Woodrunner chevy

Thanks Tom, i like your charcoal crusher, maybe i go that way, i’ve just found a 2hp geared electric motor i forgot i had, thinking about using it for powering my crusher, just have to mount it with a v-belt or like, (if any brands get stuck, i think it was geared down 150:1, may destroy the whole build with that torque)
Also found some blades/knives from a straw-shredder, used on combine harvesters, maybe using them for a crusher like Cody made.
So many ideas now :sweat_smile:

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I need to film the design, I really like how I did it using flat bar stock with holes drilled. Makes aligning it for the weld easier.

I like Tom’s idea of an actual crank handle instead of a steering wheel like I’m using at the moment.

I built mine on an angle iron frame, and welded the pillow block bearings to the frame once I had it all lined up. I made sure the teeth bars were 3/8"(9.5mm) apart from the fixed bars on either side. It goes along pretty fast even by hand, I’ve started setting it on a steel frame and all that sitting in an old plastic kid’s pool, I take my coal shovel and toss it at my screen angled to slide down into a wheel barrow.

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Thanks for posting dimensions Cody, i’ve just looked again at the pic’s of you crusher, it was earlier in this thread (around post 60), i also found some at SMP library, test’s of charcoal crushers during ww2. I haven’t figured out how post links to it, but its same place JAN posted some links to gasifiers from, Statens Maskinprovningar meddelanden, search for: kolkross (wich means charcoal crusher)

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The hand crank is a good idea. For me I would make it longer more leverage. If the power goes down you can still grind the charcoal and drive. I think we are to dependent on electricity A/C and D/C to do all our work for us. Manual labor is good too. I like the simple KISS design.
Bob

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That is a good opinion, Bob, i think i going to make a “hand-crank option” for my crusher, i also have this generator in mind, im going to try this on charcoal, could be nice if it could “help” with making it’s own fuel.


Old generator, 16hp briggs & stratton, single phase 230v 10a / 3 phase 380v 10a. Maybe a good backup for the “not-so-sensitive” equipment?

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Goran,
I use a piece of expanded metal fastened in a wooden frame and push the charcoal through it with my feet–shoes on, of course. It is still rather crude, but better than breaking it up with my hands. That was my previous method and yes, it did get old fast–hands got sore, too.

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Some updates, i feel lazy about my truck, don’t fixing it fast enough, soon 4 weeks of work, hope to catch up some then.
Today i got some time left, i disassembled my fabric filter, i’ve suspected a leak somewhere in it, a lot of soot in the cooler.


Lifting up the “cartridge”

I admit i have abused this filter much, i tried to remember when i emptied it last time, could be near a year of time i’ve neglected it. :frowning_face:

Soot and charcoal pieces almost filling the whole filter.

Down the filter housing after some flushing.

I washed/flushed the “cartridge” and inspected it, the culprit seems to be the net “cage” that holds up and spread the fabric. It has rusted extremely and where it touches the fabric there is brown spots that is very brittle.
That net should have been stainless :grimacing:
Was not… and i got it for free so only me to blame.

Maybe not a good idea to wash the filter in the walkway, sometimes i act first and think after(everytime).

I snapped a pic of the engine in my old crane-truck, wonder if this would like some woodgas? Seems suitable, naturally aspirated diesel, vacuum regulated injection pump (has already a throttle butterfly) maybe time will tell…

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As I said in my videos before if you embrace the fact you will invariably make a mess, it makes life easier :grin:

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At least the grass won’t complain. Even if they die back the next patch will come back greener.

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Ha ha, yes, but i don’t know what wife will say, we walk there when we close for the chickens in evening :grimacing:
And for the grass, there is actually a gravel walkway, even if it doesn’t look so…good for the weeds :laughing:

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I just had to mention: as i looked at the pic’s i’ve posted of the filter it looks all tarry, but it’s just that i had to flush water in the housing, it was so stuck i was affraid tearing it up when lifting it.
:blush:

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Goran, your filter is probably intended for filtering hot gas, where it retains most of the soot and ash, or have you tried installing another smaller filter in front of the engine. Today I was at my brother’s, who offered me sheep’s wool, it should be good for fine filtration. Diesel 6 cylinders with a vacuum-regulated diesel pump, an interesting engine for wood gas, just connect the pipe from the gasifier on the car and you will see…

