I uncapped the TLUD barrel I did yesterday. Most of the wood didn’t char. I got about five gallons of good charcoal out of it. I just emptied the barrel and did a batch like I do bio-char. Start a fire in the bottom and keep loading wood in. Did that for about 4 hours. Not a problem since I’m always screwing around with something right in that area. I’m pretty sure I’ll be at least half a barrel of good charcoal out of that. I had about 10 gallons worth of char left over from the spring garden load. I ground that and sifted it and started loading the gasifier. With what I get tomorrow I should be able to get at least a three quarter load in the hopper. Pretty anxious to see this thing work. Got a little frost in the garden last night. I didn’t go back and check to see if the place is toast. If so I’ll have extra time to mess with it. We have never had a frost this early.
Tom , when making engine grade charcoal in a TLUD barrel i would try and keep all the wood down to a small size maybe 2 inch dia and try and keep the lengths around the same sort of size as well , it may well be worth your while trying to make a Hookway type retort , i found it the easiest way for me to light and walk away once gassing .
Dave
I’m way late to the game here Dave. Still working though things most of you guys did years ago but I expect to get it figured out. Pretty grateful for access to people who already know what they are doing. Luckily for me, all this work is for emergency situations and I don’t have to provide a constant source of fuel like you guys that are fueling vehicles. Unlike my WK gasifier, I will play around with this one and try and learn something I should have been doing seven years ago when I built that one.
I only generate power because i can do it with ease AND its fun !, nearly all my charcoal comes from my 2 wood burning fires in the house i just empty out the charcoal before reloading the fires i can get a couple of 25 litre drums a day if i want , i burn mostly small split wood or hard wood pallets so i can refill a fire say every hour and still leave plenty of charcoal behind to set off the next load of wood .
all the tree litter that comes from my mountain ash gum tree’s i burn in a cone when cleaning up the property and that makes very fine but ash type charcoal , still good for engine runs once the ash has been sieved out
A little help please. I have tried to make gas twice with my new unit with not result. The first time the blower seemed wonky so I shut it down and pulled a different one off my other gasifier. It was good so I lit it up again. I could see a bright glow through the lighting port and was getting good air flow out the flare pipe. I let it cook for quite a while and I know it was because I checked up and down the hopper. 200f at the hearth level and 120 at the top of the hopper and cyclone and about 100f at the port to the filter. This was all new charcoal taken right out of the barrel and ground and sifted to from quarter to half inch. Everything should have worked but no flare. Why would I not be getting burnable gas? In case the air flow from only one blower was an issue I piped a six inch duct fan into the plenum below the hearth and ran that for a while.
Tom , if your not able to get a flare to light can you see when you place your torch in front of the fan if its trying to burn at all ? or is it just blowing the torch out ?
This part can sometimes get the better of us for many reasons the no 1 reason is always air leaks , in fact i would almost put money on it , next how are you piping it out the end of the fan is the gas mixing with air before you light it ? the next reason i would look at slowing down the pull of the fan once the gasifier is up to temp .
If you have to then once its all cooled down a bit try blowing air back through from your gas outlet pipe and through the fan with a spray bottle and soapy water .
Dave
Do you still have the 1/2 inch pipe feeding the flare? Woodgas needs about 50/50 gas/air mixture to ignite. I’d try getting up to temp with the flare valve plus the pipe to the future engine open. Once up to temp, shut the engine supply pipe and partially plug the air inlet at the bottom of the gasifier to slow the air down a bit and spark the flare again to see if that makes the mixture closer to 50/50. Just my 2 cent experiment.
Hi Tom, That trash can filter could be a problem. How did you get an air tight seal around the lid? Can you get a flare? The startup fan looks air tight, so that should not be the problem.
In reading some of the posts, I can concur with Don that the chargas hose to the engine needs to be at least 1/2" but 1" is better. Go ahead and leave the propane fixture in place as the chargas needs to go into the air opening of the carb. Basically you remove the air filter and put the chargas in there. Do not put the chargas through the propane regulator. There is not enough BTU value in the gas to make it work.
