Hi folks, I’m really new to the gasification world. I got my first flare the other day promptly shortly after that I got my first, second, and third (that one brought the wife out of the house) puff through my system today.
Anyway got it figured out but I thought maybe some of the veterans here may want to share some rules of thumb for the new guys like:
ALWAYS make sure your flame is out before you open the simple fire.
You should have at least X cubic inches of cooling line.
Your air requirement minimums for x reactor built for y motor.
Heck I don’t know. But I’m sure you guys could come up with some cool hints.
Hey Mr. JP. Welcome. How about just typing a “letter” to us telling us what you want to do-- make a flare, run a lawn mower engine, run a generator, run a vehicle, or race a Daytona. You said already you are working with charcoal. That’s good we have specialist in charcoal and a few cross breads that run wood and also have built charcoal gasifiers. Where have you gotten your information so far. We actually have “the man” or I should say “the men” who have done a lot to promote charcoal. Starting with Garry Gilmore, who came out with the Simplyfire charcoal gasifier and has some excellent youtubes on how to do it. Like Mr. Wayne said, send pictures of what you have done. We need to get to know you in order to help with out leading you down some roads that you have no interest in. TomC
Hi TomC. I want to run it all brother. I just thought it was a good general discussion item. I really don’t have any specific questions. I’ve watched a ton of videos and pulled the trigger on charcoal for ease of build and I was already making charcoal for my forge. I’ll upload a few pics once this cools down a bit because I’m sure the guts of this thing are more interesting than a propane bottle, a real estate sign, a
I’m always interested in the different ways obtainium is used. Bring out a lot of never thought of using it for that.
Helpful hint. Be careful posting pictures there are people here that will go over all the back ground items then ask questions like what is that clamped lid vessel by the propane tank? Are those tops of stainless steel pots in the background?
Welcome JP. you came to the right place. These guys love helping people…at least cool people who like to use junk to do cool stuff and not get all twisted up and bothered by constructive criticism. If that’s you, no better place to be.
I wouldnt worry too much about what to do or what not to do. Most of the people on here are hobbyists, working with whatever materials they have on hand, and the tools and skills particular to themselves. You will find that there is lots of cooperation here, but the path you go down is ultimately going to be the one that makes the most sense for you. Wherever that ends up being - take lots of pictures!
That said, if you can get a flare and keep it lit, you can run an engine. Next up is to decide what you are going to power - and engine size and desired run-time will be important considerations.
What sort of a nozzle did you build? Lots of designs have been tested, and there seem to be at least a couple of really successful ones.
Looking forward to seeing what you cook up (and I will also scour anything in the background of your pictures for interesting stuff) I like that sawhorse made out of iron pipe, and that table saw motor will be perfect for building a charcoal grinder!
Oh yeah, i almost forgot, welcome to the dark side
Thanks for the warm welcome guys. Tom I have never used the word obtanium before. I’m all over it now. Obtanium mine sounds so much cooler than yard full of crap.
I’m way cool with constructive criticism. Any help and advice is always welcome.
Truth be told I built the charcoal generator to verify proof of concept with a flare with the hope of running a generator. I got a sustained flair out of it for 28 minutes yeaterday afternoon then my rubber (bad idea) lid gasket had a meltdown. Puff puff boom! Fixed that after about an hour with fireplace rope and convencing the wife that everything was fine and started it back up. It ran another 20 minutes without adding any more charcoal.
I do have a question related to sizing the charcoal. I understand it needs to be 3/4 of an inch and smaller. Is that a surface area thing meaning more contact with the carbon? Or is it for a more even distribution of the gas as it passes through the upper layers?
Ok folks. I got some pics this morning. Lessons learned from this clean out for the new guy.:
Red rtv ain’t tough enough for a hearth sealant. It’s just gone
Plaster/silica sand held up mostly for my hearth. Probably not the best solution but maybe.
I was able to remove my 1/2 black nozzle shrouded by a 1" pipe externally but it did melt some and I believe slag buildup would make it impossible after a couple burns. Stainless would help with the melting but probably not with buildup.
This generator was given to me. 13 hp. Rats have eaten chunks from the wiring. The pull rope assembly is gone. But it ain’t locked up so I’m going to mess with it and see what I can make happen.
Ok JP ( is that what we should call you?) Now that is a good introduction. We know more about where you are at in gasifying and where you want to go. You are already ahead of what many people know or have done when they come to this sight. The generator sounds like a good starting project, and your gasifier is a good start. (I said we know where you are with gasifying but where in the world are you) TomC
Hi JP,
I’ve not been into the charcoal side of gasification myself but I used stainless in the hot parts of my wood gasifiers.
Actually stainless has a slightly lower melting point than mildsteel. Also its conductivity is not as good. The advantage is it doesn’t scale from heat like mildsteel does.
Maybe you’re already aware of Kristijan’s nozzle. He used very sturdy mildsteel and it seems it did its job to carry enough heat away to make it survive. Other people here have copied his idea with good results.
The size of the charcoal is the number one secret, next would be air leaks. Half inch and smaller would be nice. Little dust as possible. Smaller charcoal has more surface area to make richer gas. Starts faster, better turn down ratio and responds to acceleration like gasoline or close to it.
