Hi Pepe; Your gasket sheet is looking good and thanks for the Acolades. When I was new on this site not so long ago I received help from many others including yourself. I said at the time that someday maybe I could contribute back to everyone as my experience grew. Makes me feel good to know that I am able to help out with something useful. Thanks to you and all on DOW that shared their knowledge with me. I am working on a new Ejector that won’t need compressed air and hopefully work very well. I will share here and on Youtube when done. Dan
Hi Dan and All, The spirit of sharing here is such a positive experience, a real connection and quite uplifting.
Here’s a few pics of some finished gaskets. Pic 1 the layout compass. I used a T-pin for a center pivot(1/16" d), and a Sharpie pen to draw the circles. The Sharpie bib fits a 7/32" hole just tight. Pic 2 I laid out all the gaskets I needed (the hatched areas) Note all the radii holes drilled in the paint stick… Pic 3 These metal cutting shears cut this stuff like paper. Blades are replaceable. Pic 4 Hopper dome to hopper body flange. Pic 5 The lineup, 3 of the 5 will be used here. Pic 6 The gasket was glued to the under side of the lid with a thin coat of high temp red RTV and left to set. I drew 2 sets of positioning marks on the lid and dome. This is where the gasket was formed, this is where it should stay for the best fit. The lid feels solidly sealed with just its own weight. I’m encouraged. Pepe
Hey everybody,
I finally made the cyclone to cooler interface. I used some obtanium weightliftium ($6 tag sale) and extracted 6 Lf each of 2" and 1 1/2" square tubing. Progress has been like a guy running in slo mo in a dream, lol! Tomorrow I’ll work on the pressure lid hinge and latch assembly. I’m hoping to finally fire it up this weekend. Whoops, lost tomorrow, I have to go to the burg. Drat. Maybe Monday or so.
Pepe
Hey Gasifier Enthusiasts,
Last weekend I attended a pork roast and got a lead on high temp thermometers from the roaster, who built the smoker/roaster on a model T Ford frame. Best pork I’ve ever tasted, took 16 hrs to finish. Yeah, they fired up around midnite for dinner the next day.
I got them at Lowe’s. The roaster said he got his at Walmart. Here’s a good look at them. Now I can get an idea of the temperature and efficiency of my cooler, can’t wait. The unit measures to 700 degrees Fahrenheit. The probe is 1 1/4" long with a 1/8"base with 3/8" of 5/16" x 18 threads, perfect for my 2" square tube. I need to get a third one to see what the temp is straight out of the burner shell, then the one just before the cooler will tell me the temp drop through the cyclone/preheat shroud. One in the SPAI manifold would tell me temp increase above ambient and tell me how much heat the incoming air is pulling from the cyclone. Guess I need several more probes.
Lid time, lol.
Pepe
Hey Folks,
I installed some thermometers in the gas stream today. I drilled a hole, welded a nut over it and screwed the thermometer in. The thermometer in the SPAI will show the temp increase (from ambient) as the inlet air picks up heat from the cyclone.
The gas temp exiting the cyclone is essentially the temp of the gas entering the cooling stream.
The thermometer at the end of the cooling stream will tell me the temp change through the cooler.
Still fiddling with the lid seals and latch.
Pepe
Hey Everyone,
Here’s my lid and latch assembly. I still have to fine tune the sealing. After the silicone sets from gluing the 2 gaskets to the metal, I will spread a thin layer of silicone on one of them, spread oil on the other and loosely clamp it shut until it sets. That should fill in any irregularities for a complete seal. It’s time consuming because I allow 48 hrs for a complete set of the silicone. Meanwhile I’ll chunk fuel.
Pepe
Hi All,
I did some fuel prep for the big day.
I finally finished my hearth and cooler and set my unit up on a 4’x4’ pallet. Decent footprint. Here are a couple of my new vids, complete with another flashback and ??? reaction, lol. Part 1 5m 20s, is a walk around my setup. Part 2 6m 53 secs, is the start up and run with temp monitoring.
I’m quite pleased with the high quality gas and the efficiency of my new cooler. Well worth the effort. I’ll be working on a valving system around the vac, so I don’t have to pull hoses apart and interrupt the engine start procedure.
This is the best gas I have produced.
Arvid, I love the vacuum cleaner for starting.
Matt, So far that gasket material seems to be working OK.
Dan, Your gaskets seem to be working OK, as well.
All time savers, Thank you.
Pepe
Part 1 Oct 16, 2013 http://youtu.be/aVyiQNlJ8uQ
Part 2 Oct 16, 2013 http://youtu.be/NLOVejGLBf8
Thanks Pepe, Enjoyed the videos !
BBB
Very nice Richard.
Now is it one more step to making some electricity from you gasifier and engine.
Then comes the 75 % learning to operate, observe, smell and listen to the system.
