Unfortunately not, but I may get use for my rubber band device to pull my ears up
The reverse is just to push the air out of the hopper to prevent a sneeze. This time oxygene was still present due to the wind and only because the camera was rolling the lid got offset as well Normally it happens one time outof 20, but it´s no big deal.
I believe I did a pretty standard WK lightup, except I usually do my drilling/poking after I light up. Air rushing down that hole will make the entire reduction glow in seconds and allows me to see all the way down what happens if I decide to turn the grate a bit. I could easely empty that little reduction if I´m not careful.
l have a question on your hopper condensing.
What happens to tar when it enters your condensate tank? Can you still drain it out? What about your hopper drain chanel?
l ask this becouse we now have a similar sistem and the tar in my sistem is a pain to get rid of.
l had a temporairy glass condense catcher, filled out quite fast, but broke off and l had no time to fix it so l plugged the hopper condensate outlet.
Yesterday l decided to make a double wall hopper, put the mesh out and found the condense channel FULL of tar! Just like hard bitumen. Neaded 2 hours to get it clean. Heating and scraping, burning, washing, not nice…
As you might have seen I use a plastic can as a a hopper juice collector. It’s held in place only by a short piece of rubber hose and a clamp. I empty it by removing it. The tar stays put in the bottom when I turn it upside down.
To get the tar out I have to bring the can inside and let it warm up. If I’m in a hurry I put it in hot water for a while and the tar will flow. I’ve collected about 5 L so far and I plan to use it on fence poles this summer.
I’ve never had tar bake towards the hopper walls or in the gutter. That only happens in the funnel area where it’s hot enough. My lower part of the hopper and gutter is always cold to the touch. If you look at post 58 my gutter (channel) is far away from heat. I’ve never even had the little 3/4 drain plugged.
I think when you get that inner wall in place you’ll discover heat radiation will no longer bake the tar.
The tar didnt bake, more the opposite. It solidified to a point l culdnt scrape it out anymore. I fired the gasifier in FEMA style to soften it, then scraped it out.
What a mess!
Tar everywhere. Tar in my face and hair, tary hands and arms all the way up to my armpits.
I decided rip my inner hopper silo today and do some cleaning in the lower region. Messy work. Also I cut an inch of the funnel fingers to improve the return flow. What a difference. On a 30 mile trip I collected double the usual amount of juice and maybe even saw some power increase.
Kristijan,
With no baked tar bildup under the funnel fingers and a furious cirkulation like I have right now I collect about 2L for every 50 km. Still the wood is bone dry, stored inside in heated space since fall. Downside is the hopper runs s bit too hot. It reaches 150C (at the top) already when down to half full of fuel. Before the cleaning I could run the hopper down to a an inch or two above nozzles before the hopper temp started to climb above 100 C and the majority of the condensation ended up post charbed.
J-O, tell us about your silo liner. Is that re purposed from something else like a washing machine tub or something? It has those ribs in the side which makes me think it was made for something else originally. I always try to find stuff like that.
Mr Don,
I’m sorry to disappoint you but it’s only cut out from a standard 55 gallon barrel and funnel fingers made the WK way. Kind of lower and upper funnel in one piece.
5.6k miles since first lightup 10 months ago. Hardly no maintenace, apart from cleanouts, during the winter.
BUT ever since I made my augering out the dump-video, a couple of months back, I have most likely been running with a dump seal air leak. The left side of the dump had white trails in it and produced white ash. The seal is now replaced with a stove rope and lots of silicone. Power is up and rail temps are down 100 F.
I forgot about the camera when looking into the dump, but below is a (not pretty) photo of the silicone mess with the dump bottom seal in place.
Also when pulling the gasifier I had trouble freeing the connection from the cyclone outlet to the condensation tank. I decided to go for a simpler solution:
I found a small 2" cone that I welded on and made a compression fitting similar to what I’ve seen Wayne been doing. Pulling the gasifier for the annual unmentionable should now be a lot easier.
I havent noticed though are you guys with the cyclone ash cleaners allso useing the cyclone as a preheat chamber as Waynes heat exchanger drop box, for heating the burn tube incomeing air.
Hi Kevin,
I’m using my cyclone to preheat incoming air. To see how I did it go to the Small Engines section and scroll down to “My first small engine run” comments 50 thru 57.
Pepe
Hi Kevin,
I do too. My cyclone has fins and a second insulated “bucket” around it. Air goes from there to a propane tank surrounding the gasifier housing. Air svirls through that void as well before entering the nozzle jacket.
Thanks for the responds Mike and JO gess i will see what the junk man me can round up on the lighter scale for a moble unit. I may just make a lighter WK drop box it seems too work good, though the one i built for my 2500 chevy was over size and too thick of metal, it weighs 150 pounds befor putting in the water heater container.BBB. The more serface area the more weight VS drying the wood a little better for lighter units I Suppose.
The new dump seal is a success. Harvested a shovel of only black stuff from both auger pipes this time
On a another note.
I’ve been experimenting lately, pushing the limits a bit, reving and pulling hard on the gasifier a few miles at the time. Since I’m blowing from the cyclone into the condensation tank it seems when pulling hard the temp in there decreases down to around 200 F??? Is it possible when water in there starts boiling, making steam absorbes the heat energy? When I let go of the pedal some, the temp climbs back up to a normal 300-400 F. Or is it just my tc that starts to give in? What do you guys think?
J.O.,
I think your guess is correct. Making steam absorbs heat energy, evaporation cools. Your thermocouple, in working order, should tell the truth always!
It seems obvious, that the hard blow splashes up the otherwise calm water and increases the contact surface thousandfold!
To copy this under calm conditions, let the hot gas (entering the condens tank) blow through a soft bending and floating tube, ending under a raft of burlap
(temporarily, by gas, floating).
At high blow, the burlap raft will flap like a flag in the wind, and at slow-blow the gas is forced to travel under the burlap, steaming well…
A flat raft to avoid plugging, that a bag would do!
Normally it happens one time outof 20, but it´s no big deal.
