I just ordered everything. Supposed to get here next Wed. Hopefully I didn’t forget anything. The double tapped bushing should make everything easy.
Cody, would that setup you stated run a 5kw generator also? I’m using the 212cc generator to get the bugs out before I hook it up to the better generator. My eventual plan is to build up a generator with a water cooling and an oil filter. Got too many projects right now so it will have to wait for when I have time.
I would try it with the 3/8" holes, if it isn’t powering it then expand one hole at a time to 1/2" starting from the center.
For reference I powered a 2 Liter truck with 5 holes at 1/2".
Updrafts are very forgiving in everything except fuel quality.
Steve, Thanks for the link. Just ordered everything.
One sort of instrument you could add to the gasifier, at any point and not 100% necessary, is some kind of thermometer at the gas exit. The gas will slowly get warmer as the fuel is used up, I want to say most guys refill at about 100°F gas temp and it will be probably half full.
With a totally full unit the gas will be very cool because the gas is slowed down by the fuel.
When refilling be very careful of the carbon monoxide, if you’re refilling it after just using it. The gasifier will be completely full of CO and you don’t want to breathe that in, you can’t smell it. Keep your head away from the opening and just poke around with a steel rod to break up any bridging and fill it up. Carbon Monoxide is a silent killer.
Tried to do a short video last night Gary and the battery on the camera died. Sounds like you have everything you need now anyway. That reducer SteveB listed will make this assembly easier. Keep in mind that you want that nozzle at a very slight incline, maybe just a few degrees so that your water drip runs down into the nozzle. Getting the amount of drip adjusted is a little trial and error tricky. I put a small 3/32 drain hole in the bottom of the flute to let excess water drain out but I haven’t heard anyone else doing it and can’t report on it because I no longer use the flute and just use hexoloy tips in my simple fire nozzles now. I will post a picture of a simple drip set up.
Cody,
After removing the lid for refilling, I will ignite the gas with a grill lighter, before it ignites itself in my face. It has ignited while I was grabbing the grill lighter—a little boom that echoed off surrounding buildings.
My parts came in today.
I got a Sch 80 pipe for the flute. The only problem that I see is that the cap will not pass through the coupling. I am going to try to shave it down with a bench grinder enough to fit through.
Still having welder problems. The MIG will not feed wire. It seems the hollow tube the wire runs down is binding somehow. Feed motor runs fine. Any suggestions before I either hook up the stick welder or buy another MIG?
Is your drive wheel tensioned correctly?
You can replace the liner in the gun.
Also, what I would do is get the pipe started into the tank and then screw the cap on from inside. Or weld a plug that fits inside the pipe.
If you’re confident with stick I’d go ahead and stick weld it. An updraft only has a few welds so that’s less avenues to get an air leak.
For mig welders, some wire tubes twist’s and gives trouble, also the tubes tend to get loose from the handle part where the wire-nozzle fits.
Best is to release the feeding wheels, and try to slowly feed the wire manually, if it suddenly stops, often the wire tube is broken or loose, if it starts to bind, harder and harder to feed it, the wire tube is twisted or bend, kinks.
Also wire that have been stored bad rusts, and just a small amount of rust gives irritating troubles with feeding, in that case it’s best to roll/spool off enough wire to get into fresh layers on the wire roll.
And: have you checked the feeding wheels? There is alot of different sizes, both for wire gauge, and wire type.
Edit: and always loosen the wire nozzle when checking wire feed, first place the wire gets stuck.
The tank is too deep to screw the cap on. I’ll look for a smaller cap but I believe that they are all a standard size.
The wire is binding in the tube. I’ll have to probably replace it.
I do better with a stick welder but I’ll have to run a 220v line outside to use it. I’ve been trying to avoid that.
The welder will only feed one size wire - 0.8 - so no mixup there. I tried to manually feed the wire. It only makes it in less than 5 inches. The wire is shiny and not rusted.
The nozzle was the first thing I replaced. Like you said the tube is probably kinked or twisted.
Gary I would just try to find a steel rod that fits in the pipe and weld it in.
That would be the easiest. Let me see what I can find. Looking back I should have bought a 2" reducer and coupling.
The chinese make a plasma cutting/tig/stick welding device for <$200 bucks that is basically an inverter with leads. I don’t know how well it welds though. You couldn’t tig weld aluminum with it because I believe that requires AC. (and I was looking at the cutting torch, and realized I need to do some serious cleanup/rearrangement in the shop to make it safe to do inside.)
If I remember right at one time my wire got to binding and seems like I gave it a dose of WD40 into the wire feed tube .
It’s worth a try. Hopefully it’s grunge and not a kink but I’m skeptical. My luck isn’t that good
After a lot of thought I ordered a small Lincoln mig welder. The welder I have was the cheapest one that HF sold at the time. It only has 2 power settings. Hopefully going name brand will work out better.
Which Lincoln welder is it? Their cheapest one doesn’t use gas it’s Flux Core only.
It’s flux core only.
The model is FC90. Its an inverter style welder. I don’t weld that much. The last time these welders I own were used were over 20 years ago. I am more of a carpenter/woodworker so this should be all the welder that I could ever need. Most of what I do at the homestead involves wood, plumbing or wiring.
