Hi Greg, mixing high temp RTV silicone with corn starch makes a excelent gasket and it cures fast as wel. I use this method allot
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Armand, Can you say some more about the RTV/cornstarch gasket? does the cornstarch make the silicone spongy? Do you mix in as much as you can, use equal parts or have some other method?
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The mixture doesnt get spongy at all, it turns into a hard rubber, i usualy just mix enough starch so that the silicone gets to a play dough consistancy. I dont have an exact mixing ratio, but you realy dont use allot of starch.
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OK, I get it. You are making high-temp gasket putty. That is a good idea. I bought some expired date red silicone putty and I have used a lot of it it for gaskets and sealing leaks. I also have some spongy sheets and strips that have been useful.
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Ive been working on Bens gasifier for a while now, running a 13 hp genset. Ive noticed fluctuations in fuel richnes influencing the generators performance. The flare here is bright orange and sometimes suddenly turns blue and is barely visible. What would cause the sudden change in gas quality? Thanx for any advice
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Usually bridging. Try shaking the whole gasifier periodicly
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Ive got the grid shaker timed at every 3 min for 3 sec as Ben apecified, but expected the timing to be too long for this genset. Ive ordered a shaker to mount on the reactor, hopefully this will help
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Well l was referring to bridging above the hearth. Bridge forms, charcoal can burn freely - blue flame. Bridge collapses, falls in the cavity of char, yellow flame.
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Sorry mis understood you Kristjan. Would you sugest smaller feed stock? Im currently using pine blocks 2inches X 5inches 1inche thick. Im starting to concider moving to charcoal only
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That’s WAY to big. What’s the size of the hearth? The diameter of it that is.
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The choke hole dia is 2.6 inches. Hearth diameter is 6 inches
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This calls for egg size fuel. You want your fuel to be about equal size in all 3 dimensions. Long peaces cause bridging
Try making cubes 1,5x1,5x1,5" for a start then work from there.
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I use muffler repair wrap from the auto parts or Amazon in many similar applications in ovens and gasifiers, etc.
But I like Armand’s idea. It’s new to me.
I thought that was what was happening to Jesse’s gasifier (Mike La Rosa) because he keeps getting a really clean blue or transparent flame. Virtually no orange or yellow. But I opened it up and tried to shake it down and check for bridging, but it had none. Somehow that thing just makes blue-er gas than a WK. Any other ideas why it does that?
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It has the “blues” cause it misses Mike.
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Genius.! No one else would have thought to consider an emotionomechanico cause of a blue gasifier flame. Thanks Don. 
But I don’t want to highjack this thread by getting off topic, my fault, sorry about that…Maybe if anyone wants to respond to that question they can do so in Jesse’s thread. Thanks.
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Will do Kristijan, it makes sense. I wil resize my feedstock and post results within next week, i need to get the machine painted first
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Maybe less carbon particulates / soot?
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I think this is a another proof of what l am preaching about. The air preheat and pushing heat in the gasifier will result in richer gas with more hydrogen. WK is great at that and guess what, hydrogen burns more orangey compared to blue burning CO.
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Just to be sure I understand you, So you are saying that preheating (like most WK’s) increases the amount of water cracked to Hydrogen so it makes a stronger orange flame? Also, How does pushing help more than pulling?
Also, this thing seems to be making a very short bridge just above the brake rotor char bed area. Usually, in my experience with WK a bridge tends to be more obvious and taller. But I think it is bridging some, just a very short bridge that is harder to feel when you put a poker into it. I think this thing may need slightly smaller wood than the WK or it needs to shake and bounce going down the road behind a vehicle.
Jakob’s new chunker is making very cracked up wood so there is an array of sizes to the wood. Maybe we can find a simple way to sift it out to size it for different units.
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