Good morning Rick.
I think you could help the char spilling with the expanded metal.
I think you could insert a few pieces about 4 inches wide and 16 inches long down through the hopper and let them hang over each side of the grate .
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Good morning Wayne,
Yes, I’ll look for some expanded metal, I’ll try to find some stainless, otherwise I’ll go with carbon steel and plan on replacing it probably every season. Thanks for getting back to me so quickly,
Rick
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Hi Rick !!! Nice trailer !!! Try to get a hold of Ken Smith. I think he is pretty close to you and can help with the electronics . He’s the one that sent me all the meters and also built a thermocouple device for me. His wife just died this past year so he may some time to play beyond his satelite radio business. I have 3 broken ribs. They hurt pretty bad with the storms last night … Mike LaRosa
Rick, I use coiled nichrome wire that they used as elements in the early electric ovens. An old appliance repair guy died around 20 years ago and a friend of mine picked up all his stuff and gave it to me. She is now paralyzed and in a wheel chair … Get er done … Mike
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put a rotor in the bottom with the center facing down it will hang closer to the grate and close up the distance I am down to about 3/4 of a inch gap and its ben working nice. I have a pile of rotors let me know what size its yours
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Hi Paul,
I just ordered some stainless expanded metal to try Wayne’s fix with, if I still have problems I’ll try the rotor approach. My firetube is 12" ID, I’m using a 6" restriction right now.
Hi Mike,
I’m waiting for my $1.29 voltage meter to arrive from China, it’s supposed to be here by August 10. I have been using the brake controller to run hybrid a few times now, it seems to work OK. I will keep Ken in mind, though, since electronics are not my strong suit.
Thanks,
Rick
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hi rick I should of mentioned before if you get tired of laying under your car come on over ill have a lift open one way or another.
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Thanks, Paul, I look forward to visiting your place and seeing your garage soon.
Rick
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My stainless expanded metal came in - I cut it into strips with my compound action diagonal cutters and put it over the grate, then refilled the gasifier with char and chunks, replaced the hopper section, everything seemed to be going well.
Then I started picking up and wondered what is my restriction doing on the ground? @!$%! now I had to undo everything I just put back, empty out the gasifier again, put the restriction back in, then put the hopper section back again and refill. Oh well, character building, I guess. Tomorrow maybe I’ll try it out!
Rick
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I’m so sorry! I shouldn’t be laughing. Those kind of things happen to me too often. You can laugh back at me next time. It won’t be too long. Happy woodgasing.
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That’s too funny JO!
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Jo, I wish I could say that these kind of things are unusual for me but they are not and unfortunately they seem to be more and more the norm. Laughing is probably the healthiest response, I try to take it all in stride.
Rick
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How far did you throw the hammer when you so what you had done. You know the Olympics are coming up and maybe they could use you on the team.TomC
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Rick thats fine, you are OK if you find out that you did something wrong or missed something; it´s not the “german guy” one called Alzheimer, well knowen as “Alzy”…jaja. Trouble comes when you ask yourself: …what the hell am I doing under this car? (thats bad, that´s when the german gay cought you). Dont worry, you are fine, you just have to much things in mind. Try to clarifie your priorities and just DONT WOORY, BE HAPPY!! I know I have 40 years experience as a Medical Doctor. don´t worry…you are just FINE. 
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I have been known to throw or break things in the past, this time my first thought was whether I could run with a 10" restriction (just the lip) but then remembered all the fun I had unsticking the tarred up GMC engine then just sighed and started taking it back apart.
Rick
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Rick , if it only takes you twice you are still one up on me. For about the last six years it seems it takes me at least three goes at almost everything. Finding the ambition to do most things once is hard enough. For this reason I don’t do much of anything anymore, it all just leads to frustration and another unfinished project.
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I can’t think of any of my projects, at least projects of any complexity, that I consider finished. For example our house is livable but hardly finished, a state that hasn’t changed except for details much in 30 years.
However, today I took the Caddy out for a spin after repairing the melted line and putting expanded metal on top of the grate and I can say I’m closer to finishing that project. It ran great. Partially due, no doubt, to my becoming more familiar with driving it. It seems driving in the hybrid mode is the best way to get the gasifier up to temp and able to run on all woodgas. Cruised nicely at 55 - 60 mph but what really impressed me was its ability to run at partial throttle, idle and then be able to accelerate smoothly and relatively quickly after a stop. Not to say there is nothing to fix. I have to replace a portion of my flexible but weak RV sewer hose in between the car and trailer with some PVC fittings where the hose is draped over a support to keep it from dragging on the road. I should also check to make sure there are no problems with the hoses under the car. Also need to check the ash dump to make sure the slipping char problem is corrected.
