From what I have read of the wright brothers, There were at that time puplished “facts” about the number of square feet of wing for given lift or something similar. It was when they dared to question the validity of the published info that they built the wind tunnel and discovered their own facts. From that point they made progress to success.
This fits nicely in Dons thread, since he dared to question the fact a large vehicle was needed to carry a gasifier.
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Hi Don,
I’m just catching up on your posts and have a question about the double cyclones. I haven’t seen this mentioned and was wondering, do you collect the same amount of soot from each cyclone? I’m thinking if there is a disproportionate amount consistently in one side, perhaps a larger single cyclone might suffice. My thought is that spinning faster keeps the particulate matter nearer the top of the cyclone longer, but I’m not sure if this is detrimental to operation. My single larger cyclone catches an amazing amount of fines and is never close to being damp. I know your water drip was the problem not the burn.
Pepe
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Pepe,
I would say the amount of soot is evenly divided between the two cyclones and being symmetrical, has a lot to do with it.
I went with the two smaller cyclones for three reasons, 1. It takes less space. 2. the smaller cyclones spin the gas faster and because this is a charcoal gasifier I am only interested in soot and fine dust capture because as the gas updrafts through the charcoal in the hopper it loses any larger particles. 3. I needed to double up because two smaller equals 1 bigger.
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Ahhh. How to respond to the WrightBrther early sussess and tie this into Don’s efforts . . . .
BruceS when I said “art” I was not meaning static inside-to-out expressive art.
The art I was referring to was any damn good process/machine operator. Surpassing experienced based learning is another intangible. Some would say wizardry. Not me. Performing art.
No matter how skilled the engineer, the fabricator, early success’s WILL depend on a sensing/reacting/re-jiggering-on-the-go active operator-user.
Been more than one visiter/rider observe Mr Wayne’s smoothly “flying” hands on his system controls thinking maybe he can do this . . . but me? Me?
Yes. You: if you put your mind, heart and determination to it.
“lord, lord this sword you give me to carry is too heavy for me!” (A recent movie line). Response. “Grow stronger.”
Back on the Wright bro’s first flyer. Been many books and articles written about why, them. Why then.
- They pushed forward with fixed wing, never wasting time and energy on using the wing for propulsion.
- Just as soon as they could get some evidence of controllablity with wing warping with tethered wind full scale “glider” trials they immediately went into gasoline engine powered flight. Make it go forward! For lift. For control surfaces responses! Boats control much better into the stream flow. Going down stream is super tricky!
- They for sure had a gynmist/bicyclist mind set operator-flyer working it, active.
And their early successes were soon eclipsed until they abandoned too-over-reactive high-operator-skill-needed duck-goose “head-forward controls” and then themselves emulated robin/hawk/eagle rear mostly self centering controls other’s like Curtis had gone to.
Wood/char for enginepower lessons from this?
Putin every possible manual control in the beginning.
Always as soon as possible do, power, drive to learn. From successes. And not-so-good exprences.
Just like WayneK’s whole experiences example.
DO something, anything, to begin. MAKE IT ENGINE POWER. Incrementally improve from there.
Because perfecting, designing/building, overthinking, then overbuilding some more, will leave you back, powerless, disappointed. Grounded. Without even the learning experience of crashing.
Just my humble experiences. We will politely not name the too many names in the last three years of the DOW who took the never-fire up approaches, eh?
DonM. is a proven DOer driver, just trying to get rid of that “head-drag” now.
tree-farmer Steve Unruh
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Astute as usual, Mr. Unruh. Thanks for responding.
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Hi Don, do you have any updates on your Geo Tracker Project.
Bob
Yes, it is still there waiting for this old fart to work on it.
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Reading postings on DOW, never a dull moment…
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You have got to stop chasing the all mighty dollar and settle down to the important things in life-- woodgas. TomC
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Haha, that´s funny! You sure know how to put it.
How is Crivitz woodgas production going?
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Ahhhh! Slow!! I have a new plan; instead of trying to make all the changes that are on my list, I am just going to get it to the point of running. I’ll put the frosting on the cake after I see if it is any good. That could happen in a very short time if I stick to this new plan. TomC ( maybe I’ll have a race with Don in seeing who gets their project running first.)
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That’s a good plan Tom, I’m doing to do the same thing get it going and then finish it with all the extras bells and whistles. It’s a three way race now.
Bob
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Tom. you made me feel so guilty after that almighty dollar post that i went ahead and moved the S-10 into the work area of my shop today.
I’m not quite ready to race you to completion though, especially after you changed your plans on all your new ideas. I’ll have to say though that fall is a perfect time to work in the shop temperature wise,-not too hot - not too cold.
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I will be rooting for all three teams.
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You can get arrested for that in ALabama…no wait, that’s college football…sorry
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Don, I’m building a gasifier of the Simple Fire design for a vehicle and am considering filter options. Do I understand correctly that other than the cyclone filters, you only use a 30 gallon drum filled with hay? That sounds too simple to be true. If there is more to your filtering. Please describe. Thanks.
Steve,
If you haven’t already, read through the great filter discussion “What kind of filter media?” under General Discussion
Yes Steve it is as simple as that. The charcoal in the hopper acts as the first filter as the gas rises thru it. The cyclones spin out the fine particles and some dust and the straw in the barrel plus one and a half inches of open cell foam above the straw is the final filter.
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My two cents-- I would stick with any hay or grass-- straw has glazed stalks that probably won’t hold soot as well and for sure not moisture-- not that you will have any with charcoal. TomC
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