Wow Chris, didn’t let me get away with that for long did he?
hyperbole: exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.
I did mean it literally - though it’s mostly a matter of my own opinion. I’m sorry if that offended anyone. I would think everyone would want the easiest fuel to process, and hey, you don’t have to build a chipper!
I have to give Chris the density argument, he’s right about that. A bucket of chunks does weigh more than a bucket of chips, so there is more energy density in chunks. I guess there’s really nothing wrong with chunks, I just think it takes too much time to source the wood and process them out of it.
There is one undeniable advantage of using chips over chunks - availability of fuel sources. Chunks require a minimum size fuel source whereas just about any brush can be converted to chips with a good quality chipper. Also, there is a lot more brush available than limb wood, just about anywhere you go in the world. And, when traveling, you can get chips in any city whereas chunks you have to bring with you or process on location.
I must however, respectfully disagree that chip gasifiers cannot be scaled up to run large V8’s. I see no technical reason why they cannot be - wish me luck!
As for chippers;
I’m selectively lazy (we all now this) and intend to source the majority of my fuel from commercial trimmers. If I do have to process chips myself, i’ll pile up a large quantity and rent a commercial unit for a day, work it hard and be done again for a good while. A small chipper is more for proof of concept and a tool of last resort in my opinion (at least until Matt improves upon their design). It is however an infinitly valuable tool where self reliance is a primary objective.
Regardless, It’s a positive step having another champion of chip fuel, regardless of how they’re sourced or processed! I for one am wishing Matt the best of luck as he proceeds with this, I hope to be right behind him.
I’m not against chips, and I hope I didn’t make it sound that way. I’m also rooting for Matt here. And for you, running a V8 on chips! Best of luck with it.
But when you say “ANY other size a monumental WASTE of time”… Sorry, it’s not true. With the right equipment, making chunks is plenty fast. And, just as an aside… not everyone considers it wasting time to create their own fuel, whatever the method.
My experience running the V-8 engines is that chips fly through them. This is why they have the auger systems. Also note our machines only run at 1800 rpms or less, so in an automotive application consumption will be much more especially off the highway. On the older machines the auger hopper is 18 cubic feet and running cedar chips we get roughly 3 hours of run time without load. We did run small chips like this in Italy and saw longer run times. But also note we have automation to intervene constantly; without it you will most definitely have issues.
Since I live in the most tree covered state in the nation (New Hampshire) wood chips are abundant. Tree trimmers are often looking for a place to dump them. I’m a charcoal guy and in order to turn chips into charcoal I have to screen out the tiny stuff before feeding the retort so that the pyrolysis gases can flow enough to fully carbonize the batch.
Now that I have a chipper, I will eventually have to make a small gasifier that will use them. My hangup is I’m worried if they sit anywhere too long. They will start to rot. I also think I can successfully turn them to charcoal. I can use them charcoal chips to gasify or the garden.
I think that drying chips on the scale to run a v8 with out them molding and rotting would be much more work than making and drying chunks. great for the garden and small scaled gasifires though. But that is just my opinion.
HA Ha! When I first decided to actually DO something about gasification, I had 5 or 6 truckloads of “chips” dropped off. They had a lot of long stringy pieces in them that I knew right off wouldnt flow. Guess where the are now? In a hug pile composting away. Maybe someday when I get energetic, I’ll fill low spots in the yard with them.
Jason if you are impressed with this chunkier, like many of us are, on DOW go to J. O. Olson"s thread. He took drawings that are available on the internet and built on of these. It can be done on your own. TomC
This is and old KEMP chipper. It had a tired 5hp B&S that was hard to start and bound up and stalled easily. I lengthened the frame and repowered it with this 16HP Duratech($279 free shipping!) along with a new centrifugal clutch. It has a 3" square opening and chips quickly anything I can get through the hole.
I’ve been using it to chip a lot of junk brush(what you see is buckthorn) to mulch. When that’s done I’m planning to shim the blade out from the drum as far back as the anvil adjust will allow to see how big a chip I can make.
I think boles make better low ash fuel than small branches and I’m going to try bucking logs to 36" and splitting to fit the chipper opening.
Hi Dick, I have a Kemp hammer mill that was scored at an auction. Sure is well maded compared to now a days. Any time one comes up I’ll be bidding on it. Wish I had the time to go to more auctions. Enjoy your Kemp…!
Here’s the inside of the Kemp. The blade is spaced out 1/4" from the face of the drum and will cut a nice 1/4" chip at 45 degrees to the stock when everything is just right. The constant hammering tends to pull the blade away from the anvil. It works best when it’s quite close. We used to use 10% of thickness in metal shears.
I’m going to shim the blade out an 1/8" and see what happens.
A few days after this thread started, I found some really nice, larger than normal roadside woodchips.
Here’s a video about them. (I wonder if they’d work in an Imbert).
I put a 1/8" aluminum shim between the drum and the blade and reset the anvil. Best thing I can compare it to is filing the rakers on your chainsaw way down. Sure it cuts fast and aggressively, but it’s not pleasant. Chips initially were 2mm thick by 10mm wide. After the shim 6x15. Length of chip varies of course.
I still haven’t welded all the fins on the firetube for my dakota so I’m a long way from needing fuel and these chips are way too small for that. If this size was good for something else I’d be interested otherwise I’ll put everything back the way it was.
