COMMITMENT - Make wood-sweated DIY Engine Fuel for 365

Small Engines
#63

Hello Mr JO
I think Matt Ryder is there on year around daily using at least one GGE because on his gasifier systems manufacturing he has to in the summer non-wood heating season proof run these too.
Even when he may be gasoline running his generator systems Predator engine he is still using a GGE a day.

My personal preference would be that this GGE be in shaft power.
ChrisKY asked to expand that out to PV solar and such. O.K. That takes a involvement commitment too. And dedicated PV solar guys NOT Grid feeding back, WILL learn they gonnaā€™ be needing engine generation 10-100 days of the year. So - there!
Ha! Ha! Bicycle commuting by muscle I think not. Where is the new learningā€™s challenge to that?

Bicycle commuting by charcoal, made methane, even off the bike made and then stored electricity. That is new learning. But ONLY is the fuel IS MADE BY YOU. Storing Grid electricy, again . . . so-what?

Ha! Ha! By next summer I expect you will be small engine gasifier running.
Now MY (if I can oopā€™em make it that far) Summer project is to use one of these little inverter gnerators exhaust heat farmed off for domestic hot water heating.

It may seem to some I cheating my own rules running these little engine inverter gens on pump gasoline.
I will remind that both GaryG and RayM have already fueled these on charcoal gas.
Cloud rain forest I cannot get the woods dry enough to smoke free make the charcoal.
www.woodgas.nl MicroGasifier Dutch John shows two different 4-cycle engines he has raw chipped woodgasified in the 1 1/2 to 5 horsepower shaft out ranges. Easy. NOT!
You can bet DougB and his crew are working right now on woodpellet and charred pellet fueling these now too.
I use gasoline for now to work out the actual fuel range requirements in BTUā€™s to be able to decide which of their systems to use.

Now figuring only 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 (7500-12,500) pounds of wood needed for what I want per hour of motor fuel gas. This is actually really tough to gasifiy for. REALLY, Really read Dutch John advises setting aside your prejudiced Internet- teased, hopes/soaps for the hard realities of going microGasifier.
My current system (Victory Hearth) operated best at a 10 pound per hour wood fuel lower range.

Regards
Steve Unruh

4 Likes
#64

Nope I gotta come clean, in warmer times, we are not always running at least on a daily basis. I really wish we could build that fast that would be great!! Hopefully at some point we will have a test system up and going and it will be ran daily. When we do you betcha Ill be over here joining in. However, in the past its the warmer months we process fuels cutting splitting stacking. My step dad had land clearing business and would work part time helping. We would go out and cut down trees process and then split and stack to season. Ive had my fair share of all that haha.

2 Likes
#65

I have put a couple more runs on the old Onnan. Yesterday just a short and sweet cold start. Not sure how cold it was out but the ground was still hard, nothing was dripping. Auto choke didnā€™t work but just a little help and it fired fast and run on its own only bumping the choke one more quick time. Went in the shop killed the main and flipped on my new line in breaker and lights on, 300 watt range I guess. plugged in the noisy old oil less 5hp 15 gallon compressor and filled a tank. All was well shut it down, I knew from the previous days run you donā€™t run this thing more than you need to. It likes itā€™s fuel. At some where near 1/2 load it seemed to drink about 2 gallons an hour. Was gonna just put it away and call it good this morning but it was nice out and figured I would go ahead and make another run. Held the choke closed ,bumped the starter and it fired right up. Disconnected from the grid and away we go , lite up the shop and then the house. This time the water heater [120 volt ] was running, coffee, pot fridge 50 watts lights in house about 300 in the shop and a large battery charger. all was good for a few minutes , she sputtered and tripped the 20 amp breaker feeding every thing. held on a lot longer than I expected. Turned off the coffee pot and the shop lights and fired it back up under load. After a few minutes it started laboring and running rough. I had loaded it up enough to trip the breaker again. Engine had just began to miss so I called it quits for a while Wasnā€™t sure if it was the coil or condenser heating up or the points . The points were stuck on there pivot shaft when I first tore into it and the clip that held them on the shaft was rusted to pieces. It still had spark but not the bright blue I had before.
I tore back in to have a look tonight. the points were covered in oil. Not sure if I didnā€™t have the seal on the plunger on completely or if it was that in effort to get it under the eves enough to be out of the snow the other night it was not level for this run. Rinsed them with brake clean left to dry over night. Another run tomorrow
It become very obvious that I would not want to feed this thing on a daily basis after my first hour of running it. A guy would half to need a lot more power than I do and use every drop of heat it makes to make it worth running. In one hour burning $1.50 a gallon fuel it cost what I pay for a dayā€™s worth of grid power at my highest ever daily average. I will order up a set of points, a set of plugs and a gasket set while I can still get them. It may not be efficient but it is built to last forever and the sound level very tolerable. A good back up generator for a back up generator. More batteries and a small charcoal powered dc generator coming soon. Two more relic AC generators to get going. No doubt there is a small inverter in my future.

