A Wood Gassifier ... My next project !

[Bob]

I saw a program on the "planet mechanics" that interested me... I recorded it and have watched it about 4 times now....
sense then I have surfed the web in an effort to find more information on a Wood Gas producer...
my surch was rewarded by down loading a 10meg .pdf File that covered the FEMA's report and instructions on how to build a unit for a tractor !
...
I have poured over this file and read it through 3 times now ( my eyes hurt!) but I am convinced I can make one fairly easy now !...
....
and I have a PERFECT Canadate for the Wood Gas Project... My O'l Dodge Pickup... simply because I can't drive it when it gets such lousie gas mileage ! and I know it ...inside and out... I can take off the fuel vaporization system on it and replace it with a Wood gas Generator... and I should be able to run it for no cost at all.... because I have allot of trees and brush here !
and that's free fuel !!!!!!!!! (unlike the vaporizer...where no matter how good of gas milage it gets I will still have to buy gas.... )
....
if anyone is interested in doing this sorta thing let me know and I can give ya detailed info as the project takes shape....
...
so far I have rounded up a few 55 gal metal drums, a 25gal propane tank, a small air tank,a 5 gal propane bottle, and a few metal buckets and some 3" i.d. tubing...
the carberator is so simple even I can make it.... 2 butterflys in (#2) 2"x3" nipples thredded into a "T"  one is the throttle the other is the choke/air mix adjustment
...
the .PDF file even has information on the size of a burner you need for diferent sized engines
 My Dodge truck will need a 14" diam. burner and it needs to be close to 30" long, but that will make the burner too high so I will shorten its length.
...
this looks to be a very Viable source of Fuel for me.... if I can get it working good on the O'l Dodge I may make one for the Toyota truck and forget about the Hydroxy generator for the truck and just put it on the Car for the Wife ! HAHAHAHAHAHA
...
I googled "Wood gas" and found allot of info. if anyone is interested !
....
Bob.....
 

[Bob]

More reading and contemplating the parts I have on hand....
...
 According to the article that FEMA published, the configuration really is NOT that important
what is important is that...
1) the fire box itself be air tight,all the connecting goodies be air tight.
2) the fire tube be of correct diameter and length for the size engine used.
3) all the piping be as resistance free as possible and big enough for the job.
....
Unfortunately, using the same size "Fire tube" that they call for makes the entire burner very TALL.... upwards to 7ft or more, depending on how big of a hopper I put on it!
at 14" in Diam and 32" long... that's big !  but it is for a 318-V8  and that takes allot of Woodgas to keep it running !
so rather than Risk a non-operational producer I think I will just build a step in the bed of the truck to Reach the top of the Hopper easily. <GRIN> and make the burner the proper size.
...
I do think I will add a "Cyclone" filter to the system and a Radiator to help cool the gas
neither are absolutely necessary, but will aid in keeping the truck running longer!
...because here on the Ranch I expect I will be leaving the truck Idling for extended periods while I load the back with Rocks and stuff... although I will only have 1/2 of the truck bed to load junk into, at least its something !... I can always pull a trailer if need be!
....
So far here is the plan.....

 The "Fire Tube" will be made from a 25 gal Propane tank... I will fill the tank with water prior to grinding/cutting one end off the tank. this will set in a 55gal drum with a piece of another 55 gal drum Added to its height to give it the proper height.... its allot of work to go through but I think it will be best in the end.)
...the connecting tubes will be 3" i.d. (simply because I have that on hand, 4" would be better)
I will try to buy some flexible 3" exhaust coupling hose for the many bends needed... if its too expensive... I will just have to fabricate my own curves! <GRIN>
the Main filter will be in a metal BOX  I think... not really sure yet, using asbostos rope as a gasket to make it air tight.... that or a 30~55gal metal drum.
... out of all the JUNK cars I have around here I should be able to find a good heater blower
to use as a blower for startup on the unit.... I HOPE anyway. ( this may be harder to "Scrounge up " than it sounds!HEHEHEHEHE).
....
I am Contemplating Using 3" Ball valves instead of making the butterfly valves from scratch...
but they are extremely expensive...and hard to turn !....perhaps a used throttle body of a large pickup at the wrecking yard will be inexpensive LOL (dream on Bob!) there are flapper valve's for ducting that may do the trick at the hardware store that also might fill the bill.
....
...
I'm thinking that this system would work great for Tink's stationary electric Generator !
but I dunno how much wood he has there, but even wood pellets can be cheaper than gasoline !
...and a smaller engine needs a Much smaller producer...so its easier to build and maintain!
...
Bob......

...

[Bob]

TINK !
 According to this documentation... for your Electrical generator (depending on its HP )
chances are it will need a 6"Di.X 16"L. fire tube and if its a small engine then maybe a funnel-down restrictor on the business end of the tube.... they say keep the size 6" even if its a SMALL gas engine simply to prevent plug-ups in the fuel feed... (sense the fuel feed is gravity fed.).... without a funnel down Restriction all it will do is make more gas than it needs....once the fire is going the engine self regulates the amount of gas it needs... so building bigger than you need hurts Nothing...it doesn't even waste Wood, because the fire burns a bit slower is all.... very neat method!
with a large hopper you could have the generator run for days if you choose !
 with a bit of tinkering you could have FREE electricity instead of having to pay over $3.00 a gallon for gasoline.......ofcorse you have to come up with the wood to burn, or wood chips
but that should be the easy part... like me I amagon you have an excess of brush and that can be thrown in a chipper shredder...dried and then burned in the Producer to make Wood gas for the Electric Generator.....
...its a thought anyway !
...
Bob.......

[Bob]

UGH ! I just finished cutting the top off the old 25gal propane tank ! first time I ever did that to such a big explosive container ! .... it has been used for an air tank for the last 12 years , so I was fairly certain there wasn't enough gas residue to explode.... but NOT POSITIVE!
and in a situation like this if your wrong... your DEAD !...
So I managed to get one valve off the tank and filled the tank to the very top with water....
then drilled 5~6 1/8" holes side by side and then used the drill very carefully side ways to eat the metal away from between the holes.... this took about 30 minutes and I had a slot about 1" long 1/8" wide that water poured out.... I then used the reciprocating saw and cut the top off the tank.... not the straightest of cuts but good enough anyway !...
Next I'll flatten my wobbly line/cut and then cut it to length and the fire tube will be almost done except for welding it to the top of the 55 gal drum.
...
a 14" diam tube is HUGE !... My Kid could squeeze inside that silly thing!
if  it don't make enough Wood gas to run that Dodge nuttin will ! LOL!
and just for your info, this tanks wall thickness is about 1/8" thick... incase you were wondering how thick a propane tank's wall thickness was...(I was!) LOTS of rust on the inside of that tank too I might add ! LOL !

...
Bob......

[Manta]

Bob,

Try here.    http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/269605551/m/980601261/p/1

Manta

[Bob]

HEHEH thanks for the link Manta !
sounds like a re run of the "Rotary Wing forum" on that site ! LOL  no one has anything positive to say about anything except down with you and up with me ! ....  Oh well each to his own !
......
   I got a bit of work done on the gassifier today...not much as we had the Satellite Internet guy out today and he installed a Wild blue Satellite internet dish for us... I NOW have a fast internet for the first time in my life and I am REALLY Enjoying it ! HAHAHAHA
....
I got a 14" diam hole cut in a 55gal drum and the fire tube ready to be cut to length. (slot cut so I can cut off the end with the Reciprocating saw.)
  Boy I tell ya cutting that hole in the 55 gal drum was like sticking your head in a giant bell and banging it with a big hammer for 20 minutes ! .... LOL  that was noisy ! I got ready to tut the fire tube to length and realized it was getting fairly late, and as loud as it was I figured it might disturb the neighbors so I'll just wait till tomorrow!
....
I had decided to make a door in the 55gal drum to get to the fire grate and clean-out the ash...
but the more I think of it the harder it think it will be to make it air tight... so I'll probably just do it the way the FEMA plans call for... harder to clean out good that way... but with a shop vac it shouldn't be too bad.... and I do nave a new shop vac sooooo... do it the easy way and use pipe and pipe caps for the clean-outs !
... sense it is IMPERATIVE that the burn box be air tight... I am going to make the fire tube and fire box a one piece unit... all welded together...  if I ever have to get inside the fire box I'll have to either make a door or cut the top off at that time ! but it should last a good 20 years that way......the only thing that will be removable on the fire box (55gal drum) will be the pipe Caps on the clean-out and ignition ports. ...
 although I plan on purchasing a 4" cap and close nipple for the clean-out port so I should be able to get my arm inside to fiddle with the grate or grate shaker if need be.
....Bob...

[Bob]

well a RE-THINK is in order... a few sites I read this morning said they didn't like the FEMA design because of the no air injection at the burn area... and FEMA said it was not "OPTIMUM" just that it would work...so I am going to add a injection ring....at the end of the fire tube.
I found an old trailer rim just the right size and its perfect for the job, all I have to do is add a ring of plate steel around the outside and drill holes and add on a pipe to outside air.
....
all in all its slowly starting to take shape...
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I decided not to use the 55gal drum as the bottom because it had some daylight showing in spots from the rust !.... it looks fine on the outside but is badly rusted on the inside! so I will use the good drum for the bottom and mount the fire tube in the lid so I can take it apart and work on it if need be... which I like that idea better by far anyway !...
... I should take some pic's of the mess while its going together, I guess ....Humm
...
anyway... didn't get much sleep last night so think I'll call it quits for the day and go snooze ! LOL !!!
Bob.......

[Bob]

ok , a quick Pic of the barrel,barrel-lid,fire tube(silver) and fire ring/air injector.
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unlike the FEMA article I will weld this not braze it !
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 The 55gal barrel, hard to see (left upper corner of pic.) will be the Hopper to hold the wood fuel,the one end has a 14" hole in the center already so it will be placed on top of the lid and the top of it cut out completely and a barrel-Lid (the same as the one I already cut the hole out of and bent up tangs to weld on to the fire tube) will be used as the Hopper-Lid...(but without the big hole in it of course.).

...
Bob.

[Bob]

Well, today I got the fire tube cut down 6" and that Ring sliced open so it will spred out and slip over the outside of the rim I'll use as a fire ring/air injector... got the 1/2" holes drilled in the rim...19 of them... and just need to weld it all up...
came home from town with a new 4.5" electric grinder ...man its a nice one ! I wore my other one out ages ago and really needed a new one ! ... those things are worth their weight in gold !
...
Bob.......

[Bob]

well, I was courious as to weather I had enough holes in the air ring or not...(19 .5" holes)
...
.5x3.14159=1.570" X 19=29.83" and the 2" pipe I am feeding it with is 2"x3.14159= 6.28"
and what that tells me is I have enough holes in the Ring but need more 2" connections to outside incoming air !  LOL.... wasn't planning on that... but I will add at least 1 more 2" pipe !...maybe 3 more hehehehehe
....
I am guessing that the volume of Air the truck will suck in is HUGE at its 318c.d.i. displacement
however, I have seen pictures of even very large trucks using only 4"diam intake tubes from the producer to the engine... I am planning on a 3" tube for that purpose so if I just match the area of the 3" tube it should be good to go.... 3x3.14159=9.424"...so #2- 2"intake tubes should suffice quite well. 2x6.28=12.56"...... at the very worst, if my intake is restricted on the truck it will have trouble reaching High RPM is all....or crusing down the freeway... and believe me 60mph in that old beater is too fast ! LOL !  you hurd that truck down the road ...you don't Drive it !  LOL !... it can move a house...but it don't do it FAST !
...
Changing the Fire tube to incorporate a Air intake ring changes the design from a down draft
burner to the conventional European style of producer. this doesn't make me too happy as I like the down draft design, and really did not want to have a air tight lid on the top of the wood hopper... but I can make it be a fast release spring tension affair fairly easy.
although I am going to try and still suck the gas from the bottom of the burner half ...unlike the European type... this may leave the wood Hopper free from smoke at refueling time...
 I am hoping so anyway.... <GRIN>
we shall see what we shall see I guess !
...
I will post plans for this when I am finished, so others can copy my design should they want to.
...

Bob.......

[Bob]

Had an agravateing day today... well toward this project anyway...
the only stainless steel bowl big enough to use as the grate for the burner....I know I have...but Darned if I can find it anywhere ! I managed to find its cuzzen the next smaller one but its just a bit too small to use.....so I guess I gott'a go buy one!
went up to use the tractor this morning and the gas tank is bone dry...and I parked it with 3/4 tank of gas !  I keep loosing gas out'a that thing constantly and I can NOT find a leak and I turn the gas off via a valve under the tank after each use.... Can't figure that one out!
....I am considering using the TRACTOR as the Wood Gas burner now....its probably more practical as its useage would never get far from home and it isn't used all that much, but when its used it is used really hard.... the problem is the lack of HP woodgas provides at 25% less hp  it might render the tractor practically useless...and I can't have that !
...
I worked most of the morning on a grate using the top portion of the propane tank that I cut off the other day... got it all cleaned up and ready to drill a thousand 1/2" holes in it and took a break, while I was recuperating in front of the computer I read that an Aussie traveled all over Australia on wood gas,... he tried a normal Metal grate and it simply fell apart in short order, he said stainless steel is the only viable material because of the high temperatures. So rather than go through his learning experience, I think I will just LEARN from his experience and use stainless steel !
so ... I set the propane top aside and gave up on the producer for the day !
I have a bunch of things stacked out there ready to weld up, but my welder uses My Kids electrical plug in and I hesitate to "UNPLUG" her ! especially when its hot ! ...so it waits for a good opportunity LOL !
I did round up a few more tanks and containers today...but that's about the extent of my success
....
  According to what I read today, getting fairly good Mileage from the wood supply is not all that uncommon... 1000 kilometers on one hopper full is rare but most load ups are fairly close to that.... so I figure 1~2hrs at max. per load of wood....  making the tractor the best candidate once again, for the Ginnie pig ! LOL...it would also cure my gas leak ! HAHAHA
....
Bob.

[Bob]

I took the wife to breakfast out this morning and found a stainless steel bowl thats close enough to work in size... got home drilled it with a 1/2" drill a bunch of times and got it looking like a Holey Bowl !HEHEHEH  so it should make a real good grate for the fire box ...
I cut some old tire chain scraps into 4 link long segments (4 of them to attach the S.S.bowl on with)  and got that ready to weld on...
in the process I smelt smoke.... leaf smoke! so I started looking around where I had been grinding.... saw nothing but I knew I got a whiff of it and a flicker of flame caught my eye ON TOP the work bench ! ... by the time I got the garden hose over there it was only about the size of a dinner plate and I doused it good.... but that lets you know how dry it is here... when you can start a fire with a grinder its very VERY Dry !
.... I need to get over to the spring today and put on the flex couplings and get the leak stopped when I'm pumping water...its not real bad but it is wasting water!
hopefully this evening I'll get some welding done on the Woodgas Generator.... shouldn't take me too long to use up ALL my welding rod anyway ! LOL ! (only got about a pound left!)
...
Bob.......

