DOW Driving Habits

67 years , ugh , we currently have a limit of 60 years and 40 years of service , I hope it stays that way,…
I work in the field of HVAC systems, hydraulic piping of energy media, … in short, in the energy sector at a local pharmaceutical company. I used to do some service or assembly work in the afternoons , but now I don’t have time for that anymore , but there is more and more work of this kind in the field , just not many good workers. If I were unemployed, I would not look for a job in a company, I would take up a trade.
But it’s easy to be clever when your stomach is full and you’re lying in the warm.

They met two craftsmen:
-the first asks the second , how come your business is booming so much?
-second : I have placed an ad;

Attention housewives , I do all the work your husband has just done!

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Some videos of the last weeks of production.
I can especially recomend the outdoor drone overview one. No9

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Very interesting paper being packaged in paper for shipping. That is a lot of paper in a shift of work.
Is there any chance the paper mill will be bought by outside investors and reopened?
Bob

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Maybe they should change over to making toilet paper. :poop:

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2 paper machines are scrapped and 2 of them sold. The smallest/oldest one to Turkey. The newest one from 2005 was aired on Discovery’s World’s biggest machines back then. A $600,000,000 investment at the time. I wonder if they even made it brake even in 15-16 years :thinking:
Only the 130 MW boiler will still be up and running, because it produces a good chunk of the local district heating. The heating bill will probably be up for the customers, because it used to be fueled with 75% “free” bark waste, which is no longer available.
What happens to the rest of site and all its buildings is still confidential information, but the corporation decided to keep it. It will probably be rented out piece by piece to local contractors and such.

Al, that’s exactly what I’ve been suggesting for a long time, but they wouldn’t listen :smile:

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Well I am praying some companies rent out or buy what’s left of the mill for their use for new businesses. Do you still have plenty of wood forest in your area to make wood products?
In Moses Lake we had one of the largest sugar beet plants in the world. I worked at it in the early 70’s. It closed down in the 80’s , they tried to reopen it up in 2010 with mush small scall production but it did not make it. Could not produce the sugar low enough in price. No more sugar beets grown in the central Washington State area. Now corn for ethanol, oil, and cattle feed production. Time keeps moving on with the rise and fall of corporate companies.
Bob

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Yes, certainly. The growth is higher than the consumption.
However, forests are younger these days and areas with really old wide trunks are shrinking. So, it depends on what you want to produce.

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In Washington State they protect all old growth in our U. S. forests. Big corporations companies manage tree farming and like Steve U. Lots of smaller tree farmers in the state. Hopefully the U.S. Forestry will manage the forest better after all of the fires we have had in the passed few years, pine Beatles infestation and the droughts.
Bob

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The town I grew up and live in, Bessemer City, was what’s called a Mill Village. From the beginning of the 1900s to the late 90s we were a textile mill town. North Carolina was apparently famous for the textile industry. Thanks to President Clinton our industry was outsourced to China and Pakistan and everyone lost their jobs. My grandpa on my mother’s side had over 70 patents for improving the textile mills and his machine shop had half of its machines dedicated to making and repairing the equipment for the mills.

Now we just have big empty brick buildings. Some of them have been bought for warehouse use or for large stores. The Firestone Loray Mill was repurposed into an apartment complex recently.

The only reminder of the Mills ever being here are the buildings and the economical homes that the factory owners had built for the workers. The Proto Tiny House. Two bedroom, one bath, one living room and a small kitchen.

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JO; (Wow! I just received a notice that I had posted on this subject enough) Despite the notice, I am still going to go on to thank you for the link to the videos. I have never seen such a clean faciity-- the floors shine, and most of the grounds are manicured. I had to watch several of them more than once because my mind would drift away from the plant to the view in the back ground of the plant. TomC

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TomC, I’m glad you liked the videos, but…
They are made in a way that would probably satisfy the board of directors. They would be allowed to be shown to shareholders, press and politicians.
When crawling in grease, leaking hydraulic oil and rotting egg-fart smelling pulp, in steaming hot conditions in the basements, for maintence, I never saw any cameras around.

It’s what “they” want the general public to believe modern technology is all about - clean and enviroment friendly. Everything is good as long as there’s “No visible smoke” so to speak.
Shiny paint on hoods and fenders in your driveway doesn’t mean flat tires and dead batteries don’t pile up in your back yard.

