For those who do not know, charcoal can be produced independently with the necessary stove. The process is quite time-consuming and dirty, but it will allow you to procure high-quality fuel for the winter or even open your own small coal production business. This technology will be especially interesting to those who live near the forest and have access to an unlimited number of firewood, which will make it possible to produce charcoal for free and then sell it. Of course, such coal is most in demand for those who like to have a barbecue.
Let us consider in more detail how the production of charcoal takes place.
Materials and tools:
- wood (any will do);
- partially burnt wood;
- a special stove with chimneys;
- jumpsuit for this type of work;
- mask;
- gloves;
- protective glasses.
Charcoal mining process:
Step one. Prepare the oven
First of all, you need to get ready for work. For these purposes, you need to wear protective overalls, gloves, rubber boots, a mask and glasses. All this is necessary in order not to get dirty during work and not to inhale harmful particles of dust from coal. Now you can climb into the oven and clean it. Particular attention should be paid to ventilation openings, they must be clean.
Step Two Installation of the first tier of logs
When the lower part of the furnace is cleaned, short logs are laid on it according to a special scheme, their length is about one meter. They need to be laid in the same way as the spokes are mounted on the bicycle wheel, in which case the necessary ventilation corridors are formed.
Step Three We fill the furnace with logs
Then you can put in the oven all the other logs. They are laid in a circle on top of the base of those logs that were laid out in the form of wheel spokes. In the center of the furnace, a chimney is made, it all consists of partially burnt wood, which remains from the previous production process.
Step Four Installation of a cover on the furnace and chimneys
The furnace is filled with logs to the very top, but you need to leave a gap so that you can install the lid.The height of this gap should be about 75 centimeters. When the installation is complete, the stove is set on fire, and then it is covered with a lid. It’s best to do all this early in the morning, for example at 5-6 hours, as it takes about 8-12 hours to burn logs. The burning time depends on the type of wood, for example, birch or pine will burn much faster than oak.
Also now you need to install chimneys around the furnace. They are installed vertically in special holes. Total chimneys should be three pieces. They should be located at the same distance from each other. Otherwise, the air circulation will be incorrect, and the logs will burn unevenly, and this is the transfer of raw materials.
Step Six The final stage of firing
When the right time has passed, the stoves are given time to go out naturally. Now, to continue further work, you need to wait until the oven and its contents have completely cooled.
Seventh step. Sorting the received raw materials
At this stage, you must again put on the entire protective uniform, as the work ahead is dirty. All the burnt wood is taken out of the furnace and sorted. If there are logs that are not completely burned, they are laid aside, they will be used to create a chimney at the next refueling of the furnace.
What remains is then screened out from the dust and put into paper bags and other containers.
In such a simple way charcoal is mined. So, once again buying coal for barbecue, you can already figure out what process is behind it.