Oh yeah baby......that's SO good........
Gotcha! Since my propane regulator broke on me, I've decide to build another burner for my furnace. I'm constantly refining my furnace and burner by a complex scientific process known as "tweaking."
This time, I think I'll build a choke for it, to allow better Oxygen Control. I'm also going to see if I can smooth the end of the burner pipe, and maybe add a ventura (reversed cone, like the base of a rocket) to slow the flame down and improve the burn.
In the mean time, I've decided to go back to experimenting with fossil fuels. My old method was basically use a hairdryer to pipe in air, and blow it over regular old barbecue charcoal. The problem with this is that BBQ charcoal sucks. Hardcore sucks. If ya don't believe me try making some of the real stuff and burning it.
To make charcoal, you can a: build a fire, then put it out after awhile, which will give you maybe 6 cubic inches after you scrape the outside of the logs. This way blows.
The second way, is to stack a bunch of wood in an airtight container. Hard woods like oak are best, but something like willow's not terrible either. Leave some space between the pieces of wood, but fill it plenty full. Some people make a teepee, then put dirt over the outside. Others just stick it in an old oil barrel. If you use the oil barrel, I recommend burying it partway, or all the way. This allows you better control, plus it's easy to cover the gaps at the bottom with dirt, which brings us to the next part.
Leave some kind of a gap at the bottom and at the top. Light that puppy up. (Note: Do not light actual puppies as it is both illegal and immoral. Furthermore I will come to your house and beat you.)
Let it start burning good, then fill the gaps partially until you're getting a bunch of white smoke, but it doesn't seem to be burning much. Great, let it go like that for a few hours, then cover the gap at the bottom, and most of the top. If you've got the oil barrel, putting the lid on with a bunch of small holes poked in the top works beautifully.
Let this go for three or four days, probably longer if you used more wood. Usually no more than a week top. Put it out. If it worked, you've got something that beats those little briquettes ass any day of the week. Plus it smells better. The trick is to get the rate burn rate. If it goes too fast, a lot of it will burn up, and you'll end up with some charcoal, and a bunch of ash. If it burns too slow, you end up with a little charcoal and a bunch of wood that's been slightly warmed for several days.
The trick is to watch the smoke occasionally. White is good. Black is bad. Too fast, and little to no smoke means you've gone mostly out. Either way, adjust the amount of oxygen reaching the fire accordingly.
Now I said all that to say this. BBQ charcoal sucks. But better even than real charcoal, is coke. What is coke? Besides being something you stick up your nose or drink when you live someplace too sucky to get Dr. Pepper, coke is what you get when you take coal, seal it mostly off in something, and light a fire under it for a day or so without actually burning it, similar to making charcoal, but not quite.
This takes coal, which already burns hotter than charcoal, and bakes a lot of the impurities out of it, like sulfur and phosphorus. Who cares you ask? Anybody that works steel with coal products, that's who. And I already know that's not you so neener neener neener.
Coke is left with lots of little holes from the impurities escaping, and looks a lot like black popcorn. Black Eeevil popcorn. But it burns even hotter and much cleaner than coal. This makes it both better as a fuel, and better to use around iron, because you don't have to worry about sulfides baking into your nice new Bowie knife so that the blade breaks while you're whittling one night and sticks in the frontal lobe of your brain so that you have crazy mood swings and run off to Jamaica with a stranger after killing your cat in a fit of rage...................
Good fuel helps make good steel. And it's really hard to get in Killeen damn it. Or at all in Texas. I found a place near Austin selling it for 40 dollars per hundred lbs. That's way, way the hell too expensive, but I may get some to play around with. (Comprably I've found places up north selling good quality anthracite (high grade coal) for about 25 bucks a ton.
And you shouldn't pay much more for coke, 'cause it's pretty easy to make from coal. Far easier than making charcoal. Put it in an oil barrel with the lid on, raise it up, light a fire under/around it. Don't set the coal on fire. Easy, right? Either way, I'm gonna score some coke. Anybody got better ideas on where to get coal? (No it's not sold around here as a fuel normally, and the only power plants close are hydroelectric.)