Progress is being made. Now the thin bits that I thought of as kindling are turning to charcoal and the big lumps are becoming brown ends. So I think the next stage will be to do a proper charcoal stack with a hole in the middle made out of the thinner bits of wood. Then I'll chuck a newspaper/firelighter combo down the middle and cover it with the wheelbarrow and treat it as before.
Cheers
Graham
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
Charcoal II
Right so. That didn't work then! I got maybe a handful of charcoal from the bottom and a lot of charred wood.
So, I listened to what I'd been advised on Creative Living forum and made a nice neat stack of fresh wood on top of kindling...
... waited til it was all nicely alight and blazing...
... then tipped over the barrow again.
But, this time I'm leaving some air gaps around the edge.
Now we really are into trial and error. I'll just leave it for a bit. At least I know it's still burning under there with restricted oxygen. If this doesn't work I'll bash some holes in the wheelbarrow with a chisel and bury it totally around the edges so I have more control over the amount of air by covering holes. I might also go look for pictures of oil-drum burns and the like to get a rough idea of how much air hole is needed for what size of burn.
Still, as they say, you learn more from things that don't work!
Graham
So, I listened to what I'd been advised on Creative Living forum and made a nice neat stack of fresh wood on top of kindling...
... waited til it was all nicely alight and blazing...
... then tipped over the barrow again.
But, this time I'm leaving some air gaps around the edge.
Now we really are into trial and error. I'll just leave it for a bit. At least I know it's still burning under there with restricted oxygen. If this doesn't work I'll bash some holes in the wheelbarrow with a chisel and bury it totally around the edges so I have more control over the amount of air by covering holes. I might also go look for pictures of oil-drum burns and the like to get a rough idea of how much air hole is needed for what size of burn.
Still, as they say, you learn more from things that don't work!
Graham
Making Charcoal I
Right so. The reason I've stopped melting things is that I couldn't afford my charcoal habit! So after some very diligent months of reading Freeglecycle every day I have accumulated everything I need to make my own. Hopefully.
Here's a big pile of wood, chopped to size, with fire-lighting things and gloves.
Here's the fire all laid and just getting going.
Nice blaze now. Time to put on gloves and take courage in both hands!
Action shot of me wielding spade to start sealing it off.
Finished article - one slightly smoking wheelbarrow!
I can't seem to link back to the pictures so here's the link to my photostream - www.flickr.com/grahams_pictures - if you want to see big shots or indeed any of the other random stuff I take photos of.
In a couple of days I'll see if it feels cool and whether I feel like digging it up... and then I'll know if it worked or not.
Graham
Here's a big pile of wood, chopped to size, with fire-lighting things and gloves.
Here's the fire all laid and just getting going.
Nice blaze now. Time to put on gloves and take courage in both hands!
Action shot of me wielding spade to start sealing it off.
Finished article - one slightly smoking wheelbarrow!
I can't seem to link back to the pictures so here's the link to my photostream - www.flickr.com/grahams_pictures - if you want to see big shots or indeed any of the other random stuff I take photos of.
In a couple of days I'll see if it feels cool and whether I feel like digging it up... and then I'll know if it worked or not.
Graham
Friday, 28 August 2009
It's been a while
I've been a victim of low resources - money, time and health. On the money front I've been scanning Freecycle pretty much every day I've been around to collect stuff and that's starting to pay off. I now have an old metal wheelbarrow and a load of wood, mostly an old bed and shelving unit.
While this might sound like junk, I have a plan! Dig a hole about the size and shape of the wheelbarrow, stack the wood in it and set fire to the lot. When it's blazing away nicely, upend the wheelbarrow over the fire and bury it with the spoil from the pit. After two to three days it should have gone cold and when you dig it out, it'll be full of charcoal.
The only trouble is that I've put my back out and we're getting to the end of school holidays. So I haven't had either the time or the energy to dig a big hole and light a fire. But at least I feel like some progress is being made. And once I start digging holes, I might carry on and actually make a furnace too...
Graham
While this might sound like junk, I have a plan! Dig a hole about the size and shape of the wheelbarrow, stack the wood in it and set fire to the lot. When it's blazing away nicely, upend the wheelbarrow over the fire and bury it with the spoil from the pit. After two to three days it should have gone cold and when you dig it out, it'll be full of charcoal.
The only trouble is that I've put my back out and we're getting to the end of school holidays. So I haven't had either the time or the energy to dig a big hole and light a fire. But at least I feel like some progress is being made. And once I start digging holes, I might carry on and actually make a furnace too...
Graham
Thursday, 4 June 2009
Quality counts!
Well, I used up three different bags of old charcoal and nothing dripped out of the bottom of the furnace. It took nearly two hours to start burning properly as well. I'm guessing now that it's right on the edge of developing the 660 degrees centigrade that I need. Which does make sense as last burn was quite partial in terms of what melted and what didn't. So next time I'll go with new good quality lumpwood...
On a more positive note, with all the heat my green sand dried out but held the shapes that I pushed into it, so sand casting is looking workable at the moment.
Cheers
Graham
On a more positive note, with all the heat my green sand dried out but held the shapes that I pushed into it, so sand casting is looking workable at the moment.
Cheers
Graham
Monday, 1 June 2009
Another burn
Hi
The furnace is running again. I used old charcoal on top of fresh and it took a couple of hours and lots of meths to get it all burning OK. No sign of any aluminium dripping out from underneath which is a shame. I had used green sand and made some impressions to test it out but I guess with the slow start it just never got up to temperature.
Tomorrow will tell what happened.
Graham
The furnace is running again. I used old charcoal on top of fresh and it took a couple of hours and lots of meths to get it all burning OK. No sign of any aluminium dripping out from underneath which is a shame. I had used green sand and made some impressions to test it out but I guess with the slow start it just never got up to temperature.
Tomorrow will tell what happened.
Graham
Friday, 22 May 2009
Sand
Yesterday I got some bentonite clay in the post from ebay.
So in the evening I started sorting out the sand that I rescued from the preschool sandpit. As you can see it's full of bark chips, twigs and leaves. I gradually sieved it through a garden sieve and then a kitchen sieve (bought for the purpose).
Now, through Yahoo groups I've found that it might be the wrong sort of sand as it's not sharp sand. But on the plus side I've found there is a foundry in my local area that sounds all arty and interesting so I'll give them a ring later and see if I can scrounge some sand and hopefully advice as well!
Graham
So in the evening I started sorting out the sand that I rescued from the preschool sandpit. As you can see it's full of bark chips, twigs and leaves. I gradually sieved it through a garden sieve and then a kitchen sieve (bought for the purpose).
Now, through Yahoo groups I've found that it might be the wrong sort of sand as it's not sharp sand. But on the plus side I've found there is a foundry in my local area that sounds all arty and interesting so I'll give them a ring later and see if I can scrounge some sand and hopefully advice as well!
Graham
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