I haven’t had anymore issues since I have used better fuel. Wet fuel = poor performance. Took about five more burns but I think it’s worked through the bad batch.
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Still haven’t fired off the micro. My neighbors tractor broke down and he’s been busy working and rebuilding that in his spare time. We should be able to fire it off soon. I don’t want to do it without him, like driving someone’s new car before them.
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Cool deal, yeah be like me and run wet fuel haha. It just dont work, and there is fine line between the machine running good and running bad.
I have a revision we need to work on. The control box on the Predator is too close the exhaust. I have a replacement panel we need send you and you can relocate and mnt the box.
To prevent any issues you may want to unmount it and let it hang or do something temporary until we can get you the panel. Go figuire now that we are building the CNC machine our CNC machine went down today Its not our machine but the PC wont turn on all the sudden. Prolly all the metal dust.
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Keep me posted on that. We have sold quite a few of those since we came out with them but I have gotten very little feed back. Only one guy was reporting back, but he is trying to re invent the wheel with his. Instead of just buying our high end machine like yours he is trying to do the same thing but with a cheap gasifier. SMH
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Good to know, I’ve only done a couple of engine runs. Mostly just been burning different wood I have around to see how it works. I’m surprised at the different wood these pallets I have are made of. some redwood, yellow pine, and something that smells real bad when burned.
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Yep. Yep.
Only actually doing the wood burning is learning woodgas.
And only loaded IC engine burning is learning woodgas well.
THERMALChemical and wet wood literally kills the thermal half of it. A lesson we have all been hammered with.
Once you DO start loaded IC engine running pay particular attention to all of those lovely engine bTU’s blowing off that could have been fuel wood drying down in expanded metals baskets.
S.U.
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Ok the CNC machine is almost complete. Just a few minor things left, I have to install the limit switches, and the top panel to the operator’s stand. It turned out really nice and I have it tuned in to hall a$$!!!
We will run test parts early next week and should have it in production as early as the end of the week.
Yeah, not only is the first machine, its going into a production environment!!! 
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That looks like a thick sheet of steel on the table. How thick can it cut? Does the torch have the capability for auto height control? What kind of drive is on the Y axis (up and down the table)?
Rack and pinion? I seen what looks to be a sprocket that makes me guess chain drive.
Cool looking unit I want one.
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Hi Tom, this is going into a wood shop. The head that is on it a simple Dewalt orbital sander. The top piece is a fixture plate and is 3/4" plastic so they can mount fixturing to it. This machine will be performing finishing process for chair armrest
Yes tried a chain drive on this one, however, I wll go back to belt drive going forward. The chain adds more wieght to the inertia loading.
Unit pricing is $8,500.00 USD, this comes with controls and if you are going run a plasma application it will have the THC set up as well. You will need to wire in your voltage leads from your plasma machine though. If you want this turnkey we can do this as well cost will be around $11,500.00 and it would have the Hypertherm 65 with a machine torch all ready to go.
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The CNC in action!! Im finishing up a few open items yet, The limit switches and some guarding and it will ready to deliver 
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Hey Matt, just what you were looking for!
https://kalamazoo.craigslist.org/grd/5583176032.html
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Well we seem to have arrived at a major turning point and now its time to shift into high gear. Its amazing how business can change in an instance. We have secured a distributor in Japan this week and with this comes a brand new order for the next generation 25 kW machine. “Evolution Series IV” Our UK dealer has also secured sales for this machine but have not told me how many yet. Then our Italian dealer will soon be coming here to evaluate the new 5k and 10 kW versions of this machine. I have one on the floor we are working on now. this has not even hit the market yet but it be soon and at full force. I believe this new small version is going to change the game up a bit. This machine will be available with customizable generators to meet any requirement and can be ordered in 5 kW output or 10 kW output. This will have very long run times as it will have the largest auger feed hopper systems available in its class.The enclosure system is now an extruded aluminum framing that has revisions for sliding panels and door systems. So accessing any part of the machine can be achieved tool free. Along with this the gasifier system also features tool free full access to all internal components, and features the Flex R1 desing platform with air preheat the external removable jetting. Auto light systems are next and will be our first step to full auto run modes.
Also coming online will be the Biowind system and also one of the orders that is complete with the add on auger hopper system. Even though sales have slumped for the early part of the year its been very busy here. Ive developed two new machines (the Micro 1 and 2) this year plus other stuff. Plus some of these new items are a first run so there is lot going on with them establishing manufacturing around them.
New stuff is coming to change the game 
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Lots of cool stuff you have going there Matt. Glad things are going well for you.
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That’s really sharp Matt. Good work.
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Getting closer on this, I now remember why we charge what we charge for this. It is a lot of work and still not done. Now for all the small details, I need to re-orient some things on the gasifier, set up the gas dryer to the front as the gen will sit under the hopper instead of behind the gasifier unit. Then all I will need to do is wire it, need to go out and get an enclosure should be pretty simple to wire. It was pretty cool how it docked right up, couldn’t do this with out CAD that’s for sure. I just backed the gasifier up to the auger tunnel and it bolted right up.
Im really excited about this, the V8 machines are cool and all haha, but those need an auger hopper regardless and still have short run times. At this scale I think this machine may be an industry first. I know others have auger hoppers but I don’t think at this scale. The hopper is 20 CF and the generator output is 5 kW rated on woodgas. So run times I’ve calculated should be in the neighborhood of 10 hours and possibly longer.
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Yup, most people don’t realize what it takes to put a good running system together.