[Bob]

Ok... I have the Reducer on and welded to the fire tube, the fire tube shortened AGAIN ( dunno if thats good or bad!) and welded to the 55 gal drum lid, and the stainless steel bowl preferated with a bunch of 1/2" holes and attached to the bottom of the burner...
AND...today I welded up the Cyclone air filter... its made from a 10gal water heater tank.
 the bottom is cut out and many slices up the length of the tank were cut into the tank, about 3" appart... and then bent inward and all welded to create a taper to a hold about 6" in diam
which will be the attachment point of the ash catcher/bucket...
  this method took a bunch of welding but it does work, even if it looks like hell ! LOL
I welded on the 3" pipe pieces to make the cyclone effect in the tank and other than the bucket top the cyclone filter is ready to be used !
...
  Its funny... I just started on this a few weeks back and I'm already about 1/2 ~3/4 done!
as its coming along quite nicely !
...
I still need a 4" threaded nipple and pipe cap for it and a 2" nipple and pipe cap....
the 4" will be for ash clean-out and the 2" for a "Light-the-fire-Hole!"  both of these nipples will have to be welded to the 55 gal drum, and it will be difficult to weld to that thin stuff at best... but I bot a fresh batch of 3/32" 6011 welding rod so it shouldn't be too bad
....
and I figured out that the reducer on the fire tube will work fine as long as I restrict some of the air that it can obtain.... that way it will have to draw through the wood and upper portion of the wood hopper to get the air it needs... this will keep the Producer as a "Down draft Producer" with the advantages of a hotter fire section where the fire ring is and extra air is added from the outside... it should be far superior to either the "Imbert Producer" or the FEMA version.... time will tell I guess !
...
after the Cyclone filter is finished , I need to make a fine filter... which I have decided on a Water filter... or at least I'll try and see if my idea works...  the wood gas peculating up through a berrol of water should clean and cool the gas very well....
...
I realize allot of the Wood burning units go to great lengths to keep the Water out of the gas but for the life of me I can't understand why ! a bit of water vapor in the gas is a good thing and will help cool the gas even further as it travels to the hot engine where it is vaporized completely.....  I guess I will see how it works LOL !
...
Bob.......

[Bob]

Hardware stores .... Phittttt !
 I went to 2 of the big chain hardware stores...Lowes and Home depot...and neither one cary large diam steel pipe now.... PVC yes but not steel ! ...
I guess I'll let my "Fingers do the walking" through the yellow pages and see if I can hunt up some large pipe ! hehehehehe
....
I got the end of the Cyclone filter welded on today,and the strip of steel as a joint lip welded on... still needs some work but with a high temp hose on the lip of the tank top I used as a bucket top it should seal up air tight if not I'll silicone the heck out of it and  that will seal it up!
...
I got a hunk of metal in me right eye yesterday and I can't seam to get it out... looks like I may have to go to the doctor...what fun!  I was grinding without my safty glasses on and sure enough got a piece in me eye.... thats when I remembered the safty glasses LOL ! DUH !
...don't ya feel like an idiot when ya do that ? LOL !  good greef!
...
anyway... didn't do much on the Wood Gasser today ... hehehehe
...
Bob....

[Bob]

Welp... I got the Cyclone filter done... all  I need for it is paint and High temp silicone to seal up the lid on the bucket !.
...
I am thinking about making a ash door for the burner instead of using a small 4" pipe and cap
simply because the door would give me more room to clean out the fire box better.
... the problem is making the door completely air tight... but I have an air-tight door on my wood/pellet stove I made, and all that takes is a close fitting door and asbostos rope glued on to the mating surface and a good sturdy latch....
what worries me about the idea is the thin 55gal drum metal I have 1/4" plate on the wood stove and in some places 1/2" plate so making it solid is no problem...the thin metal on the berrol will buckel and flex too much I think so I will have to sandwitch the thin drum metal between 1/4" plate to make it solid and then attach the door to the 1/4" plate... allot of work but by far better than having to try and clean out ash from a small opening...been there done that too many times!...heck its messy with a big opening ! LOL !
...
Bob...

[Tink]

Bob,
Even in our sparcely populated area here in the Whit Mountians there are a few welder shops and a great steel shop that I've been able to obtain (real cheap) scrap metal and short pieces of pipe of all sizes. There should be places like that where you live. Got any photos of that gasifier?
Tink

[Bob]

Howdy Tink !
... if there's cheep scrap metal in this area it has to be at "Shorts Scrap metal"  but I havn't been there in MONTHS !  LOL
...
here is a few pics for ya !
top one is the freshly painted Cyclone filter !
Middle one is the metal drum with the fire tube incerted into it... (ash door and smoke take off point are not in yet.) the small tube is the air intake for the fire ring inside.
bottom pic is the Business end of the fire tube... stainless steel bowl with holes drilled in it for a grate is to the right... Middle wrapped in a steel ring is a trailer tire RIM with holes drilled in it as a fire ring... this is welded to a propane tank as the fire tube. 14"diam.
...
got more pics but their just variations of these.
...
Bob...

[Bob]

Here is the fire tube out of the 55 gal drum (above) its laying on its side ...
its getting so heavy now that I have to slide it in the berrol while its laying on its side... too heavy to pick up ! LOL
....
Bob....

[Bob]

So ...right now I am making up the pieces that make a wood gas truck possable...
sense the cyclone filter is done (dunno if it works very good or not LOL) thats one less part to make... the burner ( fire tube in the 55 gal drum) is almost done, but I still need a ash door
and the ignition port... the smoke/gas take off port I started putting in this morning so all it needs now is welding to finish it.
I think I will go buy some flat stock to make the ash door FRAME out of and then use the ash door to light the fire instead of having an extra hole in the side.... and I'll probably light the fire with a propane torch instead of trying to use paper HAHAHAHA there are easier ways!
...
the interesting thing to me is that the fire in the drum will be FLAME LESS for the most part... (except for starting the fire) once there are coals in the burning pot the rush of air from the engine or fan will fan the coals and continue the burn even without the flames...
sense the flames are not present hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide gasses will be present in the smoke in large quantities... in theory enough to run the truck with no problem. and sense I am using an engine to draw the air through the producer  it is self regulating in the amount of wood it will use up... although that will be a substantial amount of WOOD to burn every hour
it is nice to know that I can't give it too much wood LOL !
the wood hopper is a 55 gal drum with a 14" hole cut in the bottom so the wood can fall into the fire tube on the burner... a lid will be fitted for the top of the wood hopper...at the moment the lid is a bit too big to snap into place and its giving me fits !... a mere 1/2" more in the barrel inner diameter would allow the lid to fit great...so I have been trying to stretch the rim metal with a large hammer and anvil ...I'm over 1/2 way there to a good fit now but my arms are sore ! LOL !  and it hasn't done my hearing much good ether ! HAHAHAH.

....
Bob...

[Tink]

Bob,
Earplugs work great! Is there a source for all this 'gasifier' stuff or are you making it up as you go? You've peaked my interest. Very impressive.
Tink

[Bob]

well after watching the video from "the planet mechanics" about 4 times I desided I could make one and then started looking on the web.... I started with a Google search on "woodgas" and got a bunch of hits... a bunch of people trying to sell producers ans stuff but the 2 main plans I found are the FEMA Woodgas generator and the Imbert generator plans...the plans consist of a one page diagram as far as I am concerned... although there is much information on the net about what it takes to make one and how they actually work...
here is 2 of the diagrams that I went by to start making mine the 2 pics I got out of the .PDF files I down loaded ...(unfortunately I can't find them now or I'ed post them for ya!)

but the main idea is build a fire in a can pipe the smoke to the engine and run the engine...! how simple can ya get ?  sure it takes allot of filtering to make it safe for the engine but even with that its not all that hard...
by containing the fire in a can you limit its oxygen so all the gasses can't burn, its those gasses you want... its simple and effective ! 

...
Bob...

[Bob]

I have water problems again... my water pump at the spring quit today... Sigh!  its a never ending struggle to keep this place in operation ! <GRIN>
...So... I only got a little ways on the wood gas generator today... I got the ash door frame made up. and the ash door is a bit too short for the frame !?!?!  Um so I have to add a piece to the ash door to make it long enough to fit the frame ! DUH ! ....
I still need to make the hinge and latch and glue on asbestos rope to seal it air tight then its time to mount it and cut the hole in the Barrel for the opening.
...
in the mean time I am going to replace the pump at the spring with the pump I had in Shingletown... the question is do I have all the parts needed or not LOL !
... whats a few dozen trips into town eh ?  LOL !   Ack !
...
Bob...

[Bob]

Hay Tink !  I found it fer ya !
http://www.woodgas.net/
go there and click on "down load files" on the left hand side....
a page will pop up and it shows the FEMA gas producer .PDF file.... click on that and then after it loads (1.8megs) click on the save file or you will loose it when you exit  the .PDF reader.(Acrobat reader in this case)
same goes for all the other files there on that page... bunches of information on that site !
... this fella doesn't care for the FEMA design says it don't get hot enough and leaves tar in the smoke... he prefurs the Imbert design which is detailed in the FOA report well, somewhat
... after I looked around a bit on the web I came to the conclusion that most of the woodgas guys didn't like the FEMA design either...pitty because its the easiest to make! but I saw where a fella took a car rim and made a reduction zone for his producer so that's what I did...
I am hoping that with the reduction zone and a combination of the Downdraft design of the FEMA design and the added air/oxygen of the reduction zone/fire ring the fire will be much hotter than in the FEMA design... but only time will tell !

anyway get the FEMA report and the FOA report...
 the World bank report is long... and probably not that useful but there is good info in it!
(I got it myself but I refer to the other 2 files !)
...
hope that helps !
Bob.....

[Bob]

I swapped water pumps and got water up to the water tower once again ! (glad to see that!)
so that problem is almost solved... I should get over there and winterize it and get it covered completely...
...
I was reading last night on the FOA report about water filters for the Woodgas generators and
they have been used with success for quite some time... although their methods leave a great deal to be desired!....(a shower head in a barrel...INDEED!) LOL
I plan on simply pulling the gas through the water via the engine vacume and let it bubble through the water... with a bunch of holes in a pipe spreading out the volume of gas as much as possable.... I think aquarium air stones would plug up in short order... so I'll just drill a zillion holes using a 1/8" drill bit in a 3" pipe and use that as the aireiator....
I need a good metal 5 gal. paint bucket ... I have one that had roofing goop in it that I know is in good shape but cleaning it is going to be a royal pain! LOL...
...I believe its important to keep the surface of the water level fairly close to the inlet pipe level because of the vacuum it will take to pull the gas through the water... if I was to put it 3feet down in the bottom of a 55 gal drum the vacuum it will take to pull the gas through the system will amount to 3ft of water in a 3" diam tube... and that is a great deal of vacuum...so I am planning on only a few inches of water over the airieator... even at that the heater blower fan may not suck air through that much water....
... I plan on having the heater blower fan ( yes, I found a good one here! WOOT) as close to the engine as possible... or at the very least on the last filter in the system before the long tube to the engine intake.... that long tube to the intake will go UNDER the truck along side the frame...then Up along side the engine to the 2 butterfly valves that act as a carburetor.
... I will remove the carburetor. and after it proves itself I will remove the gas-tank.... its a great spot for a tool box to set! LOL !
right now the engine is set at 12 degrees advanced ( if I remember correctly) I will change that to 2 degrees advanced and try it on wood gas from there, some adjustment to the timing may be necessary..
sense that truck can haul easy 1.5 tons to 2 tons max. hauling extra fuel/wood in the back won't be a problem at all... but I will need to guard the goodies in the back from being damaged by flying blocks of wood... after all that's how I load the truck.. toss it in there !
LOL !... its a TRUCK...whats a dent or two among friends!
...
I got the Gas take off pipe welded to the 55 gal drum today and the ash door frame temparially bolted on... added a piece of plate to the ash door to make it long enough, and that about summs up the work I did on it....
...
want a laugh ? Kim came down and wanted me to cut a 5lb log of frozen hamburger into 5 pieces....  well the big knife didn't work so I took the Recopicateing saw , put a new wood blade on it and cut it into 4 pieces.... even at that it didn't cut very good ! ...I had hamburger all over everywhere ! LOL !


Bob....

[Tink]

Thanks for the gasifier info.

I used to use a chain saw to cut up pigs and antalope out here in the early '70's when the winters were a lot more servier than they are now. We'd butcher out the animal and hang it in the shed overnite and the next morning it was frozen solid. I'd then use the chain saw to cut it up into big pieces then break it down into roasts and steaks etc. after they thawed out. This method wouldn't work to well on a little piece of hamburger I don't think. 
Tink

[Bob]

LOL the first time I saw a Chainsaw used to cut frozen meat was my dear friends place ! at Bob Hitzman's place back in the late 1970's his wife brought him out a big hunk of meat and said cut it about here and walked off... well he did... he used the chainsaw on the dineing room table and cut it in half for her...  and he even did it without hurting the table ! but the wall and ceiling were pokadotted with red spots ! .... and they did not come off ! ...we know this because we were helping him paint the dining room... LOL !
 for years afterward we hurrassed him about that , and it alwayse got a laugh !
that man saved my Ass more than once, cept me from freezing in Montana !and in general was a Man I'ed give my life for in a hart beat...he'ed give you the shirt off his back, and frequently did!... too bad he is in another state now...!HEHEHEHE
.....
 Well I took the wife to breakfast Out this morning... and it was great! and we just happened t stop by the hardware store on the way home.... and I got some High temp silicone sealant of a sort  to seal the Ash door frame to the 55 gal Drum. its on and drying now . now I make up the hinges for the door and then the latch and it will be ready to test fire. ( i hope to burn off the paint on the barrel so I can paint it again with high heat paint!) however I would be a fool to light a fire out there now.... as dry as it is I'ed have a forest fire in a blink of an eye! so that will wait a few months!
...
although they did not have any asbestos rope or furnace cement yet, the guy said it should be coming in in the next week or so .... and I need that to seal up the door !
the Burner is looking more respectable now, with the ash door mounted on the barrel its starting to look more like its supposed to look ! LOL !
....
I might get this thing running by Christmass!  or turkey day ! LOL
....
Bob.........

[Bob]

HAHAHA
 I spent most of the day figuring out the Hinge and latch on the ash door.... (you wouldn't think it would be so hard would ya ? LOL)
  But the truth of the matter is I want the door to be air tight...or as close to air tight as I can possibly get it... so the same latch arrangement I used on my wood stove wouldn't be the best......
but something like it should do the job. and the hinge that's a whole 'nother story !
... what I came up with for the latch was the standard lift to unlock and open , close and push down on the handle to lock... but with a twist... instead of having a ROUND rod which will allow air to pass through the pipe/hole  I decided that using a threaded bolt as the round pivot and a NUT to pass it through as the pivot... this will allow the motion needed and only allow a tiny amount of air to pass by the threads...( and if it is Lubed it will continue to actuate just fine)
...a angled RAMP latch base welded on the door frame will allow the latching rod to pull the door tightly closed... and if need be the handle can be rotated all the way around to tighten up
the door latch in the future,as this will change the distance between the latch rod and its closeness to the door itself.( nifty!)
... the Hinge well after I contemplated Nuts, bolts and standoffs in a zillion different configurations, I decided on a single door hinge welded to the door and bolted to the door-frame
...so all I have to do there is add a piece to the frame to make it all the same level.
.....  the reason I chose this simple method was because it allows access to the gasket surface
even back at the henge and the pivot point is at the very BACK edge of the door and not an inch or so inward, which makes the pivot point have to be at a different point in order to get the door away from the frame..... some times the simplest methods are the best !
.... Hopefully I'll weld it up in the morning and take a few photos...
...although I expect RAIN all week, I dunno how much time I will get to work on it as its out in the yard! and not under cover.
Hopefully , I will get the rest of our belongings out from under the tarp and in to the house tomorrow.... LOL something I have been putting off...  I hate Moving!
...
Anyway, the ash door is almost complete... another step in the right direction!
...
Bob......

