Hi Chris, Your coolers are too tall for a truck … Glad you are still rolling. I wish you the best … Thanks for getting back to me/us. I hope we get to meet again a few more times before we croak. In the mean time keep on truckin !!! Mike
Keep your hand out of the invisible flame … I’m still laughing thinking about it … That was years ago now …
Hi Chris, I watched some warbird vids today, especially the P 51D. Then I dropped in here and saw your gasifier shine, reminded of that polished aluminum shine of some of the P 51D’s. Both great looking machines. You make us US proud, thank you, man.
Pepe
Pepe, Matt, MikeL, thank you for the nice comments, P 51D is one of my most favorite and I think most beautiful planes ever made! Mike, I am sure we will be meeting up sooner than later and my hand now stays safely away from all wood gas flames!
Looks good Arvid.
I understand that adding a primary and secondary air provides a more complete burn. What I don’t understand, How that translates to more heat in the space being heated. Does it just take longer to burn the wood and therefor needing less wood for the same heat?
Bill Schiller
Bill: To put it simply, more complete burn= more of the wood energy is converted to heat instead of leaving some energy untapped but flowing up the chimney unburned. Woodgas that has been evaporated from the source wood is easier to burn with secondary air.
Hey Arv,
Wow, look at go without a helmet… (Well maybe a welding helmet) 
Looks interesting, cant wait for some video.
T
thanks T… I’ll keep ya posted and put up some video… still gotta put on some door hinges, make a latch… and finalize the door glass… I have some idea’s for that.
The first real snow storm of the season. This is on of the major artery exiting out the NW corner of Mpls. Now comes the cold. Will be sub-zero for lows the up coming week (down to -10). The winter switch has been flipped on.
Hey Bill , I had to put a jacket on just to look at the picture !!
Carl Zinn , Richard Craig and many others .
I understand yall have freezing rain in the weather forecast . Please stay safe and warm.
Wayne
Fun Fun Fun … You should hear the wind turbine this morning. Typing on it right now. brrrrrrrrrr in Wisconsin. Forget having any condensate sitting around. Our snow melted over the weekend but we are supposed to get hit again Sunday night with a pile and then with sub zero F after that … ML
Yesterday’s afternoon high was 80 - the morning low on Saturday is supposed to be 19. The firewood is dry and the soup pot will be ready.
Yes Wayne,
The older I get, the less I appreciate our winter climate. What keeps me here in the winter is the business. Really cold weather for extended periods bring frozen pipes. In the plumbing industry, that’s a good thing. Not sure of the effect on wood gas.
I was about to turn on the air conditioner in the truck this morning but to show respect to our friends in the north and mid west I didn’t.
The wife does have the doors open and had a fan on in the house .
That hurts a little Wayne. haha Someday when I grow up I will head south for the winter.
I brought my refractory lined charcoal forge up to a high temp to burn it in. Using a blacksmithing heat color chart, I think I brought a piece of spring steel up to about 2,350F (~1,320C) (orange-yellow) on highest blower. I got it to bend by placing it in a clamp and using my gloved pinky finger (smallest, furthest from thumb) which translates to about 1 ft/lb (1.3 Newton/meter) of torque.
The clay lining seems happy so far.
Now I just need to find a better supply of charcoal because just messing around and firing the clay, I used several pieces of firewood and about 1/2 gallon of charcoal.
Brian, The coal I used to get here was from Montana but a few years ago I bought some Pennsylvania Anthracite for $4 a 40 pound sack. I have 400 pounds of various sizes stored. I’m not sure what it is now but it is another 2000 miles to your place from Wisconsin. I ran my “sidewalk” forge a couple of weeks ago but I used junky power plant coal with that. We were trying to melt gold flakes out of a pile of sand. I will call the local and let you know what the anthracite is going for this year … Mike
Mike: Thanks for the offer but I want to keep my process as environmentally friendly, sustainable, and self-sufficient as possible so I am just using wood char. Hopefully, I can make a few 55 gallon barrel batches out in the country soon. That should keep me well stocked for a bit.
Brian, I had to do a few things before it got dark. Days are short. I called the local and they only carry rice and nut coal right now. They used to carry lump but that was only 2 inch max by 2 inch by 1.5 inch or so … The Amish buy that up when it comes in or special order. The local sells auger feed coal stoves. I used to buy lump coal which was maybe 6" by 6" by 3" thick. I needed to be gone from the house for 10 to 12 hours and this was my only option as my house didn’t have a furnace. The lumber yard I got from had the train line through their place and then they tore that out and then they had it hauled in by semi to keep us old timers happy for a couple of more years. I remember loading 1000 pounds of chunks into my 73 Chevy Impala station wagon and driving the 25 miles home real slow on back roads with spread out tires. I still have maybe 10 of those chunks but they are worth more to me for memories if you know what I mean. The local sells pallets for $375. This is around a ton. They will sell single 40 pound bags for $6.25 … Check your local pellet stove guys and see what they carry. I went through around 20 pounds playing a few weeks ago but it was “cool” to see all that metal glowing … If you need to know I will explain what a “sidewalk” forge is … Just need a blower and a pipe and a hole in some good ground and of course the coal … Charcoal fries too fast but check out Johan’s repair on an old imbert in svedbil.com if you can find it. He cherried up up the cast iron hearth in charcoal before welding it. He needed to replace the restriction to do their wood tour of Sweden. Regards, Mike LaRosa
PS, My uncle has his own personal coal mine on his farm in West Virginia … I was afraid to set foot in there as the layer of coal was held up with ancient rotten logs … Could get squished like a bug …