good to see your still making progress, weeds and gardening alwise take up lots of my time too. i’ve alwise wanted to try bee keeping. keep us posted
Hey Fellow gasifier enthusiasts,
I finally did the first burn with my new monorator hopper and I’m impressed with the preliminary results of that short burn (45 min after 15 min start up). Pic 1. I loaded the monorator hopper with about 15 lbs of wood chunks. Pic 2, I used the vacuum in the start up configuration (by passing the filter) by opening the tee cap, inserting the vac hose and closing the filter valve. When good gas was being produced at the flare tube, I switched to Pic 3, the run configuration, by replacing the tee cap, moving the vac line to the filter valve outlet and then opening the filter valve. The gas is now routed through the filter to the flare tube again for an initial run to shut down due to fuel exhaustion.
Good gas was being produced in about 15 minutes. I switched to run configuration. Even though I was getting a burnable gas, the temps were on the low side. Eventually the process started to slow down prematurely, so I decided to shut down. Pic 4 is what’s left. It’s still a way to the nozzles. I took the filter apart and voila! The filter paper Pics 5 & 6, got sucked up to the bottom of the outlet pipe, filled with soot and killed the draw through the nozzles.
The pine needles were completely dry and there was no moisture in the bottom. I repacked the pine needles in 1" layers spritzed with veg oil to help trap the obvious soot getting through the filter. We’ll see if it smells like sunflowers.
Now for the biggy, how did the monorator hopper handle the moisture on this short run of 15 min startup and 45 min run time? I drained about a pint of water from the hopper moat. I opened the cooler condensate drain and there was no water there at all. There was no water in the filter either. Also on every run using my vac with my old hopper there was always some water in the vac canister. This time the vac canister was bone dry. All of this even though my vac was really under pulling for my design parameters.
I can’t wait to fire it up again to see if this was just a fluke, but I am really encouraged by these results.
I’m working on a short video of the flare and drain. I should be able to post it sometime tonite, maybe.
Pepe
EDIT: http://youtu.be/ZBVpSLIBJmY
Thanks for the video , look like you have it going your way !!
Your monorator did catch a considerable amount of liquid for a short run, but I was more impressed with the amount of carbon you caught with your cyclone. Could we get a picture of the cyclone and maybe some detail? Thanks TomC
Hi Tom & Wayne,
I was pretty happy with the results. too, considering the variation of a few dimensions to fit what I had on hand “close enough”. Sometimes that gets you. I used an 8" diameter fire extinguisher for the cylinder and built a cone the same length 13". I compared my dimensions to the design dimensions which you will see.
It works really good with no moisture in the cyclone, although moisture in the cyclone isn’t cyclone dimension driven IMO. I don’t feel a need to build another just to “hit” the numbers. That said, if I did build one to the numbers I would feel confident the performance would be just as good or better. If you check out my photo pages (page 11) there are more cyclone/preheat build pics. Click on my name here and on photos on my home page. The cyclone dimension chart I may have found when researching gek gasifiers. I like to draw full size when practical for a real life view and feel. The last picture was the end of 2 hr burn last year. Lots of heavier (atomic wise) particulate matter- very dry also.
Pepe
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Pic 1. I got the 18 hp Craftsman started today. It jumped to life, how lucky for me. Have to replace the brittle fuel lines and fuel filter. Yes, all those pesky gasoline things. I want it running well on gasoline first. I’ll probably run the 8 hp Tecumseh snow blower for some burn time while I finish up with the rider. I know it’s an under pull but I have to see what it does. I gotta have some fun. Pic 2. I need to make a gasifier manifold to fit on the air cleaner supports.
Are your plans to put your unit on a trailer Pepe? Can you change the restriction to make up for the difference in engine size?
Hi Bill,
My plans are twofold. Plan 1, my primary goal, is for a stationary unit for emergency power in the 25 hp range. For this I chose line C of the imbert dimension chart. I used a 50% power factor here. These numbers worked well for me. My new hearth uses the line D dimensions for greater gas production thus being able to run higher hp engine. This unit works well also if you’ve seen my vids. Basically all I did was fabricate a new hearth cone to line D dimensions and bolt it back on the fire tube. Nozzles remained 1/4". To step up I’d have to use a larger firetube and larger shell also. I’m not going there yet.