.

3 Likes
#66

There you go JimLaP
It is the stone durable gen head on this on that is the gold.
That flat head once in a overhead valve would give you at least 30% lower fuel consumption. EFI that and then a further 20% less fuel use on gasoline.
My 624 cc Kohler V-twin with these both of these advantages at synchronous 3600 at itā€™s lowest loadin
would use 1/2 gallon of gasoline per hour.

Ha! 400 watts loading on the Honda 100cc inverter at 3000 RPM is where to get the 1/10 gallon an hour.

Having actually done-it a bit a gasoline fuel hogging small engine isnā€™t really the problem once woodgassed. Actually helps you keep the gasifier heated up and producing well. The real problem is the engine power loss woodgasing a flat head. One-Half. One-Half. One-Half. At best
And if that engine is already worn out, loosing half itā€™s original power already . . .
Then an woodgas unusable 1/4 of itā€™s original rating.

O.K. to trial run on old flatheads. I torcuhred a couple of Tecumsehā€™s on chargas myself.
Later serious needing to use power a fellow wants to go with a higher compression, smoother gasses flowing overhead valve.

Regards
Steve Unruh

1 Like
#67

That is 5 miles in the AM and 5 miles in the PM. I challenge you to do that. You have to get your body in condition after a winter of just running a gallon of gasoline through a generator each day as a new learning challenge. I vote absolutely. He is actually saving a gallon of petro a day by not using the car. And who knows he may produce a little methane while sitting on that narrow seat. JOā€™s wife makes the fuel and he stores it at each meal for his next ride.

I donā€™t understand your thinking as pertaining to[quote=ā€œSteveUnruh, post:63, topic:2321ā€]
It may seem to some I cheating my own rules running these little engine inverter gens on pump gasoline.I will remind that both GaryG and RayM have already fueled these on charcoal gas.
[/quote]
Does that mean they get NO credit for running on charcoal because it has been done before. If I remember correctly, those generators you are running were built to be and you are running them on petro. You get a credit and they donā€™t??? I guess you might get the impression I donā€™t understand this challenge----the story about ā€œfishingā€ did make sense to me If you canā€™t make charcoal because of the smoke, then you have an added challenge to work on. I think that brings us to duplicating DJā€™s micros for generators. When and If you were to switch to wood or charcoal all the figures for BTUā€™s per hour etc. change drastically. And finally, if you were to decide that a shortage or lack of petro will be the reason for you having to abandon the grid, then you really need to learn how to make and run an alternate fuel. ( Sorry, it is just I get to thinking about this as I am out in my cold shop working on making charcoal processor so that if the ship hits the sand I will be able to generate electricity and weld with my charcoal Weldnpower. and we areā€™t able to claim any points ) TomC

4 Likes
#68

Hey BryanS
Thatā€™s the point of while a fellow may be involved in a l-o-n-g hundreds of hours WK vehicle biuld to just go out and run a bit, power generate a bit even with gasoline or propane.
Cheer you up. Keep you plugin on forward.
Next week end Harbor Freight has these 2-cycle Yammer-clones for $88. each.
Family get-together yesterday, Sunday I had two of my sisters and two adult nieces easy pull start and operte my wifeā€™s Honda. THEY could immediately see the independence possibilities.
Had the Yammer-clone there too. None of the women like the noise. The fact of havong to mix the gasoline.
Told my hard core hunter/fisher guys BILā€™s tha I would be giving these women folk of mine her own Yammer-clone on her next up birthday.
So unless they wanted to be ragged for-ever-more better stop boats re-powering and fuel burning there, and and in the quads and motoercyles; up-grading from Remingtons/Winchesters to Bennelliā€™s and set up MY women folk too with a set-aside-and forget Honda inverter generator too.

