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.
Hey Matt. As much as your thoughts center on the electronics and physical deposits the machine is leaving, what about the pivot points on your governor. If they are small steel on steel interactions, you may have small binding. I suggest custom bronze bushings added to the female ends and see if that solves your problem. You won’t buy that fix off the shelf. Had fun with you at Argos, Doug D.
I adjusted my lawn tractor governor yesterday according to a you tube “how to”. It said to hold the throttle open while turning the gov shaft all the way to the right and then tighten it. It worked for that side valve engine - not sure with your Predator.
Shut it down for the night, could have gotten another hour easy. So far I have 14 1/2 hours on one hopper fill and could have another hour so it could run for nearly 16 hours on a single load.
Grate started plugging up again I freed it at the end of the run. This fuel may require some grate adjustment, Ill have design a new grate for this particular fuel. The standard grate has worked fine on the cedar and other fuels but for some reason this fuel is packing and turning into clinkers. Might again just be bad fuel too, But no big deal we can make different grates and offer them if need be.
any will do i think, Im using one from a GM Trail Blazer. These are more expensive, if you go on amazon just type in secondary injector pump or electric smog pump and it get you a good list of them. Im going to use the generic pumps they should be more than enough and are less expensive.
[Quote]I got a load of chips from the landscaping company down the road from us.[/quote] Aren’t arborist’s chips pretty high in leafy material and bark-to-wood ratio, and known for causing clogging and clinkers?
It sounds to me like you’ve made the best possible results from a known poor, but abundant fuel source!
I like the way you think haha. but unfortunately these chips are pretty clean. They are some sort of hard wood but what they actually are who knows. Could be the issue, yes when we test most of the time we try to push the limits a bit. If we can make it work then it only gets easier.
Actually I just checked in there again and its not clinked up like I had originally thought. The char pieces are a bit to big to fit through the grate and are extremely hard they feel like rocks!!!. Some of the pieces that stuck through the grate I grabbed a hold of and tried pulling them through and then IM think how did I get rocks in there?!?!!! Ive never seen this before it might be the fuel.
Ok tore into this thing, yeah the bed is full of these huge chunks. They are very hard and not brittle at all, So I designed a new grate that should work better and bust these things up. For reference the screen in the pic is 1/2"
I think I might know whats going on, this may still have the original lump char coal bed in from original start up. This machine has sat idle for a few months and dont remember how much time or what we even put in it to get it started. These chunks are huge and bigger than any fuel we have ever ran in it. Most of the time the char is very brittle and this stuff is rock hard. Now what to do? try the new grate or just put it back together? Decisions decisions.
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ray_menke
(Ray Menke (Lytton Springs, Texas))
#434
I bought two 900 pound bags of “Ag Char” fines plus pieces up to 3/4" long. They must be Ironwood, from Northern Mexico because they are rock hard and cannot be busted up with the bare hands. After screening, I mix them in the the Mesquite slivers I use in my charcoal making TLUD stove. They snap-crackle when the pyrolytic front moves down to where they are in the fuel load. If I toss them into my home-made BBQ that uses live TLUD charcoal, they emit a blue smoke at first, then glow for a very long time. Must be Ironwood: “A hardy legume tree, ironwood’s range closely matches the boundaries of the Sonoran Desert, the only place in the world where it occurs. The only species in the genus Olneya, ironwood is notable for its slow growth rates and extremely dense wood. Its wood even sinks in water. While scientists consider ironwood to be the “old growth” tree of the desert,
standard tree-ring dating of its wood is difficult. The Ironwood Alliance
is currently pursuing alternative methods to date ironwoods. Estimates
show some trees to be 800 years old, and it is likely that they live even
longer.” From Desert Ironwood Primer - Executive Summary
Well I put it back together with the new grate. Its been up and running for a couple hours now. I went and got a bunch of poles and chipped em up to get another run. I plan to go and get another yard of the landscaping chips tomorrow. Now that I found this issue I have to start all over again. I bet now we will get better results with power output. I did have the same loading on it as before and it seems more stable but this is still the limit. Again this fuel is not dry so Im not expecting it to run as good as it could. But at least it is more stable. The intake air valve when I started out was beyond half way,but now when I checked is was under a quarter open. I had the grate adjusted way back, so I could get it re established, I just turned it up all the way and we will see if this new grate will free things up,
Started raining here, so trying to stay inside while it runs.
So here is a new Micro made a few revisions. Moved the burner to the front and added the ejector for lighting through the front jet at the air intake.
We have two Utility units we will ge working on in the next few days. I got the blessing to make the 2017 updates to both of them. We are going to shed the barrel filters, never really liked them. My intent was to attempt making our manufacturing process faster, but we have more time into making the modifications and in the end they make the units look; well cheap. So they are going away and we are going to use our existing centrigal filter from the Flex R-1 and build a cooling rack. Going with the same ammo box filter we are using on the Micros as standard. On the larger versions we may still use one of the barrel filters for a media filter. this will be external from the unit. The larger machines also cost more so we can justify the added work for them.
In the pics are a quick look into the simplicity of the Micro/Utility design family.
I have chips drying for another run on the auger fed Flex. Im probably going to wait till the weekend to fire her back up.
Yeah Pepe, this is as simply as I can possibly make a machine. The restriction is just a plate with a hole in ht center and sandwiched in between the reactor and lower shell. The grate is held up by a ring welded to inside the lower shell. It just sits on that ring and we poke a pin through it to create the shaker. My plan for this design familly was to open source it but time is short
For your flanges you can go to mcmaster carr and get them. I designed these particular machine around them so others could duplicate them. However we still cut our own flanges.
Gears are turning on the new Utility design. I think we are going to outfit this with a small auger feed system. I think this is gonna be our most practical cost effective solution will be able to offer. Its sized large enough to be able to do real work with and yet cost for the base unit is under $2000.00 bucks.The wheels will make it practical to move around and it is light enough for just the two wheeled dolly system. This combined with a simple auger feed with its small size will be quite practical to operate. I think this is going to be a pretty neat little machine with all the bells and whistles.
2017 product line update with the new Evolution Series I 5 kW system and our new Flex R1 Turnkey with auger feed hopper demo and update. Indeed now that I have it flowing correctly its pulling like it should, I have good fuel and it is running beautiful!!
