I would make a clear tube out of some clear plastic of some sort. Next mock up a hopper with the tube to SEE how you fuel particles flow. Maybe even paper thin clear plastic around a temporary frame.
SteveU, those are some good words - indeed!
Cheers.
Beautiful, truthful words Steve. We should all live our lives this way.
Bob
I’m not sure of your configuration. I think a 1/4" walled pipe 2" or longer would hold up.
In this configuration there would be no charcoal on the outside diameter of the pipe. I think it could have possibilities.
Good Morning JeffD,
I was very surpized to see these Shin-Etsu Handotia buckets way out there on the east-side US.
I worked for SEH Ammercica in Vancouver WA for 7 years, 1990-97.
As crude just-do-it, good-enough as I may come accross . . . at SEH everything was in ppb, microns and sub-microns. Semi, Clean, to Super-Clean artificial working environments. Robots galore. CNC processes as much as they could do it.
With surprisingly the experimental and developmental works all done by hand.
Very, very much if you postulated it. First you had to peer-groups prove potential advantages before leaping onward. Failures would get you shame-ribooned (a Japanese thing)
Hammered home the true human cost for cheap affordable consumer gee-gaw electronics. 12-15 hour shifts (for go-getters) were long term very health wearing down on us all.
Other than the cow dairies I began on SEH was the place I got the most bacterial and viral infections. “Clean” was for particles and any and all metalics and undesirable chemical contaminets into the silicon products.
So we were only allowed Simple Green and isopropanol alcohol for all cleaning. Ha! My area would spawn out tiny biting fly gnats from the always wet utilities trenches. They would only come out in mid-graveyard shift. Any one of us with an infection was then vectored onto most everyone else in the area. Sigh. Needed a strong toxic fumigation. Never approved.
In contrast all of my years in dirty greasy, oily mechnic’ing and DC electric; I very seldom got sick. Microbes cannot tolerate the petrochemicals, lead metalics and battery acids!
Human cells not happy either. Cuts, scrapes always slow to heal. But with never infections!
Bit slow picking up on the SEH made-in-Japan buckets. Bit out of it with some recent oral surgery.
Lukoplacia in my mouth back in the early 1990’s was my really first startle awake timeline calling up.
Ha! Ha! I am still here. You be too, man for as long as the gettin’ is still good for you.
tree-farmer Steve Unruh
SteveU, I promise to hang in there long enough to clean those buckets with charcoal, heat, hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Oh, and dirt from my shop and dirty hands.
I’m starting to eat more. Typing this in the motel connected to the Cleveland Clinic. Early morning I head to their cancer center. It’s right out of a science fiction movie over here. Not sure if I’m still on planet earth, of course I’m listening the Grateful Dead… Hmmmm…
You are probably fine as long as you aren’t driving the train. 
I wish there was time to talk about this. Maybe this weekend I’ll have a break.
Thinking about replacing the expensive slip rolls with a hexagon (or less) shaped tube and use a less expensive sheet metal brake.
Another weekend shot. Just got back from pre-op. Sunday I set sail back to Cleveland. Monday I go under the knife. Be there four days so maybe three of those days I can play with this stuff. I’ll take the Dead with me! 
Thankyou Jeff for keeping us updated. Many here are still praying for your health!
Thanks Robin. Friday was my first full day back. This is the first day I had the energy and interest to catch up with DOW. Still a hurting puppy but only tylonal type pain relievers. Have the strong stuff just in case but plan not to use it. The pharmacist explained how to destroy the stuff when the time comes. The surgeon is extremely talented! Dang thing was stuck to my hip bone and the tube that runs from kidney to bladder. Managed to get it out through a small incision. He didn’t have to open me up and he was able to put me back together. The man has talent! Wow!
Getting back to using a brake to replace slip rolls to make sheet metal cylinders. I could make octagon or less sided cylinders or make a lot more bends to come closer to the cylinder shape. A wild guess would be 8" to 5" diameter cylinders. It would be nice to go down to 4" for the filters. SO my question is; can one of these brakes keep bending until a cylinder like tube is bent without the brake, it’s self, interfering with the sheet metal bending into shape?
Cheap brake:
Better brake:
They are on eBay. I like the better brake but there may not be as much clearance for the last bends of the sheet metal cylinder like tube.
Welcome back, Jeff! +20 characters
Hi Jeff, so good to hear from you, glad your back at it. Still praying for you.
Really happy to hear you came out well.
IThink the brake in the top picture is like he one I have and the clamp bar is just loose. It’sA pain to line it up and clamp it down each time, but it would allow you to easily slide it out of your cylinder. I think the bar s 3" wide so a 4" cylinder would clear, bot you would be clamping over a previous bend.
Jeff, Matt posted a brake he built to do just what your talking about. Hopefully he will see this, and re post. I don’t remember where it is.
Thanks everybody!
Andy, maybe I could make a modified bar that would be narrower. Of course I like the better brake but if the cheaper one works better than there is no choice.
It would be nice to make my brake but then I would be spending time on that instead of gas. 
Matt’s invention. I’ve been meaning to make one.
I have one of those vise mounted brakes. Though you can make a cylinder, they are only really built to handle up to 18ga, (start to deflect) and it’s a real trial of patience, as you have to clamp for every bend, and guess at what angle for each bend, and still end up with a faceted cylinder. You have to start on both ends and work towards the middle, then cinch with straps, weld, then hammer form. The facets can be fixed by hammering on a mandrel, but it starts to get artisinal.
This is a Philippine system which should work with up to 12ga with a bit of effort, again starting from the ends, and a bit of persuasion from some weight and a big dead blow mallet… Credit to Mr. Belonio, in his interesting document, Rice Husk Gas Stove Handbook.
To close a cylinder it would have to be very sturdily braced and open on one side, or have one forming pipe secured by bolts.
The nice thing about this approach is it will not leave faceted bends. Either approach will need fairing on a mandrel, the artist’s touch to whatever degree is satisfactory. 
I like the two pipe idea. 18ga or less is fine for me. I’m just working with metal 5 gallon buckets. I think the side walls of 55 gallon barrels are 18ga and that would make a good source of sheet metal. I plan to pop rivet everything together and some bolts, no welding.
I have no idea when I will be able to use a chop saw and a welder so fabing a bender is kind of out for some time. However the two pipe bender above comes close.
Here is a homemade lite sheet metal bender that I have been thinking about. Might have to start out with a longer sheet of metal than needed. Get something like two or more hose clamps. Keep tightening the clamps until the sheet is wrapped around a form. Then possibly pop rivet. The form would need holes where riveted. Better yet, wrap a cable around the loose cylinder (with form inside), one end of the cable attached to a fixed object like a wall. the other end attached to a winch. The second cable would wrap reverse direction to counter possible rotational forces. It would be nice to use just one winch for both cables. If I can find some string, paper and a form I will make a model and post a photo.
I have seen a simple hand cranked machine that crimps 2 sheet metals together. Wery old, it was used to make buckets and gutters. It had 2 axles with changable rollers that crimped the rim in stages l think. This wuld be ideal for you.
