Helpful hints for the new guy

General Discussion
#21

Thanks Jeff. I’m wanting to make a charcoal grinder anyway. The sledgehammer method is effective but slow

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#22

Yes sir. Living in a little shack in the woods down on table rock

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#23

Hey Tom, I’m in southwest Missouri. J.P. is just fine with me.
I’ve been running my generator on my gasifier all afternoon. Lovin it!! Heck the guy that have me the generator even came by to see it running.

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#24

That is magic stuff, especially if that is first time
Congratulations!

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#25

[quote=“Jeff, post:20, topic:4406”]
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.

Not to mention the size of the passage ways between the charcoal itself.

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#26

Ah, yet another pesky air leak.

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#27

I’ve never actually built a gasifier, but have been interested in the topic lately and done a lot of research. There are two comprehensive resources, about 150 pages each, that give a good history of the topic, as well as the scientific background and many empirical models about how to choose critical dimensions and how to design the gas cleaning systems. Great resources, you could probably build a whole gasification system based on the information in these two links alone. A bit old (1980s), but still relevant. Not much in the way of electronic controls design, but I think there are several members here that can help with that if needed.

FAO
http://www.fao.org/3/t0512e/T0512e00.htm

NREL

1 Like
#28

Hello Mike and welcome to the DOW ( drive on wood )

Yes very good reading. I believe those are the same as we have here in our library section at the top right on this page.

Thanks
Wayne

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#29

Thanks guys for all the great information and for the congratulations Yes it was a very magic moment when I got the motor running on wood gas! For sure still feeling it. You have some real youtube superstars in this group. I would especially like to give a shout out to Mr Gillman and Mr Keith and many others in this group for all the hard work you have put into the videos that continue to inspire new people like me to get into this.

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