Has anyone tried one of these? Plug this into a cheap 400 watt inverter and wahhlaaahhh!!
Many flavors to choose from as well.
2 Likes
I like the Ametek lamb 122238-07 . The exit is out the bottom or intake is out the bottom.
Bob
3 Likes
Found this in the web. Maybe it can be adapted; looks awsome:
3 Likes
Hi back GregC, I missed this important point yearterday . . .I was not at my best yeaterday out of the Dentist chair from a bone scraping.
You show powering this 12vdc blower from a battery. What was your supply battery voltage under a blower pulled down load?
Discharged battery voltage under a light load will be 12.25 volts. Fully charged 12 vdc battery lightly loaded will maintain 12.62 volts.
Yep. Full to empty on lead-acid batteries is measured in hundredths a of volt, within a less than a one volt range.
True gasifier blower motor experience. The very first time I face-to face met BenP was at a sponsored BBQ-invite 2008? 2009? He was demonstrating his just developed pellet/charcoal Emergency Power System gasifier. The one that got put into Mechanic Illustrated.
He’s made the suction blower just that morning from a junk vehicle heater blower assembly. It would not battery suck hard enough. I dragged out jumper cables from my mini-van and another fellow and I from his Chrysler/Dodge rental car gave it 14.5 vdc running vehicle power. Hey! It worked. Barely.
Told BenP I could pull a couple of vehicle batteries and series them and give it 24 vdc and it would work for sure. Probably spin it’s guts out over-RPMing. If not the bronze sleeve bearing would soon overheat and seize.
He then shop invited me to be his wiring-up guy.
I learned from him. Him from me.
Give your blower some charger higher voltage and report the results please.
A good 12vdc inverter supply will have an adjustable output voltage.
Regards
tree-farmer Steve unruh
6 Likes
@SteveUnruh Good news - You’re right! I got a bigger battery and made sure it was fully charged and the blower maintained about 8.50 inches of pressure. The highest it got, at the very beginning, was 8.87 inches.
I put a short video on YouTube if anyone wants to see the details.
Too bad that battery is way too big to put on my gasifier. I’m hoping I won’t need to use it. I’ll be firing it up for the first time soon - I’m waiting for a kiln thermocouple so I can monitor the temperature inside.
7 Likes
At 13.5 amps you will need a much bigger inverter for the Ametek. Like all of your work, your blowers are beautiful. Good warnings about bearings and windings. I guess I’m spoiled by charcoal. I’ve used all kinds of blowers and never experienced any degradation.
5 Likes
Right on I look back on that post, didnt mean to sound harsh 
I bought those exact blowers something like 6 of them and after blower number 4 failed in less than an hour I shelved the remaining two. They failed with out wood gas!! I must have gotten a bad batch or something. However, I tried some others that did work well but over time of exposure to wood gas they did eventually fail. So thats when I went back to re inventing my blower and is what it is today. If it aint broke dont fix it
4 Likes
Do you sell the blowers individually? If so how much?
2 Likes
They are integrated piece and need a flat surface to mount too that makes up the bottom of it. Its a tear drop shape, 8 1/2" wide and I think 12" long with a height of 2 1/2 inches.
I could offer them for, oh i dont know hhhmmmm lets see,… $100.00 bucks? lol.
They are a bit of work even though they may look simple.
3 Likes
Matt,
Very helpful info. I have not used those exact blowers, but have found similar smog pumps taken off wrecked cars to be very powerful and durable. Maybe those exact pumps are so cheap on ebay because somebody got a deal on a bunch of rejected blowers?
1 Like
I was drooling over your pump when i saw it at Argos. Very nice!
2 Likes
Hi Greg , just wondering how everything is coming together , did you manage a charcoal burn with your new retort yet ? or Gassifier test run ?
Dave
2 Likes
Yes, Dave, I ran a batch of seasoned fir in the retort about 2 weeks ago. I had a thermocouple running down through the vent into the forming charcoal, so I was able to take several temperature readings, which got up to over 700 degrees C. I was able to see the intense fire from various gases released from the wood, that were forced down into the fire tube. I had to quit early because I was afraid the high wind would blow the sparks into the trees and start a fire, even though there was quite a fine mesh over the chimney. But still the product was about 70% good charcoal. The sad part came a few days later when a real serious wind storm blew down a 85 foot fir tree which seriously damaged the retort as it slammed into the ground. So now I plan to salvage the undamaged fire tube and the repair the inner barrel/insulation layer. I’ll need to get a completely new outer barrel and top.
There were a few things I learned:
Lots of smoke escapes through the crack under the rim of the lid. It is held tight by the metal band but leaks smoke unless it is really tight. I crammed a lot of furnace cement in the crack this time but next time I’ll use a fire-rope gasket.
Don’t try this if it is real windy. I decided to shorten the chimney from about 6 feet to about 3.5 feet because the chimney almost blew over.
For easier internal temperature readings, I need some way to hold up the meter.
Wear gloves when handling charcoal.
Don’t put too much wood in the fire tube or it plugs it up and the air can’t roar through.
The thing on the left side of the picture immediately below, the shape of a snowman, is the retort, covered in plastic to keep it from rusting until I had time to extract it from the fallen trees.
6 Likes
I am so sorry your work of art got destroyed. Hope you fix it soon.
I have learned with charcoal making, the best, simplest and cheapest sealant is sand. Heat does all sorts of things to materials.
What you culd do is weld a lid on the barrel and chimney and cut about a inch or so around leaving a shelf for the actual lid. Just aply a nice pile of sand on the meeting point and thats it. Ist how l do it with my big Kursk kiln.
6 Likes
Isnt that just bloody typical of mother nature to go spoil your fun , oh well least you made a start and at least the tree did not come down on the workshop or house so for that we can be thankful .
On my lid it had a rubber sealing ring that i took off and replaced with some stove rope and glued in place with some silicon that worked good for me .
Dave
7 Likes
I think the tree thought it looked like fun and was trying to load itself in. 
3 Likes
I have repaired the charcoal machine.
Also I am trying to modify my BP Gasifier to use charcoal. The existing stainless steel grate, shown at the top of the photo, has 3/8" width slots, but engine grade charcoal is 1/8 to 7/8". Therefore, I have made a 1/4" thick steel insert with 1/8" slots, shown at the bottom of the photo, so most of the charcoal won’t just slide thru the grate. Will this work?
2 Likes
Hi Greg , My thoughts for what they are worth , if you are making charcoal for start up of the BP wood gasifier then i would just load with larger size chunks of charcoal and then once lit fill with your normal size wood chunks , i think if you alter the size of the grate down in size then my thinking is it will need a lot of shaking to keep the flow going , BP made that size grate for a reason so it would not choke up so easy .
If on the other hand you are going to try running it as a charcoal Gasifier then i will be interested to see how your grate holds up .
Nice retort by the way, looks like pro job
Dave
3 Likes
Hi Dave, I want to run it on charcoal, so I guess I’ll just try it with the 1/8" slots and post my results.
1 Like
Does anyone know how to calculate the rate of combustion air flow, in cc per minute, for a 208 cc engine at idle and at full load? I thought the rpm might be required for the calculation, but I couldn’t find it in the documentation that came with my generator.
1 Like