Cody's Hopefully Raw Wood Reactor

You are going the ventury way? Then there isnt any need for any condensation sistem…

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Yeah I’m mostly going for the classic monorator profile to get condensate exit far away from the heat, but also if my venturi doesn’t work well I can just reverse engineer to WK cooling tubes.
I’m recycling from my double flute and welding the bottom portion of that barrel to the lowest rib above where I drilled holes for the flutes. I should have about as much material to give a larger hopper volume than if i only used the 20 gallon drum as the hopper.

Plus I can use a WK style puffer lid using the old 20 gallon lid for filling and the 55 gallon lid on spring tension.

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I’m going to try to do some metal prepping this weekend and maybe get the nozzles and fins welded to the burn tube. For all of my gas tight welds I will probably ask if I can use my dad’s friend’s Mig machine. It’s a much nicer unit and I can fine tune it for some of the thin stuff I’ll work with. This flux core wire I have is really porous even when I clean up my joints and degrease them. Pretty annoying.

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I’m starting to wonder if I even need the car rim and 20 gallon drum to be included in the hopper design if I’m already going to use a 55 gallon partial drum as the main body of said hopper? Would make for less welds so less avenues for air leaks. I can just extend the distance from the nozzles to the hopper with an easier to weld up propane cylinder body and would double as the condensate barrier, or I could just copy the WK gutters. Would certainly give me less welding to do for the same effect. The car rim didn’t add much volume and I could make up for hopper space in spades by just making the barrel as tall as I can.

I feel like if I copy the WK aspects much more I shouldn’t show any guts of it! :joy:

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Yes, Cody, if you start a thread something like “Cody’s WK Gasifier Details” in the premium section, that would be appropriate for “What is inside the barrels and boxes”. You can keep this thread going for the rest of the project that you don’t need the premium side to figure out. Helps to preserve the brand and value of driveonwood.com and its founders. Therefore preserving it for the rest of us!! :innocent:

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I think I’ll do just that. It has too many features based on HWWT. I will take external pictures of it and my wood sizing and other non trade secrets.

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Are there any major downsides to the classic Finnish derived monorator? Like pictured in some literature.
Capture+_2021-07-29-11-40-26

Or are they just less efficient?

I was thinking of making a funnel out of expanded sheet metal to line the walls of the hopper, and either expanded sheet at the bottom going over the condensate fence with solid coverings to keep trash out at the bottom, or a solid wall liner moving down to a funnel. Liner wouldnt be far off of the outer walls of the hopper, maybe an inch at most.

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Hi Cody, you will notice that the wood will not just fall in to the firetube on the out side of the hopper. It purpose was to let the wood get torified. When refueling you would move that wood to the center and add more. Moisture would condense on the big hopper out side walls and run down in to the big hopper tar/water gutter and into the condensation tank it could be drain later. Just go with the hopper wall straight down like the WK it works a lot better. Open the hopper lid pour the wood in close the lid and drive.
Bob

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Well I was thinking of a gutter at the bottom of the hopper, a sheet metal funnel but have expanded sheet for the walls of the hopper liner.

Sorta like JOs hopper liner. Since it will be Propane Tank to 55 gallon drum I have space for a bottom drain.

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CodyT. if you’ve read, recall the story of the original Finnish monorator it was for low profile on a raced car.
So lots of forward&back and side-to-side shifting. And probably even up and down bouncing.
These no doubt shitted and settled the wood.
So NOT good for a stationary; or smooth riding modern application.
The later round, higher, narrower monorator hopper have worked out well for fellows too.

And the true latest evolved WK with the double gutter and external cooler tubes is a quantum level up again for wettish wood and wettish air conditions.
S.U.

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Steve Bowman gave me this cast iron wok for lack of a better term. It’s about 3.5" deep and 12" wide at the rim. Would this be a bad grate for this reactor considering it’s dished and 4" wider than the bottom of the reduction?




The bottom half of the reactor will be able to be disassembled for repairs so it won’t be a chore to replace if it’s a bad idea, but I also don’t want to waste my time.

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I have a soft spot for good quality cast iron, I have a small collection of griswold, camp chef, lodge and Wagnerand use it all regularly. If it’s in good shape and worth saving I’d restore it and use it. Iv been looking for a older wok and a waffle iron for some time

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So do l. And since real cast iron is hard to get nowdays, my hearth screams LEAVE THE WOK!

But seriously, l do think its not the best option. You do want some char to slip over the edge, to prevent ash pluggs in the charbed.

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A piece of stainless steel plate cut to fit with holes, hanging by some chains is best. So it will slip a little charcoal with the ash.
Bob

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I have two different sizes of bearing races I’m planning to use as my restriction. Some are just a hair over 3" at the tightest and some are 3.5" at the tightest.

Should I play it safe and use the 3" restriction? Or would 3.5" be fine for this engine?

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Also since Steve Bowman gave me a 100lb propane tank I might be able to expand the diameter of the burn tube to 12" and use the 100lb tank as the air jacket.

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Whats your engine displacement again?

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2 liter. Jan and others suggested if I could to find a bigger burn tube so fuel could flow easier. Currently it’s 10" diameter for what I have planned.

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Ok so since Steve had gifted me some propane tanks I can make a larger burn tube. I have noticed both Joni and WKs use the same diameter for theirs.

I have some heavy duty 20lb propane tanks I can make into a burn tube, and use part of a 100lb tank as the air jacket.

I think to strengthen the burn tube I’ll pull a card out of JOs book and weld in plates to add mass.

I plan to go mostly off of Joni’s dimensions from his Opel for the Mazda. Now that I’ll be custom building my bed I can make an extended hopper by mounting below where the bed would go. Definitely using exhaust ejection like Joni. After seeing what Jake had to go through with soaked wood I think the ejection is worth it. Everything after the reactor itself will be by the book WK.

I will post pictures in the premium side-thread for the more sensitive details. My plasma cutter is arriving tomorrow.

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Cody, I can’t take credit for that idea. I picked the idea up from Herb Hartman and his Caddy build. He used a propane tank for firetube as well.
I would use a loose fit of the sacrificial plates though. Bolted or tightened in place by screw in nozzles. Less heat transfer to the firetube and easy to replace if needed.

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