Wrong track?

Hello Gary G, Yes it is great, but dirty and the wood vinegar sure has a persistant smell. I haven’t made any for a while (W.V.) because the results were a bit dissapointing. I think mine had too much water.I found fractioning too difficult because of the evaporation point but solved this by freezing it
and leaving lots of ice (water) behind on melting.Pleased to find you again as “puffer gas” seems to have gone.I cannot get onto clip top lid drums here but modified the lid grinding method I wrote you about by grinding the side to give me pretty much the same thing.
I’m going to try the simple fire gasifier when I get time.

Regards Vince Smith.

wood vinegar

Hi folks,

since I didn’t exactly know what wood vinegar is, I checked the german wikipedia and found - guess what! - an entry, that was based on and mostly taken from a german encyclopedia article from 1888!

I figure no one has really looked into this stuff for a long time (125 years), at least not in Germany.

Now, how exactly do you produce and distill this wood vinegar and what do you use it for?

@ChrisKY: Chris, would this stuff deserve a separate thread?

Best regards,

Sam

Hello Sam F, Wood vinegar or Proligneous acid was overtaken by the petro chemical industry. I expect the bent of most visitors to this site would be towards mechanical things rather than wood vinegar. There are so many claims made for W.V. that I am suspicious. I.E. foot patches for detoxing etc,
skin health (smell like smoke) I’ll try and paste the ratios for various gardening uses.
Wood Vinegar Receipts

Pesticide 1 to 20
Weed killer 1 to 50
Anti fungal 1 to 100
Pest repellent 1 to 200
Mold 1 to 200
Growth accelerant 1 to 200
Anti plant lice 1 to 400
Growth enhancer 1 to 500

I make mine by cooling the (long) chimney so that condensed it runs back through a hole in the chimney into a bucket.

Regards Vince Smith.

Thanks a lot, Vince!

I am also mostly interested in mechanical stuff, but you live and learn… and I’ll give it a shot and try this stuff out. Might be better than the expensive chemicals which are potentially harmful to the environment …my wife has a couple weeks ago started to try out homeopathy on our garden and indoor plants. You wouldn’t believe how well this stuff works on them!

Best regards,

Sam

Hello All, I’ve taken the first step to making a simple fire gasifier by converting my old home made conical screw wood splitter to a cruncher/sorter.

Regards Vince Smith.

Pics attached. I hope.