I will start cutting up more fuel, too, as my reserve is getting low and it looks like I will need it for all my anticipated trips.
Rick
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Drove the Caddy to Minoa today, 32.5 miles each way. It ran fine, only a couple of hiccups on the trip. Temperatures at the grate were about 850F to 950 F going there, 950 F to 1180F coming back. I should mention Minoa is over 1000 ft. lower in elevation than here at home. I could cruise at 65 mph on the flats, in fact I used cruise control often. Going up the hills slowed me down to 50 -55 mph typically but as low as 45 mph on the long, steep grades coming home.
Hiccups including hearing something dragging on the way there, the car seemed to be going well so I didn’t stop until I got to Minoa. Turns out one of my magnetic HF trailer lights became dislodged and was dragging for at least 10 miles. Surprisingly the only damage it sustained was losing the red lense. The bulb still worked and I made sure I tied it down for the return trip. On the return trip I lost my plastic peanut jar hopper condensate collector, noticed when a large plume of smoke developed from where it used to be when I slowed down. My tennis ball plugged that up nicely for the rest of the trip. Paul warned me that that jar wouldn’t last long. I have a nice heavy duty vessel to replace it, I will have to mount it on a bracket and attach a ball valve drain.
The expanded metal strip fix for my grate I appears to have worked. I didn’t see any slipped char after a small run last week but I will check tomorrow after things have cooled down.
I cut up a half dozen or so bags worth of fuel last week, it is drying in the sun under some old storm windows right now. I used my old table saw, I will start collecting parts for a better chunker.
I think my next longer trip will be to visit Paul up north with a side trip to Oswego to visit my sister, Probably try this in the next few weeks, assuming I can arrange a suitable time with Paul and my sister.
Rick
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Upon inspection, I still had a char slipping problem. Maybe the whole space under the grate being full of char explained why grate temperatures were so much hotter going home yesterday besides climbing in elevation. After conferring with Paul earlier today I found an appropriately sized brake rotor, knocked the center section out and installed it on top of the grate. Now I have an approx. 3/4" gap between the top of the rotor on the grate and the firetube along with a 6+" space in the center of the rotor for the ash and fine char to pass through (besides the 6" restriction at the bottom of the firetube). Also have the expanded metal covering the largish holes in the grate. I will give it a trial run in the next couple of days.
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Hi all,
I have been battling with my slipped char problem since I last posted. I believe that I have gotten past it for now but I will now have to make sure that I don’t plug up and that my fix doesn’t burn up. In retrospect I think my making my trailer springless except for the tires has made a different approach to the grate necessary than is usual with WK gasifiers. I reasoned (maybe subconsciously) that the more bouncing for the trailer the better as the ashes will shake down better. Evidently it also makes it harder to control char slipping.
So my trials with expanded metal on top of my grate all slipped considerable char even with a 2" lip bent up or with a brake rotor on top of it like Paul uses. Any 1/2" or larger gap either in between the lip and firetube or in between any of the several pieces of expanded metal on top of the original grate slipped too much char.
So yesterday I tried a segment from a stainless steel salad bowl that I had drilled many 1/2" holes in and that I had used as a grate on my unsuccessful FEMA gasifier 7 yrs. ago. I had to cut and bend it considerably so that it would fit beneath my brake rotor restriction on top of the WK gasiifier grate. Because I had several gaps approaching 1/2" in width it slipped more char than I would have liked and more importantly resulted in a noticeable power reduction when driving.
Then I noticed an old stainless steel mesh steamer basket in my junk pile, it was only 9" in diameter but was about the right height so after 1" cutting slots along the top so I could fold it over to the correct height I fitted it under the restriction and on top of the grate. Tried it out this morning and power was good. I can’t see how it could slip much char the way I installed it but I will verify that tomorrow after the gasifier has cooled down.
So in my 8 or so trials with various grate configurations in the last month I have become quite proficient at removing the hopper section and emptying the gasifier. After forgetting yet again to put the restriction in before refilling I got in the habit of putting the restriction in my bin holding the char so that I could not overlook it when refilling. Also got in the habit of a complete washdown of my face and arms followed by a shower and change of clothes after each emptying and refilling of the gasifier to avoid domestic issues with my better half.
Good thing I recently cut up a dozen or so bags of fuel as I have gone though quite a bit with the grate trials(no pun intended). Each trial run was about 14 miles, so I must have gone through about 120 lbs of chunks. So I think I will try my 120+ mile trip up north via Paul’s place and my sister in Oswego soon if all goes well, probably shortly after Labor Day.
Rick
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