Hi Wayne,
Yes, it’s moving along on this fine sunny Sunday morning. Give us this day our daily bread, thank You. I had enough gas left to finish tacking in the remaining spokes. It’s not perfect, but betas are fit, form and function. I’ll look pretty later. Pic 2 looks way more distorted than it really is. It’s not sitting level on the base(operator error).
For those of you not familiar with the monorator hopper, some types of heat drive moisture(steam) up the firetube to the center of the monorator and fan out to the top, sides and bottom ledge under the grate cone where they hit these cool outer walls and the moisture condenses out to a collector for draining. With a 24" D top, 21" height and a 4 1/2" overhang my monorator has approx 16 sqft of surface area available with varying degrees of relatively cool surfaces. The overhang is not directly above the hearth heat stream so it remains much cooler, the design in action. I can’t wait to see it happen. The moisture condenses in a sort of drainable moat. The fuel itself also helps cool the gas by absorbing some of the heat to aid in drying. The heat releases moisture from the wood and cycles it up to the cooler surfaces via the forces of the center heat stream. There’s a lot going on here, hopefully.
Pepe
wow! First time I have ever seen anything SPOKEN into existence.
nice uniform work.
Thanks Wes, I asked my wife what the comment meant and she said, you know, Pepe, like a spoke? Duh. I can’t believe I didn’t pick up on it. We got a good laugh from that. Pepe
Hi Pepe;
This is looking good. Looking forward to results of your run. Dan
Hi Dan, We’re knee deep in snow and below zero again til tomorrow when the heat wave returns, 30 degrees! lol. Maybe by the time I finish the monorator, my new filter and new cleanout closure it’ll be mild enough to move back outside. Man, I am ready for spring already!
Pepe
I only had time today to cut out and dry fit the moat wall. Ran down for a tank of CO2/Argon. Will resume welding tomorrow.
This is awesome art to me Pepe, i envy your crafts
Hi Pepe
Just a thought you need to be able to get under the cone basket to scrape out the debry that will collect there, but do it with out having to lift the basket out, so have access ports to under the basket. Nipple with end caps or sockets with plugs.
Thanks
Patrick
Hi Koen,
Thank you for the kind words. Patience and perseverance at work here. Hopefully it will be functional art, lol.
Hi Patrick,
I planned to cut the cone basket into two parts(maybe 3) that could be installed/removed through the lid opening. I’ll make a cone the same size out of 16 gauge metal (quick and easy) to test this. I planned to run a weld bead on the base plate to keep the pieces from sliding toward the firetube opening. I definitely have a few kinks to work out before I do the finish welds. I thought the barrel bung idea installed around the perimeter would work also, something I could get a suction hose in. Maybe 3 or 4 gasketed 3" x 4" plates screwed onto the hopper housing just above the moat wall height.
Thanks for reminding me and the tips.
Pepe
Here’s part of the 75%, hiccups in gas production during manual grate shaking.
Pepe
Morning Mr. Pepe,
Thanks for the video .
Often when shaking the grate it will do just as designed and release the ash and small fine material at the grate allowing the gasifier to breath easier . This in turn will though the fuel / air mix rich. By adjusting the air mix at the same time shaking the grate the mix may stay correct .
Also many times when shaking the grate the fines fall out and small char from above will quickly fall in it’s place and maintain the same vacuum or resistance thus keeping the correct air mix.
I think in the video when the motor was about to stall it was because of too rich gas mixture .
Hi Wayne,
Thanks for the comment. I think you are correct about the mixture, I tend to run it rich for no particular reason. I’m shop bound now until the glacier moves out then I’ll set up outside and get in some run time. I installed a vibrator after this vid and ran several hour + runs without using the grate shaker at all and it seemed to run fine. I don’t have it on a timer yet so when it slowed down I ran the vibrator for 10 secs and it picked right again. Dan Cox commented that he seldom uses his grate shaker since installing his vibrator. Come on spring!
Pepe
I finally got back to the shop and took a few more steps on my monorator hopper and a new filter canister.
