My nozzle is really simple. I had a section of 3/4 inch pipe and some fittings so I just welded the coupler on the side of the air tank with a piece of pipe on the inside that goes almost to the center of the tank and a shorter piece with pipe sticking out with a 3/4 to 1 inch adapter just because it was on the scrap pipe I had.
I didn’t leave a good way to change the nozzle and the top opening is only 3 inches so no chance of reaching inside far enough to change it.
I’ve only fully emptied it after my first burn so I don’t know how it is holding up. I’ll have to cut an access port in the tank when it needs changed but I just wanted to get it working and prove that it was going to work before getting too fancy with it.
I don’t expect that nozzle to last a long time but I’ve only run it maybe 4 or 5 times now and the longest was probably a half hour or slightly over that before it was getting hot enough to start melting my duct tape.
I ordered a piece of 1 inch flexible exhaust pipe for the generator that I might use to add a little exhaust back into the gasifier or I might try rigging up a simple water drip to try to extend the life of the nozzle and add a little more power.
I do heat with wood as well as coal but the furnace isn’t easy to take unburnt charcoal back out of but I have scooped some glowing coals out of it before and dumped them into a bucket of water to get charcoal but that was for a different project.
The grates on the furnace are too big so, unless I’m burning coal, the wood falls through and burns up into ashes. In the heart of winter I try to keep the fire burning and never let it fully go out. It might be possible to collect some charcoal at the beginning and end of the heating season when the furnace isn’t needed full time though.
Oh yeah, on my first visit to Gary I saw he was using a water cooled nozzle but didn’t get to examine it to figure out exactly how it was made. If I remember right, I think it was set up to put the steam back into the fire but he also had the exhaust fed back in so I assume the steam/water vapor wasn’t enough alone to keep the fire cooled. He showed me an old water cooled nozzle made from copper that melter when he forgot to keep the water full but I didn’t ask if his current nozzle was copper or something else.
My own gasifier isn’t real easy to fill and empty so I haven’t taken the time to check the nozzle but there’s a very good chance that a better nozzle would make it work better but it works for now.
I’m hunting for materials to build a different filter and maybe some kind of cooler for the gas but haven’t started anything yet.
Lots of ideas but limited time and scrap. So far, if you don’t count stuff I had, I only spent less than $20 for the pipe cap. The rest was made from scrap parts I had laying around or that was given to me. It probably hasn’t paid for itself yet but at $4 a gallon for gasoline it shouldn’t take long.
