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It depends on how dry the wood is in the barrel. If I have to feed more wood I just drop it in the burn tube.

Yeah we wouldn't want that! I found the culprit later. As the wood gasifies and shrinks some pieces break and pile up around the holes in the bottom of the burn tube. I've fixed this by adding an expanded metal cage to the bottom of the burn tube that keeps it from becoming restricted. I will release a video of that in the near future. Thanks for your comment.

I wonder if a layer of large size gravel stones or pumice stone/lava rocks would also work to prevent the blockage?@@MrTswindell

Thanks for your comments. I don't think a sheet metal stack would last very long because of the high heat and duration of the pyrolysis process. Watch part 3 the night burn. You'll see how hot that ⅛" stack can get. Best wishes and Charcoal On!

@@MrTswindell great point! I am currently using a sheet metal stack (maybe 12 burns) & it gets glowing hot like yours does. I'll have to give it a try & see how it stands up over time, could be it's a disposable item over time.... I'm 67 and am looking for ways to keep the weight down when dumping it since I don't have the muscle mass of my youth. Thanks Again & Best Regards

Copies; @hoongfu @urrywest 1. This design is excellent. It uses a minimum of materials, minimum of assembly labor, and is quite simplistic ! More parts means; more details & more assembly which opens the door to more failures. Failures both during assembly and during operation. A 1968 Volkswagon will give you more trouble free miles than any 2023 BMW, Audi, Caddy, or other car, etc. 2. Why three chambers ? This design has those same three functional components ! A. First Chamber: Firebox (Primary Burn). B. Second Chamber: Methane Collection. Just so happens that it 'DOUBLES' as the Pyrolysis Process Containment Chamber. C. Third Chamber: Methane Gas Manifold Burn Chamber (Secondary Burn). Which I assume is your Third Chamber. This design has the Third Chamber / Seconary Burn, cleverly integrated into both the Methane Collection / Pyrolysis Chamber and the Vent / Flu pipe. Brilliant ! ! ! This is a very clean design with no appendages hanging off the side to be knocked off or banged up. And no burner manifolds to rust-out at a later date. It also has a minimum of incursions to the original 55 gal. drum. Every cut or fitting is a place for stress failures and rust. If your thinking to control or collect the methane gas, that becomes a whole new conversation. 3. I do see one or two shortcomings in the design that I would like to offer my thoughts on. I really hate to see all that waste heat escaping into the atmoshpere. That is very inefficient. It is probably not enough to use to operate a cement plant*. SO . . . , It ought to have a turbine electric generator & a heat exchanger hooked up to that JET EXHAUST PIPE, so the whole neighborhood could gather in the Air-Conditioned artificial Hot Spring (way bigger than a hot tub) and enjoy some beverages ! ! ! :-) 4. So if anyone thinks they can cost effectively improve; the efficiency, safety, and durability of this design, come on back and show / tell us what you did. I am not trying to insult anyone but this design really does cover all the bases for a inexpensive, small, home, amature set-up. I love the holes at the bottom of the vent pipe ! That 3-4 feet exhaust flame and nearly whie hot pipe tells you that the actual burning of the methane is pretty efficient. * To make Portland Cement powder (not concrete) takes about 1800 degrees. Making cement is like the 2nd or 3rd most energy consuming industry in country.

@@BillSmith-fx7xx This is the stack that the Buddhist monks like... Others, I think they are in Tiland like to have a gas return from the top that burns at the bottom... Right now I don't remember all the details but it certainly is important not to have holes at the top and the bottom in the charcoal chamber or you will burn all of your charcoal.... Other sollutions are direct burn, turn over and smother... This design is better than that. Like you said it is simple and hopefully gets no leaks at the bottom...