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That needs to be on a inspirational calendar! Life ain’t perfect even if on the surface it looks dandy, lipstick on a pig and polish a turd and all that :joy:

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So getting to my busy season and I have a small section of my water trapline on the way home so the wood burner is pulling double duty commuting and fur transporter machine. While at my stop I did something I have not done before, I normally don’t do anything with the gassifier while driving to and from work preferring to empty condensation and poke the char bed out of the public’s eye. The truck was doing a little lurching motion at low speed in traffic and wouldn’t idle at all. I was holding it around 1500rpm to keep it running. Now if there is no traffic I can cruise and maybe don’t see this issue, maybe it is normal for halfway home. While stopped at the farm I I figured I was out of sight enough I emptied the tanks of all the condensation. Finished running traps and jumped in the truck. After a normal short shutdown I fire up on gas and swap over to wood once I’m in motion, today I tried to fire back up on wood. Both valves wide open and cracked the air valve to it’s normal spot and cranked, fired right up like it was on gasoline. Before I drained the tanks I was noticing a little higher then normal rails vacuum reading, and now the vacuum was much lower after draining the tanks. I suspect what is happening is the amount of condensation I get is acting like a bubbler blocking the gas passage up to the hay filter restricting ease of movement to deliver the fuel forward to the engine. Once again my low vacuum cam seems culprit of not being able to pull the fuel up to the motor in the low idle-1000rpm range. After firing up the truck ran like a scalded dog all the way home, that is the first time I have done anything to the system other then put in more wood while on a drive and the change in how the truck ran was incredibly obvious, so much more power and far faster throttle response

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Hi Marcus, On the back condensation tank how high are the lines going in and out. On mine they are above the 3/4 mark on the tank and on my the Hayfilter they are coming in at 10" off the bottom. Water can cause a pluging bubbling effect. Looks like you need to draining water at work and at home if you are going to drive a little farther than normal. This will change when you are back into the dry season and have drier wood to burning.
Bob

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Spot on, Marcus. Not noticable on the road, but will likely stall at idle.
Puts a smile on my face every step of the learning curve you report. You’re a fast learner. Keep the reports coming :+1:

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The tank itself is 12" diameter and gas in coming is dead center line of the tank, gas out is almost at the top of the tank. About 2 gallons and the inlet lines will start to get blocked off with water. With how low to the ground the truck is I tried to keep this a a small tank for ground clearance and it may come back to bite me with more frequent draining

Will do Jan! Learning the truck and engaging my squirrel habit is proving to take some time. Keeping an eye out for chunker parts as we speak. Made another show and tell with the truck and the forum has 2 new members. One already has his book in hand and is busy reading, the other waiting on his book still. Might have a small group of woodgassers forming that can help with the squirrel effect :grin:

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Yes , What JO said . Keep burning and learning .

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Wow Marcus, you are one of our newest members and you have already got two more to signed up for a DOW MEMBERSHIP!!! You have your own membership drive going on in your own area where you live. Good Job Marcus.
Obviously you are getting the word out on Wood Gasification. The next thing we will be hearing is you formed a DOW Club to help others to build WK gasifers. I am impressed with the enthusiasm and good vibes you are putting out in the DOW community. We need more of this from our membership. The way things are going the timing is right for DOW.
Bob

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What it takes for the normies as I call them to wake up is pull there head out of the sand and look around. America is not in a good place. When you threaten a rednecks way of life with gas and diesel prices skyrocketing, coupled with live in the sticks and commute long distance for a good paying job to feed there family’s they start looking for answers for themselves. No one is coming to help and your on your own, you are responsible for you and yours. If the Lord has blessed you with hands for creating, then woodgas means independence from the fuel pump and the crumbling infrastructure that is barely holding that pump running. Ha notice a flour and yeast shortage? I have. People are baking there own bread, reminiscing of years ago “bread wars” when times were lean. It’s not good to rely on some government entity to keep your life moving forward and people are seeing it and taking the bull by the horns. I’m very excited to have these guys aboard, they are skilled fabricators and common sense folk.

On another note, I was suspecting by milage (around 1300 miles right now) I am getting close to my first char clean out. This mornings condensation drain I believe confirmed it


All this char came out of the rear tank with the water. I screened it out and have it drying to re run later in the truck. I believe since this is the first time I have seen this I am ready for a clean out this afternoon

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It is amazing how the charcoal will manage to work it way down through the system of the gasifer. I know for a fact it has to do with the hard pulls I do in the area where I live. I do not live in a flat land area. Lol. It is a 6% grade out of the place where I live.
You are definitely ready for a complete cleaning out from dropbox to the hayfilter and everything in between. Might need a ash dumping out too. How many miles have you driven?
Bob

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