Am I an ass, or what? I thought that was the B-I-L job description.

Regards
Steve Unruh

2 Likes
#69

Tom you are still lost man.

The Challenge is to just do it daily for your self. To teach you self.
You score your self.
You can post up here if you want or not.
You can read here or not as you want.

We had an exchange on Alladin lamps. No doing there. Links. Maybeā€™s. Shouldaā€™s. Coulddaā€™s.
Nothing DOer learned or told.
I have three Alladins. Thse will use one quart in eight hours at full burn/bright-ness. Put out lots of BTUā€™s per hour fr that illumination. And cumilative smell, and carbon dioxide and water vapor into the room for that illumination. Bright single point lighing then shadows badly.
Same for mantle ā€œgasā€ illumination. DOing learned.
My THREE Aladins together with 60-100 watt incandescent eqivnency illuminations WILL suck up/use one gallon lamp oil (de-sented kerosene) in 2.66 hours. So 300 watts of incnadnet equivalent for an 118,000 BTU fuel out lay.
The Honda for 118,700 BTU fuel outlay would give 400 wattd of incandedent illumination for 11 hours.
4X the lumenā€™s illumination with CFLā€™s. 6X the luminā€™s illumination with now the LED I have switch over too.
DOing teaches.

Key boarding just makes noise. Hereā€™s bicyle noise:
Camplonola, Sun-Tour, Shimano, Renolds 541 double butted lug brazed joints. My bicycle with over 50,000 miles on it.
Hey. I for years did wheel drive generate for headlight and taillight 1977-1989.

S.U.

1 Like
#70

Fellows.
Third topic of mine now clogged by talking non-DOing.

Spring is here. Start need to be grass/weeds mowing soon. As soon as we get a string of 4-5 day no rain be gardens tilling-in. Then firewood making to row-up to dry in June/July.

I will be busy now out running engineS powerng to DO these things.

I have no more patience with just this key board jabberin on, and on, and on, and on.

Seven years of it now Internet passing gas about wood with never more than a double handful actually up-off-ass out DOing it daily

I am done now.

Good-by. You actually Doing, Keep your power freedom/independence fires burning.
Washington State Steve Unruh

#71

Hey Steve sorry for the frustrationsā€¦ For a change I didnā€™t help the digression. Thought I would write to let you know you got me thinking again with this post. In direct response to it I went out drain ed the old gas cleaned the carb and refilled my standby with exactly 1 us gallon of fuel. It is overhead valve but a 3.5 peak 3 kw running homelite honda clone. Verdict was about 3 kw of electricity generation per gallon averaged from two runsā€¦ based on your readings of 4kw per gallon this tells me if I go off grid again I need me an inverter generator. In rural Ontario I end up paying $20 for consumption and a wopping $60 for rural delivery based on a daily consumption of about 7 kw. So it averages out to about $.30 per kw. It is the curse of having an efficient house; use less and the cost per goes up. The reason I ramble is that your cost per kw running on gasoline is almost the same as small amounts of grid power nowā€¦ that is without the heat recovery functions added on or charcoal gasificationā€¦ makes you wonder. As far as doing you know Iā€™m no armchair warrior. Iā€™m not posting here because I have nothing new to add. Iā€™m Making an exception to offer support as you seem frustrated. Remember your posts donā€™t fall on deaf ears just quiet mouthsā€¦
Best regards David Baillie

4 Likes
#72

Steve U,

Iā€™ll keep you posted and updated, and yes time to have a little fun along the way, I agree! Glad spring is finally coming, many changes nowā€¦

Bryan S

1 Like
#73

David, I live close to Canada and we pay about $.10 per kW or at least we did. So Canada wants to run an under ground/water cable under lake erie in order to sell electric to usā€¦? Something smells fishie hereā€¦ :see_no_evil:

3 Likes
#74

Ontarioā€™s electrical infrastructure used to one crown corporation called Ontario Hydro.