All great fun 
Have fun
Patrick
Ha! Ha! See, Pepe I am not the only one crazy operating by senses and feel!
PatrickJ I use taste too. Just be super careful with the hopper juice. Tiny, tiny bit on the tip of the tongue as it will leave a cell killed dead spot until cell regrowth replacement ~3 days for me. Why it is such a good bug killer.
S.U.
Hi Patrick,
Thanks for commenting. I’ve fiddled around for several years now from Fema, fluidyne and present imbert style with hour glass hearth. I finally have a design, albeit bulky, that is producing a nice clean gas. The temp drop incident was part of my 75% operator experience. I remember also hearing the engine backfire a couple of times minutes before the engine died. Now with this unit I can do more operating and less fabricating changes although I still have a few ideas to implement. More wasted heat use/ conservation of heat and after watching your videos an inner cone for my drain channel and a double shell for the hopper(good ideas) in my next design. Did I say less fabricating?? lol.
I lent out my great running old 5 hp BS generator and it got left out uncovered so when it came back I had to pull the head, free up valves, drain water out of sump, carb, fuel tank and lines, etc. Can’t wait to get it back on line. Been think about feeding exhaust into my SPAI (single port air inlet) preheat shroud, insulating certain areas and putting a fuel drying rack over/next to my cooler (it’s 7’ high now).
Yes, it is all fun and I’m determined to implement it all, Lord willing.
Pepe
Hi Steve,
It took me a while to put the senses thing together, but I’m paying more attention to sights (smoke, flare color) and sounds for sure. I think it was you who first alerted me to the other 75% rule. I’ll be operating this unit a lot more in the coming months and sitting at the drawing board for a size wise more efficient/effective unit.
Pepe
Hi Richard
Hi Patrick, I must say I like the double skin and conical lid for moisture collection. A simple water lock keeps it air tight. I will keep these in mind for my next build.
Pepe from DOW.
Thanks for the comment on my youtube video. Yes a water lock would be a great Idea just a few problems, when you have a puff back it may blow all the water out, and under load my hopper vacuumed is some times 2-3in , so it would have to be pretty deep.
Thanks for the idea
Patrick
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Hi Patrick, The water trap I referred to was your drain tube going into the bucket of water. Not exactly a water trap but it keeps outside air at bay.
I saw an old design posted on this site somewhere that did have an actual trap in the bottom reservoir of the cooler assembly. Same blow out possible with that also. That idea needs some thought for sure. I’ll post it when I run across it again. It an interesting design and easier to fabricate than mine. Of course I found this way after I started my cooler. lol.
Pepe
Hi Pepe
Sorry I thought you meant the seal on the lid of the hopper.
I saw a water lock on a large log gasifier in one of the youtube links posted in a thread here on DOW that was used for heating.
It’s a very good idea but as I said a lot of thought would have to go in to it.
That’s the beauty of this site, there are so many minds working on basically the same thing with different ideas evolving all the time !
Thanks
Patrick
Hi All,
Thought I’d post a design that Koen Van Looken posted in another forum. It is a linear flow design easier to build than mine and I will try it sometime down the road. For you guys just starting to think about coolers, give this design some serious consideration. Not convinced??? Check out how much more difficult my design is to build by perusing these pages, lol.
Here’s the other narrative as an explanation.
Hi Koen,
I blew up your photo, the cooler part, so people could see the simplicity of the linear flow design compared to the one I built. Hot gas meets cooler water and more water condenses out. The s-trap keeps the water level constant as any water in the base higher than the top of the “S” will automatically drain out. The metal chamber separations force the hot gas to take the path of least resistance which is through the pipes forcing the linear flow insuring maximum contact with the radiating surfaces. My linear flow cools very well, but my design is much more complex to build and a bit more involved to drain. The setup for the S-trap requires some thought as far as accommodating the height is concerned, but not difficult. Also need to be able to bring water level up if necessary.
The linear flow is more efficient by far than the 2, 3, 4 or more pipes all down then 2, 3, 4 pipes all up as the flow in these cases is not consistent in each pipe therefore cooling capacity efficiency is lowered.
Hope this helps.
Pepe
while i’m not disagreeing with you, linear may well be better… I have found with our little unit the only time the top of our cooler gets hot (all thing being relative, can always hold it with out burning yourself) is when I’m pulling on it with our shop vac to get it started. With the engine running it’s just warm to the touch. and going by Max gasmans calculations of surface area i’m on the small side. I suspect the cyclone and piping to the final filter as well as the filter itself all add to the coolers numbers.
Hi Arvid,
Thanks for the feedback on your cooler temps, I’ve wondered how well they worked and from your unit’s performance, I’d say well.
