In the continuing saga off no-smoke charcoal making, I’ve added air injection to the system.
In recent runs, I could tell the fire wasn’t getting enough oxygen. There were a couple reasons I knew this.

when running just the stove, I got a red jet flame out of the top. A picture from a previous post:
If […]

actually this is take four.

exit hole on top. Mistake. lots of uncombusted smoke

exit hole on bottom. Better, but still lots of smoke

pipe extention to inject smoke into the heart of fire. That worked, but the ducting I was using still leaked smoke.

today’s experiment

Somehow, the thought of using an old paint can came to mind. I […]

When wood burns, what’s really going on?
As I understand it, it’s a 2.5 step process.
1) Heating the wood causes it to vaporize into its component molecules.
1.5) depending on the temperature, the longer, more complex molecules decompose into simpler molecules. Larger molecules don’t burn as well. Axle grease doesn’t really burn. Gasoline does. If you heat […]

I’ve been getting some good use out of the chisel mortiser that I got at the woodshow last year. I’ve been working on a sidetable/nightstand for Robie (post coming soon). Today, I whipped up a pair of trellises (trelli?) for the garden.
Turned out pretty nice, I think
 

Being on sabbatical has given me time to catch up on blogging about my projects. The frequency of posts will surely go back down when I go back to work.
While living ast my old house in Beaverton, my bedroom took forever to cool down on hot summer days. The ceiling fan didn’t do the trick […]

Recently, my sister came across a different kind of jewelry display/holder. She bought one, but it was small and didn’t accomodate the larger earrings she tends to wear. So together, we built our own. the spires hold rings and the little holes around the rims hold earrings. The first picture has an example. Probably easier […]

I took some more pics of my stove in operation. I just love how the flame jets around. I also have some pictures with Grady for scale.

Recently, I’ve been thinking about how wood burns. It started when I read a post on the blog The Oil Drum when someone posted an opinion that instead of turning celulose into alchohol, we should just burn it by gasifying. As I understand it, when you heat wood, it gives off gases that will burn. […]

I got back from my trip to Maine/Boston where I took a Timberframing class. Here are some stitched photos as well as some normal ones. Excellent class. There were 38 students with a very broad demographic. Two father/son pairs. Three couples. A guy who’d just finished high school wanting to do […]

Since I have as much space as I do (for a city boy), I generate a lot of compost. One ofthe problems I face is that there a many larger chunks in there that should be separated out.
So I built a compost sifter. It needs some refinements, but it works ok.