2014 Indiana Woodgas Meetup | Argos, IN | May 16-18

Hi back All.
Time for me to firm up my arrangements (ONE of my nervous nurse wifie’s conditions).

AdminChris the link to last years info seems to be broken. Apologies if I am repeating here.
My Wife found one transfer airline arrangements to within 30 miles of Argos. Won the bet and I had to fold cloths and do the dishes.
South Bend IN (SBN) has at least 4-6 commuter connector flights daily out of the main hub of Chicago O’Hare ORD.
And they show every major car rental company - $23 economy to minivan $71 USD a day at South Bend IN airport.
Reading the Nortre Dame University tie-in above I can now understand why.
Why best to book NOW, EARLY. Plane and vehicle reservations are already filling.

This would be by far the most convenient connecting up for me. Most over-all economical too.
Sigh. But another wifie condition is if I got any reasonable offer for a partnering up that was the only way I could come.
Ha! I have four now. I can only use ONE.
Means space for three other tag-alongs to help with the long solo driving in and costs!!

Both ChrisKY and wowWayne been pestering me to do this so, all apologies and thanks: MikeL, MarvinW and BillS I’ll go one of them way one the other.
ChrisKY, YOU have to convince me that I will NOT be displacing out needed musical instruments.
WayneK, you will have to convince me that I will not be displacing out either the Son or your Wife from coming.
BTW due to common to all of KY, TN, AL, out Charlotte CLT hub commutor hop costs from the west coast it is a full $100 cheaper for me to hook up with Wayne.

Not that I’m wifie hen-pecked.
As both of the Chris’s, and MikeL now know I have a deteriorating brain condition and woodgas SteveU is sailing away now one pill bottle to the next. This will be apparent late in the long event days face to face. Expect this. Now you will see why I dropped out of visible VictoryGW presentations.
Go ahead and pick the smoky brain while you can - it helps a lot to keep it working and active.
Search out FTLD.

Chris and Wayne I’ll be PMing you.

Regards
Steve Unruh

Dang it Steve, Here is my chance to finally meet you but I have a higher calling at home that weekend. My daughter is getting married and I want/need to walk her down the aisle. Oh well, maybe our paths can cross some other time in the not to distant future.
Really glad you can make it to this unique gathering you olde Smokey Brain.
Gary in PA

Darn it GaryG,
I’m bring a little “Humming bird” 12VDC suction blower/burner to hook up to your SimpleFire and give to you.
Oh well. Rick Bates or someone else with a small system can show it off, I can rthen elease out this ~$30. DYI design for copying and then mail it to you.
Letting this brain smoke out gets me closer and closer to joining up the oldest dog and oldest cat woodstove snooze dreaming away.

Olde Smokey brain
Steve Unruh

“ WayneK, you will have to convince me that I will not be displacing out either the Son or your Wife from coming. “

Morning Steve ,

Rest assured you will be displacing no one ! I know you will be in high demand and I will have to share. Maybe I could pick you up at an airport along the route and Chris or others could drop you off on the return or visa versa .

Dang it Gary G.

Congratulation on the daughter’s marriage but we all wish it could have been a week sooner or later .

YOU WILL BE MISSED .

Wayne

Gary
Hate to hear your not coming. You were a big hit last year. congratulations on the wedding.

Steve
If you want I’ll send you my phone number. That way you can tell your wife you have at least 2-3 backup plans. I bet if you can get anywhere on the east side of the country we can get you there and back.

Marvin

Gary,
Sorry also your not making it. I will never forget, treasure, and watch the video from time to time of you standing in the back of the Toyota being the (?) announcer for the grand firing of the gasifire. This year could be the wood chunker if Ron L has his tractor there and is willing to let me hook to it.
I am almost tempted to put in a request for a change of weekends so you can be there! :o) (for the wood gathering I mean)
Nothing can beat walking the “baby girl” down the carpet!!! Been there done that.

Yah Gary, I didn’t get to spend hardly any time your way last year. You always had a crowd there. I’ve got my new simple gasifier a good way built. I found a camera today and uploaded a few pics to my site
http://www.intergate.com/~mlarosa/images/woodgas/hearth-nozzles.jpg
http://www.intergate.com/~mlarosa/images/woodgas/lower-hearth-grate.jpg
http://www.intergate.com/~mlarosa/images/woodgas/halves.jpg
I have 2 daughters. They both live with boyfriends. I don’t know if either will get married. Congrats. Maybe see you again down the road. Keep it simple !!! Mike

Bill, newbie here, do you have pic’s or is there a thread related to your mini WK?

Got a call from Larry Winiarski, looks like he’s planning to come out to Argos. Far as I know right now, he’ll be flying into South Bend.

Thomas R,
Also a newbie here. here’s the link http://driveonwood.com/forum/1357#forum-topic-top
I haven’t had any time to work on it since January because I own a plumbing company in Minneapolis. I’ve been working late every night thawing water lines to people’s houses. I hope to get back to my build soon.

