I am finding that once allowed to dry the roundies (wood straight from the tree like that in your photos) seems to perform better than the kiln dried dimensional or sawmill slab stuff. I have no bridging issues , and get better weight density in the hopper. Also, it takes less time to process!
Good score - get yourself a stockpile ready to power your generator and chunker!
It’s not “fuel” in the city - but it’s going to feed my hay filter. Introducing the slowest method ever devised to cut hay… Weed whacker + leaf rake + sunshine = just enough hay to change the filter out. I left this corner of the yard to grow up a bit, and now I have all the filter media I need.
Nice Chris. You can store any extra in 50# onion bags or gunny sacks for future use.
Chris ,
Wish you were closer . I would give you enough hay to do the rest of your life .
Also it may not be worth a trip unless you are close but free hay to any of the wood gassers .
BBB
Well, if it’s a choice of 800 lbs of wood fuel or 20 minutes with a weed whacker - I don’t mind doing this much, it’s kinda fun.
What a great Idea for free hay. I bush hog bunches every year.
How long must green wood be aged before it can be used in gasifier. Also, does any body recommend using those free large spools the wind mill people discard for free up here in michigan.off craigslist. One would need to get the measurements on the big spools. i got some of the 250 foot roll spools, may be slightly treated, not sure. Got 5 of them on 5 by 10 foot trailer double stacked.
Not sure how to communicate on forums. my email is kmrland AT gmail DOT com.
Hi Kevin, Your doing fine, just post questions, comments, in the appropriate forum, and wait for answers. Fresh cut lumber as thick as 2-3" will air dry to about 20% in 2-3 months depending on relative humidity, and temperature, assuming you can get air moving thru it. Northern area like yours don’t get terribly hot, but dry air at most any temperature is a plus. Other members in the north will have better experience to share.
If the green wood is cut with a chunker it also will mash a lot of the water out and fracture the wood. I think cut into 2 inch pieces and spread in a thin layer to dry I could run it in the gasifier in a week . ( Central Alabama )
Hey Kevin,
Yes to Carl’s answer, post just like you did and the readers will answer. So to address your green wood question I have built a monorator hopper that supposedly will allow some green wood burning. I don’t have any % numbers but I will be trying to fire with some green wood just to see how well the gasifier with a monorator hopper works with green wood. I’ll try to figure out the moisture content of a load. I do most of my posting in the Small Engine Users section of the forum. I’ll keep the members posted as some want to try the design. Check out my latest posts in the Small Engine Users Corner for my first run with the monorator hopper.
Pepe
Wayne’s shorter dry time is really more accurate for short length, chunker cut, fuel. I think in terms of lumber because that is what I used to do.
Morning All
Well I’ve found that Location, Location, Location rules all for wood drying.
I shadow myself for a good half the day of sun dring even here in mid summer.
Have to cut then move my fuel wood from county property onto my sunniest in the Town spot.
Ha! Keep the wood burning niegbbors from stealing it piece by piece too.
Pictures of where it comes from to where I have to haul it to dry.
~2000 feet away.
This is ~9 cords of wood (~33 cubic meters). Enough for the two houses for one heating season late Oct into mid June. About what I’d need to annually fuel my own pickup/mini-van driving miles. As sits this is 60% rain water fully filled on the outer rim “sap wood”. This is the dark outer ring on the log ends. ~40% moisture for the center “heart wood”. The 40% stuff will come down to 20% in the next 45 days if up off the ground on the pallets. 60% still to be split off stuff NOT. Would take a full 90-120 days which we never get. Hold for next year. I’ll bring in at last two heaped pickup loads of dryed down limb wood in Sept to compensate.
Small looking chunks are actually 60-80 pounds big.
Picture just this morning. Note the night dew down wet boots at the wood lot. Dry hot smoking rubber boots minutes later at the drying deck local.
Location. Location. Location.
CarlZ. is correct. Relative humidity and air flow trumps all. Last winter in a 10 day sub-freeze “dry wind” I was measuring a 10% chunk weight loss. This WAS the wood in my avatar picture.
Ha! Then the rains came back with a vengeance. For the next 6 months.
REgards
Steve Unruh
THANKS for your respons, it took me 4 days to find.if i can remember the pages i posted on i would be able to respond sooner.i wonder how long it wood take to process green popal or cotton wood in a small wood heated metal shed.
THANKS for responds, I email about cotton wood , seems it might take longer to age dry, or how long might it take to dry it in ovan type of a metal shed, heated x degrees f, i have big pile cotton wood.
thanks for responding,I will ckeck your hopper idea when i find it thanks
Well if you look back at the first few posts in this thread, you’ll see some of this wood below. It’s full of nail bits, and I’ve kept it aside in case I ever wanted to make charcoal. I wouldn’t normally run this, but it’s been in my way for two years now. So I’ve bagged it up and will send it through the gasifier slowly - mixed with much better wood. The big flats in the box will be cut down to match what’s in the bag, 2.5" or so.
The nails are small enough I think they’ll pass through just fine. I do have to sort through the char afterwards with a magnet.
Hi guys…a good place to find free wood in the city is at the local tree dump. I think most cities have a place for people to dispose of limbs and wood free of charge. I went to our dump Friday, I work 4 tens and Friday is the only day I can go while the dump is open. Usually you can find some nice stuff already trimmed up and ready for chunking. Forgot to take camera to the dump with me but here is the results of the trip to the dump.
Gary
Just curious, how come you didn’t use your wood gas truck to go get it?
Hi Robert…was needing to dumb char on the Dakota and drain off condensate, and didn’t want to do it with a hot char bed so drove the Z71. Wish I had videoed the dumping and draining, also burned out and cleaned throttle bores.
Gary