@@urrywest Thanks for your reply. It is true that most of the retorts are 'tight' and only have only one vent. Usually a pipe arrangement. But when this design retort is running it is producing so much methane it has a 'positve pressure' outward. Therefore, no outside air / oxygen can get in to the retort. In theory you could have multiple outflow pipes on any of the designs I have seen. You could run a second pipe to a small burner and cook your meal while you were waiting for the pyrolysis to finish. The fact that this has a tiny outward leakage is really of no cosequence. If it was inside a building you would need to guide the unburned gas leakage to an exit. When he was 'dirting' that flame at the top it really made little difference. Of course we really want all of our methane to go to our 'secondary' burn(er) location. Also stopping that burn near the hole in the long run probably keeps it from deteriorating the lid and becoming an even bigger hole. He had that lid and that pipe really close ! If that had more than an 1/8 " inch all the way around the circumference, you would probably lose half your mathane out the top. It looked to me like he only had about 1/16" inch around maybe 1/3 of the circumference. You could do a lot of work to make it tighter but would probably be more effort than it is worth. As we could see, the results speak for themselves. Since he was a metal worker previously he had some tools and skills some people may not have access to for assembly. For some people some exterior piping and a couple fittings might be the easier assembly. You could source a hot water heater manifold (new/used) and that would work. Or take a pipe and drill 3 or 4 holes in it. I understand your concern with post-pyro oxygen exposure. We sure don't want our fresh charcoal to burn up before we get to use it ! He responded in one of the replies that he had not had any problem with that happening. Just keep an eye on the thing for the first hour of the post-pyro burn. Mr. Tsiwell has done it several times. I will trust his design and take his word for it. I was surprised how fast it worked compared to the other videos I have seen. It appears you can trade heat for time. Even the drum was red hot ! I do not know the chemistry that turns the wood black and into charcoal but an important part of the process is to get the methane out of the wood. This design clearly accomplishes that in record time ! Did you know that when you burn a normal log fire (open pit / fireplace) a large portion of the flames is the methane coming out. I enjoyed your kind reply and the chance to have more discussion. One word of caution, do not put any closable valves on your design. Unless you really know what you are doing, if a valve(s) is accidentally closed during the process you will end up with a pressure explosion accompanied by a flaming methane explosion ! It'll ruin your day. Good luck. Get your new retort made and let me/us know hiw it comes out !

@@urrywest YT search: Hookway retort Wassledine Medium

@@BillSmith-fx7xx I have a problem where I am on a popular beach and made a popular fire pit.... The people who use the fire pit mostly bring kiln dried comercial wood and put it out after an hour.... I get a lot of charcoal build up which is not helped by the fact that I brought copioius amounts of saw dust from a local construction site as a burning medium.. The sand has more the consistancy of dirt which doesn't let air in so that the coals can burn in the sand. My solution is to mix in some potasiium nitrate [salt peter] in the sand before a large burn..... I tend to burn much more than most people and walk away with it burning..... I hope it works. I am sure it will burn down into a pit if it does.

No, as long as your pump pulls a vacuum any type will work.

Total time, starting from lighting the fire underneath till the flame dies out of the stack I'd say 2 hours. It takes about an hour to get pyrolysis started. Then it takes about an hour for the wood in the barrel to char. I added small pieces of wood in the first hour to keep the fire going but after it becomes self-sustained no added wood is needed. It's very important to use completely dry wood for in the drum. If it's even slightly damp you'll spend more time and startup fuel trying to achieve pyrolysis. Hope that helps and sorry for not getting back to you sooner.

@@MrTswindell Thank you so very much Mr. Tswindell, please no need to say sorry as this helps me tremendously as my process takes me about 5hrs, takes me around 1.5 hrs for the barrel to become selfsustained and next 3-3.5 hrs till the flames stop coming out from the pipe and it stops itself. The first mistake I see is that my wood is not really dry, and I am using a beech tree wood, also my fireplace is made of bricks and there is air coming in so I must be loosing heat there, and I see if I would have it made from metal to cover the whole bottom, it would build temperature inside the barrel much faster, so these are things that I have to work on, but thank you once again from the bottom of my heart, this really helps me indeed. All very best for you and your loved ones.

I try to use as much hardwood as possible, but any dry woody material will char as long as it's completely dry. I don't have a chunker but that sounds better than cutting with a saw. Thanks

Not sure. The motor has a 4 inch v-belt pulley attached. Good question, I'll have to check into that. I wasn't really concerned with RPMs at the time of build because I knew it wouldn't be running continuously.

Be sure your wood is dry. I have the same problem if the wood isn't completely dry and no bigger than 3 inches square. Try running the batch again to finish the charing process.

@@MrTswindell ok thanks

Also, Insulating the barrel and sealing it is key. Hope these suggestions helped.

