Nice! now are you gonna share the details or you gonna make me google it myself???:mmph:
Awesome. I have the barrels to make my own, and lots of oak and apple wood. Would you share your method and tips?
Ok, I'll do my best,
This is from the burn I posted yesterday. After the fuel burn't down some I put the lid with the chimney to help keep the heat in, once it was pretty well down to coals I put the solid lid on and left it till it was completely cold,
at least 24 hours,if not longer, because it will reignite if not completely cold,
I know from experience.
I open the barrel and tip it all the way over, then lift the outer barrel off the inner barrel. Now the inner barrel is open end up, I move it over and dump it on the ground.All the big pieces go in the can, then I sift the rest, so the small stuff falls out. I keep the small pieces to run back in as fuel. The dust goes in the compost pile.
Todays burn, I fill the small drum,I use a 20 gallon for the small drum", it gives me more room for fuel. I pack it as tight as possible, pound it in tight.
Notice the dent in the rim on either side, that gives just a little room for the gases to escape while burning. When it has cooled completely, the ash will seal the inner barrel so no air gets to it and burns it up'
Next I lay the 55 Gal. drum on its side and then slide the small one inside the big one. Thats why I pack it tight also, so none will fall out.
Once it is in and centered, I pack it full of news paper and small pieces of wood to get it started
When it is burning well i shovel the left over charcoal from the drums back on top of the little drum, it ignites and sends heat down from the top. This is when I stop and set the timer on my phone for forty minutes. I then load
as much fuel in that time as I can. "get it hot hot"
About fifteen minutes into the cook, you can see it is burning very clean. That is the wood gassing in the little drum.
One more to show the barrel gets red hot.
I've done a lot of research on this process. Every one says, start the fire on top and let it burn down, bull malarky, It doesn't get hot enough and is never burned completely into charcoal. I burn it as hot as I can, then shut it down, as I described. It's worked every time for me. They also have a lot of smoke pouring out of the retort, thats because it's starving for air. Notice I have a lot of air intake drilled in the bottom and a very clean burn. The gases coming out of the bottom will burn and help cook the wood.
Iv'e pretty much learned you can't over burn charcoal, except it might break down into real small pieces, thats how I came up with 40 minute burn time and then let it coal down.
Hope this helps out and best to everyone on their endeavors.