Thanks for the feedback and patience; I'm not sure how many hits
Bellsouth takes before the Bwidth is exceeded. Meantime I'm leaving the
pics up so that, well...."Diffusion of Knowledge" and all that.

Answers to questions... A 55 gal.drum of @ 200lbs of seasoned oak
yields about 70 lbs of charcoal. There is a loss to powder and fines in
crushing and screening of about 15 lbs. We save this to make
"lute"(?)...clay/sand/ash/charcoal powder mix to re-line the furnace.
Powder can also be mixed with water and starch or molasses to form
briquettes of any size. Or...pyrotechnics!

The active cook time of the barrel is about 3-4 hours. The pics show
the different phases of the process...from 15 minutes after lighting up
till about an hour, fluffy white/gray steam exhales, which changes to
steam/blue smoke. Blue smoke then dominates, rushing out through the
holes in the lid (@6 SQ inches) with greater intensity until the gasses
ignite. Ignition takes about an hour and a half, plus. At this point, we
are Colliers, and we keep the heat to the barrel. It'll roar, and this
gas can be piped underneath for more efficiency.
After 4 hours or so, I lay on a last charge of wood fuel and cover
everything with sheet roofing, seal the holes at the bottom with dirt,
and go take a shower. The metal holds the heat in and reduces the burn
rate of the fuel so that final cook time is longer. 12-14 hours later
the metal covering is removed and any remaining fuel coals are scooped
into another drum and sealed. This makes our preheat charcoal, as it is
pine we use for fuel, and not as good for smelting.

The stone used to make the furnace is mostly schist taken from 300
feet away, and 30 feet downhill along the lakebed. Using a wheelbarrow,
these rocks were EXPENSIVE! there is some local "Corbin Gneiss" as well
as Tennessee fieldstone/limestone left over from other park projects.
The furnace was first fired using vitrified clay thimbles as liners.
Second firing we used refractory gasket rope and 5 gal metal
buckets...this was all done on the fly, as I'm a volunteer, and we used
what we had.
The furnace now has a permanent liner of a product called "Kruzite
castable". We formed it using 8 inch and 12 inch sonotubes. We lined it
with the aforementioned lute, and that works well to keep molten stuff
from adhereing to the walls. The shaft size is 8 inches diameter and 37
inches tall. The tuyere opening is 1-7/8 diameter and 10 inches above
the base. This is permanent in kruzite, and allows for modification of
sizes/configs. I built it overlarge to be able to "build down" and
experiment. Packing clay to raise the base,config the taphole ETC.

Blower motor was found in an RCM'ers junquebox G, as well as most
other hardware/plumbing. Peephole is local mica sheet and a ring magnet
on a tee. Elegant.

I posted 2 pics that should have been on the clunky website to the
dropbox:

http://www.metalworking.com/DropBox/

Look for "Bloom.Txt" and "Bloom9011/Bloom8443"



~D