Ok This sounds stupid but…
I have a hard timing finding materials for my gasifier.
Could I use somthing like a plastic sewer pipe and mount a steel hearth in it?
I do also remember someone doing a gasifier in clay.
Any ideas?
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Jim, the gas leaving the gasifier is sometimes close to 500C. Some people on the site use ceramics in their firetubes/hearts. Even anywhere downstream, plastic is out of the question, until the gas reaches dew point.
I use a plastic barrel for hayfilter, but the gas temp is close to ambient by then.
Look for old propane bottles (gasolflaskor) on Blocket for example. They weld nicely. Just be careful fill them completly with water before you do any cutting.
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Sure I will look out for propane bottles.
Have someone used the 20l paint buckets, they are maybe on the thin side?
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Too thin to be much good, except for a Gary Gilmore style simple fire charcoal system. But the charcoal gasification reaction is amazingly reductive, gas exit temp is near ambient.
I would like to raise the common issue of corrosion in wood systems. This causes the members a lot of problems longer term. Maybe most problems. I view steel construction and use of barrels as good for an experimental build, but stainless steel is the best solution longer term.
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Jim, I used a 2’’ thick ceramic blanket inside a 14’’ about 3-4mm thick water tank, It has about 4k miles on it. WK design on the Ranger build.
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Jim; As JO has said, plastic is out of the question.
I will give you a couple of suggestions IF you can’t find a suitable fire tube
1 Take strips of steal the thicknes of the fire tube you want, and weld them together to creat a 10 or 12 sided tube. Put a nozzle in the face of each slat.
2 Take a thin walled container and put an inche or two of ceramic wool insulation inside to create that diameter of fire tube you want. (this would be totally experimental if you go less than 2 inches. It has been done a couple of times with the 2 inche but never with 1. I suggest the 1 inche if you are using it for the container to put the hearth in.) TomC
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The Ceramic wool is a good idea, I guess that refractory would work good too, just a bit heavier?
On the other hand so should flat iron not be to hard to find.
Nice build on the Ranger AL!
On the topic of corrosion, has anyone tried some kind of coating on steel to prevent it from corrode?
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Hi Jim,
You might search ‘foundry ladle wash’. We use this kind of thing in aluminum foundry to make steel tools and ladles last longer. Maybe talk to your local foundry man. Maybe he can sell you a small quantity of it.
Rindert
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I use a paint called chassis saver, made by magnet paint co. I use the silver, it has 2 pounds of aluminum powder per gal. It will stand some very high temps. Don’t know if you can get it shipped there, but look it up you may have a similar product.
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