The question arises several times, why more people do not deal with the most “ecological” fuel - wood, why electricity is not obtained from this energy source, only a few individuals convert some electricity from wood.
The principle that applies to us is that we do everything at home, that all components are simple and understandable, that system management is easy.
Here we are talking about a generator with an output power of up to approx. 4 kW, manufactured by Giorgio. From past experience, I can say that this power could be provided by a good wood gas engine with a working volume of 400 cc at 3000 rpm, well, because we know that the generator itself does not have 100% efficiency, that there are frictional losses in the belt transmission, that older engines have a low compression ratio,… we can say that we need an engine with approx. 500 cc to drive such a generator.
Today was a rainy day and I was practicing welding aluminum, …maybe someday this Acme al 480 engine head will be mounted on a generator drive motor
looks fine, tone…it is a miracle what you produce in short time!
i am also in the acme fever now…tomorrow will walk around 10 kilometers to a scrap man…there are 2 acme motors in terrible conditions, but maybee some pieces can be useful yet…
pictures from july, when i found the motores there
Other ACME products. Your pictures are what most of them look like after use by Wile Coyote. These are from an annoying American Cartoon. If you enjoy working on stuff in that condition I have a whole shed of “I’m gonna need that someday” crap you could have.
This Acme engine has a factory CR of 1:4.15 and was designed to run on kerosene, there are similar engines with a higher CR of 1:5.6 that are made to run on gasoline.
This head has a factory displacement of approx 115cc, which I reduced to approx 90cc, this head and a thin head gasket will give a CR of approx 1:6.5, and that will be a big change when running on wood gas, Tom, I hope so , so that this item will not lie on the shelf for a long time.
You probably get more done in a day than I do in a month Tone. I used to do a lot better. Still haven’t gotten back to the saw mill gasifier since summer. Getting pretty sick of working on food storage though.
Really interesting project. Flatheads make it easy(easier) to increase an engine’s compression ratio. I’m surprised you aren’t taking it higher still? Wood gas is happy well above 10:1. Maybe the gas flow dynamics would be impaired by such an aggressive reduction of the “head space”?
My woodgas “plan” engine is a Predator 670cc which has the now more common over head valve configuration. It is 8.3:1 compression from the factory and harder to modify because of the valve position but I had a head shave in mind. Not sure how much clearance it has but a little clay would tell you.
brought at home tired legs and some treasures of the scrap…
pistons with 4 rings, magnetos in unknown conditions, carburettor, oil level sticks, pressure column, cylinder…with water traces all, but will see what is to reuse…
the kohler motor- electricity generator, i have posted recently in life goes on topic was left by the american army in 2 world war here, me told the scrap man
I believe a lot of the Post-WW2 Italian tractors were made from various tank parts, were they not?
“Why waste all that good steel and tracks, wheat has to be planted, make it a tractor.”
Or from the Bible, “Arms into Ploughshares”
the pistons from the scrap yield have 4 rings, 2 are oil rings…
in the acme motor, a good friend has given me, the piston has only 1 oil ring…
this piston but has a split on one side, so i think it is better to change.
what is the difference, or better, using 2 oil rings or only 1…?
what say our motor experts here?
thanks for answers
the asyngenerator got a bigger motor now, acme 480 ccm, 13 hp(gasoline)…
test run with 2000 watt chain saw…
the last picture shows voltage decrease during work
without load is regulated on 240 volt
thanks to our mentor TONE for all help , i am really not familiar with electricity…
but it is never too late to learn…
p.s. bruce was absolutely right with the annoying briggs muffler…
this one from the acme with special bending is a lot more silent…
this was the acme short time ago…the sheets for oil guide were loose by vibrations, so a opening was required…the loose rivets were replaced by screws, with a safety welding point
50-year-old used Acme motor, used electric motor (similar age), used capacitor, base made from scrap iron…
and a generator is born, in Giorgio’s hands everything becomes an excellent product…, persistence, precision,… 
Fellas,
I look at this thread with nostalgia. Of course, we celebrate Giorgio’s skills, and patience, but…where does he go from here? When I did this 20 years ago, I had a 21hp Lambardini diesel turning a 15hp 3phase motor. What I did next was really expensive. I bought 1 Kyrocera 120watt 12v solar panel for $500. Things have changed a lot since then.
Can you imagine buying panels for 69¢ per watt? Or buying an alternative to a flooded lead acid battery for less than half of the cost of the cheapest lead acid battery?
Even our weather is changing, we just got snow two nights ago. Yesterday, was the first day I went out and started our generator, since last April.
If I was doing now, what Giorgio was doing, what would I do next? He can make electricity from a waste product. Now does he make hot water from the remaining waste heat? What would I want next?
bruce, i will keep the things simple and flexible…with no problem i can waste some heat …so the poor birds have a bit a warmer sky…
what i should do with a lot of hot water more??
more washing as i do actually makes the skin thin…
also we make only cold water showers during the year…(.greetings from sebastian kneipp healthy system)
for me further is important welding with the generator in future…actually i use batteries, but it is no secret that batteries become sick and at least are dying…a sad end of the off grid electricity, if there is no alternativ system…
GiorgioP., Bruce lives where he must walk on cold packed snow for months and months of the year. So no cold water showers are possible for him. For him and many others water; and water supplies, are in a solid frozen state unless artificially heated back up into a liquid state.
So that type of fellow will always be thinking of heats recovery and rational utilization.
“Let No BTU Escape Free Un-Enslaved!”
Steve Unruh
Giorgio, I always look eagerly at the pictures of your welding projects. You have a great deal of patience. I don’t know how you do it. I never get enough time to do something as painstaking as the projects you work on. I always get pulled away to do less interesting activities. Still, your work is inspiring.
How does your welding system work? What tools do you use? Do you enjoy welding?
Yes, Giorgio can’t believe how well your welds come out using just batteries. I think some more information about how they are hooked up and regulated would be very interesting.
, steve, bruce, tom…sometimes my posts have a bit of humorous backgrund…i hope nobody misunderstood…i use photovoltaik panels since 1988 for little quantity of house needed electricity ( remain modest, so you dont become a electricity slave…) the weak point are really the batteries, earlier or later they are betraying you…so alternative systems like our gasifiers are worth of gold…in a modest electricity use the motors last long time and the noise is limited.
i understand bruce`s comment like at least comes the point of change from diesel generator to photovoltaik…this is reasonable when a generator must run otherwise the whole day…boaring stuff…
i make my welding with 3 batteries each 120 amp-hours each, connected to 36 volt…
i have shown the system in the tools tips and tricks topic, but cannot find yet again…
if someone find it , please link it here…
generally welding with authentic direct current is very smooth
here is the link from batterywelding…