[Bob]

Well,  I got the ash door done... latch welded and hinge mounted...  although it needs a small piece of angle on the door to keep it lined up when the latch lever is cranked down hard... and had to bend the latch lever a bit to keep it from hitting the ground when latched in its indent, other than that its done till I get the rope gasket installed and paint on it...
.... Oh...besides the "Grate Shaker" which should be a Snap to make and install... I just plan on making another Door latch arrangement and mount it on the side of the barrel, same threaded bolt idea to keep it as air tight as possible. (no doubt these threaded things will rust up and be hard to rotate
if not lubed good periodically ).
...I didn't get any pictures, and its raining out there at the moment so it can wait till another time.
...on a scale of 1~10 the burner is at 9.5 at being done now.... I will line the bottom with fire brick if I can find enough of them... and after its all painted it should be good to go!
...the cyclone filter is big and ugly but should get all the big particles out of the smoke... and it is done , all but the silicone sealant on the can.
so One last filter needs to be made, the "fine filter" and sense I am making a "water filter" it should double as a cooler as well...
then its putting it in the bed of the truck....and the fun part starts trying to get it to run!
 
...
Bob....

[Bob]

here's a drawing of the Woodgas generator... or as I have in mind.
...this is what I have so far... all but the "Grate Shaker" lever on the side... and the wood hopper top is a bit iffy at the moment...
Bob.....

[Bob]

Here is a Exploded view (well some what) of the Woodgas generator.
...
Bob.

[Bob]

In the Pic above, the red and silver tube with the lid on the top go into the 55 gal drum to the left of it and it is assembled.
...
its very easy to see where the trailer rim is (red part) this rim a 14" rim I believe was a trailer rim that has no center flange for the lug nuts to attach the rim with, so it was easier to modify for the purpose intended... to reduce the size of the 14" diam tube, to choke it down slightly to increase the heat of the burn area.... 1/2" holes were drilled on the underside of the rims center protrusion for the added outside air to inter the burn chamber I think I drilled 19 holes but not positive, they are evenly spaced about 2.5" apart.
a 4"wide piece of the propane tank was used to inclose the metal of the rim to alow air to go directly to the holes from outside, so its a rim that is covered with a steel ring and welded up air tight all except the 2" pipe connection that the out side air tube plugs into.
...
 Every where I read was the overlying idea that the dimensions are NOT critical at all... and you can change stuff quite a bit and get away with it simply because its not that difficult to produce large amounts of SMOKE... if you try to !...and that is what a Woodgas generator is supposed to do !
... the Grate is patterned after a known working design but I suspect that it won't last very long... ( a stainless steel bowl on chains? not very high tech at all!)...(I left out the 1/2" holes in the stainless steel bowl for clarity...)
 but as long as it works ! HAHAHAHA
...
the ignition holes usually located on the side of the Barrel were omitted in favor of a large Ash Door for easy clean-out... and it makes for easy lighting of the fire as well !
...
the Ash door was the hardest thing to fabricate, and I made it from the propane tank scraps I had left from cutting the 25gal/100lb tank up... ( filled it with water then drilled holes and made a slot and cut the top off with a reciprocating saw.)
...
the ash Door Latch is not complicated at all, it simply consists of a bolt threaded through a nut that is welded to the door each end of the bolt has steel bars welded to it, one long for the latch handle the other short for the latch itself, which rests on a pie shaped piece of scrap metal welded to the ash door frame. the latch bar is then wedged in the ramp of the pie shaped piece and holds the door closed very securely.
...additionally, the latch tightness can be adjusted by simply rotating the handle 360deg to make the bolt go in or out to tighten the latch.
...
the "Grate Shaker" will be of the same construction as the ash door latch/handle with a bolt and welded nut to a plate which is bolted to the 55 gal drum,its handle will extend up about 8" and the inside rod will simply stick through a hole in the stainless steel bowl ... giving you a handle to shake the bowl with...... and sense the pivot is through a nut/bolt combination
air leakage should be very minimal.
...
Bob....

[Bob]

Capacity !
 According to the FEMA instructions the 14" diam propane tank will have enough capacity to
burn enough wood/make enough smoke to run My 318C.i.d. v8 in the O'l 1968 Dodge pickup...
this truck has a automatic transition in it so keeping the rpm UP is a normal thing with it anyway...which happens to be one of the requirements of running on woodgas, so its well suited for the job.
 the Changing of the burner may indeed cause problems with the producers "Capacity" but if I run into a capacity problem it should be under heavy loads or at freeway speeds... either of which I plan to do very little with the truck...more than likely I will never licenses it anyway so it will be used for a dump-truck around the ranch !LOL
Although 4" piping should be used on the entire project I don't happen to have any 4" pipe at all so I am using what I have and that is 3"I.D. pipe .
I found a bunch of flexible ducting at the hardware store in 3"-3.5"-4"and 6" and its connection method is with simple hose clamps... I might give it a try...
However I do not know if it can handle -20PSI of vacuum
and in fact I doubt that it could... so I may well make My own bends out of the 3" tubing that I have..... or buy 3" flexible exhaust pipe at $40.00 a pop !
the 3" pipe I have on hand is equivalent to 3" chain-link fence posts fairly thin walled but they make great exhaust pipes... at one time I had almost a ton of those 4ft long 3" pipes
but I have gone through them over the years making stuff ! LOL so I may need to buy some chain-link fencing posts or large conduit if I can find it that big!
...
Bob...

[Bob]

I put the "Grate Shaker" in yesterday and put some High heat silicone on the mating surface of the ash door....
and this morning I tried it out and its worse that way than without the silicone! it bends the door more
and opens the gap instead of sealing it off !...
... So...I'll scrape it all off and try again but this time CLOSE the door while its wet and let it dry then take a razor blade and cut open the door after it dries and see if that works!....
if that don't work I will have to invest in the "Asbestos rope and furnace glue"...
...
I found a perfect can for the fine filter.... its an old shop vac canaster! ... I have a lid that fits it great and the hole in the side is ok because I can make the 3" pipe connection through it !
... so that should work real good!
....
I think I will just make a wood chip filter for the fine filter though...because the water filter is getting complicated... I figured out that it probably does need a spray nozzle and a pump in side the can in order to do any good... so ...fooie on that I'll just fill the can with wood chips from the shredder and do it that way... 
 I'll make a strong screen stand off on the bottom of the can, and run a pipe up the side to the side inlet... the Outlet will be in the lid ,as well as the BLOWER fan..... so when the blower is turned on it will have to suck through the wood chips....and push it to the engine...
my "Gas test Outlet" will be behind a valve somewhere up front near the engine!
... so I can get it all going and light the pipe and see if it burns good...then turn it off and start the engine.
...
Bob........

 

[Bob]

I came up with a better idea on the ash door Silicone.... I'll black tape the 55gal drum side of the door where the silicone will touch.... and wire brush the door side good...so the silicone sticks good to it.... close the door and fill the crack with the high temp silicone and let it dry real good...
... sense I can adjust the door tightness by moving the latch in and out (sense its a bolt through a welded on nut) i'll loosen the latch one turn... that way I can tighten it more easier after the silicone dries... this way I should be able to open the door after the silicone dries and take the black tape off... as it will only stick togather as well as the black tape does.....
then with the door open I can take the tape off the silicone and then close the door and have it all sealed up nice and purdy !.... well in theory ! LOL
...
Bob....

[Bob]

tried the door thing... it worked some what but the door is so long that it is flexing a good 1/8" to 1/4" when latched tightly... so I may have to run a extra set of locking spurs like on a watertight door on a battleship to get it to seal up....
dunno yet.
....
I got the FINE filter done about 5 minutes ago, the blower is on the lid and the setup is ready to be used... all but a screen for the top of the woodchips(filter meterial)...but that is minor.
...I couldn't find my pop rivit gun...so I drilled small holes and sewed it togather with wire! LOL
... it works !... nice and sturdy and I siliconed the gaps and holes all up so it shouldn't leak much...even if it does its ok....<grin>
...

So the last thing I have to do now is fix that darn ash door...all the rest of the components are done!...then its time to install it on the truck !
...that should be fun ! LOL

Bob....

[Tink]

Sounds like you are getting there! It's going to be intesesting to see the final results. I'm following this with exuberant anticipation!

I'm building the dump load for my wind turbine. I'm using 6 of the Ohmite C300KR50E resistors for a heating element wired series and parellel to give me 1850 watts (24 volts) at full blast. I don't know how hot this thing is going to get so I'm at a loss as to what wire I can use to wire it up with. Someone local said I should use kiln wire. I've mounted the resistors in a 'main box' that I gutted out. I don't know if it will get hot enough to fry the gray paint on the box or not. Included is a photo of the box with resistors mounted. I'm wondering if I'll need a shield mounted behind the resistors. Where can I get kiln wire?

Any suggestions?

Tink

[Bob]

Howdy Tink !
Looking good there buddy !
I don't think you need special wire for that at all.... all you need is some wire that can handle 2500watts continuously...and #8~#6 multi stranded wire can do that for ya....
I have a 5000watt electric heater that if ran on full blast will melt the plug in and its just number 10 zipcord plug in... so #8 should be more than ample for ya.
1800watts is allot of heat it will probably cook the paint off the box after a few hrs run.......ya could paint it with High heat exhaust paint...but ya gott'a get the old paint off first !....
sand blast it or toss it in a bon fire ! LOL...whats a bit of warpage eh ?
...
yah my woodgas producer is getting real close to trying it out !  I can hardly wait ! LOL
...
Bob........

[Tink]

Bob,
Great advice as allways. I'll burn off the old paint, good idea.
Tink

[Bob]

with a torch I can see doing , but don't toss it in a bon fire like I said ! LOL it will not only eat the metal a great deal but warp it all over the place !...
 but a propane torch will make quick work of that metal box... that and a puddy knife !
...
seriously.... 1800~2000watts isn't that much... the MED. setting on my one of my electric heaters is 1850watts if I remember right... it has a heavier cord on it but it is still the Zip cord and molded in plug that is standard these days... and it can run on MED 24/7 with no problem put it on high and it will eventually melt the plug....my guess is its a #10 multi stranded copper wire.
... I've got to the point when I buy electric heaters I look at the cords first! if their lamp cords I don't bother buying it no matter how cheap it is ! ( unless I plan on replacing the cord!) <LOL>
that heater would heat our "office" in Shingletown in the winter and that took a great deal of heat
...you could keep your hand directly infront of the heating coils and not get burned they did not turn cherry red on Med, setting....fan forced though that is allot of heat!
so that should give you an idea on how much heat your dealing with.... don't use anything that will melt... because it will!....but it shouldn't glow in the dark either! LOL
...
  Oh ...do your paint burning OUTSIDE the SHOP ! or your neighbors will call the fire dpt. on ya !
and you could asphyxiate yourself on the fumes!
 and be prepaired to make a MESS the paint on those boxes is thick!...
....
fire up your Hydroxy torch and go for it Tink ! LOL
...
Bob......

[Bob]

On that long Ash door of the Wood gas Producer....
...
I figured out a 2ndary latch for the center of the long ash door.... and plan on attaching it today
... if it works as I plan it will "suck up" the center of the door nice and tight to the Door frame
and be attached to the single lever so its easy to open and close... but we'll see... I may have to make it a separate latch handle.
...
the 2ndary latch is simply a 1/4" thick hunk of 1.5"angle iron about 8" long or so...(wide enough to match the width of the ash door).   I drilled a 1/2" hole in the center of one side of the angle
which will be its Pivot point , the idea is to weld a nut on the door and a bolt into the hole on the
hunk of angle iron...thread the bolt into the nut and get it close and then, while holding the door closed turn the latch handle which will be attached to the angle iron through a threaded rod for fine adjustment... if that doesn't work I will just put a "T" on the bolt going through the nut and use the "T" as the lever to close the latch on the 2ndary latch.... I may do that as its easier than trying to get the 2 latches to work at once. (and that is not really necessary.)
the edge of the angle iron has a slope ground into it to help get into position ..if need be I can add a short piece of metal as a ramp to ease latching on the door frame....
indents will be made by a spot weld... a bump of metal to hold the latch in its position.
....
Bob......

[Bob]

Well, the 2ndary latch works... and I painted over the old paint...so it'll probably peal off and look like Hell after the first burn ! LOL !
but all the cans are black except the Hopper and  its ugly enough on its own <GRIN>
...
I'll try and get a few pictures posted on the 3 major components before I start mounting them in the truck.
....
Bob....

[Bob]

Ahem... NOTE to Self: When trying to enlarge a barrel rim bang from the inside towards the OUTSIDE...not the outside towards the inside... I don't care if your holding a backing bar or not!
....
 Well, I got the 55gal Drum rim to fit the lid that was about 1/2" to big to fit... I banged on it for 2 days from the out side towards the inside thinking it didn't matter because I was holding a bigger hammer as a backing bar on the other side of the rim to squish the metal real good....well I stepped back and looked at the rim and it was indeed starting to widen out... and it dawned on me if its Widening out why not HIT IT IN THAT DIRECTION ! (DUMMY!) ... so I did...and in one pass around the rim the lid fit like a glove !  .... LOL !... DUH ! wish I'ed have thought of that 2 days ago ! HAHAHAHA
.... oh well.  Live and learn !
....
some times I'm just not too bright !  HEHEHEHEHE
...
Bob.....

 

[Tink]

Hay, we can't be all smart all the time! Anyway I'm glad to see you are making progress.

I got some real good paint remover and got all the paint off that box with the help of a wire brush attachment for the hand drill. I painted it all black with 1200 degree stove pipe spray paint and it looks nice. I'm taking the advice of a guy at the forcefield.com fourm. It seams I was mislead in the wiring of the 300watt resistors and actually need to get 2 more but at 1 ohm each. The seller of the .5 ohm resistors did his math at 24 volts and I need this thing to tolerate 29volts so I would have been dumping way over the allowed amount of watts to those resistors. Now I'll have 3 strings the 3rd string being 2 of the 1 ohm 300 watt and the first 2 strings being 3 each of the .5 ohm 300watt resistors. This works out to 1534 total watts at 28volts and 53amps. The other way I would have been dumping 84amps and my C-60 dirversion controler would have been way unsafe. I'll post pictures when I get it wired up.

I really want to see your gassifier working. Please post more photos.
Tink

[Bob]

Tink...
 those numbers don't sound right to me for some reason.....
lets see.... P=IxE....53x28=1484watts
(((I=53amps)x(E=28volts)=1484Watts))
now to get the Resistance, E=IXR...flip flop around the formula via Algebra and you should have R=I/E....which means 53amps/28v=1.8928 ohms
so the needed resistance is 1.89ohms.... round that off to 2 ohms for simplicity's sake... sense we want some BREATHING ROOM so the resistors last a long time and don't run at max wattage tollerance all the time, we should give the wattage a good 25% margin...(1484x.25=371)... so add 371 to the 1484 and you have....1855.... personally I'ed round that off to 2000 watts and not have to worry about it...

so if you want 2000 watts of disipation and have 300watt resistors you hook them in parallel.... and go by the formula...ResistanceTotal=1/R1+R2+R3+R4+R5+R6....
so if we go for 2.0 Ohms but want 2000watts we need the number of resisters that will add up to 2000watts first.... 2000/300w= 6.666 sense we don't get 1/2 resistors and 6 is an even number we will loose 200watts from the 2000watt target...or 1800watts with 6-300watt resisters in parallel.
this is because wattage will add up in parallel....
.....
However... try as I might I can't get down to 2ohms of resistance with any values I've tried.... the closest I've got was 4.5ohms with using 6~ .5 Ohm resisters in parallel....(2.5ohms higher than it should be)...
....Yes I discovered I could get it to 2ohms by changing the value of 2 of the resisters other than .5 ohms BUT that will mess up the WORKS and cause the wattage to not be evenly devided among the resistors...working a few much harder than their tollerances....
....
I'm not sure I understand what your doing there Tink...but I do know when you make a ballast resistor the value of the resistors should be ALL the same...
other wise the ones that are higher in resistance will do more work than the others and over heat...
what values of resisters do you have now and how are they hooked up ?
and WHY are you dumping the power into them? ....dump the power into a light bulb ! LOL
.... won't you burn out the coils on your wind generator by dumping all that power directly into ground ? wouldn't it be safer to have an "Idle light" so you can tell its working ? ...er something  hehehehe I dunno what your doing !
...
Good luck Tink ! I think ya need it ! 
(I'll get those photos in a minute or two)
...
Bob.......