I went from a small S cooler to the present 7’er. I also want to be able to move up the HP scale and not have to build another bigger cooler later and was also sick of looking at the old dismantled swing set hogging a corner of my shop,lol. I saw a fluid flow demo on youtube and was surprised (not totally) to see the flow differences in the individual “legs” so I went for linear. I figured as long as I’m going to build one, I going to build it big enough(use up all those swing parts) and still fit on my footprint. I had no real idea how well it would work until I saw the temp gauges and felt the drop in each leg. It works great and the other cooler additions certainly help.
After feeling the individual legs I certainly could have gotten by with fewer. I also want a shorter unit but I’ll use this “for now”.
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Hi All,
I finally got around to building my vibrator/shaker which is a copy of Dan Cox’s unit and I hope it works as well.
I had a little problem with the pics, but basically they’re a step by step, build a piece, dry fit it, build another piece. I love those construction magnets for sticking parts together.
I must add that my second run on 10-19 -13 above ended with a huge bridge (found after I shut down). Temps went up, I thought good, but 3 or 4 minutes later, engine sputtered a few times and died…huh?? Ah, more of the 75% learning curve kicking in. Banging the hopper with a big hammer to no avail. My gas wouldn’t flare. What the “fill in the blank”! I did have some larger pieces in this run so another % of learning… size is important for good fuel flow. I found the bridging after I shut down and started to empty the hopper. All of a sudden the bridge collapsed. It was about a 10" - 12" hole! The temp increase was caused by increased combustion without pyrolizing any new wood. Of course the combustion added more water vapor and CO2 to the mix and the engine shut down.
That really spurred me on to get the vibrator going. I’ll sort my chunks and chop up the larger diam ones.
2 1/2" length and diam seems to be the right size for my hearth. I have several "ledges inside my hopper from putting pieces of tank together so avoid this if you can. If you ain’t burning, you ain’t learning. For some great in depth explanations of all this, check out Jim Mason’s All Power Lab on youtube
http://youtu.be/qlq3_CCVniU. It’s long but the explanations are eye opening. Don’t skip ahead, this is where I heard the nugget about bridging and what really is happening energy wise and chemically at that point!
Can’t wait to try the vibrator.
Pepe
Great input and pictures Mr Pepe.
Have to say I’ve never seen this stout of hopper shaker bracketing. You’er not likely to crack and break with this.
Jim Mason does some wonderful expaining alright. All roads that lead to engine running with woodgas are Right.
On the fuel bridging problems.
Once past the fuel chunkiness mechanical locking up. Once past internal ledges hanging. I’ve still had problems going clear back to the very first gasifer I ever operated a very straight down into GEK II using just it’s tube-like straight in internal developer space without even using the external hopper tank.
Had bridging problems with even some of BepP’s earlier stuff.
Lots of shaker, even sideways bridging breaking up systems tried.
What I have personally seen was these bridges all had a componet of tars glueing to them. If the hearth was hard pulled to create a LOT of internal rising heat - bridging problem with the same fuels went away. As the gasifers advanced to hold in or recycle more heat back into themselves the bridging problems again with the same woodfuels went away. Got to where I could follow bridging problems based on the fuelwood moisture levels. Or the amount of fuelwood at the same moisture put into the same system.
That is where I came to evole the strong belief now that we need to balance out the gross amount of fuelwood moister AT ANY ONE TIME ALLOWED into the system to the available gasifier internal HEAT that be produced for the duration of that fuel load.
Have to keep those wood tars, hot, liquid, cooking and flowing downward.
Anymore as an operater of mostly other peoples gasifiers I operator “adjust” this fuel moisture loading to the actual gasifier hearth/engine loading.
I stopped believing the mantra of “make the fuel bin sized to convience”, “make the fuel hopped to match your wanted run times”. Yeah. Right. ONLY with perfect out of system kiln dried wood fuel or middle of the desert 1000 hour sun dried fuel m-a-yb-e. NOT what woodlands Rural living DOers actually have the majority of the year.
Try this on yours. Same wood fuel. Same wood fuel moisture. Pull your system up hotter making more heat by engine loading. Put in much less fuel wood. Batch by batch add more fuel wood to each batch until glue bridging begins. Now sun, woodstove, oven dry down this same amount of wood fuel and batch run again. BEST, yet; make the now loaded running engine heat do it’s own fuel wood drying for “free”.
I’m convinced. Only you can convince you. If you do become convinced you find this will drive forward you design principals.
My own personal system instead of now eleberate first lower hopper heating then upper condensate hooper converting the simple solution is to just use engine “wastes” heats to wonter wet better fuel wood moisture conditioning and not put these moistures into the hopper/gasifier in the first place and settle for shorted batch fuel cycles. Make the mositure load “foot” fit my gasifier “foot”.
Back to always needing an actual engine running for positive forward developement “benefits”.
In a not perfect world. With not perfect ingredents. With a not perfect oven. A Good Mom will still bake her kids cookies.
Best Regards
Steve Unruh