Successive governments have deregulated sold assets split the Utility into two semi private units called Ontario power Generation and hydro One distribution.
Independent operators are also involved in the generation end.

Costs have exploded and it all smells like Enron and California style stupidity of the 90s.
You think you smell something fishy?
It aint fresh fish thatā€™s for sureā€¦

I should add government did step back in to regulate costs.
But the damage done means costs to the consumer have risen much faster than inflation.
a couple of the largest and most expensive nuclear plants in the world are in limbo with costs rising and the public on the hooks to decide who will be accountable for the refit costs and who really is the one that should benefit by their operation.

We want clean green power, but we are held hostage to private interests.
In the mean time the reactors age and need to be refit.

We should have just bought Hydro from Quebecā€¦

2 Likes
#75

Steve,
Please donā€™t give up on us! I have learned much from your posts, experience relating to us newbies and to the old-bies too. Based on your recommendations, I watched the (over-dramatized but point made) HBO ā€œLights Outā€ documentary. I read the Ted Koppel book. I now have an easy-to-use generator for household basics. My Wife is even reading the Koppel book! I am cleaning TONS of crap out of my garage so I can get started fabricating SOMETHINGā€¦or at least cutting fuel to be drying.
I understand if you want to take a break from daily responding to the many questions!
Thank You,
Mike Reynolds
P.S. Going to get off the internet now and go back to the garage. :grinning:

6 Likes
#76

24F this morning. The Harbor Freight Yamaha clone the best for electrical working on these sub-freezing mornings. The Honda 4-stroke takes too long for the crank case oil to come up to good lubrication distribution temperature. Plus the Yamaha 2-stroke clone even better at cold morning greenhouse heating.
Near 100% fuel heat value effinciey IF YOU PURPOSEFULLY DO USE THE engine-gen HEATS.

Be second time mowing some areas this afternoon.
Third no-rain day this month today with: 2-3 more forecasted.
IF this drying out spell lasts be gardens tilling in for the first time.

As the great actor Robert Duval said in character in the DAYS of THUNDER; ā€œYou all keep just going around and around. Weā€™s too busy for you right now. Weā€™re eating ice cream.ā€

Iā€™ve put down 30 days of 3.5 to 12 hours daily self-generating for daily use electricity and farmable heats now since my commitment. 300 hours of morning startingā€™s and runningā€™s from 24F to 60F. Next three months will be 30F to 90F. Then three months of 55F to 110F.
Be up to near 1800 hours then.

Wannaā€™ ever get good at anything?
Do it daily come hell, high water, sickness, and all other distractions.
Yeah. I caught the three week crud. Still coughing up crud.
I still ran daily.

Woodgas? I still fine split and woodstove burnt 100 pounds a day for house heating. ~20% IS woodgased in my woodstove. Now cumulative 20,000 hours doing that since 1996.
Ha! This last month with actual mushrooms growing center of pile hidden wood!

Talking/keyboarding is no-commitment cheap.
Real world results experience/learning is fuel and time expensive.

Best Regards to all DOing/Using on a daily basis.
For you rest . . . you all just keep going around and around spinning those same no-results flatspotted idealists wheels.
Washington State Steve Unruh

7 Likes
#77

Keep eating ice cream Steve!

4 Likes
#78

My closest neighbor uses his propane turkey fryer to boil down his sap. I cut down a few Tamarack trees to boil my sap. His gets done quicker and goes through a few 20# tanks. Mine cost me my time. I threw this together for this year but have plans for a bigger and an efficient one next year.

IMG_20160312_163622887.jpg1556Ɨ2764 1.62 MB

IMG_20160326_133216353_HDR.jpg2764Ɨ1556 1.48 MB

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#79

Here is a list of real world give daily power to people DOer guys:
Soichio Honda, Raymond Herrick (Tecumseh), John Lauson, Stephen Foster Briggs & Harold M. Stratton, Ole Evinrude, the Johnson Brothers, John Michael Kohler, Magokichi Yamaoka (Yanmar), Karl Kiekhaefer (Mercury), Ole Evinrude, Genichi Kawakami (Yamaha).
These guys Japaneses, Canadian and American personally ram-rodded their power makers to be able to be individual human scaled used all of the year around in all possible conditions.