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Hi Tone, yes my filter is for hot gas filtration, it’s sewed up from glass-fibre welding blankets, a total surface area of 13m2. It has worked very good, 5 or 8 years, i dont remember, just the last year i’ve used it i had some leaks.
I have no more filters at this, just a water “scrubber” in the cooler, which act as a “safety” filter, and indicates if there is leaks in the hot filter (water turns black)
As for the diesel im gonna try when i got some time left, seems easy to test, i can pull the stop-wire till it just manages to run (minimum diesel dose for ignition) the centrifugal timing regulator seems to work as intended even with the regulation rod standing to minimum.
(Bosch inline pump)

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Goran, you are a wood gas driver with experience, I am just a beginner, 8 years is a long time for the filter to last, great. Well, as for the vacuum-regulated diesel pump,… it’s a good and simple system for hybrid operation, but not entirely without its shortcomings, namely, when I throttle the air to increase the amount of gas, the resulting negative pressure also shuts off the diesel fuel and there is no more ignition mixture, so I added an additional tube through which I release the vacuum at the membrane… if you are interested, I can record a video of all the details.

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Good Morning (here) fellows,
I lost track on who was asking about ignition systems to convert a 3 cylinder diesel tractor engine.
I did woodgas work with Kubota DG1005 three cylinder engines that were factory converted to spark ignition for natural gas. Sweet engines.
Theses used a flywheel magnetic trigger system and three individual ignition coils.
There is up on the Internet a system conversion doing this with common automotive parts. Millers A-1 shop. One to 12 cylinder engines.
That conversion has no actual processor memory brain so only two-timing advances are possible.
The Kubota system made by Nippon Denso did have a memory pre-mapped out processor controller. The Arduino and Raspberry PI guys here love to do this stuff. Me not. And I read neither of you either want to become an I/O hobbyist.

It was the Swed guy JohanL. who DID take a 6 cylinder Volvo car ignition distributor and machine adapt it over in place of his injector pump on his English David Brown tractor. Only ignition wire pinning every other cap terminal. He would have then had the ability to mechanically widely manipulate his ignition timing.

The choices seems obvious.
Be still dependent on having to use a percentage of diesel fuel?
Or become dependent on spark plugs, ignition wires and a distributor rotor and cap and your own ability?
(Or, yes. Become dependent on a Chinese micro-processor chip, programmed by a hobbyist)
Ha! Ha! Whatever you are most comfortable with.
Regards
Steve unruh

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Not so much of a progress report, now its time for one week vacation, traveling Sweden, then, 3 weeks more free from work, it’s going to be almost 100% woodgas tinkering :smiley:, anyways today i picked up some material for my gasifier “restoration”.


Stainless steel sheet, 2mm thick, i think its around 5/64 of an inch?
I know some thinks im a “snob” with my stainless “addiction” ,please dont do, i helped a guy changing brake-pads and rotors and he “payed” me by cutting this pieces and giving them to me, i think trading that way is good :slightly_smiling_face:
Anyhow, in this part of Sweden the enormous amounts of salt they put on the roads really dont do good for parts exposed to temperature changes. The old outer housing of the gasifier rusted away from the outside. :frowning_face:

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2mm is 14 Gauge exactly, or 3/32 of an inch.

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Slowly progress on the gasifier renovation, the outer mantle is rusted, and heavily distorted from heat, i had it mounted both upper and lower part, a bad idea, i know, going to make that right now with a “sliding” lower mounting point.
Im going to “reline” this housing with stainless, my idea with that is the old housing becomes a heat shield, then very small air-gap, then stainless (with low heat conductivity) maybe work as an insulation, and ofcourse, easier to roll the stainless around the old part than make a new one.


I heated the housing to red heat, and hammered the distorted parts back to shape.

It became round enough.

Now to cut away parts, like the flange and studs for lids.

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And finally, here’s for the charcoal guy’s,
Please don’t laugh :laughing:
[]https://youtu.be/kOKE4Wz28hk

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I shall now call you Goran the inventor! What an awesome machine!

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