[Bob]

ok here are a few Pic's of the woodgas generator and filters so far...
Bob...
the first pic is of the Ash door and the levers,from right to left, they are the 2ndary latch, lain door latch, and grate shaker on the far left....
the small 1.25" pipe protrudeing from the side is the fire-ring air supply.
...
the 2nd pic is the full view of the wood gas producer itself... the "Wood Hopper"
is mounted on top of the fire box.... if you look close you can see day-light through rust holes in the hopper ! ACK !!!!
Bob....

[Bob]

and 2 more...
 1st pic is of the Cyclone filter (shown before)
...
2nd pic is the inside of the "Fine filter", the screen on the bottom holds the wood shavings off the bottom so the SMOKE can come in the side and down the tube to the bottom of the can, the Smoke then is pulled through the wood-chips/shavings and out the top.
which is laying on the ground next to the filter so you can see how the fan is mounted.
...
Bob....

[Bob]

and the final 2:
...
top Pic is of the "Fine Filter" with the Fan/lid on the top of the filter.
...
bottom pic is a close up of the door latches... UGLY but functional!
both latches can rotate because they thread through a welded on Nut...
this reduces air leaks to almost nothing. and it also makes the tightness of the latches adjustable...which is very handy in making it a good snug fitting door!
...
Bob...

[Bob]

Now I'm in the process of setting it up to test it...
I'll burn a small amount of wood and run the 2 filters in line and operate the fan to see if the gas that comes out is burnable !  when I do this I'll take some Pics !
......However I will have to make up my connection piping so its libel to take a few days...LOL

...
Bob...

[Tink]

Bob,
I'm making a DC heater that will be mounted on my bathroom wall. Nobody uses lightbulbs anymore since they can burn out and leave your windmill to overcharge the battery. The guy I bought the original .5 ohm 300 watt resistors from did the math at 24 volts and the guy at forcefield.com pointed out to me that I need to start dumping (diverting) at 29volts so the 6 in parrellel at 24 volts would have given the 1850watts but the amps would be 87. Too high for my C60 Xantrex controller set for dirversion load. So By using the 6 300 watt half ohm resistors in 2 strings of 3 and adding another 2 resistor string of 300 watt at 1 ohm rating will give me 38.5 amps and 14.5 amps respectively to total 53 amps that is quite in the range of my C60 and the windmill is rated at 1000watts and will go to 1500watts at 28mph wind before it furles and then kicks back to around 800 to 900 watts. My wattage with this arrangement is 1525 watts and that is good too! At 29volts the 6 half ohm resistors will receive a wattage of 184 watts each and the set of 1 ohm resistors will receive a wattage of 210 watts each . So I won't be overwirking any of the 300 watt resistors and still get the 1525 total watts and 53 amps, both values within range of my windmill and the diversion controller. And the thing should put off a bit of heat to warm my bathroom, that is when the wind is blowing!
Tink

[Bob]

Ahhh I see doing a Double duity thing  ! COOL !
I didn't do any figureing with more than one parallel bank so I'll have to go by what ya say, sounds like you have it figured out good enough ! <GRIN>
glad that you calculated the wattage at each resistor when you have diferent values on a few...thats important !
....
  Is that wind mill there yet ?  I'm wondering if its one of those that the coils are hand wound and stationary on a disk and the magnets fly by because they are on a disk attached to the prop...or not.
I've seen pictures and watched a short program where a fella showed 2 yungin's how to make one and it was very interesting, but they didn't give enough info to spit at!... the fella did mention that the new magnets were the new magnets that are about 10 times as strong as the old standard ones...
...(Rare Earth Magnets... maybe?)
that method looked far superior to turning a car alternator... by far ! LOL  the turning resistance is
reduced to only over coming the magnetic fields and that is just what you want !  no wasted power at all. ( the power it takes to turn the bearing shaft can be so small as to not be worth mentioning!)
........
hang in there Tink you'll get it !
...
Bob......

[Bob]

Tink...!
 you said....(and I quote)"So By using the 6 300 watt half ohm resistors in 2 strings of 3 and adding another 2 resistor string of 300 watt at 1 ohm rating"

thats a parallel/series circuit if I understand you correctly... 3 resistors in series of .5 ohms makes 1.5ohms  their wattage is divided by their number so 300watts /3 = 100watts ( am I right or wrong here?)
with 2 such strings of .5ohm resistors in parallel you'ed have 2.167ohms
but only have 200watts ( in parallel the wattage adds up)
...and adding the last 2 resister string (series)of 1ohm each makes 2ohms at 150watts....
put that in parallel with the other 2 Strings 1/R1+R2=2.461ohms but at 350watts
....
the ohms seams right to me but the wattage is all messed up.... what am I doing wrong ?
...
Bob......

[Tink]

Bob,
You got it...it is the Axial Flux Windmill. Here is the link to my posts there at their fourm.

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2009/10/23/7492/5750

Haven't got word yet as to it shipping but should be any day now. I wanted to get the first one in their complete kit form so I can get a good bead on the construction. This way All I'll have to do is put a finish on the blades and balance them and then make the tail and fly it. All the electronics are done and the dump load/diversion is all but wired up. I'll be posting photos as I continue. I gotta go over the math again to get it straight in my head then I'll explain it.

[Bob]

thanks Tink !
Looks like your getting some good advice from those guys !
Helps to chat with people that are doing the same thing ...that's for sure !
....
I havn't looked at my Radio Amiture Handbook in years...thats where I have all my notes on electronics... scribbled along the border and things underlined... Kind'a like a bible  !
...
I cut down about 30 trees in the last week and bucked them up, but the nasty brush from those live oak
trees is really nasty... their about the meanest stickyiest leaves I've ever seen! LOL
...but I did make a path to the old Logging road by the top of the pond from the house... if I can ever get all the brush burned up I'll have a nice path to the pond from the house...something that hasn't been there sense I was a Kid !   in 20 years the brush has grown to be 4"diamator on the small ones and 6"diam on the larger ones.... I guess I shouldn't complain as its all free fire wood ! LOL
....
I came home with a new chain for the chain saw yesterday Morning and put it on the chainsaw and went to cutting brush... one of the bigger trees I fell was hung in the top of a smaller one  so I was cutting it down and thinking " you know that tree might Kick back with all that pressure on it---OUCH!" ... yep it did... pushed the saw right into my leg so I dropped everything and did a quick check thinking I might be leaking purdy bad... but only 2 teeth cought me so I was very lucky
but not quite fast enough thinking to have avoided the ouchie in the first place!....
kind'a makes ya feel like an Idiot... I've used chainsaws and all that stuff all my life and never drew blood on my leg before.... but I guess the odds finally caught up with me... sure am glad I let off the throttle when I was thinking about that kickback ! because it did kick back about 3 feet all at once right then ! ... no warning at all.... hehehehehe
....excitement at the Ranch ! weeeee
...
Bob......

[Tink]

Those kinda of trees we call Widowmakers.

Your lucky to have a home base like that. Last March I went back to my home town and it is wierd how everything has changed so much over that past 40 years. Some landmarks I didn't even reconize. I knew what they were but they wern't how I remembered them. Maby I stepped into a parallel reality. But my sister and other relitaves have been there all along so It must be my mind that changed too. My preception of it all I mean.

O well, I do think these guys at forcefield.com are perty knowlageable about everything to do with windmills. This design all started with Hugh Piggot in Schotland and he is still doing workshops and is real active in the windmill homebrew community. I wish I had mine flying today because we are getting sustained 16mph winds and gusts to 38mph and that is at only 10 feet off the ground. It is more at the 40 foot level where my windmill will be. I was studying those photos you posted and it looks like you are coming along at a steady pace with that gassifier.

Be carefull with that chainsaw Bob,
Tink

[Bob]

Ack ! Flat tire on the tractor !
  I was putting gravel on the road in a few bad spots and sense I was there i drug some brush to the brush pile.... and then moved a log that had fallen close to the road... when I did that the tractor slumped to the ground in a wounded pose and squirted water all over the place.... (step dad filled all the tires with water fer added weight !) boy...driveing back was HARD with a flat tire...I could barely keep it going stright! LOL
 but I got the tire off this morn and am in the proccess of taking the tire off the rim, got it broke down finally... (sure glad I moved my home made tire machine....when I moved down from the mountian !)
...
  I consider myself a very safe worker, considering all the dangerous things I do <GRIN> and I Know how mean a chainsaw can be when it comes in contact with flesh... My Step Dad had a small McCullic chainsaw kick back on him ( before they put gards on the nose of the bars) and he barely got the left hand in front of his face in time... he was a mess.... went to the Doc on that one and was in bandades for months... I  still dunno how he missed tendons and arties but he did !
thats what ya get when you use a chainsaw with one hand ! .... I told him not to do it that way but he was a hard head ! ...sure enough it bit him good.... never used a chainsaw again after that... and that made Mom and I very happy ! LOL
 But I have fallen with chainsaws running, fell trees on myself (small ones!) and in general done just about anything with a chainsaw that you can do and just about everything your not supposed to do with them too <GRIN> if you don't respect that chainsaw it will bite you...their not toys their tools!
and like any tool can be deadly !
... the worst I think I ever did to myself was with the drill press... gloved hands ( a no-no!)
and in the slowest setting it has...Lots'a Power! it wrapped me up so fast it was unreal... it would have removed my right arm if the glove on my hand hadn't came off.... I'll never make that mistake again!.... it literally threw me against the wall faster than you can spit....I'm 200lbs ! and it tossed me like a rag doll so fast it was unreal...I found myself wrapped around the drill press with it still on. and in extream pain... and not able to reach the off switch.... I finally extricated myself from the beast, and turned it off.... went in the house to check for damages... and only had a few minor cuts and a bunch of bruses.... but buddy I'll never try to brush off shavings with gloved hands again..... I have a brush hanging on the drill for that now!
.... I hear tell that my lathe can do the same thing and I don't doubt it one bit.... that would definitely be nasty!
...
Bob......

[Bob]

Hay Tink !
the Planet Mechanics in the episode"Water wars"  Jem makes a wind generator...
its quite interesting watch it if ya get the chance !
...
Bob....

[Tink]

What channel is that on?

I've been lucky only ever had a bunch of bubbling greese from huge prime rib w/bone on fall to the floor as I took it out of the oven using linen napkins cause the darn Rattison Plaza I was cooking at didn't have enough pot holder type things to work with, well all that greese came right  up in my face. Luckyly a guy I was working with grabed me and draged me into the chef's office and smeared neo-sporen all over my face as someoneelse called a taxie to rush me to the hospital where the doc. told me I was lucky to have a face left at all. I recovered without any scares thanks to the quick efforts of that cook who grabed me. Kitchen work can be danegerous. We used to cut up frozen beef livers on a band saw and we'd come out of that looking like Friday the 13th with blood all over us, just the nature of the job, we never got hurt just real messy and would freak people out who happened to walk through the kitchen if they didn't know what was going on. We had a lot of fun with that.

O well I'm still waiting for the arrival of my wind turbine.
Tink

[Bob]

um planet green (PLGN<HD>)...ch 286 ... if your running the same Direct TV as I am.... if its another provider I think its a different channel....same program though ! (comes on tuesdays I think !)

...
I don't like burns.... they hurt ! I did as my Dad asked once and grabbed the end of a piece of angle iron he Just cut off with the cutting torch.... Man that really hurt... hand even tried to curl up...
we put the last of the A&D Ointment that we had at the house on it and wrapped it up.... blisters formed all over the hand and  looked real bad the next day... but after 3 days it was looking real good... its funny because I grabbed it and thought "man that's slick" and really squeezed it good so I wouldn't drop it ...about then is when the pain hit and I dropped it, and let out a Hoot !
about that time Dad realized what had happened and really felt bad about it !
...
out of all the injuries I've had in my life none compare to my Kid sliding her leg along a bob wire fence the distance between the fence posts.... Man that was bad ! ,,,clear to the bone in a thousand slices.... almost made dear o'l Dad faint ! LOL... never seen flesh shredded like that before !... and don't wann'a see it again ! HAHAHHAHA
...
 I used to ware my wedding band 24/7... Kind'a proud of it actually... I got a good wife !, but I quit that when I made contact through the ring and the arc welder.... instantaneous red hot ring! and it stuck to the welding rod to aggravate the problem ! hehehehehehe took months to heal up ! LOL
... I'm not a fan of jewelry now... HAHAHAH
...
Bob...

[Tink]

I did lay my motocycle exhaust down on my foot one day and we smeared butter all over it. Butter works great. It did swell up for a day or two but I diddn't have to go to the doc. It's amazing how fragile our boddies are and how resiliant they can be.
Tink

[Tink]

Bob,
Here is the calculations for the CD dump/heater. If it is too un-readable let me know and I'll clean it up and send again. It's just a simple parrell/series curcit using 2 strings of .5 ohm and 1 string of 1 ohm resistors. They are all rated at 12 volt and 300 watt. This gives me a total of 1541.64 watts and 53.16 amps at 29 volts. Since the input can range from 0 to 29 volts and the wind turbine should never go above 1200 watts if I have it adjusted correctly then this arrangement should work fine. Also my dirversion load controller is rated at 60 amps.

ps. my file size is too large for that attachment....sorry, I'll try something else later.
Tink

[Bob]

No problem tink... I was just going to proof read your work for ya is all. <GRIN>
...
 Well I welded the Cyclone filter to the Main burner's exit pipe... figureing its better that way, short and compact rather than a possably leaky connection.
...I made the hookups for the bottom of the cyclone filters "clean out bucket"...
its held on my 3 bolts now.... just needs siliconed and its good to go.
...I had to make up a support bracket for the side of the filter to attach to the side of the main burner ...for added support... still wiggles a bit so I may add another bracket.
....
 I've been busy falling trees and bucking them up lately.... seams like I can't cut a single tree down before the saw tries to cut in a tight turn... I've filed the teeth on the chain less agressive and that has helped some... but its still giving me fits... time for a new bar I guess !(this one ain't that OLD though!)
I got a big clump of trees and brush out of the pasture that has been bugging me
and soon as the brush pile is burned it will open up another 200ft to the pasture
... its getting longer now...but I still dunno if its going to be long enough to take off in my gyrocopter or not ! LOL...but thats the plan !
...maybe I'll turn the gyrocopter into a Helicopter and take off vertically instead ! HAHAHA (been giving that serious thought lately !) if I had a good 40hp 90deg. gear box handy I'd probably make that my next project !
...
I tried to start the O'l Dodge today and get it moved over to the work area where the Wood gas stuff is... but the electric fuel pump just sucked air ! ....and I'm sure I parked it with a full tank....maybe I siphoned out more than I thought for the tractor ! LOL !
any hoo.... got the Woodgas thing ready to go in the bed of the truck... I'll have to make my own pipeing from the cyclone filter to the fine filter.. and then from the fine filter to the engine... thats lible to take me weeks to proform but its only going to cost me welding rod ! LOL !
.... then I get to make the carberator fer the thing...
I was considering making it able to run on duel fuel... gasoline as well as woodgas....by pipeing the smoke directly into the carberators intake and "T" to the air filter and butterfly, and on the other side a butterfly to the Smoke...
I might be able to get away with using the carberators butterflys as the smoke regulator and do away with the extra butterfly...
....
the main thing is that I have a way to control the fuel /air mixture of the smoke  and I could do that with the butterfly to the air filter....
...just leave it open completely for running on gas.... but I think it'ed be better to have a way to shut off the smoke if I want to .
....
Bob.......
 


