How much do you all think a cord of pine weighs vs a cord of oak? Assuming it’s dry wood? It says online over 5,000lbs, but I’m not sure how much it actually would be per select tree species. If my truck had to go 52 miles and it burned 2lbs per mile would I really only need 104lbs of wood chunks with me to get there? I assume it’s more or less wood depending on if it’s soft or hard wood.
If I could really go 50 miles on 100lbs I could go 2,500miles on a full cord! If it’s 5,000lbs of course. But that would be pretty incredible.
Your thinking might actually be realistic. I looked at a giant old dead elm tree once and figured maybe 8 ton of wood. That would be about 16,000 pounds of wood. If I had a Dakota that got 1.3 miles per pound I might go about 23,000 miles on that one tree.
I went to a lecture at NREL in Golden, Colo. The chemical engineer that gave the lecture was working with Coors Brewing to set a pyrolysis system that is now disposing of brewers grains for them. He said that 40% of our nations energy could come out of our western mountains. He also said that this would require about the same amount of labor as is required to control forest fires.
I live in Louisville, Colo. We are still recovering from the Marshal Fire, that went through here a few years ago. Ask me, we just need a lot more people using wood and biomass as fuel.
Rindert
I’m finally at my uncle’s I think I can get a water pressure tank. There are a lot of tanks here. Some older rusted 55 gallon drums but I don’t know if there good. The pressure tanks are at least 24in in diameter. Do you think they would be fine in place of normal drums?
If your are building a WK Gasifier you will need a 18" tank. I am still looking for one. I might have to cut a 20" down and reweld to 18" and weld the end of the tank cut down to 18" diameter back on.
The pressure tanks work well for filter and heat ex housings. They are not long enough, but they do have the rounded top. Flipping them upside down gives you a rounded bottom that doesnt rust out like a flat bottom does.
I extended them with a smaller drum that had a sealing lid. Worked well.
This one here is like 3/4 thick or something it’s at least 4ft long. There’s lots of iron flat plates here 1/4 to 3/5 thick more or less. Lots of little skinny pipes too, I can make condensers out of a lot of this real easily. Moisture tanks too. The whole unit would probably weigh a ton though.
Well, my friend, looks like you got the woodgassers startup-kit there… lots of tanks and pipes, a super cool old flat-belt driven buzz-saw, and a truck (that a Swede like me would pay his right arm for…)
If not you can always find an old water heater on craigslist. The 50 gallon ones are 18 inch, the 40 gallon ones are 16 inch. The more expensive ones sometimes have an epoxy coating inside. I found a cheap 40 gallon one made of 1/16 inch metal, others are thicker.
Rindert
I am blessed. I knew if I just waited I’d come across what I needed. My great grandparents and grandfather left us with a lot of cool old stuff, too bad I never got to meet my great grandparents here . I’ve looked at a lot of different Gasifier builds, I really enjoy how they look in the truck bed. I was already interested in making some sort of rack that drapes over the whole top of the truck for utility purposes, with side ladders before I knew about gasifiers.
This is my favorite truck. I always wanted one since I was probably 5 lol. Nonetheless I think I can make a rack similar to it in my truck and still fit my unit in it. I think it would look really cool. The international I have was originally green, guy that owned it painted it white and blue which was maybe intentionally done because it looks the same as the stock white blue… But I think it would look slick if it was black with gloss like the sr5. Otherwise I’ll have to just paint the diy sr5 racks white to match the truck nice.
It should look something like these I think oem. I want to keep it’s aluminum trim and badges on it too though.
I want it to in cage the whole truck. This one its just missing side rails.
This one’s like how I’d do it, but mines only two door, not 4x4, and has trim.
I want ladders on both sides of the bed to climb in easy and fill the hopper. With the roof and bumper lights too . I wanted to maybe put a generator or some sort of thing I could hook my welder to so I can do field welding repairs for ranchers, farmers, towns folk, shop owners, properties managers, etc. Maybe I can build a little mini charcoal gasifier in the back with the generator and my welder. I need my grinder and sawzall as well. Possibly a electric chainsaw too now that I think about it.
I do have 16" tanks I could stretch to 18" but It’d probably be easier to find something that’s already 18". I cut a boiler open actually at my house and it looked like it has some sort of ceramic or porcelain paint on the inside I’m not sure what’s it is.
I wish the saw still spun it needs new bearings and probably a new belt. It would be perfect for chunks. Just make sure the ground is clear it would suck to trip and fall into that blade while it’s running . I’ve seen a lot of cool stuff in Sweden and the other Scandinavian places, old equipment and specialty tools. They make cool wood stoves in Sweden and I like there steam locomotives.
That’s possible, but more likely it’s epoxy. I make charcoal in my 18 inch water heater tank. That blue coating just doesn’t doesn’t burn off, and it’s a pita to try and grind. You might just want to stay away from epoxy coated stuff.
Rindert
Small illustration I did as a prototype. I think running the electric corded chainsaw is a really cool idea for the Gasifier. I’m not sure how much room I’d have to store wood branches.
I had to leave the tank, we should be back next month to get it. It’s around 24in diameter or so, but it’s 26-28in from the top to bottom weld, so there’s about 2-4 in more than a normal 55gallon drum top to bottom plus the top and bottom caps of the tank. Hopefully it doesn’t rust too bad I got it mostly stripped.
I also found a 18in diameter drum, there is also a 1/2thick 17.5in diameter pipe of some sort it’s close to 2ft deep probably. Also a 12.5in stainless steel pipe that’s at least 1/4in diameter and 8in deep. I have pictures of them I’ll share later. I think I might have everything I might need to build.
That’s them. There right next to a 55gallon drum so you can see there scale. I didn’t get a picture of the big 17.5in pipe though. I’m not sure this would would work.
. I’ve looked at a lot of different Gasifier builds, I really enjoy how they look in the truck bed. I was already interested in making some sort of rack that drapes over the whole top of the truck for utility purposes, with side ladders before I knew about gasifiers.
. I wanted to maybe put a generator or some sort of thing I could hook my welder to so I can do field welding repairs for ranchers, farmers, towns folk, shop owners, properties managers, etc. Maybe I can build a little mini charcoal gasifier in the back with the generator and my welder. I need my grinder and sawzall as well. Possibly a electric chainsaw too now that I think about it.
. I’ve seen a lot of cool stuff in Sweden and the other Scandinavian places, old equipment and specialty tools. They make cool wood stoves in Sweden and I like there steam locomotives.
