Life goes on - Winter 2020

Warning :warning: Wayne put on your coat and stand by the stove.

We are in a blizzard warning mainly because of the winds. 30 mph (48kph) constant with gusts to 55 mph (88 kph) temp 30 (-1)

Not much snow falling so hopefully no major drifting. Town of 900 in western part of the state evacuated due to wild fire :fire:

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Thanks for the warning Mr. Tom Before I moved on down and looked at the picture I got close to the wood heater .

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I was thinking you where going to say you climbed in the back of the truck and reloaded the gasifer.

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Hey Dan .

The gasifier was already loaded up before the warning . All that is needed is just cracking up and dow which I am about to do for no reason. If it was not so muddy I would go out and just drive around in with the cows .

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I have to run the A.C. here now at night. Days are up to about 90f.
I suppose that; if I complain, the temp will drop 60 deg.

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I take some of that hot weather, send it up to Washington.
Bob

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Been a while since I’ve been on the forum, I’ve been busy with school and work, but at school in metal shop I did a little mig welding. not too bad for only a little bit of practice.

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Very nice Tyler .

Next event at Argos someone remind me to cover or hide my welding someway . :slightly_smiling_face:

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Thank you, my teacher said it looks about right for an intermediate welder but i’m just a beginner, I guess I picked it up quickly.

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Ha! Ha! Here is a new source for re-usable bits and pieces:
old medical equipment’s.
My wife the Nurse get end-of-life donated a lots of durable medical equipment.
We have had to dedicate a whole room for this stuff. She re-homes what is appropriate.
The rest she has me disassemble and dispose off.
So three hospital beds to junk out. Old, old all manual ones easy . . . just all metal. SawsAll reduce down to manageable.
The more modern all electric ones (she hates) garners a whole bottle of specialty nuts and socket/bolts; machined pins/E-clips; one-two electric actuators; a bunch of nitrogen gas struts; cable actuator runs; and one long flat spring looking great for a hopper top lid-latch.
Wife hates these all-electrics because power-out and the client is in-bed stuck in one position.
And when the gas struts age then the bed “Taco’s” uncontrollably with position changing.

She like the semi-electric one with still manual cranks the best. Haw. Makes me repair the worn controllers and switch assemblies.
The now coming on-line durable medical equipment’s are all DC electrical with Ni-Mh 24 volt battery pacs.
S.U.

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So what you say does this have to do with wood gasification??
Keep your systems manual control back up useable.

True experience here.
A 2011 regional All-BioMass Seminar that BenP’s Victory GasWorks sponsored in downtown Vancouver WA.
Presented after all of the inside scheduled talking presentations; was to be a 30kW Victory all SS gasifier system demonstration. A ~2500 pounds (monolithic cast in place refectory core) big unit muscled up stairs into the downtown Hyatt Hotel lobby. Then muscled back down back onto it’s trailer for a firing up flaring demonstration. The VGW shops automation guy insisted on an AC power digital controller system. Away from grid was to be power fed from a full wave inverter, battery bank supplied. Or engine-generator AC supplied.
I was saying use 12vdc controller boards, sensor and actuators. ANY vehicle could then supply. Then AC to DC convert when with AC. Nope. I was just an old car guy. Still stuck back in the 20th Century.

That AC system had worked just fine at public park demonstrations with inverter and batteries. Worked with the shops 5500 watt Briggs& Stratton. Worked fine in-shop just the previous day on the PUD’s grid electricity.

Ha! But damn simply would not power up and work on the Hotels same PUD electricity corded out from the lobby. Huh??
The generator, inverter battery bank had not been brought.
Ended up with me on one system side and the automation man on the other by-passing the automation system to manually get it up running, working and producing gas to flare. 30 minutes of fail to launce. Another 15 minutes Leatherman tools hacking actuators removals. All done with flew-in/drove-to, 30-40 folks waiting, watching.
Very, very VGW Shop embarrassing. “Sweat-blood” on that one.

Oh I, figured I knew what the problem was. Very dirty AC system chatter from all of the Hotels on/off equipment’s coming randomly on and off. With probably a large failing AC motor contributing.
The woodgas AC digital system was confused with all of the wave chatter coming trough over the 60 hertz line. The KilloWatt meter said we were fine for hertz and voltage.

Again.
First make your system manual.
Then overlay automation assistance if you insist.
Retain the manual capability.
Having learned FIRST: manual operation.

Or be very, very sorry, sorry. Someday. Power-less. Without a clue in Hell how to make it work.
Steve Unruh

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You could dump some of that old equipment here. I love working with stuff like that. A lot of my build materials now come from exercise equipment that people think they will use and then realize you actually have to put some effort into them so then end up out at the curb. I really like old weight benches and once even got a complete weight machine with all the pulleys cables.

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Treadmill motors are the find TomH.
The DC ones.
S.U.

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Today it was not so fun o the forest, the snow sticks to timber so it will be twice as heavy.

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It is heavy but remember snow saws much better then mud. So there is a bright side to skidding in snow.

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A small mishap happened today when I was buying petrol and diesel

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Okay where is the unlike button…

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Hey Jan, it looks like you’ve tested the vehicle a bit off-road, I also like to drive my Subaru on impassable terrain
:grinning:

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Ha, that’s when you say: Ops! (or something) :smile:
Could it be a punishment from the woodgas gods for buying fossil fuel? :smile: I hope you were still fairly close to your tractor.

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You could have solved that problem with a Mr Fusion reactor and 1.3 gigawatts of energy Jan.