About a week ago I bumped into a post that mentioned insulating a nozzle to stop the oxidation. That got me thinking. For a long time, Maxgasman has suggested using an overhang to protect nozzles from direct contact with superheated charcoal. I tried it once with a piece of sheet metal in an updraft simple fire but couldn’t get good gas. Well, why not try an insulated roof over the tuyere in my downdrafter?
Instead of a steel shield, I decided on copper. I annealed a piece of 2" type L pipe after slicing it on the table saw. The U-bolts allow me to adjust the overhang and the distance between the charcoal and the nozzle holes.
Here is another crazy idea. I’m using an old oiler on my homemade throttle to gasoline prime my engine at startup.
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How do you get the bigger insulated nozzle into the gasifier? Will you need to install the shield after the nozzle is installed?
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Yes, the copper and insulation shield is dropped in through the top lid and the washers and nuts are put on the U bolts through the 4" clean-out/gas outlet.
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The shield rotates to increase or decrease the overhang. I’ll start with the nozzle holes at 20 degrees down from horizontal. I’m assuming charcoal drops at a 60 degree angle from the edge of the shield. So I will start with an overhang that will give me about 1/2" gap between nozzle and charcoal. I have no idea if any of this will work but I like having options. All thoughts and criticisms are welcome.
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This is interesting Bruce. I would reverse those U-bolts so the threads and nuts are not directly in the hot zone. After the first run they won’t be coming back off again. If it works like you hope it will then I would install an access hatch or another 4 inch pipe cap to more easily access and maintain it.
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Well spotted Tom , Looking good Bruce cant wait to see her fired up .
Dave
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Thanks Tom. Good catch.
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Nice idea with the drip-oiler, have you seen pics of Henry Fords first engine? He used a drip oiler for a “carb” on the “kitchen sink” engine, he took out the bottom sight glass and let air in that way.
Anyhow, good idea, those oilers are pretty “precise” adjustable. 
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I had not seen Ford’s engine. I looked it up. Interesting. I use a larger modern version of this style oiler as a water drip on a small gasifier. I was thinking about adding a priming port like I have on my MGB when this came to mind.
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Taking shape.
On these cold winter days I have been working inside a little garden greenhouse that I set up under our barn. It gets about 3 hours of sunshine on nice days.
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More warm weather and some time off so a little more fit-up on the Simplicity Baron.
Air filter, mixing valve and vacuum gauge.
That’s a little better shot of the gas drip for startup.
The gauge gives a clue about leaks or clogs affecting performance.
I’m also using this as the flare port.
With this arrangement the flare gas comes off of the intake so the whole system is full of char gas.
Gas tank removed and battery rotated 90 degrees to make room for ammo box filter.
40 micron SS safety filter wrapped in white filter paper to show any nasties in the system.
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Looking great Bruce.
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Working on filter guts.
Filter inlet with bag for silica gel (if needed for moisture).
Separator tray forms a tiny drop-box.
Intestines are a little over 5 feet long. Wifey sewed the fiberglass cloth tube.
Ready for installation.
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Interesting construction, i like the “worm in a bucket” filter.
You are able to just turn this up for cleaning?
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Yes, I’m thinking that I can clean it with a brush attachment on a vacuum cleaner. Also the sock/tube slips off if it needs to be washed. All of the pieces of this project are fitting together nicely. I hope it works.
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This is looking really good and has to be getting close to being ready to run. I’d leave the silica gel out for at least the first test. My DownDraft gasifier hasn’t been getting enough water collecting in my jar or filter to worry about in the last few runs but my first many runs of that gasifier caught a lot of water. I would have gone through a lot of silica gel at least at the beginning.
I didn’t see any drain on your filter. Your design might not need that or maybe I missed it. Like I said, mine seems to have stopped getting so much water now but I still like having a way to drain off any that it does catch without much effort.
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Bruce, great work. If l may however just prevent some head scraching later, l too used this style plastic pipe with holes sack support but the problem was suction glued the fabric tight on the pipe when runing and vastly decreased filtering area (just the surface of the holes). I had wound some stiff mesh around to separate fabric and pipe and it was better.
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Thank you, Kristijan! I have a wide roll of copper scouring pad/rodent deterrent. I will wrap the pipes with that.
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Thanks, Brian! I plan to drain the system at a low point at the end of the cooler before the pipe goes up to the filter, but I’ll keep an eye on the filter can as well.
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