 

 

[Bob]

the more I think on the problem the more I am sure I need 2 tight fitting 3" butterfly valves...
brass ball valves are out because they are too hard to turn on and off......
but I think one of the valves (the one controlling the smoke from the Woodgas generator) will have a ON /off function.... if I pipe it all directly into the throat of the existing carburetor... because I can just use the existing carburetor as the butterfly that control acceleration, the other butterfly for the Air Mixture (usually set at a 1:1 mix) will be periodically adjusted for optimum running.
while the existing throttle will double as the other butterfly and also allow me to have a duel fuel truck....
 sounds fairly easy to accomplish .but I'll see when I make it !
LOL
...
Bob.......

[Bob]

ok I made a drawing of my setup, (simple so its easy to understand whats going on)
it gets the idea accross, but I doubt I'll win any artistic awards LOL !
I have everything ready to go into the back of the truck but havn't got the gas to move the beasty to the work area yet.... (there is alwayse something to slow down the works !)
...
LOL anyway , heres the pic.
Bob.......

[Bob]

today I got one thing done on the Woodgas Project and that was cutting the 3" pipe to 22.5degrees angles ,8 pieces, so I can make the slow curves needed to attach to the fine filter.
I buffed them all up on the wire wheel and cleaned them up good, held them in place with my hands to check the fit...and they'll work fine.... I'll weld them up in the next few days.
...
did a variety of other things, cut down 2 trees and bucked them up and hauled in the fire wood, worked a bit on the spa, getting it ready, added a bit more water to it too.
other than that I didn't accomplish much ! HEHEHEHE its weekend !
....
Bob....

[Bob]

Well.... I got the truck moved,running on its own,and backed into the spot so I could load the Woodgas generator in it....
so....I'm making progress !
here's a pic.
...
Bob......

[Lee Hazleton]

Look out, Beverly Hillbillies! Bob, ya gonna mount a rocking chair on the back for Granny to sit in?

[Bob]

LOL ! Well no... granny will have to set on the roof because the rest of the back is for Wood Fuel !
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
...
I wish I had an O'l Model "T" to do this to... that'ed be super sweet!
I'd have to dig out my overalls and find my dirty cap, but it'd be a Priceless Picture No Doubt!!!!
....
I'ed like to add a Pitcher pump on the back somewhere and a waggon wheel,and have an axe stuck in a log round in the back for good measure though.... it'ed give it a certain flare "don't cha'know!" LOL!

...and would you believe my wife told me ...."I hate to tell ya this dear....but its UGLY!"
(that Gal don't know ART when she sees it !) LOL!
....
what will impress me is when it runs with NO GASOLINE! I moved it up the rise and turned around and backed down the hill and probably used up 1/2 gallon of gas doing just that ! sheez!
taint even fair!
....
 I'd never have thought 2 years ago that I'd be making a woodgas generator today... but if the price of gas gets to $5.00 a gallon, you can bet I'll Licenses that truck !  HAHAHAHA!
...
Bob......

[Lee Hazleton]

Bob,
 That is really so cool. I sincerely hope that when you get it all done you'll take videos!

[Bob]

Pics Yah, Video No... (No Digital Movie camera here...)HEHE.
it will be as good as the Wood Lasts in it.... if it goes through too much wood it will be very difficult to justify the work to power the truck ! even if it is FREE!... LOL!
...
in my research I found that a 6cyl truck went all over Australia burning wood and it would go about 60
to as much as 80miles per fill up of wood....
this truck is slightly bigger than that 6cyl so I expect a somewhat worst performance... but if I can get 50 miles to 75 miles per hopper fill-up that should be a fair trade !...
 As long as I'm here on this 20 acres there should be enough wood to power the WoodGas burner...
but if Push comes to shove and Gas goes to $4.00a gallon or higher I can buy Wood pellets and save money on that ! (their $6.00 a 40lb bag now.)  I am guessing but a bag of Pellets should be equivalent to about 2~3 gallons of gasoline.
... I have a Wood Chipper that devourers branches and stuff and that would work as well... come to that I could probably buy a Dump truck of wood chips from the county fairly cheap !
...but that's about the extent of the flexibility my Woodgas Burner has... it needs WOOD of some sort
I doubt Straw or rice husks will work very well...though it might!
...
Bob.....

[Tink]

Bob,
Maby you can burn corn cobs in that thing. In the mid west there a lot of corn cob stoves. Some burn pellets and corn cobs. But either way if the day should ever come that gas is unattainable you'll be able to get around burning something. I really waiting with exuberant anticipation to see how this works for you.
Tink

ps. I just loaded Firefox and it really speeds up my slow machine! Even does a spell checker in these posts automatically, not that you'd ever considering using one though. hehehe

Tink

[Bob]

Now Corn Cobs should work good ! but the only ones I have around here is from the dinner table !
and that may take a while to get a 55 gal drum full ! LOL !
...
HAY ! I use Firefox all the time ... and its Spell checker !  but the problem is it gives ya a LIST of possable words that you may mean.... so I go enemi, meenie, miney, Moe ! and choose that one...it ain't my fault Firefox is WRONG !   LOL !
....
hehehehe
anyway its been raining here for 2 days straight now... not real hard just a drizzle at times, but enough to dampen my enthusiasm of going out in it and working on the Woodgas generator!...I figure it can wait fer better weather! HAHAHAHAHA!
...
did your Wind turbine come in yet Tink ?
if so Post a pic or 3 !
....
Bob......

[Bob]

Actually Right now I am contemplateing the placement of the burner and the filters in the back of the truck, its going to be a tight fit and I don't wann'a have to cut more than one hole in the bed to get the gas to the engine !...( as rusty as it is its no real loss if I have to but still ! ).
...the distance from the Cyclone filter to the fine filter is critical for a good fit. so I am making up the curves in the pipe and leaving extra room on the length so I can get it spot on without any problem. on the last pic I posted you can see the clamp I made up that's on the fine filter (that's the can with the fan on it). I'll have to make up another one to attach the next pipe because I don't want to weld this on, so I can clean it out in the future.
 it will go from the bent top pipe on the cyclone filter down to the Side of the fine filter... and both connections have to be air tight.... what I figure I'll do is clamp them and then seal them with high temp silicone.
...
the output from the fine filter (on the blower fan) will go down through the bed of the truck take a 90 degree turn and go up along the frame rail to the side of the engine then UP to the level of the top of the carburetor, and then to the carb... I'll use flexible line for this part sense the vibration is so bad on a running engine,and I have a piece of 2.5" flexible exhaust pipe about 3ft long which will work great for that.  then to the butter-flys and down the throat of the carburetor !
...
the test port will be a 1" or 2" pipe welded on to the pipe exiting the fine filter, I'll just put a threaded cap on it as I doubt I'll have it on and off all that much....if I can find a LARGE VALVE I might throw it on there instead... to make testing of the gas easier.
...
other than that,... I am gaining on it !
 I have found that on any project I tackel no matter how big, if I do something on it each day eventually it gets done... when I stop doing that no progress is made at all.
 (my Gyro sits and waits!  Aurgh!)
....
 I may tackle building a House from the ground up in the near future, so My Sis can have this place.
if I do I will attack it the same way I do all my projects, hot and heavy at first, and as the enthusiasm wares off, one day at a time !
 I really don't Want to build a House...but it may well be the only way I can afford one !
hehehe (I seriously doubt I can afford the building permits in this stupid county! so I'll start small and Add ON later !)
...
I still want to get a 100% Hydroxy engine running down the road...so I can laugh at the gas prices!
but some how I think the State would stomp on me if I do (I have no faith in them!) so if I do, I am not going to tell them unless there is no other way ! ( like passing the SMOG test ?)
...its like "of course its Modified you idiot,... it doesn't need gasoline !"  DUH!
but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it !
...
Bob.......

[Tink]

The turbine did arrive and I'm putting a finish on the wooden blades and hub so It'll be a few days or a week till I get it flying. I made the tower stub the wrong size and have to get a 17 inch piece of the right size sch. 40 pipe to fix that and a ring to sit over that and between the yaw bearing. Then it is just balancing the blades and mounting the turbine on the tower and raising it. I'm really glad I bought this 1st one assembled since now I can see what this is supposed to look like. I'll attempt to make the next one from scratch depending how much time I have to get it done. This one took 3 months to get. These guys do excellent work and their welding is unmatched, not to mention the workmanship on the blades is exceptional. But since it takes so long to get one I'll probably have to make the next one from the ground up. i'll post photos along the way. there is a local guy here who makes wind turbines from car alternators but they don't even compair to these Axial Flux machines. His are much cheaper though and of good quality, just not what I wanted.
Tink

[Bob]

Tink:
 I dunno what kind of instructions you have on getting those blades ballanced ...BUT
if you weigh each blade  and get them CLOSE in weight thats a good place to start... then you can measure out to a point and balance each blade on a hunk of angle iron.... this part is tricky but must be done in order to get smoothe rotation at high speeds.... the mark of balance must be the same on each blade.... that's critical !... and you can balance them by just adding a bit more varnish or paint on the light end to get them perfectly balanced.
if you use a 1/4" wide board (1/4"flat edge) to balance them on they will actually balance and not flop to one side or the other... but don't use anything as wide as 1/2" because that will fowel up the balance.
...
once you have each blade balanced at the same exact point on all 3 blades... weigh them all again
you'll probably find one that is lighter than the others... thats fine ...just make it heavier by adding your paint or varnish to a 6" wide strip "AT THE BALANCE POINT" and the blades will all be Balanced and weigh the same at the same point.... and THEN it will be perfect !
...
I used this method to balance my Home made 3 bladed prop for my Gyrocopter that turns at 6500RPM (engine speed with a 2.28:1 gear reduction to the prop) so the prop had to be perfectly balanced...
and upon testing it turned out to be as smooth as Glass
...
I used fiberglass resin as my "PAINT" to balance the blades after they already had a thick coat of resin on them....
I have to balance my Rotors the same way because of the necessity for no shaking!
to do that you have to have the balance point in each blade in the same place... and then the blades have to weigh the same  or Balance out between them...
on my rotor I had both rotor blades weigh the same, balance at the same place on each blade but when they were installed on the rotor one side was heavy... so I had to add resin at the balance point on the light blade to balance them out....(I think this was due to slight differences in the bolt holes on the blade clamps)....it wasn't much but it doesn't take much to shake like an earthquake!
hopefully you haven't mounted the blades yet, and will read this FIRST.... Sorry about that !
....
Bob....

[Tink]

Bob,
That is great advice, do you mind if I repeat your instructions on the forcefield fourm for the benefit of those guys? Granted these wind turbines don't get much above 450rpm but the more perfect the balance the better it will run and the longer it will last. Vibration is the killer in these things. I do have a few different balancing methods to work from and I plan to take the best techniques from all sources.
Tink

[Bob]

I don't mind at all Tink...
 there is another much easier method and that is to assemble the 3 blades and hang them from the center point and then by adding paint/varnish/Resin/whatever... balance them till it sets perfectly flat in all directions(make sure you check north/south AND east/west).
the problem with this method is the center point attachment if its off even by the knot on the string
it will give you a bad reading.... but with a 1/16" hole drilled in the plywood face dead center and perfectly 90DEG. to the plane of the blades using a strong cord and tying a big knot on the inside
should get it working good that way too (if you take care to do it right!)
you'll need to get a Level set up so you can EYE-BALL the prop , and a tripod to support the prop on the string... having 2 levels set up perfectly level makes it allot easier...
...
I had to make a special Arbor for the center of my 3 bladed prop to use this method... ( I did both methods on it) but after the first balancing the prop hung perfectly from the string, so there was no need to do anything to it...( but I could have !)
....
however if your string has to go all the way through the prop and out the bottom this won't work, as the prop will always set off kilter...
So, you'll have to use a screw eye to screw into the center hole and then tie to that.
 Just be extra careful to get the string hanging straight and not slightly off center... if you use a
Screw eye you can just tie a Loop in the end of the string and slip the eye through the loop and that will hang correctly
( with as much weight as these blades are I doubt you'll have a hanging error but on real light blades the string attachment gets critical as you get smaller in size!)
...
Post this too if ya Like Tink , I don't mind at all... hope it helps someone !
...
....
Balancing a Prop blade takes time and Perfection... DO NOT HURRY THE PROCESS!

...
Bob......

[Tink]

Thanks again Bob, I do have that string in the center method somewhere in one of the wind turbine books. I gotta wait till a nice windless day cause I have to do this outside. I'm afraid if I assemble the blades inside I won't be able to get it out the door of the house. I leveled my workbench and hope that will surfice.
Tink

[Bob]

 I had to balance all my props and rotors outside, and like you I had to wait for a still day...
I got the rotor (24ft diam on its 4' hub bar) teetering on the teter bolt ( I made a teter bolt stand for the rotor blade to sit on) and the slightest disturbance of the wind would send it up or down.... even walking by the blade tip caused it to move up...
in this case I got it as close as I could.... a single penny would drop either blade tip to the ground.
when I say it took days to ballance the rotor I mean it.... the prop was allot easier...
but I gave you instructions that are BEST FIRST... the string method isn't all that great..but for a wind generator it should do ok....IF you take your time and do it really good!
...but when you turn a prop on a engine it has to be perfect..... I have made over 6 props and 3 Rotor repairs and one new Rotor. ...
I have made simple Constant angle props and props with the pitch that changes from the root to the tip better known as twisted props.... and in all Honesty I think the flat paddle, bladed props are just as good as the twisted props when it comes down to thrust... sure there is just a bit more thrust from the twisted prop (that's the whole idea with them) but the difference is hardly worth the extra work it takes to make that kind of prop!
standing in the wake of the 447 Rotex with the engine at full throttle and feeling the thrust they both feel the same....that is allot of wind !  hardly a measurement but there is not a very big difference in the 2 types of props...
 one of the first props I made was from a 2"x6" plank that I carved into a prop... still have it too
and it worked very well all in all... its too big for the gyro now sense I changed things  and that prop never was flown... but it gives you an idea what you can get away with "IF YOUR CAREFULL"
...the last thing you want to see is a prop decentragrateing while at top RPM.... it can kill you and by-standers ! ...laminateing props is the accepted method now days and I recomend it whole hartidly....
...
so for a wind generator constant angle of attack is fine, I wouldn't bother trying to make a twisted
blade for the thing, although I think your windgenerator does have twisted blades to it...which is that much better ! every little bit helps in this game !
...

  Anyway I made up 2 more 3" pipe clamps today for the Woodgas generator... bolted on the pipe from the Cyclone filter to the Fine filter... now I need to go from the fine filter to the engine under the truck...
 its getting there slowly but surely !
...
Bob........


 

[Bob]

here is the finished Drawing of what I am trying to build...
I have all but the LONG pipe and intake pieces for the engine, already made up.
so if I get a break in the weather I should be able to jump on that and get it done fairly quickly!
...
Bob......

[Bob]

I started to Hack a Hole in the bed of the truck to put the 3" pipe through and up toward the engine
but I got carried away on making more 20~22degree angle cuts on some of that pipe and gathering us as much of it as I could find.... I think I'm going to be short on the length I need...so I may have to rip it off of one of the things around here that I used those pipes on so many years ago ! LOL
...although I do have a few pieces of 2.5" conduit or Chain link fence posts about... Might just use those instead.
...
I still cannot see any reason not to hook the incoming "SMOKE" right up to the throat of the carburetor and use the main butterfly in the carb as the throttle... that way all I'll need to come up with is the AIR mixture butterfly, and the choke cable that will control its position....
for the time being I'll not have a butterfly on the "Smoke side" of the pipe at the carburetor...
so if I want to run it on gasoline the fire will need to be out and/or the pipe taken off that connects to the Woodgas generator...
to me making it DUEL FUEL makes allot of sense at this stage in time...I dunno WHY...because I can't afford to feed that monster the gas it wants ! HHAHAHAHA! that's the main reason its been parked for the last 10 to 15 years and not being used !
...
hehehhe
...
Bob........