The first 4 pics are my filter, a 16" diam water heater 30" tall. You remember to save all your cutouts, right?
Pic 5. I changed this to 1/8" thick by 1 1/4" high. It will probably corrode eventually, so the thicker the better.
Pic 6. I laid out and cut all the cleanout port covers from a piece of the same radius. Should be a nice fit.
Pic 7. I laid out and cut 3" x 4" cleanout ports. I sized them so I could reach in easily.
Pic 8. I laid out the hole arrangement and gang drilled the covers. I placed the covers over the port and
spot drilled a couple corners, dropped in some bolts to hold the cover and finished drilling the rest
of the holes using the cover as a template. Worked well, just take your time.
Pic 9. All holes drilled and bolts snugged with a nut from below.
Pic 10. Tack weld all the nuts to the inside of the filter wall. Cover bolts with anti seize to protect them.
Pic 11. One down.
Pic 12. Cleanout ports completed. I’ll make some Dan Cox gaskets for these covers. I will locate the
condensate drain/s underneath the ports. Patrick, I’ll start tumbling my fuel as I dry so that
should help with the debris. I’ll also attach a coarse screen somehow on the drain/s in the moat.
It may be overkill with the bolts, but that could be a big bomb! And lastly, next time I’ll number the
pictures as well, sorry about that.
This is my temporary condensate sump arrangement. The short nipple will be welded to a drain hole in the moat in the monorator mounting base. The rest of the parts just screw to it in succession. Later I can unscrew the parts and run any drain system from the gate valve shutoff to any point. The 2" diam tube is 32" long and contains 100 cubic inches or 1.73 qts. I US quart equals 57.75 cubic inches. I’m toying with shortening it some and eliminating the elbow for a straight down drain arrangement with an inline shutoff. I don’t like the way it sticks out, too easy to snap off, I figure anything over a quart is good.
Dan C, I remember you not liking some of the filter results. I’m basically going to shoot the gas in at the bottom and pick it up at the top. I’m going to use dry pine needles as before with some flat baffles to route the gas. They seem to collect well. I like your lid latches and will probably build same. OK, see you, I’ve got to make some gaskets now.
Pepe
Edit: I put the straight tube together and will go with it. The length is now 29" with a volume of 91 cubic inches or 1.57 qts. This design can all be screwed on or off the gate valve in one piece without hitting the base leg.
Hello Fellow Gassers,
I’m ready (I think) to (gulp) button up my monorator hopper. Here’s a few pics of the test fit and alignment of the components. It appears to be right on. The grate went in just snug and aligns right on with the firetube opening. I’m leaving it in one piece. I’m happy with the fit. The unit is 67" tall.
Pepe
Hi Pepe
Looking very nice, just need to add some cooling tubes, trust me they work !
Thank Patrick
Howdy Pepe,
I’m really liking that build!
I would recommend a larger drain, at least 2".
Alot of tar and wood bits will plug a small passage quickly.
I would weld in a minimum 2" nipple and reduce it to use what ya have, Unless ya have a 2" or larger valve handy, bigger is definitely better in this case.
Can’t wait to see how it works… Gotta build a new hopper soon.
TerryL
Pepe,
I get it now. your monorator is similar to the original monorator. That is the reason you are funneling with metal rods.
Did you put an access door in case of the plugging of the liquid outlet and the removal of fines that may fall through the rods? I plan on making an additional hopper with a wide low profile. It will interchange with the hopper I currently have designed for my unit without cooling tubes as well. Just a double walled hopper. Steve U. brought up the idea for a ‘cheese grate’ for the inside wall.
i really like your handy work. i’m building a new hopper for my little unit same style as yours when i get some of my other projects done.
when the drops of water run down the bottom of the rods do you have something to cause them to fall in the gutter, does the gutter lip touch all the rods so it will strip the droplets off. you could test it with a spray bottle and just mist the rods and see what happends
Hi Pepe; Man, Thats looking really nice! You do nice work, congrats…Dan