Vulcan Gasifier

I found driving to Argos, that refueling every hour was a good thing. Got out , got some air, moved around in the bed, checked things over a bit, and back on the road.TomC

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Hi Tom C I thought nobody built one yet,just a posible spare time job,if there is any spare time.I got about 45 gallons of wood space in hopper,that might get the 2500 truck 40 or 50 miles,what do you think, Then again you got more hard wood at your disposal,most my trees are popel, I got a nice pile of skids building up and a big pine down the too go get,ready too gasifie though,Thanks

I’m going to work on an oil circulation pump with filter to keep the oil super clean. Would not be same as on a car engine. Notice the side of that engine states that the engine oil has to be checked every 8 hours. Not practical for most. Larger oil reservoir seems logical captain.

Kevin; 40 to 50 miles between fill ups is good with me. Like I said, it is good to stop briefly every hour or so. You are very correct about the oak vs poplar. The wood I get from a saw mill is all poplar and what I cut and chunk from my woods is very dry oak. I have driven to Green Bay on oak and had no problems, actually drove around town a little before refilling the hopper. On my trip to Argos, I started out with poplar and didn’t quite make it to GB when it ran out.TomC

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Ok here are before and after pictures of the manifold adaptor for the Predator. It almost looks like it belongs there.

This is just the manifold set up with manual intake ball valve to test. Tomorrow I am going to run on gasoline and then switch over to woodgas with the manual setup. Next week I hope to start working on the enclosure and electronics for it. :fire:

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Ok I ran this thing today and I have to say I am now even more impressed. Put a 1500 watt load on it without a flinch it did not care. If you are looking for a serious generator for wood gas look no further get this generator. Its a steal even at its regular pricing and for a woodgas application you just cant beat it. If the engine goes bad you can get a replacement for a fraction of the cost of others.

So anyways I did have some issues before I really got it up and going. Nothing to do with the generator, more operator error. The new filter I am trying out began clogging today, earlier I pulled it and shook it out. Thought that would be good enough and put it back in. Not the case, It would run the generator but the gas getting somewhat restricted, I chased my tail around with thinking it was great clogging, bridging, fuel too wet, pipes clogging until I finally pulled the filter. Turned the machine back on a whalah!! Tons of gas flowing again, I hate when these stupid things like this kick your butt!! So at least I know now that the filter media in this filter needs changing every 6 to 8 hours. I think Im going to go with lava rocks in the future they can be washed and reused. This filter dont really need anything in it either its supposed to keep the condenser from ever needing cleaning. But now that it has an access lid it can be easily rinsed too. So this is the other option if media is not desired in this filter.

So anyways I got through that one and am now really excited about this predator this thing has lots power!! More to come

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Ok here is a video Im loading up, of the Predator running on the FX-1. I start out with a brief overview of what is to come for 2016 and what changes we are making and the direction we are headed. About half way I show how to light the gasifier and go to engine run. Once up and running you can see how stable the machine is with a static air valve position :fire:

Video should be up in about two or three hours, it has to go through China first and then through Siberia and then finally to our friends over at Youtube.

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They upload your video via handwritten binary attached to carrier pigeons. :wink:

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Nice unit Matt! Herb H

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Great video Matt .

Thanks for posting :grin:

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Thanks for posting, Matt, you’ve got a great looking line. I like the information also. My latest burns have been mostly just that, orangish with a bit of blue and purple thrown in. There were a couple of points when the flame turned almost all blue, but then recovered after I vibrated the hopper and grate. I’m curious to know what may have caused that. You’re right about youtube, I see the “quest for blue” all over. Glad to know I don’t have to change anything, again!
Pepe

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The blue is coming when your fuel is starting to lean out, when you shake it becomes rich again. You are now learning the balance inside your system. So keep this in mind as you tune that vibrator, maybe a little less duration while vibrating.

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Good video Matt
How many continues watts do you think the predator will put out.

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Well I don’t know for sure but based on previous systems with lesser engines I think getting into the 5 kW range should be easily achievable. It might even do better than that but we will most likely market it as a 5kW system.

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Thanks Matt
I’m not into the generator side of woodgas yet, but ben thinking on hooking a belt drive gen head to a Nissan pickup motor, but I don’t know what size a gen head it would pull on woodgas.

Id do a high output alternator with a separate battery system. Reasoning is your belt drive system this would be about all you could do. You would really need something heavy duty to go any bigger. The high output alternators are compact and would be easy to adapt. You could run a couple of deep cycle batteries with a simple inverter. With this as a DC system you would not need to worry about a governor system too. The DC system you could run at any rpm, the more power you need the more throttle you give it.

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Thanks Matt
This is just something I have been kicking around, I hope to get something going before winter.

Ok more changes are coming!

So here is what we are planning on doing for 2016, we going to roll the product line back even more down to just one machine. The Flex S-1 will be our only offering next year. Setting up manufacturing will be a huge task, so just focusing on a single machine will make things a lot easier. We are going offer all we have developed on the larger machines on this little machine effective immediately. We can do all the same things in this smaller package. Later on when we have this machine perfected we will then take on the big machines again later next year with a complete redesign.

I have also launched a Plasma CNC company. This is to offset the crazy sales trends we experience in the gasifier manufacturing world. Dont hold me too it yet, but I might even supply plans and DXF files with the machines later on.

http://www.vulcancnc.us/home2.html

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You might want too build a 62" square cnc table for the stanless steel sheets.Are there any power shut offs in case plasma drops in the water bath.What are DXF files I woul’ent mind getting the plans on the plasma cutter table,i like the idea of makeing a cnc table,though i have no cnc exsperiance,as far as programing it too make parts,orniments,ECT 2015 Thanks Matt

We get stainless all the time in 48" sheets. In some cases you cant get the 60". Nope we are just sticking to one machine the 4x4 is all that there will be :slight_smile: for now. No need for shutoffs the torch can go in the water, its not designed to do so. As for the DXF files this is very far off in the future. DXF files wont do you any good without plans. There is over 300 CNC cut parts that go into a Vulcan. We work directly of CAD models and to create plans is a full time job. This may come later as my work load is lessened as we go forward.

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