I have two coils in my wood stove. They are half inch copper tubing, twenty foot long and the coils are six inches in diameter. They feed separate tanks above the stove that are open to the atmosphere. I have never rigged thermometers at the point where the coil heated water enters the tanks but it’s not steam. One tank feeds the floors upstairs and one feeds the floors downstairs. I had to tie the tanks together because the floors upstairs are much thinner and heat up way quicker. The water coming out of the tanks to the PEX manifolds is right around 150 F. I don’t know what temp it fails at.
Just for chuckles I think I’ll make a test set up with a mud covered 5 Gallon bucket, coil some PEX around the outside of the mud and take some readings. All the components for my gasifier are complete and ready to be assembled. I used some refractory cement below the hearth and that has to set up for a week before it can be heated so a test run will be on hold until then. Most of the garden is done now so I can move on to other things. I hope the fires don’t reach your place. Recovering from that kind of damage is a horror show.
While I’m thinking about it pertaining to fires. If you don’t have receipts for your tools and plenty of pictures you will play hell getting anything out of your insurance company, especially if you store fuels and things like oxygen and Acetylene tanks in the same place. They put no value on a 1950’s machinist’s lathe or bridgeport mill. And with out a receipt your, 1500 dollar plasma torch never existed. Document everything with pictures.
Yeah, if you have free materials, you have nothing to lose by trying it. It might not get as hot with a 5 gallon drum, so that might work. Take some temp readings if you can, and report back.
Luckily the fires seem to be dying down. The flames are still 10 miles or so from my place, and the wind has stopped or even turned around a bit. And that is good, because I am my own insurance company. I am also my own fire department, and tax collector, so it all kinda balances out One of these days it might be nice to have an actual address, but being way off the grid is kinda nice.
Our biggest problem right now is the air quality. The smoke is so thick it lands us in the hazardous zone. My daughter is not yet a year, so we are trying to keep her out of it. There have been so many fires that we cant really escape it without driving all the way to Idaho. Thankfully we have an air purifier that has made a huge difference.
Finished my charcoal gasifier. Still have to wait a few days for the refractory cement to completely cure. I also have to make a new charcoal barrel and make enough charcoal to see if it will run. I will post more pictures of some of the components in a project thread once I have it running the generator and know it works.
Looks really good Tom, except I’m a little concerned that the woodgas line to the generator might be on the small side. I have a 1 inch pvc line for my 9 hp lawn tractor and unless I am looking at it wrong it looks like yours is 1/2 inch - maybe 5/8ths? You do plan on the generator engine sucking the woodgas in without the blower - right?
I don’t know what kind of refractory cement you used, but when we built a new foundry furnace where I used to work we put a small natural gas fire in it and let the water boil out of it over night. I guess about 16 hours. We made sure it had stopped steaming before we lit it off for real. We would turn off the gas and wait for a few minutes to see if we could see any steam, and if we did we’d heat it some more. From what I heard they had a new lining explode on them once.
Rindert
Those were the fittings that got me into the top of the regulator for the propane carb. Don. Everything coming out of the blower is half inch pipe. I don’t think you can see it from the pictures but coming out of the blower is just half inch black iron fittiings. Goes from the blower to a Tee and up to a flare and over to the generator. I can up the size to one inch pipe. I have a larger gas line but it wouldn’t get the full inch to the regulator. I’ve see a photo here somewhere, where someone ran their gas line into the top of the regulator like that. That regulator is threaded for a 1/4 NPT nipple. From your experience I’m assuming that you recommend by-passing the regulator all together. I’ll have to see how I could do that and still keep the propane function intact. I appreciate the advice and any other suggestions you may have when I post about the build.
7 days was what was recommended on the bag of cement. Rindert. It took me a long time but first I learned how to read directions and quite a while later I started following them and there was a lot of screwed up stuff between those two points in time.
Thanks. I had enough stuff to get out of the blower at one inch. I need to get a one inch tee and full open ball valve and I should be able to do the rest of the run in the copper I have on hand. The port to the carb is still only half inch. Am I just looking for more volume in the supply lines because the wood gas has a lower density?
wessel he is right from what i have seen if you heat the refractory cement to soon you get weak cement and the face of it will spall and flake of , The first time i did it I made that mistake and had bad refractory. you can warm it after a couple of days . The comercual guys do the burning because they dont have time to wait. i could be wrong just what i have seen
Tried to TLUD a batch of charcoal today. I guess I didn’t do it right. I mentioned before that I have made quite a bit of char for my gardens and just filled a barrel and lit it from the bottom. When the top was burning real well I would then cap in and cut off the bottom air. I started the top fire and it seemed to be burning down into the barrel and with the leaf blower feeding it I had flames a couple feet high out of the barrel. Seemed to be burning well so I capped it and also the air feed at the bottom. Barrel seemed to cool pretty quick and I pulled the lid and the stuff I could see was only charred about half way through. I assume I capped it too soon. Tell me where I went wrong. I’ll empty it tomorrow and look at the whole mess and start over.
I don’t force feed air on my setup. I do use another barrel open both ends as a chimney to cut down smoke and increase draft. I also leave a gap between the barrels less than a inch. When the fire quits burning yellow I cap and block air inlets.
The leaf blower isnt really needed, but the after-burner/chimney barrel is a good idea. Generally with TLUD you want to just let it burn down until you see glowing coals at the bottom air holes. If there are many holes, just keep an eye on them and seal them as they start to show coals. Once they are all sealed up, you can put the lid on. Its been a long time since I have done a batch that way, but I seem to recall it took maybe 90 minutes to 2 hours from when you light it up? I also second Steves comment - the wood must be dry. If it is wet, then do a cone/barrel method where you stoke the fire constantly. There is enough heat to use wet wood once you get a fire going with that system.
Thanks. I guess I just capped it too soon. The wood was dry and most of it was less than four inches in diameter cut into about 8 inch chunks. I’ll fill the barrel to the top and start over. I’d like to get enough to test my gasifier this week end. I did make a different retort yesterday by bending a barrel into some kind of cone shape. I’ll try that out with small sticks like in Gary’s and Don’s videos some time to day as well.
Went to town today and got everything I needed to up the size of the fuel lines. It’s all put together now and just waiting for fuel. I think the hopper is about 40 gallons and 17 inches in diameter. I’m wondering how much fuel is necessary for a test run without having to fill it all the way. I did make another barrel of charcoal today. Not sure if the whole barrel is good but I know quite a bit of it is. I took readings on the outside of the barrel when it was cooking. Kind of odd. At the top of the burn line it was reading up to 800 f, but if you checked it down six inches it would be only about 250 and at the bottom of the barrel only 80. I capped it when there were no flames. We’ll see how that goes. Never did make any smoke though.
A leaf bower is overkill unless a nozzle is fabricated to create a curtain of air blowing at a slight angle down into the vessell.
Adding a small speed-controlled fan to the bottom of a TLUD works wonders. I use a blow dryer plugged into a router speed control on my 30 gallon wood chip kiln. The inlet is in the center below a grate that allows the air to spread evenly. Keeping feed stock under 2 inches thick is best. The wood should all be the same size to allow the pyrolytic front to progress evenly toward the bottom. TLUD = Top Lit Up Draft and Totally Loves Uniform Dimensions. This system is quick and smokeless.
One of these days it might be nice to have an actual address, but being way off the grid is kinda nice.
