Bill Schiller's venture to the dark side

General Discussion
#40

Maybe you can supply us with a short video Bob?

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#41

I heard it works a lot better if you add saltpeter. and a bit of sulfur. Just saying… :stuck_out_tongue:

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#42

Yeah but not as a aerosol. I remember Mythbusters trying to power a engine with black powder and it just didnt light as a aerosol.

However electricity has been used to set a charge off before, there is a guy on youtube that made a bolt action cartridgeless black powder .22, he puts a lead ball in the breech, powder behind and has a electrode on the bolt tip. On squeezeing the triger a spark sets off the charge and boom.

1 Like
#43

if the correct mixture fuel/oxydizer/ignitor/pressure is given, anything will make kaboom… sometimes a puff, sometimes a bang…

size does matter…

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#44

if my wife sizes the charcoal then no dust…

#45

Here is a video of my set up Bill, enjoy
All the parts were of things I just had laying around waiting to be used. I love building things like this.
Bob

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Rotary Charcoal Grinders
#46

Thank you Bob, That helps a lot.

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#47

Genious! Fantastic device

#48

Very impressive Bob. And good narration during the video

How do you get the charcoal out of the barrels? That little 2” bung is quite a restriction. Maybe an auger made with a screw anchor?

#49

We are building a wall across lake Michigan, you keep your snow over there in Minnesota!!

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#50

Hi Michael, yes I have a auger that screws into bung hole, tip the barrel on it side and the charcoal comes all out. Planning on the barrels to have a electric motor to turn the auger. I’m just using a cordless drill right now. It you have a rack on the bed of the truck you could have two barrels on the rack and feed your charcoal down to the gasifier unit below. Change out the barrels when needed. The 30 gal. plastic barrels work the best for handling. I get all the barrels I want for free. Dana’s Dad brings them home from the car wash. Most car wash places will give them away.
Bob

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#51

The Keep the Flakes Out campaign failed miserably.

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#52

Hi Kristijan
I did not know that a cross-draft gasifier could crack more water than a simple fire (updraft)

how do you explain that?

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#53

Well a updraft gasifier heats the whole bed of charcoal above the reaction zone and the only way steam can go is up and trugh the gas outlet. A crossdraft gasifier has (idealy) a grate or gas outlet just at the end of the reaction zone so the steam (at least some of it) can enter the hot reaction zone before it exits.

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#55

Jakob’s elctric exercise bike workes very well.But a little more doing to build than some other ideas I guess.

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#56

I mounted a 12/24 volt wheel chair motor and gearbox onto the back of my little garden mulcher /shredder and can get the speed right to the point of low dust and those motors have a lotts torque , so just set the belt slightly looser and if you happen to get any unchard brands it will slip the belt and allow you to pull them out if you want .
Dave

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#57

I was looking at making something like this video, but granted It is dusty, and I don’t know if you can do fuel grade sizes with it. It looks a lot faster then the meat grinder for biochar though. The trommel worked okay but slow with a rock in it, but I totally understand wanting to use something else to break stuff up with first.

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#58

The high speed flailing action looks bound to produce a lot of fines.

My thinking is that a mincing action might also give good results, but any slow speed grinding/ breaking action is probably similar.

And then there’s rock crusher designs. Given that they have surfaces that never contact, they probably are the most efficient. And will also deal with stones, nails, no problem.

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#59

Hi Garry, just breaking charcoal up in my hands produce char dust. There is no way to crush it to the size needed dry with out making the black dust. Containing it when breaking it up is the best solution that I have found and then using the powder and small fines in the garden or compost pile.
Bob

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#60

I agree, any process will produce dust.

The only way to figure if one process produces less fines than another is to test side by side, same charcoal. I think there will be some differences, but only a gradation between some dust, and lots.

2 Likes