30,000 miles traveling around the western US od A 1997-2012 and I only found ONE actual woodgas system maker and ONE charcoal maker who even burnt with wood at home for heating, and used year around their own creations for power.
All of the rest, no matter what their names, their fameā€™s, their publications and the doctorate letters after their name were hollow men.

Would you trust a cookbook from a person who did not even proof their own recipes? Trust a cook, a chef not willing to subsist on their own creations? You want a Granny-cook to lrom from.
Trust learning from an only fair weather sailor? You want a foaul weather sailor to learn from.
Trust learning only from a sunny day fisherman? You want the guy who fishes year around saying any day fishing is better than a day not fishing.
Trust learning from a road-hunter? The braggart. One lucky elk does not make an elk hunter. The Hunter is the guy getā€™s an elk each and every year.

ALL of my equipment and systems must work if I work.
I work from 10F, to 100F. Rain. Snow. Sleet and hail.

Hereā€™s short list of woodgaser who do show that they operate year around in the frozen and snow:
Gregg Manning, Johan Liddel, S.E. Werner, Vesa Mikkonen, Dutch John, TrerryL, ArvidO, and Bruce Jackson.
Bruce used to have a neat short youtube up called ā€œHey Jim!ā€. He was showing Californian Jim Mason the along with gasoline woodgas was the ONLY buried in snow, frozen fuel possible. IF YOU DESIGNED and built it without water bath filter limitations!

So fair weather woodgasser, wanna-beā€™s . . . Springs here now.
What idealism, perfection excuses now,eh??

Real simple equationsion. Since we all do use/consume powers each and every day then we should be making some DIY power each and every day too. If you want to claim freedom and independence.
Other wise you are just a sheeple/consumer. Mill lions ans million of those.
Just a social class, scale climbing, faming geek.
The first can live in any city - dependent, sheeeple . . always.
The other you have to go where the geek action and publishing are done best. Gore-like jetting around.

DYI power making is about the individual making for themselves and their responsibilities.

Too few actually do this.
Cudoā€™s to those who do.
Wayne Kieth and family are quite and example of this.

Steve Unruh - making a bit of power every day now, come hail, high water or the coming of the WA State Dept of Ecology

3 Likes
#80

Iā€™m sorry but as usual, I donā€™t understand how you came to this conclusion.
Gregg Manning a very knowledgeable gasifier, who built a gasifier furnace but I have never heard of him driving on a daily basis. JO has a gasification boiler and heats his house exclusively with it.
Johan Linddel, built a gasified car and drove around Sweden and then got a couple of tractors running on woodgas. Does he drive that car daily and does he farm with the woodgas tractors. Here I might mention WK
S.E Warner, has built a few units for stationary and mobile use. Is he driving his van on a daily basis.
With out going on, I hope you get my point. All of these people have built something but do they use it on a regular basis and what else have they done since. There are many people on here who have built a WK vehicle and drive it daily even to commute to required jobs or converted small equipment to charcoal and use them for specific purposes, even small scale logging.
Why do the people you mention deserve such aka lades?[quote=ā€œSteveUnruh, post:79, topic:2321ā€]
So fair weather woodgasser, wanna-beā€™s . . . Springs here now.What idealism, perfection excuses now,eh??
[/quote]

And then others are shut out because they arenā€™t part of the good 'ol boys.TomC

3 Likes
#81

Iā€™m proud to be a ā€œwood gasser wanna be.ā€

It could be worse. I could be a politician wanna be.

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#82

Yeah DonM, I keep eating this DIY made elecrtical ice cream each and every day now.
3.3 kW/hrs to up to 6.0 kW/hrs depending on the balance of needs for low 400-500 watt power for 10-12 hours. Versus the 2 hours of 6000 watts blast.
AND versus how much systems heats I need and can utilize.
And this all for my one GGE daily commitment.
My point of this topic was this a can be done NOW, TODAY on as small as a 100ā€™x100ā€™ suburban lot.

Learn to live on less not-Grid electricity now while still on Grid. ā€œS-o-m-e-d-a-yā€ perfections/idealisms are the distractions from ever getting anything done in real lifeā€¦
The song you know: ā€œWhen Someday . . . Never comesā€.

Take Actions Forward this day.
Steve Unruh