Incorporating bronze age processes into the production of improvisational tools.
Falling back five thousand years to make post modern tools.
Sparky the welder MkIV is going to need some major upgrades. More power, better connections, transportability, better control of voltage, switches on both input and output and a dummy load to discharge the capacitors so I reduce the chances of becoming a flashbulb.
More power consists of bringing more capacitors online, but connection issues seem to multiply exponentially with every one I add and constantly tracking down loose connections is tedious,dangerous and frankly a sign of bad design.
I could just go to the hardware store and buy some aluminium or copper flat stock and make bussbars. But that would be rational. Instead I’m going to cast old soda cans into busses to replace the wiring, using home made charcoal.
So Today: making charcoal.
I’ll be using the “retort” or “indirect” method, rather than the “direct” method. The direct method is the old method of making a pile of wood, lighting it on fire, and then nearly smothering it leaving unburned residual charcoal. This is difficult, finicky, and potentially explosive. As it only has one redeeming feature I went for the indirect method. This consists of placing the material to be carbonized into an air restrictive container, applying heat, allowing the water vapour and volatile gasses to escape while limiting oxygen.
So some old bricks, a computer fan, an old battery, some cans, twigs,fire. Equals a fuel capable of casting salvaged aluminium.
Found these lying around, nothing special.
twelve volt muffin fan, these are everywhere.
Cans and twigs. Not hard to come by.
Put the smaller cans in the larger and you have “Retorts”
Place so air flow from fan is unrestricted.
Add fuel, in this case sagebrush
more retort!
Fill the furnace with fuel.
Light it! I waited until dark for effect.
Effect! escaping gasses burning outside the furnace, Wait until it burns out and cools
As you can see, it burns quite clean! Save the nice white ash, great for making wood lye.
After making sure everything is cool, take out the retorts and open them up!
Home made lump charcoal, capable of casting aluminium. I’ll need to do a few more runs before I have enough to cast the bussbars I need for sparky, but fire is fun.
