Hi Everyone,
I finished hooking up the trolley stuff and started my teardown today. I thought I had all the bolts removed from the burner shell. Alas, I forgot to remove the through the shell lighting port so I lifted the weight of the 2 sections. It was too much for the swag light chain, as you can see. I man handled it and it felt good, too.
Removed the lighting port and separated the hopper with burner unit from the hopper shell and char cleanout base. I’m not impressed with the condition of the gaskets, but it explains some of the gas result deficiencies I experienced toward the end of the run season. I think I will weld a 1" high or so heat shield on the inside of the 2 mating parts like was suggested for my burner exhaust connection that failed. May be a pita, but I think it will work. Have to take care so the units still mate up with minimum interference.
Then I looked at the char left in the grate and gently removed it so you could see how the slots don’t get clogged by small pieces as the space around them allows the heat to eat them away. Also note the amount of fines present. It is sort of packed around the edges against the side of the grate and OK, Arvid, it seals the edges of the slots, lol.. How’s that for a grate? This is why you need a vibrator or grate shaker. If this gets clogged too bad, gas quality goes way down. Is this happening to you after a couple of hours of good running? The grate looks in good shape.
I originally was going to remove the hopper nuts from inside the cleanout covers, but the cone can be tilted up for access through the lid. I got the impact tool and bits at Lowe’s. 12 screws on hopper plates, 30 secs per cover to remove. Remember the bent tool I made for manual removal @ 12 minutes per nut, lol! Zippo with the Hitachi 7/16" long shank socket!
PS Don’t forget when you add pulleys the distance the load moves per foot of pull on the standing line lessens. Might want to measure your unit,etc first. Unlike I won’t mention the name of anyone who missed the table by 4", Pepe.