I realy want to make it on wood would be even better. I try to make it back east towards the end of march for my moms birthday. This year my trip will be postponed do to winter hanging on i’m afraid so at this time planning around this weekend.Now to find something I can get started with every thing under 3 feet of snow. Best I have now is very old 100 lb lp tanks 80 gallon compressor and some smaller 10 and 12 " air compressor tanks but i’m afraid they are to thin for anything but condensate tanks. Brake roters and drums, and blades I have .I also have fin . So far I have no source for drums and struck out on water heaters and a fire tub at the scrap yard and transfer station today there is stuff at the scrap yard but no getting to it for a good long time. I’m not sure what I will even drive yet.

Tell this winter to go away !!! That’s all I have to say. Tornados will soon be on their way … ouch … M

Hi Steve,
I am really glad you are going to make it to the Argos meeting. The South Bend Airport is a good choice. It is easy to access and close to highway 31. If there is anything you need contact me through DOW site. Look forward to meeting you.
Ron L.

Hi Dave,
Glad to see you are going to make it again this year. I would be glad to hook your chunker on to my tractor PTO. Is it a standard 3PT hitch? Do you have any photo’s of the chunker? Do you need any long slab edging to run through it? I can get some if you do. My pick up has electrical prob. not sure if it will make it this year. I have been really busy plowing snow and working. Not much time to play with wood-gas. I am still hopeful though.
We will really miss Gary G. and his charcoal making demonstrations. But when the children plan their wedding we need to be there. Our first son is getting married 3 weeks earlier. Glad he made it in April.

Hi Ron, Wha’s the problem with the electronics ?? Pretty simple rig you have there except the high current inverter under the hood to run the big blower if I recall right. I think you have an electric fuel pump too. Can you still run it on dino ?? Maybe I can come a day early and bring some meters and crap and force you to bring it by “helping” ?? Maybe TerryL’s buddy will send you some bilge blowers to rig in there ?? When I was forced to do show off last year I set Jim Mason’s blower on fire … It just got scarred. I just tested it … I hate doing flare offs. I still don’t know what I’m bringing yet. I guess we’ll see once all this crap melts if it does. I think we are looking into a small ice age amigo. Hi to Rhonda and the kids. Need to chop up some charcoal next to put in the new one … Mike

Hi mike,
Glad to hear you are still kickin and surviving the cold. I think the problem we have is more than your dyno can solve. Last year after everyone left a gentleman pulled in and said Where is everyone? I just drove 4 hours to see a woodgas vehicle . So after I got my tractor headed home to Bourbon. I took him for a ride in my truck. We just got out of Argos and smoke and fire started coming out of the dash. Very EXCITING! Ronda came and picked him up and took him back to the fair grounds. An acquaintance drove by and saw me sitting there alone the road and offered to tow me home. It is still sitting in the shop. Patiently waiting for me to work on it. Just not enough time. Hopefully by May I will have it working again. Sarah, Ronda say Hi. Stay warm!
Ron L.

Sorry to hear about the dash Ron, Get rid of the light dimmers behind the dash. I bet it was the one on your fuel pump. Put all big resistors out in the open where you can see them turn red or orange or even white and also so they can cool off. I learned the hard way on that one. I think Doug D has found an electronic control for his pump but I had the dash dimmer switch on my black truck go up in smoke on my way back from an Arizona trip. That damn grease they used on the switch just broke down and smoked. I got a hotel room in Missouri before dark and drove home in daylight and fixed it at home. And so the story goes … I could smell that baby smoking as I went around Kansas City … It’s always something … Mike

Hey Mike, I did testing on the DC PWM unit that came from China with a load. It drifts down after a while. Not good. They’ll give you an amp capacity, but since I’ve seen so many of the sites bragging about mini toy control, there is no cheap electronic control for long hour running. My next thought is going to the trailer brake route or something else hearty

Doug, Here’s the one that was on my cavalier.
http://www.intergate.com/~mlarosa/images/woodgas/gasoline-dribble-control.jpg
I moved the switches to the S-10 when the tranny blew in the cav just before Argos. I had to change the nichrome wire out to get the right value.
http://www.intergate.com/~mlarosa/images/woodgas/98-S-10-CONTROLS.jpg
not as clear a picture.
Coiled nichrome is tough to find but there is still some around.
I have a couple of feet handy but there might be some more buried here somewhere. You have to experiment and figure how many ohms you need. I seem to recall that 4 volts to the pump delivers the required dribble on my stuff. I can smell the nichrome in dribble mode. I think it draws around 4 amps so 4 amps dropping 14 to 4 volts is 40 watts. This is why dashboard controls fry. They were only intended to handle around 10 watts.
Mike

Just thinking out loud here but maybe a few reverse bulbs in parallel might work just fine or the such. More likely a headlight bulb ??? I don’t have much of that stuff laying around anymore … Headlight bulbs are big. Wall switches cost 49 cents, are easy to hook up, and handle 15 amps no problem !! Party Hearty, Mike