[Tink]

These blades don't have the twist in them as shown in their book. I think they may have come to the conclusion that carving the twist isn't worth the effort but they are laminated. I'm hoping I can get this thing flying in the next too days since I'm off but it may not be calm enough. Some of the old Burgey Wind Turbines from the 30's and 40's used that method to adjust the tilt of the blades using springs and such. Now adays the big commercial turbines do it electronically. There are guys who scour the country side retrieving the old wind turbines from the farms in the mid west and rebuild them and get big bucks selling them. Some of them are 70 years old and very usable.

[Bob]

Yah, if I remember right they DIDN'T have a counter weight by the hub that moved out as the RPM got faster and faster instead, the blades were set in such a way as to automatically change pitch ,changing the pitch from about 45 degrees to as little as 20 degrees  which resulted in the windmills ALWAYSE TURNING ... ( I don't know if each blade had a spring or if they were all linked together.)
I've not looked at the mechanics of the spring setup on those old wind mills but I do know it was very simple . but its hard for me to picture it working without a centrifugal counterweight, in me head ... hehehehe.
...
if I could be assured that a Windmill would work here in this canyon I'd build one, to pump water to the water tower and keep it full 24/7....but in all Honnesty I dunno if we have enough wind here for that.
 the Pump itself is the part that gets me, more than the wind mill, for proper placement of the windmill it needs to be on a Hill a good 400' away from the spring... not right on top of the spring box... because the spring box is in a hole a good 50 to 75ft lower than the rest of the land.
that presents me with a problem, either a really tall tower... or a way to couple the mechanical motion to the spring from the tower on the hill....and either is a large undertaking !
although I have thought of putting a Jabsco (impeller type water pump) at the wind mill, but that demands a rotory motion, which means a gear box of some sort for the blades to set on up there.
...which quickly gets very complicated, where a simple suction pump the mechanics are simple and effective and last for decades.
... I suppose I could use a suction pump and as long as the windmill isn't more than 25ft away (vertically) it'd work,(and just use piping to the tower.)
I dunno' the setup I have now WORKS...but it sure could be improved allot ! LOL !
....
I've been thinking about taking the bed off the O'l Dodge pickup so I can use it as a Spring box
... and NOW would be the time to do that "before" I put the Woodgas generator on that thing!
..I might crawl under that thing and see how tough it will be to remove it today!
....
Bob.....

[Bob]

Oh Boy... removing that pickup bed from the 1968 Dodge pickup looks to be a big job....
mainly because it looks as if the bolts are so rusted on thy will have to be cut off with a torch
.... and there is 8 bolts... other than that the wiring to the tail lights looks to be the only thing connected to the bed !
...
however I do have a torch ! <GRIN>
...
but it rained most of the day so I gave up and went back to bed in an effort to wait it out ! LOL
...
Havn't desided on weather to take the bed off the truck or not... its like "What's the point?" then its useless as a pickup ! ( but a flat bed wouldn't be a bad thing....)
...
on top of that I'ed need more metal to weld to the frame to set the woodgas burner on...and its filters...   I think I'll leave it alone and keep the bed on it ! LOL !
....
Bob.....
 

[Bob]

Yup... I have decided to leave the bed on the O'l Dodge/Wood burner and concern myself with making it DUEL FUEL.... not that I  can afford to fill the 20 gal tank in that beast any more but at least I will have that option...and perhaps get away from TAX problems in the future!
....
My Sleeping schedule is all messed up lately so I haven't got much done on the Woodgas project.
I discovered that I need a burning permit and an pay for an INSPECTION if I stack the brush with the "Loader"...so I'll re stack it by hand into another smaller pile and burn it that way ! Sheez
... too many people trying to get into my pockets lately !
LOL
...
Bob.....

[Bob]

I'm in the process of burning 2 piles of brush sense its a "Burn day" today...
had a hard time getting them to go but they finally took off !
... I welded up a 90 degree bend on the long pipe I have (3") and laid it along side the truck and it will be very close to making it all the way to the place that is inline with the carburetor...
although I didn't poke the hole in the bed so I can measure it correctly, at the most I'll only need about a foot more pipe and I think I have that much in scrap from all the joints I cut out
...I also made another 90 degree bend in a shorter pipe to go up from the pipe under the engine
but I may need one more 3" pipe clamp to get all the way to the carburetor...
just one more thing to make I guess ! LOL
...
so I almost have all the pipe made up to make it from the bed of the truck to the engine now....
so its getting Closer !
...
Bob......

[Bob]

this morning I got the right exhaust pipe and Fuel vaporizer off the truck, off the pipe and the pipe is ready to go back on now.... I had to take it off because the vaporizer was in the way of the Woodgas  "Smoke delivery pipe" to the engine.
 I drilled a hole in the bed of the truck. I used he largest circle cutting attachment for the drill
which was 2.5" in O.D. which left the hole too small for the pipe to fit through, so I grabed a cressent wrench and bent the inside edge of the hole up to flare it out... and after about 4 passes around the hole the 3" pipe fit it just fine!
 I then grabbed the long delivery pipe that I welded up the other day and stuck the short end in the hole from under the truck , this barely fit through the hole at the angle it had to be at because of its length... but it did finally slide in the hole and I then put one of the 3" clamps I made up on it and slid the clamp down a long way , which got the pipe off the ground well on the one end...
under the engine however its not going to be that easy... I made up the elbow and short piece of pipe
that will go up along the exhaust manifold on its way to the carburetor...but I think I'm going to need 3 arms to hook it up ! HAHAHAHAHAH.
...
other than that I didn't do too much today, just took it easy.
..
if the weather cooperates, I should have the truck running on woodgas by next sunday... thats what I'm shooting for anyway !
we'll see what happens !
...
Bob........

 

[Bob]

I got some work done on the Wood gas truck today, not much but some.
I got the exhaust pipe back on there and ancored down, and the smoke pipe to the engine going in
but still laying on the ground under the truck in the front under the engine, I'm in the proccess of using one of the clamps I made to clamp on the 90 degree bend to go up along side the engine.
...once that is on and anchored down...  the fun part begins !
...
I made a 2.5" or 2.25" butterfly as well today... I took a fender washer that was just barely bigger than the I.D. of the 4" long pipe I had and found a 1/2" bolt just the right length to go through the pipe in the center with the threads just starting on the opposite side.
 I then took the bolt to the Milling machine and milled a flat surface on the bolt where the fender washer would attach.... after fitting the final cut on the ends with a file by hand it fit perfectly... and I used the drill press to drill a 1/8" hole in the center of the bolt for the butterfly hold down screw.
 after about 1 hr of tapping that tiny #8 screw hole I finally got it through the metal and then installed it in the pipe.... I need to take it off again and file a spot or two to get the butterfly to shut completely, but other than that it is done...
 I simply ground the sides of the fender washer to just barely fit inside the pipe and then carefully arced the edges of the resulting flat sides to the washer... this worked great and I simply held the washer in the pipe and could see what areas were still a bit high...so I simply ground them down a bit more... it closes to within 1/8" of being completely closed so a bit more won't hurt it at all...
 but all in all that butterfly wasn't all that hard to make... doing it without a Milling machine however wouldn't be as easy... you'd have to grind it flat and then square the corners with a file.
and sense the washer has to be Oval shaped,  a bit of care and the right sized washer made it fairly easy to do.
...
tapping that small hole was the hardest part it didn't want to cut very well and my one tap twisted all up in the process, luckily I had another in a different set of taps.
...
so that's how I made the AIR mix valve, it will need a lever on it but a piece of metal with a hole in it to fit the bolt size and 2 nuts to lock it into place will cure that problem.
...
I will weld this short pipe to the pipe that attached to the throat of the carburetor and put an air cleaner on the other side.  and that will give me the Fuel/Air mixture adjustment. controlled by a old choke cable on the dash (sense I have no gearshift lever , the truck is an automatic trans)
...
...
I also need to bolt down the Burner and filters in the back of the truck still... that's on my TO-DO List ! LOL
...
Bob........

[Bob]

I got the long pipe from the bed to the engine cut down, it was actually 3" too long!
and I welded another piece of scrap on the upright piece, but I haven't bolted it down with the clamp
yet... I got carried away on making the carburetor part... I took one of the 90 degree 3"pipes I welded up and a short piece of 3" pipe as the part that goes on the carburetor top...
I had to cut a hole in that piece and weld the 90 degree joint to it at right angles... and then I added the air butterfly about 90 degrees to that... which meant cutting another hole...I tried to cut that one with the hole saw..... wound up ruining that saw.... hehehhehe... but I finally got the hole cut on the side of the short pipe... I used the drill press, the grinder, the hand drill and a rotary file...but I did it !.... I could have used the torch and been done with it in 2 minutes.... but I didn't think of that ! ...DUH !    LOL !
...anyway I welded it all up except the top cover plate, I still have to make that. and
the "Smoke Carburetor" is done ! <GRIN>
.... getting CLOSER !
...
Bob...
(here's 2 pics of the pieces!)

[Bob]

Ok, I got the Under the Hood stuff DONE ...all but an air cleaner!
and my air adjustment knob needs to have some resistance to it....as it will flop open or closed and not stay at the place I put it.... ( a spring should take care of that!)
...
I welded a flattened piece of the 3" pipe to the top of the carburetor hookup as the top plate.
and drilled a hole in it and put it on the truck.
...
I finally got the long pipe under the truck connected up and hooked to the frame by the engine... (the back still needs a clamp!)  so I grabbed the flexible exhaust pipe section I had and stuck it in the pipe that came up under the engine and bent it over to the carburetor piece.... then I silicone glued both ends because the flexible pipe is 2.5" and the pipe it goes into is 3" and the silicone sealed it up air tight.
... I then make a lever for the air butterfly I made the other day and decided to use the knob in the dash that I had been using to turn on and off the gas valve for the vaporizer... use it to open and close the butterfly valve on the AIR mixture for the Smoke...
it worked out real good !
next is the Fine filter hookup to the down tube that goes to the engine... once that is done I can put the hopper back on the Wood burner, bolt it and the fine filter to the bed of the truck and build a fire in it and try to start it ! .... oh...I need to run a wire and switch to the blower fan from the cab too....
... but its getting very close... I have to make up 2 more clamps and the a 90degree bend to get to the down pipe from the fine filter.
....
so bolt the thing down,
install a switch and power to the blower.
make and install the final piece of pipe bend to attach the fine filter.(the other side of the filter is already done, just not clamped yet)
and if all works good then an air-filter for under the hood!
...
so 5 more things total... 4 more to just try and run it !  WOOT!
...
Bob.......

 

[Bob]

I was really pleased at How easy the butter fly was to make up... I was actually sweating that one out!
....LOL
making a larger one would no doubt mean making the oval butterfly by hand, but from what I learned by using a large washer....a person could just cut a circle out of 1/16" plate about 1/8" bigger in diameter than the pipe he's going to use it in... then scribe a line across the center and drill your small attachment screw holes... and then Grind the circle very slightly on the line on each side until you get it to fit evenly...(in other words take off the same amount on each side )
....
Once you get the butterfly blank to fit in the pipe snugly its time to start grinding the flatten edges
into a smooth curve... fitting it many times to check your progress as you go.
once you have it fitting at about a 45 degree angle or better make your pivot bolt, and then attach the butter fly to the pivot bolt and mark where the butterfly is touching, take it out and grind down that high spot and re fit it.... I did this about 3 times till it was very hard to see light around the butterfly when it was closed.... so it turned out really nice!
.... the action of the valve is not quite 90degrees ....probably closer to about 75degrees from past open to closed so I am guessing at about 45 degrees from flat open to closed...
but for this application, that's just fine !
.... so really any bloke can make one.... I mean gee ! I did ! LOL !
I was very careful to only take off as much metal on the pivot bolt as necessary on the ends of the FLAT because I didn't want air leaks... the step from round to half-round is 90degrees and only the width of the butterfly... there is no room for it to slop about its a snug fit.
after that was done then I drilled and tapped the hole for the hold down screw... I only used 1 screw and used the original hole that was in the washer.... 2 hold down screws would be better
and keep the butterfly from jamming if the screw came loose.... but lock-tight will cure that!
....
the way I have it set up on my truck the valve will open and close a bit as the engine torques from side to side.... but that's the least of my worries.... a choke cable attachment would cure that problem, because I have manual linkage from a knob on the dash that turns the lever and opens the butterfly.... if the engine twists it will change the valve setting.(not all that good!)
...
no doubt most of you will have to buy your large piping to make the pipe between the Burner, and cyclone filter,and fine filter,and engine...and each application will no doubt take a different amount of pipe to do the trick... but if you can afford it buy the 90 degree bends from a Auto parts store for exhaust pipe... it will go together so much easier than mine did!
and I do Recommend a Flexible pipe for the final engine connection piece because of the intense vibration and engine movement.... I used a piece of flexible exhaust pipe on my carb connection section.... I don't know how well it will work or last but I had it laying around so why not use it and see ! HAHAHAHAHAHA
....
Bob...

[janmarsh]

Bob, Here in UK, The Holly Bush has a wood which is supposed to have a higher calorific value than all others (Native anyway) when burned.

I am wondering if that would also apply when gassified ?
                                                                                  Marshall.

[Bob]

I am Sure it would , sense that is how they measure caloric value they weigh the item before and then burn it to a crisp with a Bunsen burner and then weigh it after...the difference is the calories.
(amazing what ya learn in High school biology uh ?,...whats more amazing is that I even remember that!  LOL!)
...
HAHHAHAHA
...
Bob.

[Bob]

if it ain't one thing....its another !
 Ok I got all the pipe connected, and just now installed a switch for the blower fan on the Fine filter
and so besides the bolt down operation and the air filter....she's ready to go..
so I tried to start the truck...didn't want to fire up.... acted like it wasn't getting fuel...which is normal for this beast...so I pumped the heck out of it and opened up the air mixture valve on the top of the carberator and it started to catch a few times.... so I reached over and turned on the blower fan...and it started to pick up fairly good... and then it finally took off on its own running on about 6 cylinders instead of 8 ! after a bit it started to run better picked up the dropped cylinders (mostly) and started to idle good again.... the only time this truck acts like this is when the points need filed...and re set... and its a bear to do sense the distributor is at the back of the engine on this 318cid. and I put it off as long as I can usually ! LOL
well, if its having that much truble running on gasoline  I ain't even going to try running it on Woodgas till I tune it up !....
...
While I had it running I closed the air-mix butterfly with no effect...(as I thought it shouldn't effect it...)... and I turned off the blower with the same results... no effect...which is good!
....this is without any wood in the burner however and that may make some difference its hard to say.
....
So its now ready to try... as soon as I do the last 3 things
bolt down the wood burner in the back.
fill the burner with wood and fine filter with wood ships
and TUNE UP THE TRUCK !
...
I did put a spring on the air-Mix control rod, to make it stay put, and it does now... there is only about 1/4 turn to the control however and that may be a bit course....I may well need a finer control of that butterfly...but we shall see!
the blower when its on really blows good through the pipe and out the air-mix valve which will make good and sure the gas is getting to the engine !
....
I did not put a test port on it yet and I am thinking I should have one.... if nothing else it will look Kool ! LOL !
...but at this stage I can light the gas at the Air-mix butterfly with no problems , all I have to do is have the hood up.... which I will have for the first few starts I'm sure !
... I am not sure if the flame will be extinguished when I shut off the butterfly or not but I guess there is one way to find out !  if nothing else shutting the butterfly and cranking the engine through should suck the flame out....then I can open the valve and try to start it on Smoke !
....that's the plan anyway !
...
Bob......