Plan 2, I will be starting a new build this fall/winter trying to make a shorter more compact unit for mounting on a trailer for both home power and mobile use. My trailer is 6’ wide by 8’ long with a 42" tongue and the deck is 18" off the ground. This puts the top of my cooler 8’-1" off the ground and my burner unit 7’-5" off the ground. The cooler I can run horizontally to lower it considerably, not to mention simplifying the condensate collection and drain. The gasifier char collector I can shorten 6 or so inches and I may be able to shorten my firetube and shell also. I’ll be playing with this on paper soon.
Pepe
Hi Bill,
I was reading my back posts and thought you would like a source for building your own sheet metal brake and slip roll machine. Try this site. You’ll need Adobe reader or some other program installed on your computer to read these PDF files.
http://bookzz.org/g/Gingery
Pepe
Chris, Will you add this to the resources page, there’s a lot of DIY stuff here.
Good stuff there Pepe. Thank you.
Pepe,
I was looking back on this post as well. You were questioning how my lid may work during a puff back. To follow up, I have to say I am very pleased. The guide I have is bored out slightly bigger than usual to make sure it will slide easily. When my unit puffs back, it is only a short hiss to relieve the pressure and it’s done. I also like being able to open it from either side depending how the wind blows.
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Bill,
I’m glad to hear the most important part of your gasifier is working well. The lid gets a lot of trials.
Bill,
This is funny, I had a pretty good puff off yesterday on a trial run for the fun of it. Thankfully, my lid works well, too. I caught part of it visually, but the noise is like a big rattle You can see it here; at about 1m42s. I ran my only running engine, my 8 hp B&S. Revisited leaving the vac(fan) running while starting the engine. Some quizzical looks from me, I’m sure.
Pepe
Hi Pepe
Be a day or so before I can load up and video “hear” in Net slack time. Engine running always makes my ears pop up.
Here’s one that I’m surpized people overlook and don’t bug me about. Most of Ben Peretson’s works show a lack of blow off capabilty. ??? Yes. Look. Why? With stout safe construction is was found mostly contained poofs was a good way to grate and packed lower char bed clear. Could even back flush downstream build-up and cloggings. (the negative pressure waves oscillations after an over-pressure wave event) Bo-o-o-a-ng!!!
Takes very stout constructing though to be safe. Why he would never let me use plastics on anything.
I see you building this stout Richard. Makes it HEAVY. Too heavy for most vehicles. Just fine for stationary.
REgards
Steve Unruh
Thought I’d post a video of a one of my early test runs.
Thanks much .
Your looking good!!
My trusty 8 hp Tecumseh HMSK80 quit on me during my last burn. It was my only running engine. The valve clearance is zero on both valves which I thought was odd, since it had run great for years. I would have expected too much clearance. I’m thinking I’m going to have to grind the valve stem .003" to .004" so I can hone the seats. Then regrind the stems to specs. Anyone have any other ideas on the reason for tight valves? My family has owned this brand new since day one and it has never been torn down.
I just received my 8" 3 jaw flywheel puller and pulled a flywheel with a sheared key. I set up and torqued on the bolt quite a bit until it popped off with a loud snap. It was so loud I thought I snapped the flywheel. It was fine. I did however find a keyway configuration I’ve never seen before. The shaft keyway is 1/8" and the flywheel keyway is 1/4". The key is one piece.
I’ve got a new fan blower to play with and adapt. It’s used to blow up play houses, etc, outdoor use, continuous use. I’m hoping I can control the fan speed.
Hopefully I can get up and running in a couple of weeks.
Pepe
Pepe, it looks like you could advance or retard timing depending on which way you insert the key.
Hi Don,
Thanks for the comment, it made sense, but I just found this gem this AM, after much searching
Pepe
I finally got a few hours to set up my unit inside. I outlined all the bases on the floor with a magic marker for reference. Before I stood it up, I checked the burner to cyclone shroud gasket. It appears to have been leaking and gradually the heat ate up the wood stove fiberglass door gasket material I used. Thus the explosive flare starts I witnessed in the video I posted in my 08/01/2014 post @ 09:55 hrs. I’ll have to find something more heat resistant and/or reconfigure the connection. Maybe a sleeve type connection?
Here’s a short vid of emptying the ash collector on the cyclone with an appropriate notation to move on.
My next step is to layout the cooling tube number and locations on my monorator hopper. Later I’ll remove the preheat shroud and hoist the monorator hopper with burner unit off the base unit, check gaskets, clean out the char, etc. At this point I can also remove the hearth and check it or replace it with a different hour glass configuration. So far I like it just like it is. Gasket performance is my main concern. I’m also going to put a hinge and quick latch on the base cleanout door.
Pepe