I've made sure that the wood used in the burning chamber is dry. It's flaming up at the bottom. But it doesn't up to the top like a rocket. Sealed up all the holes where the air can get out in the chamber, and i still can seem to produce a torch. Hmmm

@@swow1234 I could give you a better diagnosis if I could see what's going on. If you get a chance make a video and post it for review. Show the structural pieces of the retort and your process. I may be able to spot something from that. Keep trying and I'm sure that you will figure it out.

I have never covered up anything after pyrolysis. I have always let it run its course and cool down over night. Never found ash in the charcoal or had a loss. Good question Michael.

As hot as this design burns and the fact that it finishes by burning only the internally derived methane gas, seems to mean there is nothing left to carry on any combustion when it burns out.. Also, when it burns out it is self evacuating. It has holes at the bottom from the Pyro chamber direct to the Vent and the hole thru the lid is NOT 'air-tight'. Once the methane gas is gone, it will slowly circulate cool outside air into the pyro chamber. Some designs don't burn the methane so they are some what guessing as to when the pyro process is complete. Plus they are continually using an external fuel source and are more likely to want to stop early to save fuel. They can use some of the heat already built up to finish the pyrolysis process. That runs the risk of having some residual methane when the chamber is opened but most are not 'air-tight' anyway. They can save their fuel/wood for the next charcoal run. As long as there is no fire left in the firebox, as stated, there is really no ignition source for the 'freshly made' charcoal. This brings up two interesting questions. How loose can the hole thru the lid be before it degrades the process ? What does the temperature need to be to cause spontaneous combustion of charcoal when exposed to air ? This is the first retort I have seen that is open at both ends. I would almost bet you could unload this charcoal within 30 minutes of burning out the methane. JUST DON'T BUMP THE VENT PIPE ! You will become the spontaneous combustion !

Thanks Michael. Yes there's any number of ways that you can get it done. I would be willing to bet that a propane burner would get it going too. I used the old brake hub because it was readily available. Hope this helps.

@@MrTswindell Thanks for the fast reply. I spent hours looking again this morning at videos of retorts, and, again, I believe your set up is producing the best lump charcoal for the minimum effort. Happy Holidays!

@@michaelspunich7273 Thanks and Happy Holidays to you and yours.

Glad it was helpful!

I think there is a slight misunderstanding here. I wrote "purpose built machines like this one" vacupack.com/shop/sammic-se-208/ "for this task could cost you thousands of dollars in addition to your freeze dryer." In other words to make a great vacuum seal without your freeze dryer you would need another piece of equipment which could cost thousands. Hope this helps.

No Kevin it doesn't, but it will take more time and fuel to get the pyrolysis started. I ran into that myself. So if you are dealing with wet wood just keep your fire going under the retort and eventually your damp wood will dry and begin to gasify.

Yes, I would say as many as will comfortably fit in your FD without packing them together. We always do the whole batch at one time. Good question, thanks.

I used sandy clay loam. Kinda sticks together better.

Sam I'm uploading a video of that as I am typing right now. Enjoy!

You want the retort to disassemble for easier loading and unloading of the wood stock and the charcoal that's left at the end of the process. 55 gallons of wood gets heavy. Sorry it took so long to get back to you. Best wishes.

The more openings you have, the more chances for oxygen to get in during the pyrolysis process. If that happens you'll have nothing but ash left when you open the drum. Great question. Thanks for asking.

I'm sure that would work. It only takes a minute to vacuum the air out of the chamber. Try it out and let us know how it worked out for you. Thanks for the question.

They did germinate. I was pleasantly surprised.

SP germination.

They may, I'm trying to explore all options given the current state of affairs.

02? If you mean 02 absorbers the answer is no. My elevation is below 1,000 feet so the effective 02 is 20.95%. If you live at higher elevation your 02 is lower. There is 760,000 mTorr in 1 atmosphere of pressure. The Harvest Right freezedryer software requires 500 mTorr or less to operate. Oxygen at 760,000 mTorr is 209,500 ppm. At 500 mTorr it is roughly 136 ppm. And when you think about the volume of the freezedryer that number goes down much farther. Then the volume of a mylar bag makes that number even smaller. 🤣 So I think as long as the moisture is removed from the food and a good vacuum is achieved in a sealed mylar bag, then me and my family will be just fine. Sorry for such a long answer but I get that question a lot. Hope this helps.