[Bob]

Ok a few pictures of the Unsuccessfull test I just did on the woodgas truck.
the reason it was UNSUCCESSFULL and of this I am quite sure is I couldn't get a good fire going fast in the burner.... and I flat gave up !
I put a bunch of bricketts in first and then a bunch of dry oak cut up into 3" or so inches long.
...I know better than to try and start a bar b Q that way... why I did it on this thing I dunno..
but I did... with no small stuff to spred the fire it managed to smolder real good and never take off
HAHAHAHAHAHA
 I started the truck on gasoline and let it idle a while trying to suck the fire into being bigger but after about 15 min I said fooie on it and turned it all back off
 I just went back up to check it and see if the fire has gone out and NO it hasn't... but it is very small now and should peeter out eventually.... I hope !
...
I never did get a flame from the air/Mix port and I tried to light it with the butain torch...
(bricketts are not very good woodgas producers) so if I have to I'll dig it all out of there and start a real fire with a few bricketts and a bunch of small stuff ...then add the wood and all that way....   its obvious to me that a 5 gal propane tank and a blow torch would be a good addition to that thing...something to get the fire ROARING fast....
the bottom pic is the REASON the fire didn't take off real good... you can see that ! its Obvious NOW!

anyway, heres a few pics...
...
Bob....
 

[Bob]

here's 2 more
 in the top pic you can see the smoke but it did get much better than that before I tried to light it
but its got to have a good fire going before its going to work and I'm too tired to mess with it right now... 
 I'll probably tackel it tonight !
Bob.....

[Bob]

Hummmm....
well I let it smolder for about an hour and went back up to the truck and turned everything back on ...
and the smoke was bellowing out the 2.5" Air/mix pipe and out the top of the Wood gas burner too...
fired up the truck on gasoline and then turned off the fuel pump in an attempt to get the thing to run on the smoke.... every time it died.... I finally got the propane torch and tried to light the smoke...
and nothing happened but the flame almost went out.......
I even tossed matches into the burner with no results ...no Fwoooom! and big toung of blue flame at all
absolutely... no flame !....
SO the only thing I can gather from that is my wood is too wet... ( it has been laying out in the rain)
evidently its supposed to be very DRY WOOD.... that is going to be hard to come by around these parts but I'll get some cut up and cover it with a tarp to keep the rain off and maybe that will burn better !
....
the burner was going good enough to start bubbling the paint on the outside of the barrel, and the high temp silicone was bubbling in places too... so it was going very good.... just that there was no Hydrogen to speak of in that smoke.... and I really don't know what to think of about that!
... I tried to get it to run on the smoke but it only hit a few times never would catch...
and the course adjustment of the air/Mix butterfly makes the adjustment very difficult at best!
....
...
..
  one thing I have learned already... I do NOT like that stainless steel bowl as a fire grate...
I need to remove it and put a large frying pan there instead...with many more holes in it !
....
Bob.....

[Lee Hazleton]

Bob,
 Don't get discouraged....at least you got your wood wet

[Bob]

hehehe
 I'm Prudy certain that's what the problem was... that or perhaps the fire wasn't going strong enough even if it was as hot as it was.
....
we all know wet wood smokes a bunch more than dry wood... and perhaps all that moisture in the smoke stops the separation of the gasses at the reduction zone down there... I do know that I never did get a flame from within the smoke.... and in all honesty that supprizes me ! 
and if there's not enough gas to burn it sure ain't going to run the truck
....
Bob...

[Bob]

LOL Now... that was very close for a bit... in fact I think it was running on smoke for a few seconds but it needs to run longer than just a few seconds just so I'm sure its not running on gas still in the carburetor....  yah after all this time the fire was going very good in the fire box so I turned the fan on .... shook the grate and started it on gasoline and then turned off the fuel pump and in about 1 min the carb runs dry and its usually like you turned the ignition switch off...but it didn't do that it was staggering and fussing and I was trying to adjust the Air/Mix valve to get it to run smoothly and it finally ran for a few on just Smoke..... I THINK.... and then staggered and died....
so I went and got the torch and tried to light the smoke and no flame at either place.... by then the flame in the burner had died way down.... and I figured it needed more DRY WOOD...
....the back of the truck bed is covered in liquid Smoke the condensation of the smoke that drips out of the wood hopper..... if its dripping out of the wood hopper its not very air tight... is it ? LOL ( maybe that's why the fire didn't go out when I shut it down? LOL )
... anyway that bit was encouraging.... it ran for a second or two on smoke I think....
but it in no way would sustain it in a good run.... heck the hopper is empty now and there was only the stuff at the bottom of the burner to work on ....
...
so 3 things I need to fix....
1. DRY WOOD
2. The coarseness of the Air/Mix butterfly valve needs to be a finer adjustment....
3. Air tightness of the wood hopper & wood gas generator.
....

I'll tell you how wet it was when I was trying it earlier.... water was dripping out of the Air/mix port where the smoke was coming out.... that is allot of condensation !
makes me wonder if the filters caught any of that moisture !  I expect there is probably about 2" of water in the cyclone filter and an inch in the fine filter....
both of which will have to be cleaned out tomorrow
...
So... its back to the work bench with it !
HAHAHA
...
Bob.......

[Bob]

Ok I think I found the culpret, for why it didn't work.... the fine filter's LID was not down tight
and that would have been sucking air and mixing it with the smoke making it far too lean to run
....the long connecting pipe from the engine to the fine filter is putting its weight on the top of the fine filter and cocking the lid to where its not sealing up good.... I don't have a barrel band clamp for that small of a barrel so I will have to come up with something else to hold the lid down on the fine filter.... also I need to get something in side that can so it will actually filter the smoke... right now its empty ! (LOL)
....
I took the wood hopper off the burner and have the burner propped up so I can use some silicone on the joining surfaces.... i  forgot to do that before... and it leaked liquid smoke all over because of it
hehehehe

More than anything it annoyed me that when I shut it down the fire didn't go out... its supposed to ... which means its far from air tight... and it has to be air tight in order to work... thats one of the prerequisites of the workings of a wood gas generator LOL
...
  I'm fighting an Ear infection at the moment and I've lost allot of my want to go out in the cold because of it... I think its on the mend now though... too much Spa time I guess ! LOL
...
I might make up a Pole to lift the burner out of the barrel today... something so I can get the fire tube out of the generator so I can work on the grate.... it needs many more holes and flattened out some...the bowl is too deep.   a 2"deep 14" stainless steel frying pan would have been a better choice for the grate, but I think I'ed probably have to get a loan to buy one ! LOL
....
so.... i got the truck backed down close to the welder and have the woodgas generator all appart
and am fixing the air leaks...that I THOUGHT were already fixed ! LOL
...using real dry wood next time should indeed cure the problems  I had before and getting rid of the air leaks .... I'm fairly certain that's what the problem is...
I may attack the butterfly adjustment too while I am at it....because it definitely needs a finer adjustment to it....
...
Bob.......

[crb]

Bob,
How is the ear infection? Better I hope.
Any more luck with the wood burner?
crb

[Bob]

I think the ear is as good as new now... not positive but it don't hurt any more so close enough ! LOL
....
I put the Hopper back on the burner barrel without the band clamp and it actually brought the 2 barrels closer together so I left it that way and then sealed up the joint with my last tube of high temp silicone sealant... ( buy it at wal mart for $2.98... at the auto parts store the price is $6.59 each and its the same stuff!)
... so I have the burner all sealed and ready to go again... and am working on the fine filter's top... sense I didn't use that band clamp on the other barrel I think I'll shrink it to fit the fine filter and have a good seal on it !
....
I had a bunch of DRY wood all cut up but it rained for 3 days and now everything is soaking wet...and like a dummy I forgot to get out there and cover it ,so there is no sense in trying to test it when the wood is that wet!  its gott'a dry first !
....OOOOPS !
anyway I havn't done much to the Woodgas burner in the truck for about a week now as the weather has really been bad lately. (rain and Cold as heck, but it's looking better in the forcast! <GRIN>)
...
...
While I was at Wal*mart today I found some 1/2pt standard,stainless steel pet bowls
for .97cents each...(their to feed the Pussycat in!)
  so I bought 22 of them and think they will make a great High capacity Hydroxy cell the plan is to separate the dishes by 1/16" to 1/8" and  feed them "Randy Style" through 2 threaded rods (which I'll need to pick up still)
the bowl size is Just perfect for a 6" ABS Pipe and should give me a massive amount of plate area.... now if I can get the amp's up to .5 amps per sqr inch I should have one heck of a producer!  and it will fit in the 22" ABS pipe I had originally in the truck.... time will tell if the cell will be worth the effort or not!
...these bowls should be better than the condement cups that I bought earlier in the year.... as it just didn't look like it was worth the effort on those... these are big enough to almost fill the 6"ABS pipe so it should work really good!
.... for $22.00 I have enough for 2-11 plate cells or one 22 plate cell,so I thought it was too good a bargin to pass up ! LOL !
 the bowls are 4.5" in diam  and about 1.75" deep...and a quick estimate is 29" of area for each bowl on one side....x 22=638" sqr. x.5amps=319 amps.... YEOUCH!
ok lets try 11 plates...319sqr in x.5amps=159 amps..... that's more like it !

I'll need a 200 or 300 amp alternator to run it but it should produce a large amount of Hydroxy gas if I can get the amps high enough (which I doubt)
... its a thought anyway... an idea I am playing with
...
Bob.......

[Bob]

Well, it rained almost all day again... and I didn't get anything accomplished at all
... I think I'm getting "cabin fever!" I want to get OUT ! LOL
...
next thing on the truck to do is make the top clamp for the small fine filter barrel
and make that top air tight...
...
I THINK, (not positive by any means,) that I have the GAS-Burner portion of the system
air tight now... and it "should" put out the fire when shut down...if not I'll be upset! HAHAHHAHAHA
...
On the engine of the truck I simply took the incoming smoke/gas into a manifold I made up to funnel it down the throat of the 2bbl carburetor... no butterfly on that section, unlike many plans out there, because I am trying to USE the existing carburetor butterfly as the throttle control... and it looks to be working or at the very least promising ! <GRIN>  sense I have the AIR/MIX butterfly on that same manifold the mixture is done right at the carburetor so what gas the engine does use is mixed with air at the ratio that is determined by the setting of the air/mix butterfly.  in my initial test I never did get the Smoke to burn...
which is more than likely the reason the truck never ran on the Woodgas....(DUH!)
...
in my next test I am contemplating using Wood pellets as part of the fuel as its about as dry as you can ever get!.... using about a 50/50 ratio of the driest wood I can find and wood pellets should get me some usable smoke... I hope...LOL
...
I never would have thought that having DRY would would make that much of a diference
but in the Pyrolization process its a must as the charcoal and CO2 and Hydrogen must react together to make Carbon monoxide and Hydrogen which are explosive.
without that reaction there is no boom.  and it looks to take a large bed of coals to get to that point ! ....
 I admit I only ran the burner for a short time on the initial test for a few reasons, I'm not sure of the heat it is going to produce, and if a heat shield is going to be necessary or not to protect the cab from catching on fire!
 and I incorrectly figured a small fire would be enough to test with ....
after watching the Planet mechanics a few dozen times I realized that they ran their burner for a few days straight and just kept adding fuel to it, while they were trying to start it... although they had a good flame from the smoke.... I never got that... and that may very well be why.
another big difference is the SCALE of things I am trying to run a 318CID v8 they were running a 4 cyl mini truck and that's a big change !
and if you look at my instillation I have 3" pipes that are feeding that wood gas to the engine... and its a good possibility I should have as big as 6" diameter pipe do do this with.... not 3".... but I THINK it will run on the 3" pipes, it will be one of the last things I change if I have to change things!<GRIN>
but never the less the burner is much bigger than their burner and is sized to the 318 cid engine, but the connecting lines are the same size as they use... this has me wondering... it may well be a choke point and not feeding enough woodgas to the engine...
but until I get the gas to burn good I'm not going to say its WRONG YET ! HAHAHA
if I get the woodgas to burn real good like it should and the engine doesn't run on  that gas ...THEN I will really suspect the pipeing as being too small for the job!
....
Bob...

[Manta]

Bob,

Don't know if you have this site,  but here it is.

http://www.powercubes.com/listers_12.html

Manta

[Bob]

No I havn't seen that one yet ...thanks for the Link Manta!
I wish I had one of those old Lister engines he has! LOL!
...
Bob.....

[Bob]

I emailed a fella off that site Manta and he answered a bunch of my questions and told me to sign up on the woodgas forum on yahoo.com... which I did...and so I read a bunch and think I know why the truck didn't run on woodgas now... the heat was far too low in the producer to have worked.... so I have a bit more work to do...
I am going to take off the stainless steel bowl I am using as a grate and replace it with a plate I will preferate with 3/8" holes ...
I may also reduce the opening on the fire ring right now its about 12" which is a bit big
and if it were smaller it would concentrate the heat better and it would also move the distance
of the grate away from the fire ring a bit more also helping to establish the ZONES of certain degree of burning up that the Producer SHOULD have,....so I may destroy another propane tank shortly ! LOL
....at least now I have some idea on what I SHOULD do to make it work.... I admit I was at a loss before ! LOL
....
Bob.......

[Bob]

Boy in the last few days I've been buried in information about what makes the burnable gas in a Woodgas Producer!... Oddly enough its Mainly the intense HEAT and WHERE that heat takes place
...In My producer the intense heat will take place adjacent to the air holes in the fire ring... and that is too LOW.... it should be a good 6" higher than that so it would Pre-cook the other wood.
Sense the air holes are so LOW on the fire ring I need to remidy that soon....
I could cut the whole fire ring off, flip it 180 degrees and weld it back on and have the air holes on the top of the ring... which is a good place for them... but ash would fall in the holes and eventually plug up the works... so 90deg elbows should be attached to stop that and force the air to the center.
...this is all quite attainable, allot of work but still its do-able!
 restricting the size of the fire tube and fire ring, after the fire ring may indeed increase the velosity of smoke and gas and there by make it a blast fernace in effect...which is what you want
but restricting the size also lowers the volume of volitle gasses I would get off it as well, so it looks like a dammed if I do and dammed if I don't sinerio..
 although many of those fella's on the woodgas forum on Yahoo have only a 6" or 8" opening and they run v8's on their producers.... so Maybe I am worried about nothing <GRIN>
at this point I am thinking that increasing the velosity is more important than the diamator of the burn area...
... And I am not the only one that used a car Rim in my producer burner, another back woods fella has made 3 such producers for his vehicles...he is quite a master at it !
....
so I think I will Hack off the rim...er FIRE-Ring and while its off weld up all of those holes but 6
or 8.... and then weld 1/2" pipe elbows over the holes and screw on 1/2"x1"close nipples and an end cap with a 1/2" hole in the cap on each one... this will force the incomeing air into the center of the burner and create a super hot zone...
then I'll weld a short cone on the other side of the fire ring, that reduces the over all diamator to 9" or 10" down from the 14"it is now...
 and I'll see if I can BOLT the fire ring back on to the fire tube so that in the future if I want to change something I can simply take it off and work on it....(much better than having to cut it off again ! ) hehehehe
...
that SHOULD cure everything but the Grate problem and for that I will cut a 14" diam circle from 1/4" plate and ring it with 1/8"x2"bar stock, drill a zillion holes in the plate and call it my new grate and hang it by chains from the fire tube and put a loop on the side of the grate so the shaker lever will attach and shake it.
...I do not relish the idea of drilling all those holes... so I may just make a bar-stock grate and forget the plate altogether ! as long as the bar-stock is 1/2" apart and no further it should be superior to a flat plate.( till they warp out of shape ...so they will need side ways supports ...and allot of them.)
...
now all I need is GOOD weather.... order some up for me please...I could use some sun shine ! LOL
...
Bob......

