free flow of hot kerosene and wont clough

Would utilising the top rear pipe again to vent off some gas reduce the temperature. I do that with my hookway retort

How is it getting rid of the water vapor before the gasses become efficient?

Try an oil burning smudge pot sending its heat through the barrel

if closing the door is a real problem add a couple of air tubes into the lower sides of the burn chamber weld them to the frames they will drw infinite air like a jet into the fire...maybe even a faster heat and burn...

Hi you need the air to enter under the wood cheers

That’s for this update video, I you willing to build two for export to other countries

Hello, I have some questions about Charlie How does it look when it comes to conversion rate? From what I know the yields can vary from a fifth to a third of what's pyrolysed, depending on the speed and temperature of the process, and I wonder how Charlie fits into that Also, would some kind of insulation of the fire chamber help in lowering the amount of fuel needed?

Okay... I got a big question 🤔 Can you design a solo style top for charcoal Charlie, that is smokeless and patio style enjoyable 😉 What's the science behind blending oxygen at top to get a clean burn 🔥 Is fire at the bottom starved and oxygen + smoke getting pulled straight down the middle for a reburn

How long does charring take?

Do you take requests? I'd love one of these!

I built one right after you 1st showed it. I used a 275 oil tank and it is still works great. I run it about 4-5 times a year just for grilling. I like the idea of drill the holes in the bottom of the oven. How many did you drill?

So ... a question: the 1/2" holes that feed wood gas to the firebox to improve the burn don't appear to be able to be blocked when the burn is complete so how do you keep oxygen rom going back into the retort and causing the charcoal to burn up?

Can you so us how to build one ?

What percentage of the yield value was generated?

Hello dear sir kindly give me info about the time of carbonization . size of retort capacity of wood for making charcoal

I would love to have charcoal Charlie if he isn't used anymore

So I’m new and this is a question could u use forces air to raise the temp?

No worries about gas pressure or explosions due to clamping it off?

May i know the design of your chimney from inside

How many kilos of hardwood you used in thr and how many kilos of charcoal you got ?

How long does it take to complete the process

What if you were to use the forge the same time your making charcoal. Kill 2 birds with one stone so to speak? Or use the bottom as a forge when the gases are burning for the extra heat? A rack to set your metal on close to the gases.

What to do when we start heating with wood gas above 300 degree celcius but temperature starts falling down..?

Install another chimenea or exhaust pipe a little shorter it looks like it is breathing through one nostril

Hi, can you help to make this machine justin

Greetings Sir, am Sunil from India, am a silviculture farmer by profession. We have been cultivating casuarina crop in the farm. Am planning to convert to wood to charcoal. Kindly seek your help in setting up a charcoal kiln.

After drilling those holes and seeing how much better it works, I realize how unnecessary all this work is to build such a stove. I take a 35g drum full of wood with holes in the lid, stick it upside down in a 55g drum, and have a fire around it(around the 35, inside the 55). Same results. Works perfect every time.

صديقي أنا احد متابعيك ومعجبيك لأكن لدي سوال كم سمك الصفيحه الداخليه وكذالك الخارجية الفرن ارجو الرد

no one will make such a furnace for heating .... you can warm a house or a greenhouse and get charcoal

Model rent for you why not design large size

At the four minute mark I can see what I suspect is your door gasket material. What material is this and where obtained? I followed on site that suggested for lack of better material, aluminum foil rolled into rope form and packet in, that seems quick and dirty one time use.