Gary in PA
I ran a few rows of duct tape around the rim to expand it before I put the lid on Gary. I can just tape the lid to the barrel. I duct tape all the PVC joints in case I want to revise something. Here are pictures of the gas to the generator set up I revised from Don’s suggestion. I went from one inch to inch and a half PVC mainly because that’s what I had on hand. Ran the blower for about 20 minutes today but still no flare. I mentioned that this was fuel right out of the charcoal barrel the day after cooking it but I still see about a three eights of an inch of water in the catch jar under the cyclone. I’m thinking the problem may be that I didn’t fully grasp Don’s build and that the changes I made may be the problem. Could be the grate, I don’t know. I’ll post some build pictures in the project section and maybe someone could spot where it’s gone wrong.
Are you using water drip?
Hi Tom, A few wraps of duct tape on the trash can may make an air tight seal, but I have a feeling it is not working. Can you bypass the trash can filter by taking the gas hose from the cyclone and hooking it up directly to the start up fan? Looking at the size of your unit, it should take about 3 to 5 minutes from a cold start to get chargas that can sustain a flare. Do not use the water drip for now. You are in the trouble shooting mode and need to eliminate as many variables as possible. You can add the water later once you get the flare going.
Also look for any possible air leaks in the gasifier, the cyclone and piping. It doesn’t take much of a leak to prevent the formation of good chargas. Also check where the wires go into the startup fan (bilge blower). The ones I buy have a hole where the wire goes through that needs plugged and I use silicone.
You have a good design and it will work. Hang in there, we are rooting for you!
Gary in PA
It’s set up to feed water into a reservoir surrounding the hearth. I’ll show pictures in the project thread but I haven’t gotten far enough to use it yet. I have checked all the welds for pinholes and they are all good. I’ll seal off the lid of the trash can better and see how that goes. There may be air getting in somehow because even though I have crammed some rags into the cleanout port in the bottom wheel The charcoal is still not totally dead the next morning. I made a real plug for that today I can try tomorrow. Thankfully I may never run out of duct tape. I keep it well stocked.
Hi Tom i see on another post that you by past the filter that was leaking and managed to get a flare ! 
so glad i didn’t lose the bet i had with myself
Dave
Yep, it’s working well now Dave. I just need to change how I’m feeding the fuel to the engine. Even with a new seal on the lid I had to chase a couple other problems. I was surprised at how much the smallest, almost imperceptible leak could close down the system. Praise be the inventor of duct tape.
I call it plastic welding Tom , i think it sound far more sophisticated than duct tape .
Dave
Honestly, I try and search the site before I ask questions that I’m sure have been answered a hundred times somewhere.
I want to build a survival gasifier. Something that can be easily put together by anyone with easily scrounged or off shelve parts. I want to go simple fire but can’t find how ash is dealt with on some of these simpler units. The plan is to start with a five gallon metal bucket with a lid. Cut an eight inch hole in the lid to receive a piece of 8 inch stove pipe. Run a one inch nipple through the bucket and stove pipe and pack the area around the two with clay. Then a smaller nozzle could be run through the 1 inch nipple. the hopper would be another length of stove pipe attached to the one in the bucket . On top of that I’m going to mount a Presto pressure cooker, just because I have an old one laying around and you can find them at any Good Will store. I want to use that because of the seal. Now is where the DOW brain trust is summoned. Not sure, still in the survival mind set, how to move air through the system. Bilge blower? Not something easily scrounged. I can see pushing air through the system with something like a hair dryer. I’m wondering if a Y was placed in the piping coming out of the pressure cooker and something like a hair dryer or heat gun attached to that you it create a suction, venturi effect, pulling air up from the nozzle. I have trouble sleeping pretty often and my brain gets locked into a loop with this stuff running through it. The other thing is If you were hooked to an engine then you could probably use a hand cranked blower to get enough gas to the engine to start it but how would you be able to use the thing for cooking or water heating without a source of power to move air?
Tom , Just a quick one while i try and think through what you just asked .
Ash don’t worry about ash i ran for months and hardly ever had any because it all ends up as clickers in the end .
Dave
Tom a few of us use mattress inflater pumps they have a built in battery and are really portable , if you watch some of Koens video’s he uses them and also uses them for cooking , if you want you can blow air through the nozzle once its alight and the out pipe is connected to a gas ring for cooking .
Dave
Who would you pay if you lost the bet with yourself? 
Well, this would be easy to come by Dave. So you would just connect this to the nozzle and push air into the reactor? I’m going to do this this week. I think I only have 6 inch stove pipe handy but that’s OK. Half inch nozzle or three quarter? I’m not going to want to mess around making clay. I think I’ll fill between the can and duct with regular mortar and see how long that will hold up. Thanks for the suggestion.