[Bob]

Here is a pic of the changes, I made them on the drawing on GMAX but I am not sure I like how High it puts the air nozzles... I may go with straight pipe instead and lay them horizontal.
...
Bob.....

[Bob]

I'm still knocking around ideas, I may opt for Charles's Truck rim design and Hack my rim off and put on another... I think it would be much easier than trying to re-work the one I got.. I put a bunch of welding rod into it ! LOL !
...
Bob...

[Bob]

Well I did cut off the old fire ring and I'm getting ready to "BOLT on " another VERSION...hhehehe
... I Have Opted to patern my new design after Charles Purdy's version of the "LaRosafier" as I think his is the sanest of all the designs I have seen yet !
 its simple and stright foward...and no where like the FEMA plans that I was using before
sense a 13" car rim fits nicely into the 20gal propane tank bottle TUBE I have as the "fire tube"
all I have to do is mount the Rim plug a few holes where the lug nuts went through and on the side there are a few slots that need sealed up...and then weld on a new "Fire tube" to the underside of the rim... I cut apart a air tank that used to be on a Diesel and am using it for the 6.5" diam tube welded to the center of the rim on the bowed Out side of the rim... the bowed IN side of the rim will be the burn area...and should be covered with refractory cement... but I may use cat litter clay and hope it holds up ! <GRIN>
  the BOW-in on the rim faces UP and the welded in tube on the underside faces down and its 7" long
a small grate will be hung under this opening ...this tube is actually where All the Cracking of the gasses occur at....well the main burner and the tube...because it holds the charcoal and the air is drawn through it ..forcing the reaction to take place because the temperatures are so very high.
...
I have some patch work I need to do on my work today as I got a bit too carried away welding!
but I did get allot done and I hope to have the new burner bolted on tomorrow evening !
it won't be done because I have 6 air jets to weld in there yet...but that shouldn't take too long once I have it all marked out where they go.
...
so I still have a long way to go ,but I'm about 1/2 way through the new burner...
I just wish I had a piece of 14" tube at hand so I could face that new rim with... but it looks like I'll have to disect another propane tank for that part...unfortunately....
I plan on tripling the capacity of the inlet air by using a 3" pipe instead of a 1.25" pipe...
this will give the needed air flow for those high temperatures.
...
 and something of interest.. when these burners are going and working correctly there is no woodsmoke coming off them... no smoke to see at all but the heat is very high enough to blister high heat paint in no time!... I thought tat was kind'a strange...but the heat is so high (1200 to 1700 degrees)
that the smoke particles are incinerated....I guess !
 its really kind of weird, you can tell if a Woodgas generator is working right by the absense of smoke...if its smoking something is wrong ! HAHAHAHAHAHHAHA
so they really are pollution free ! ( or darn close to it!)
...
Bob......

[Bob]

after more reasearch and talking with others about the woodgas beastie I have desidedto change my producer's fire ring to something like this...
...I already have it 3/4 done...
and I need a vacume cleaner for the blower motor I find out ! hehehehehe
...
Bob...

[Bob]

 I have been working on my Woodgas Generator Drawings for thew past 2 days sense its been raining out side... I have made a few improvements and updated the drawing to reflect what has been done lately...
 this woodgas generator should without a doubt work very well... and I hope it will produce enough gas to power the V8 in the Dodge truck... it should as other generators a bit smaller power larger engines, so I think its got it covered to say the least! <GRIN>
... I got all 8 air jets welded into the rim now and am in the process of putting on the clamping flanges so that I can remove the Hart of the burner at some time in the future if needed... I welded the last one and had to cut it off to make these changes... I don't want to have to cut it off again!
(live and learn!) this will force me to use some furnace cement sealant around the rim to make a good seal, but that part is relatively easy with a caulking gun and the high temp sealant.
...
I've also added a diverter to the inside of the rim (almost invisible, directly behind the air connection tube on the rim) to help direct the flow of air around the rim properly... I think it will help with the air flow and boost air flow through ALL the jets. I will make this from sheet metal and cut to fit the inside shape of the rim and then tac weld it in place (not done yet on the real thing)
...
I have also "massively modified" the air connection tube(purple) spreading its mating surface over a wide area, so the restriction is less.  This will make a big improvement in air flow.... I hope.
...Although I  have yet to do this on the "Real thing" I am sure the extra work will prove worth it in the end...
...the round yellow see through ball is supposed to be the fire...
...the 3 levers are, 2 latch levers for the long wide ash cleanout door for a good tight fit,
and one grate shaker lever....
....

here's the latest drawing...



Bob...

[Bob]

Well, I finally got to weld a bit on the woodgas generator.
 I got the tangs welded on to the rim so I can bolt the rim on instead of welding it on... and the big hole for the air intake blasted through with the arc welder.... (that still needs allot of clean up work done on it)
 I need to finish up the grate and extend the center rods up to the hole in the center of the rim... (not in the drawing, but I'll add it later.)
then drill the holes for the bolts in the tangs and install the bolts.
weld on the intake pipe and extend the bottom of the intake pipe with another piece of the same pipe, to get a better air flow in there.
then make the diverter and install it... .
chain up the grate and then assemble it, Re-seal the thing entirely... and then round up some real charcoal and fill from the air jets down... then add my wood and try it out
....
so I still have a bunch to do... but I'm getting it !
....
Bob.....
 

[Bob]

Here's a new drawing of my Gassifier...
if anyone cares <grin>
...
Bob...

[Bob]

I got a bunch done on the gassifier so far today... and am Hopeing to get the grate on and put it back together this afternoon ! but its clouding up and looking like rain so I may not.
I got the air inlet on and fitted good and extended the side of the tube down to help get more air flow through the jets...
at a rough guess #8 3/4" tubes are about 6 square inches of area, and my 3" diam inlet pipe is about 9 square inches so it should work really good....
 ....
 I need to check out the old shop vac I have in the shop and see if I can salvage it for use as a high powered fan for the gassifier... that is one of the things the boys do on the woodgas forum on yahoo they all use big shop vac or vacuum cleaner type motors... and they work very well...
  I will try it with my heater blower fan that I have already installed on the unit but I suspect that I will need more air flow in the end.
...
I also think I will take the heating plenum out of an old gas furnace I have out yonder and see if I can use it as a radiator to help cool down the hot gasses.
....
Bob.....

[Bob]

I got about an hours work on the gassifier today,not much but I got 2 things done the intake tube is in and siliconed up with high temp silicone and  I plugged the old intake hole that was too small  and positioned on the side....
I put the intake above the Ash door as its easily accessible there.
...
so its ready to fire up now ...soon as I put the hopper back on it... but I may leave it off for the initial burn in  because I am just going to burn wood in it to get the bed of charcoal I need to have in it and then I will try to run the truck on it after that is done
 no sense in trying it without that needed bed of charcoal because without the charcoal the gasses won't "Crack" (been there done that already!)
....
 the rest of my day was spent fighting my chainsaw... it quit and I dunno why...I think its the CDI unit.... hope not because that may cost more than a new saw will ! HAHAHAHAHAHA
....
Bob......

[Manta]

Bob,

Watched a program the other day that showed how a guy in Scotland was smoking his fish. The smoke producing unit was about 15 feet from his smoke-house.  Connected by a largish bore tube;  looked about 8" diameter.  He explained that this was to cool the smoke before it got to the fish.

Maybe that is the way to go.

Manta

[Bob]

Manta:
 Many of the guys have coolers of sorts pn their wood gas trucks to make the woodgas denser by making it colder... I don't happen to have one on my truck yet, but I may have to rig one up in the future... i figure for the amount I'll be using the truck it don't need it ! LOL !
if I find I use it allot I'll put one on it <grin>
when you "Smoke" Fish or anything else for that matter, its best to keep the temp of the smoke house below 120 degrees ... the idea is to let the smoke "CURE"it , not "COOK" it!
however there is a drying out process that is also needed when "Smoking" meat so it really depends on what you read or who taught ya to do it ! HAHAHAHA
there is as many ways to Smoke Meat as there is ways to Cook it!
I prefure the Dried out method... it lasts much longer and makes great Jerky!
I have a Smoker that I picked up at a yard sale that I have never yet used... Hope to some day but buying meat is something we hardly ever do... last time I made Jerky it turned out so good that by the end of the week it was all gone and I made a good 10lbs of it ! HAHAHAHAHHAHA
... "Smoked Rainbow Trout" is one of the best tasting things you'll ever eat as is bar-b-q'ed trout.... but I haven't tasted that sense I was 20yrs old ! LOL
....
Bob...

[Bob]

I made a post on the woodgas group on Yahoo that I think bears repeating here....
I'm far from an expert on this woodgas stuff but it seams to me everyone is making it SO darn HARD!
....
  ITS NOT Rocket Science ! not by a long shot.... the idea is simple... You build a fire in a bucket or drum, get it going good and put a lid on it and the flames go out.... sense the flames no longer consume the burnable gasses they can be siphoned off to run an engine....
 yes there is more to it than that but that's it in a nut-shell !
 to me there are far too many people wondering "where can I get plans for a woodgas generator"?
and the FEMA plans actually are the poorest example out there.... but their just about the only ones with enough documentation on them so you know what your doing..... that's why I based my design off of the FEMA plans to begin with....
 However I quickly learned that not only was the FEMA plans very Poor plans but that a simple modification would make it better... a reduction zone....  so I added a 13" trailer rim into the mix and tried that.... I feel certain it would have worked now the way I had it, but I didn't give it a chance, I changed it again into a Sort-of "La'Rosafier" by taking out the trailer rim and  adding a car rim and a short down tube under the rim to hold the char.... I also added Jets or tubes for the air to be drawn into the "hot spot"....
but the basic idea has alwayse been the same...  the only real change is pulling the smoke through the char ,where before it would have just been in close proximity... because I learned that it takes extream HIGH tempitures AND CARBON/Charcoal for the gasses to "CRACK" into flamable, useable gas
....
so I think anybody can power an engine very easily by simply following a few simple rules....
realising that the engine is going to provide the air flow through the burner.... so SIZE MATTERS!
if you make the gassifier too big the air flow through the fire will not be fast enough to generate the intense heat needed to "Crack" the gasses... on the other hand if its made to small there will not be enough gasses to RUN the engine.... But in my mind its better to go too large than too small
because there are tricks you can do to get the temp up if needed. but there isn't much you can do if the gassifier is just too small to run the engine!...except build a bigger one!
...
 I outlined a idea of a 5 gal bucket with a car rim on the top (dish/lug holes, down) and a 3" or 4" diamator tube welded to the center hole pointing into the bucket, about 8" long.... and a small grate under that tube....
thats all you need !.... the rest is frills...  you need a way to light the fire ofcorse and a way to clean out the ash in the bottom... but that should go without saying <grin>
 Now with another bucket on top the rim acting as the fuel hopper your ready to go... (except that the bottom bucket needs a hole in it near the top so you can draw out the smoke)
... this SHOULD run up to a 2 or 3 cyl engine....and perhaps a 10hp or 12hp single...
its a might bit big for a 5hp B&S, to be sure, but it may well even work for that if care is taken to make the air velosity going through the burn chamber as High as possable.( that's kind'a hard when the engine is real small because it doesn't draw in that much air to keep a good hot fire going)
....
ok now that you know the idea it should be a fairly simple matter to make something up that does what you want..... you don't Need plans because its so Simple... but hardly anyone will ever explain that.
 They'ed tell you for hours on end how long it took them to get their units working and working good.
and How they did it, step by step.... and unless your making a gassifier for the same engine they did its really not much use to you...
  Now granted I have yet to run my truck off of Wood gas, I am waiting now for the fuel supply to DRY OUT ! LOL.....but I have no fear that it will work just fine .... I am sure it would have worked the way I made it first off, except I didn't know the unit had to have a bed of charcoal in it to work!
other wise all it makes is smoke ! ....I tried Bricketts thinking that was good charcoal... but that is NOT the same at all... it needs burned up wood chunks, ashes are fine Grey stuff, charcoal is the black hunks of ash.... that's what you need...and you need a bunch of them !
so you have to fire up the generator and let it burn down 2 or 3 times until you get a good bed of charcoal.... then try getting the engine to run on it.... try to do it before that point and all you'll get is frustrated!
....
Hope this helps someone trying to get a handle on WOODGAS....
...
Remember I'm no expert on this... so keep it in mind!
...
Bob......


 

[Manta]

Bob,

you might want to take another look and the Lister site. (your reply 105 above).

Here is a message 'borrowed from Ken Boake.  Seems they have got a Lister running on wood gas.

MK,

There will be full parts list, drawings and "How To" released through AllPower Labs.

We ran it again for 2 hours last night, having made some retardations to the ignition timing. About 5 to 10 degrees before TDC was about the sweet spot.

We had it lighting up 2.75 kW of halogen lighting, but it kept popping the 20A breaker when we tried to load it more. It had plenty of pull left when we revved it.

Unfortunately we didn't have a power meter available or we would have got some more accurate measurements. We hope to have some confirmatory figures soon.

Sadly, I fly back to London later today - just as this project is getting interesting - however I am leaving it in the capable hands of the good folks here, to push it forward and do some real scientific method on it, working out the efficiency, fuel economy, heat budget etc etc.

We made a linkage to allow the Listeroid governor to work the butterfly valve in Andy Schofield's gas carb and this needs a little more work and proving.  However, as we have an Arduino timing the spark, we might just chuck a R/C servo on the butterfly valve and have the Arduino control the throttle.

The Lister was running sweetly at right on 600rpm,  - when we pushed it to 620, the natural resonance of the skid we were mounted on caused everything to start shaking - so we stayed at 600 and made power at 53Hz.

I took a load more video last night which I will get up to YouTube.

If anyone is passing through northern California, and wants to see this running and have a tinker - I'm sure All Power Labs would be happy to accommodate you.  Getting this running optimally would be a great college vacation internship project.  I expect to be reproducing the set-up this summer in my workshop back in London.

This could be one of the best things happening to a Lister, since 1929  ;-)


regards,



Ken

Should stop you getting bored.

Manta

[Bob]

HAHAH yah  You notice he said Northern California.... that place is in Berkley, thats about 3 hours SOUTH of us.....  we are actually in Northern Cal. they are in Central Cal. but thats besides the point!
....
Although those boys are working hard on getting an old Lister engine running on Woodgas I fail to see the significance of it.... any engine that is in fair shape will run on woodgas... at the Most you may have to adjust the timing a bit but usually that's not the case. 
 this isn't like Hydroxy gas at all.... the Large volumes of Woodgas that are available will run a generator quite well...its been done many many times, from car's to generators.
...
  the trick is cleaning the gas up so it doesn't gumm up the engine filtering the gas is a major MUST
without the filtering your engine will be lucky to run a week. and then the valves will stick open and the rings will stick to the piston....the tar is very sticky and needs to be removed from the gas.
this is done usually by passing the gas through a few filter canasters filled with woodchips or just about anything the mear pressance of something in contact with the gas makes the tars filter out and stay on the substance... even a barrel of gravel will work ! LOL but it is best to use something that will adsorb moisture.  like woodchips, hay, pellets, even paper.
......

I'm still waiting for my wood supply to dry out.... otherwise I'm ready to try it out! LOL
....
Bob.....

 

[Manta]

I also wondered about the gumming up.

Likewise I can't really see the point of running this engine on wood gas when you can run it on waste veg oil or maybe even hydroxy.

Manta