First post, looking for advice

That is a nice design on the slip roller Andris. I’m guessing the tension on the driven roller is adjusted with the bolts in the pillow blocks. What is the gauge of the steel you have in the roller picture?

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yes, i rolled the sheet back and forth and tightened the bolts(M12x1.75) gradually, about half turn at time.

that was 3mm thick and 500mm wide stainless sheet.

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That would be about 12-13 ga. Marcus made the base of his heat exchanger out of 14 ga so that bender would be good for a lot of gasifier components. How much thicker do you think you could go in mild steel?

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Tom, i think it cannot roll more than 3mm of wide sheet,
maybe 4mm if you roll narrow rings.
i have not tried, but that is my guess.

these cast iron pillow blocks are rather weak, i was expecting one of them to break while rolling 500 mm wide sheet.

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Welkom to DRIVE ON WOOD —HAVE WOOD WILL TRAVEL, Looks like your cooler has plenty of surface area, You are off too a good start, Nice looking sheet metal roller, will that roll 1/4 inch plate sheet, or not likely.?

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hi, Kevin thank you.
no, i think roller is too weak for steel of that thickness, weakest parts are the pillow blocks, also plumbing pipes are thin and soft.

now, concerning my gasifier, progress is slow,but steady ))

bottom lid and grate


shaker lever

filter filled with hay


tank for condensate

whole thing mounted on cart

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test run ))

sorry for the crappy out of focus video, i had to use cheap Chinese CCTV lens.

i did take measurements with infrared thermometer at some points of gasifier.
ambient temperature was around 0C / 32F.

in heat exchanger air temperature increased from 0C(32F) to 260C(500F)
while gas temperature dropped from 330C(626F) to 130C(266F)
in cooler gas temperature dropped to 40C(104F)
and at the exit of the filter it was 35C(95F)

blower

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Looking very good! The air temperature results are very promising for preheat. This will protect your nozzles from warping as well as increase efficiency. How does the gas look when you light it? Is it slightly hazy/almost clear?

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the heat exchanger performs better than i expected.
i did not expect such temperature differences.

the gas was not clear at that point when i was able to light it, it was like very thin smoke.
is that a bad sign?

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Nope that is a very good sign, the “smoke” has impuritys that are being broke down through the high heat in the fire into more fuel. Thick smoke no good, thin HAZE is what you want!

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