I have been involved in a local school (Portland Waldorf School) which has a blacksmithing program. There have been complaints about the smell of the coal burning and so I found out that charcoal can be used as the fuel instead of coal/coke. So I am building this charcoal maker so that the children can see how to blacksmith without coal.
There are health benefits too! Coal produces sulfer when burned which can combine with water in your lungs creating sulfuric acid (acid rain) as well as the water in your sweat. If this helps someone have a better experience blacksmithing, I will be happy.
Here I describe how I made a charcoal retort. This is also known as the "indirect" method of making charcoal. Basically you take a metal container and cook it until all of the volatile gasses leave the wood.
There are health benefits too! Coal produces sulfer when burned which can combine with water in your lungs creating sulfuric acid (acid rain) as well as the water in your sweat. If this helps someone have a better experience blacksmithing, I will be happy.
Here I describe how I made a charcoal retort. This is also known as the "indirect" method of making charcoal. Basically you take a metal container and cook it until all of the volatile gasses leave the wood.
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I decided to go ahead full bore for my first charcoal attempt. Many online sources indicate that they started out with small metal containers, but I figured a 55 gallon drum would be the best bet. So I found a recycled drum merchant on craigslist, paid $25 for a drum and proceeded to cut into it.
I took some 3 inch round steel tubing and made the retort tube.
This is a tube which takes gasses from the wood as it is heated, and redirects them to where they can be burned to add to the heat for charcoaling the wood.
You can see from the image that I made the bends using miter cuts. If you don't have the tool to make these cuts, you can use Black Pipe and fittings. That would increase the cash outlay, and since I had this stuff waiting for a use, I used it.
I took some 3 inch round steel tubing and made the retort tube.
This is a tube which takes gasses from the wood as it is heated, and redirects them to where they can be burned to add to the heat for charcoaling the wood.
You can see from the image that I made the bends using miter cuts. If you don't have the tool to make these cuts, you can use Black Pipe and fittings. That would increase the cash outlay, and since I had this stuff waiting for a use, I used it.
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The charcoal method I have seen involved using burning logs and then submersing good looking pieces in water (not too long), then removing them to dry for use later.
nice charcoal maker... awsome!
It is my guestimate that there are more modern people avoiding the revenuers via biodiesel than moonshine.
All you really need to do is route the exhaust gases from the fire, to the under side of your kettle.
The rest of your moonshine setup is as normal.
Just using one fire to do 2 different kinds of work.
If you are thinking about trying to make ethanol(aka NOT moonshine) from the wood byproduct... then the simple answer is no.
On top of that, we are not talking about drinking it at all, we are talking about using it for a fuel, which further reduces its similarities to moonshine.
Now, making moonshine is unconditionally illegal in all 50 states as far as I know. However, I believe it is 100% legal to distill alcohol IF and ONLY IF it is being used exclusively for fuel purposes.
It is legal to own a still if it is under 1 gallon, and you only use it for distilling water and extracting oils from plants.
Producing distilled alcoholic beverages requires some serious paperwork and fees (I looked into it, they are substantial). Distilling alcohol for fuel still requires permits and paperwork and fees, however, as long as you don't produce over a certain amount per year, and it never leaves your property, then you do not need to pay taxes on it, nor does it need to be denatured.
So, basically, its much easier to just do it illegally, they make doing the right thing unfeasible.
Allow me to make a correction: Making moonshine is unconditionally illegal in all 50 states of the United States as far as I know, I have no knowledge of other countries' laws however.
I did not mean to assume that everyone here is American, my mistake.
A moonshine-like beverage is not illegal if it is produced legally, with registered and licensed stills at a properly licensed distiller, however, since moonshine is by definition illegal (the definition of moonshine is an illegally produced and distilled alcoholic beverage), any moonshine-like beverage is not moonshine, although it may be chemically identical to moonshine, whether or not it IS moonshine is dependent on whether or not it was produced illegally.
So yeah making moonshine is unconditionally illegal, the same way that crime is unconditionally illegal.
This type of definition is not unprecedented in the world of alcoholic beverages, many types of spirits and wines are named after their content AS WELL as how and where they were produced, Champagne and Tequila and Bourbon being three good examples.