Hi Dustin M, I see you have the details of your fire brick burn tube,in the premium section, I wont be premium for a while yet, just wondered if you had any real gains in miles per pound ,with you modifications.Or not confirmed yet,THANKS
Hello Kevin
Can’t really say any gains in using firebrick in gas quality (All WK gasifiers make really high quality gas and this is true for metal and firebrick) however the gasifier is substantially lighter (I can lift the unit up into the truck without any equipment with the hopper off).
I am now experimenting with using only the ceramic wool alone and have removed the firebrick. I found a tendency for air to travel behind the firebrick which could have affected performance a little (however I was able to drive the truck at highway speeds without damage).
The Ceramic wool can be pushed snugly up against the metal firetube whereas the firebrick made good contact only with only the edges. I did not see any sign of air traveling behind the ceramic wool. The firebrick and ceramic wool seem to be holding up to inner firetube temps.
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Thanks for responding when you have had some testing time.Good luck, getting things lighter is good idea,and for many it may be easy’er to build.Hope you can find out how too make it hold up over reasonable time frame, onward and upward,as or is that steeve’s U phrase.
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Do you still have your woodgas truck? Where are you located?
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Havent heard from dustin moore in long time,He chose a ceramic fiber fire tube design seems too work well, i tryed the ceramic blanket fire tube liner, as a few others and the thought it was improveing the WK design. He still used all the rest of the building ideas that are in the DRIVE ON WOOD book plans.HAPPY NEW YEAR TOO ALL.
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Hi Kevin,
Dustin Moore was really onto something important with his close contact high heats retaining insulating ideas.
As you say he proved results.
Here is a few pictures of my well used Victory model hearth that was doing the same.
Apologies. They are at the end of this post I am linking up:
What you are seeing in the lower picture IS the ash laden alumina ceramic mat insulator. The insert removed tube above was actually called, “the insulation retainer sleeve” by Ben Peterson. The pencil stuck into a screw in/out jet hole.
After experiencing the great results with this system I then personally want to have a larger diameter system with vertically set and length split wood stove brick as he tried.
He could have solved his backside of gas brick sneaking by just putting a thin layer of mat behind of them as a filler blocker.
DustinM, like many now in the last 8 years were-here, gone-now.
The hope is as a developed confident fuel-gas-maker then off onto different Life challenges.
Knock-on-wood. Here best wishes sent out his way.
Steve Unruh
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Hi steve i haveing trouble loading the page. Im happy with my Wayne Keith gasifier units. Though i did like the results with ceramic blanket added too the WK Burn tube set up as well. My next build is an other Wayne Keith design for my 99 dodge dakota v8 , and i will try it with adding the ceramic blanket as my s10 was, though this time i am adding about 1/2" reflective refractory cement over the blanket too keep ceramic blanket dust away and help hold the heat in the hearth.
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Kevin,
This is interesting to me. I have thought that a refractory slurry aircrete could be sort of massaged into Dustin’s ceramic blanket to make a strong, shock resistant, insulating and heat resistant lining for a fire tube. Sort of like a fiber reinforced cement. Your thoughts?
Rindert
The refractory cost me about 95.00$too the door. its only 50 pounds, and since the blanket is more than enough heat insulating, the perpose of the solid cement refractory is too get the heat a bit more local at the coal areas, well thats the idea any way, i may find some fibers too mix in the cement, though i think its ok as it is, the cement is good for 3000 f not much agrigate or fibers that high temp. probley just use the cement as a coating for the ceramic, since the bag of contents, says can be formed intoo any shape or size and is fairly shrink proff and strong like it is. I thinking its a little more dence than the satinite coatings.
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Can you tell me where the refractory came from?
Rindert
Hi ringert there are several on ebay,the ones with the highest alumina content , are the higher temp ones. Just type in high temp refractory cement on ebay, mine that i havent tried yet.https://www.ebay.com/itm/223838182910 Though ringert i need too contact the supplyer and ask if i need too add any fibers for strength.Still not sure there yet.?
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Ringert you might also google foundry refractory supply. Especially if you are near any foundries. In the late 1990’s when I was helping build a gasifier for corn drying we were practically given a few busted bags of A. P. Green refractory. It was real high temp stuff for steel mills in Gary, Indiana.
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I’ve made a few foundry furnaces. I’ve been thinking about mixing in soap bubbles to make a better insulating lining. And that fiber reinforced stuff would make sense to me for a mobile system. Has anyone made the restriction out of refractory?
Rindert
J.O.'s downdraft house furnace has this.
Ask him. In use now for 14? years.
S.U.
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This is the 18th heating season with the same refractory. Starting to to see some wear in the hottest restriction part though.
A couple handfulls of tiny ss pins/nails/staples are mixed into the porridge for reinforecment. I guess ss metal shavings would do too.
This is common practice for wood stove ovens and such as well, even back when ordinary clay were used.
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Now they are adding fiber. I think it should be strong and durable. Do you think this would be good for a gasifier restriction?
Rindert
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It would probably work great. You would need to be careful with the poker though 
What kind of fiber are we talking about?
I think its probably alumina, but it may be some other kind of mineral. Probably it is the same as in ceramic blankets.
Yes, I think better not to use a poker if possible.
Rindert
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I’ve been thinking about this for a while. I made the heat riser on my Rocket Mass Heater by lining an 8 inch duct with a one inch layer of ceramic blanket. Much easier than any other way to build a heat riser and after a year of use the blanket is a little darker but otherwise no effect. Supposedly the heat in that tube reaches steel eating temps. I did not think that the blanket would be durable enough for a fire tube without a thin shell over it. When I built the heater I just used this stuff https://www.menards.com/main/building-materials/concrete-cement-masonry/bagged-concrete-cement-mortar/akona-reg-medium-duty-refractory-mortar-50lb/1891185/p-1444445324433.htm to mortar the fire brick and also covered the outside of the fire brick with it. Not sure what temps it’s stable to. Takes a real long time to cure. I also filled the base of my charcoal gasifier with it, For a fire tube I was thinking of using a metal tube lined with ceramic blanket and having a sacrificial metal tube in the core so that some kind of pourable refractory could be place between that and the blanket. All the refractory cements I’m familiar with are mortar and would have to be lightly rammed in place. That blanket would not stand up to that. There is a thread about using waterglass as an amendment to make a shell like that on Permies.
Water glass and pearlite (rocket mass heater forum at permies)
Also the overall dimension for the finished fire tube would be about 15 inches.
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Doing this do not loose sight of what you are trying to achieve.
If you are after the best heat conserving from the insulative matting then too much of the cast-able refectory and you can push your self into mass-thermal storage. With it’s pro’s and cons.
If you were after mass-thermal benefits the space taken by the matting reduces within a given volume your mass effects.
Why I still suggest the stove thermal bricks. They are in three common densities trading off the insualtive for the mass-weight durability. Side bricks versus floor bricks.
Then there are the full dimensions kiln insulative bricks. So insulative soft you can shave then with a knife.
The tendency is to overdo.
For me the bricks are just sacrificial to save the outer gas tight metals. I want them easy out replaceable.
S.U.
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