JAKE, Just Another Kiln Experiment, Combined Heat and Biochar Kit

Heat and Biochar DVD - Front Cover

After the Stockton Walnut Festival, Bonzo fabricated a few JAKE kilns to take to the Mother Earth News festival to share at his talk in Topeka, KS Oct. 24.  The response from those early adopters, and other local friends has been overwhelmingly positive.  The JAKE is proving to be easy to operate successfully across a wide range of users without a whole lot of perfection in fabrication.

It was quickly apparent there was no way for Bonzo to build enough to meet demand, and that most who wanted one were wanting to experiment with them, continue to perfect the design.

About the same time, an engineering buddy wanted to develop a set of drawings for the 5 most successful personal size kiln designs.  Besides the JAKE, the Anthrosoil "Grassifier" and the clay TLUD "Terra Preta Authentica" were of great interest to him.

So we began developing a DVD and a kit, for sale to the DIY biochar market in hopes of generating even more interest in biomass energy and biochar.

Several hundred hours and several hundred megabytes of sorted information later, with the help of too many friends to name here, the DVD and kit are almost ready for release.

Today was Bonzo's personal run through of building the kit into a kiln.  From kit to kiln too about 90 minutes with only a couple of aggravations.  Bonzo had the the advantage of not having to read the instructions ;~)  Next step is to get some kits in the hands of several more trusted friends and iron out the bugs based upon their experiences.

11:30 AM - Kiln from Walnut Festival side by side with kiln kit

Tools to do the job

The round wood piece is handy for providing backing force on the stainless steel tubes while drilling.

The log slips into 7" tube on one side, into 8" tube on the other.

Close-up of hardware kit and tools required.  These are all the tools used.  Also had some leather gloves which are highly recommended any time fabricating sheet metal, especially stainless steel.

Right at 90 minutes later, with a couple of water breaks and petting the dogs thrown in, a kiln that is finished well enough to suit me.  If the history of a few dozen builds is any indication, it will work really well for showing folks the amazing effect of burning smoke.

Smoke was the bane of charcoal production.  Burning the smoke rather than releasing it is a paradigm shift toward abundant natural and equitable energy for all, with the plus of biochar creation!