By the pound would be fair, given dry wood. “Fair” prices and wood are hard to match up. A little extra moisture in the wood adds weight and therefore profit, but makes the wood less valuable. If you go by volume, you end up with a BTU mismatch. A combo of quality standards, honest dealers, and easy measurements is needed.
To start with, clean dry wood chunks at 20% moisture or less, sold by the pound and bring your own bags?
As for a base price, try and figure how much time you’ve invested in it, and set some sort of value based on that. Big chunkers at a sawmill make cheap wood, hand split chunks are more expensive.
Gasoline price equivalent is around 20 cents/pound, or $3 for a 15lb bag.
This brings up a subject that has been well discussed in the past. The following photos are from the book Generator Gas, the Swedish experiance from 1939-1945. They sold wood by the hundred liters, or a volume measurement. Moisture level could not exceed 25% and there were only two size grades recognized. Information on the wood species, volume, size and manufacture were all a part of the label.
There is similar guidelines for charcoal. Seems like a good place to start from.
Gary in PA
That’s certainly a way to do it. Selling by volume makes it less susceptible to moisture levels, and more susceptible to wood density.
They had some strict rules, partly because of the bridging problems of the Imbert design. Wayne’s burned lots of stuff those guidelines would have dismissed entirely.
Most of the variation actually makes no difference; the most important thing is keeping the wood dry and clean. A random pound of dry clean wood will take you as far down the road as any other.
Thank you Chris,I’m glad the videos helped and it’s great to see so many knowlegeable people here sharing their trials and triumphs for others to glean.I’ve been reading the posts and there is a wealth of information on this forum.
Mr Wayne,
it’s good to be back and thanks for the welcome.We are a great distance apart but I hope to get the old gasifier tuned up and mounted on a better truck(1982 F100 ) and maybe make it to one of the woodgas functions and see you all one day.
we are working on getting wood stored up here we just started heating the house with wood and hope to get a wood powered truck going to i still got to make a chunker also but win we get every thing together i will add my self to the map im in spring hill tn right off 65
we have a small engine repair shop with tool rentals etc and chainsaw sales.It’s been a steep learning curve.
We had been really busy at work and the days are still 11 hours from start to finish which didn’t leave much time left over but as we were piling firewood in the Spring,the smell of Birch got me longing for the smell of woodgas and I couldn’t shake it so I took a day off and drove the 5 hours to Pemberton and brought back the woodgas truck to our new place.
I had the truck running a couple weeks ago on woodgas then shut it down and began dismantling in preparation for tweaking the system and swapping trucks.I’d like a cooling rack system like Mr Wayne’s instead of the liquid coolant style I have now.
I’m hoping someone that knows their trees/woods can pitch (small pun intended) in their knowledge for me. The trees that are easier to take/collect for me are RED ALDER. It seems to be labled as a “hardwood” but at the softer side of it. As noted, it is an oily wood which might be a good thing. Thoughts? My other choice is Douglas Fir but those are usually much harder to get to or process for someone working alone like me.
Hi Gary, Thanks for posting the interesting QA stuff. I experimented with size and shape a bit from 1", 2" and 3" branches cut to a similiar lengths and cubes of different sides. Cubes are the worst for bridging in my gek type. I’ve found the 2.5"d branches cut 2.5" long work the best for me.
Pepe
we live in the same neck of the woods as far as fuel is concerned and I’ve burned some Alder and it worked just fine but my first choice would be Birch followed closely by Douglas Fir.
i really like your idea i live in north idaho about a mile off i 90 and would love to be a refueling spot for folks passing thru .not sure i could offer it for free but not looking to make a profit either . i dont have a setup yet myself but hope to get further along on my project next year . best wishes to all . Doug 208 215 6572
Hey @Chris,
I’ve done a fair amount of traveling, to find my way around, I started with an atlas, Then moved on to a gps, and now I like to use both.
I have used a Garmin gps, but its hard to jut look at the map and deside for my self, also have to pay for updates. I haved used the gps on my phone with google maps but this only works when you have a data connection. Road atlases can get messy and don’t do any calculations for you. Also needs updating.
Best of all worlds is an app called Navigator. Free on google play. If you have a laptop with gps capabilities it can be installed there as well. There are two sets of maps, one is free, and one is paid. The paid maps are from TomTom. The free ones are all i ever use and they are updated every month.
Thought this might be a nice set of maps to use for woodgas travelers. They are world wide so even DOW’S over seas members could pitch in.
Just a thought.
@Chris Hi Chris, can we get a new up date on this map, all I am getting is adds for I phones and other useless adds. NOT related to “DOW Wood Fueling Stations”. No map is coming up at all. Maybe start fresh with this heading make it a registration site only for those who want to list their DOW Fueling Station location. Start with the Country, State, or Providence ect… , Name of Station, Owers Name, Addresses, free wood or price of wood. Needs to be Google map. So you can click on station and google map will come up for directions. This would work for all international uses. If we are really serious about DOW, then it is time to make stations available.
Registration:
U.S.A. Washington State. Bobmac’s Wood Fueling Station, 3802 NW Empire Ave, East Wenatchee, Washington, 98802 , DOW Members wood cost free. Non members $00.05 a pound, wood use, for DOW vehicle gasification use only.
Driving instructions: Highway 2 turn on 38th street, turn left on Cascade Ave, turn right on 37th street. Go to the end of the street where the pavement ends. White house.
For my google address it is: 3802 Cascade Ave.
Thanks
Bob
i still got to make a chunker also but win we get every thing together i will add my self to the map im in spring hill tn right off 65