Gary Gilmore, My start to building a charcoal gasifier

Mart, is that a plastic barrel…? If so you might be able to cancel the order.

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Yup…
“Black 30 gallon plastic storage/shipping barrel”

that storage tank might be worth to try … :grin:

or better go for the 30 gallon gas tank… same as i used on my little tuktuk…

Uploading…

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Thanks for that, I requested to cancel. RE: plastic.

Hi Mart , if they wont cancel your order all is not lost as that would make a good large size filter , also as Gary mentioned don’t bother with a shop vac at all , but if you need something for sucking or blowing you can buy 12volt auto vac’s , or mattress pumps on ebay cheap and that’s what I use to start my gasifier .

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Thanks, I can get them locally to me for 20$. I can get 55 gal plastic for $10.00 each. They sent my $ back for the plastic barrel whew glad they did. I will continue to scan craigslist for deals. In the mean time I think I will upload pictures of my carb, and start working on the filter.

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Well I have collected a few things for this project, I now have 2 5 gal buckets full of charcoal, a metal bucket I got from roofing tar, Foam mattress for making filters. After opening up the the air filter to look at the carb, I can see that the inlet is all plastic, not a good thing if I plan on putting in hot gasses from the wood gas.

So next need to gather materials for making like a bulkhead fitting into the bucket, for the pipes to fit in. Will need hoses I think.

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Any woodgas/chargas should be well cooled before it reaches the intake. That said, carbon/soot build-up can catch fire; or a backfire could crack the plastic intakes.

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Hi Mart ,
Good to see that your continuing your charcoal project , if I can suggest a few things it may help you , take off the plastic filter housing ,as you wont need that .
Get a piece of 2 or 3 mm mild steel sheet and cut to shape with 2 holes for fastening and one 25mm hole in the centre and weld a tube or pipe nipple to it , you can then slide or screw on the gas pipe or mixer valve to that .
The other thing I would do ,if that isn’t an electric start engine would be to take off the pull starter and use a drill with a socket on it to spin the engine over .
If you want a few pictures of what I did with old pipe and scrap fittings onto the engine let me know and I will go out and snap a few for you .
All the best
Dave

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Another option is to get a pre-fabricated carburetor adapter from @sabbadess .

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Thanks d100f!,

I will take the plastic filter off and look at it again. I have used the drill method on my lawn mower there I used a dremel and cut a hole so that the socket would fit over the nut, the compression was great so will use a bigger drill next time. But yes a good way to start these is essential, my favorite is starting fluid.

Mart

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That looks simple enough seems like I could find a part like that I could grind down to get that design. If not I have a friend that has a welder.

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Hi Mart ,
One other thing I forgot to mention is the crankcase breather tube , a few of my engines if not used on a daily basis would be hard to start and I found that the dry gas had seized up the butterfly’s on the choke and throttle , so I drilled a hole in the pipe nipple and squeezed the breather pipe into that making sure its airtight , the small amount of oil thrown up from the crankcase seemed to have cured the sticking butterfly’s .
With the drill spinning the engine there isn’t really a need for starter fluid if all is airtight and the engine has good compression .
Have you decided what you will use for the nozzle yet ?
Dave

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You know Mart that charcoal gas is already a vapor, unlike gasoline, and you will be amazed how easy starting it is - almost better than starting fluid in my experience as long as the air mixture is right.

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I do want to get some spring latches for the lid of my 5 gal metal bucket. Will this set work, or do you recommend a different set?

Mart, I see that those are listed as spring latches but the only “spring” they have is the over center tightening feature. Those will be hard to mount on a lid and will not give you any puff back protection. Gary Gilmore is good at making his own spring designs like this one using angle iron and flat stock plus a compression spring.

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also look out for bed or hammock/swing seat springs , they always come into the scrap yard in the thousands

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Many couches/recliners too.

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I never used any kind of puffer lid or relief valve of any kind on any of my charcoal gasifiers. I have though seen little puffs out of my intake.I am just carful around dry grass and leaves. Maybe just a piece of screen for a spark arrester. if it is going to puff this is where it will do it. Path of least resistance.

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