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I performed the first test run tonight with what fuel I had left. I had roughly enough to fill the hopper about 1/3 and it ran for around 4 hours in both blower and engine mode during this initial run. At the end I had around 2 kW load with heater hooked up, it was a bit cold out there so it wasn’t just for test loading
And of course there is always challenges haha. The generator had an issue from prior runs. Ive never seen this before on any machine; however when my client from Japan came here the dang thing had lifter stuck!! I chased my tail around for a bit trying to figuire this out, no valves were stuck and the exhaust valve just would not function. I thought we had some how broke the cam, and then one cylinder suddenly started working. I finally had the idea the lift was stuck all the way up and sure enough bumped it with the end of a hammer and it was fine. But during all this I tore into the valve train so when I re assembled they were not adjusted properly. So this brings us to tonight ran it and after a good warm up that cylinder would start misfiring, so good hour spent fiddling with that and then tore back into it and did the valve adjustment. After that it ran great, but now because this was misfiring I was not able to run at all in auto mode as the 02 sensor was not getting accurate reading in this condition. So finally I get it running in auto mode but now the Arduino is crashing for some reason. I think this one is toast from the exhaust overheating. So next run Im going to change this out.
Other than that it ran very good, I will need to add a shaker to the floor of the big hopper no big deal there I’ll just add a leg to the wiring of the stock hoppers shaker and it will run from the same timer. The fuel I ran was unscreened all fines were left in along with some of the large chunks that do not get processed by the chipper. This from the last bit of the limbs it doesn’t fully chip up the ends. The auger shoved it all right in with no jamming not once. This has a smaller auger than what we used in the past and the gearbox is 100:1 so it has lots of power and can keep up with ease. I did have one issue with a small twig that held the flap sensor up stopping it from breaking contact for the auger to turn back on.
But now Im out of fuel and going to have either buy more or find something I can chip up. I think the reason the fuels didnt work before is because it was too green. This fuel was all sun bathed this time and ran great!! The flare looked beautiful the entire time. This machine is just plain awesome, I really hope we can acquire the capital this year to build our own. This machine with battery back up could easily run our shop.
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Ran again tonight, I got a load of chips from the landscaping company down the road from us. I got about a yard and scraped off the top. Still got some water logged chips in the mix but after a couple hours in the sun they seeme to dry up pretty good. This hopper is a lot bigger than it looks, it took every bit of that yard of chips and still had room for more. I ran a total of 7 hours with a full 1500 watt load and an additional 1500 watt intermittent load. At the end of the run I still had just under a half a hopper still left. This will for sure run ten hours min. I think at the full 5 kW loading it could get up to 12 hours.
Still have a few issues to overcome. These chips are a lot larger and I did have some issues with jamming. This was over loading the relay that drives it I had to replace two of them. So Im going to install a breaker in line to protect the relay. To fix the jamming I just have to install a restriction plate over the auger. this is what we had to do on the other machines. We can make them adjustable for different size fuels. So we will get through that.
Now the generator is not running the best, not sure whats going on with it. It is loubing all the time even on gas, Im trying to figuire out whats going on with this. Im going to try new plugs, I know on other machines we changed out those stock plugs and that really picked them up. So im going to try that and maybe do another valve tune. I dont think its a woodgas issue nor did it originate from it. The governor is just flopping back and forth, man thats just kicking my butt. The only other thing I can think of oil level. Ill check this again but the last time I checked it, it was good. Might just change this out and run a full tank of gas through it too. Whats really frustrating is it has ran like a top before, this is the machine we pulled well over 6 kW on one machine and 5 kW with another one. This gasifier system is also stable and making tons of good gas.
Overall Im happy with the way this is running even though we have these issues. They are minor and we will work through them it’d be nice to just have one work though haha. The machine is very stable and the mixer controller is working perfect as long as it dont have to try and combat that lobing issue. I did change the controller out and that freezing issue went away.
Anyways back at it tomorrow
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Well back up and running, I changed out the oil, changed plugs, and tweaked on the valving some more. It did help some but that annoying lobing is still there; When running on gas, If I hook up the gas hose to it that helps choke it off some and then its pretty minor. Running on woodgas I had to tweak the program to run in more of a lean condition and its running pretty stable. I think this fuel is not the best, so we will see what happens on the next batch I didnt dry this fuel for very long and it was hard to get moisture readings as some of this fuel was 5% and other pieces were up to 40%. So next run Ill make sure we have a good drying time on it. This makes the difference on what power out put we get and is why sometimes we can get really high outputs and like now where its under our rating 
One thing I found today when I checked the ash chamber was the grate was pretty clinked up. I wondering why I was not getting any char yield. Well over 10 hours of run time and just some dust in there. Nice thing about our machine is the bottom of the grate is fully accessible. I just shoved a paint scraper up through the grate opening and busted it all up. I should have known this as the intake air valve position was typically 1/4 open during last nights run. Its now half way and is about where it should be. Its pulling a little more power, but it should be able to handle the loads that are on it without a flinch.
Started up at 3 today we’ll see how long it will go today
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Doing a simple experiment, with boosting this one. Now that I have a system with the electronic mixer control this is doable. This is a really good time for this one as the machine isn’t outputting what it should be. So what Im using is the smog pump from the John Deeres set up. The gasifier on it is not lit Im just blowing through it and into the flex. The pump is on full bore with no bypass. I am seeing a definite improvement in both the output and stability. This pumps output is static though so this creates some small issues when throttle position changes. When I go to an actual turbo for this it will run linear with the engine eliminating this. Im pretty sure turbos will be apart of the packages soon, there is definitely power to be gained amongst other things. Because this is now under pressure this does aid the fuel drying process and also if there is any leaks they are basically eliminated as the pressure can only come in the jets on this This also solves some development work for upcoming technology and will be the driver to make it work.
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