Hey Rick .
Smoke needs to be run through red hot charcoal to get the conversion to wood gas .
You can light the gasifier and run it in reverse and make a good charbed and then switch the blower to pull the smoke through the char and your flare will light.
In my above video you can see me exercising the char bed to get a clean burn . 
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You know you and @BrianAltEnergy and many others that dove into these FEMA’s could really help the wood gas community by doing a Youtube video. So others dont fall down this trap.
I get it all the time in inquiries and comments on my channel. You want how much??? I can get these FEMA plans for FREE or these plans for online for free and can built this gasifeir for a 100 bucks!! < all angerally"" LOL
These DIY youtubers are not really doing anyone any favors. Anyone can build a unit and get it on video showing it work for 2 minutes. Its a whole different ball game getting one to self sustain for an entire hopper load and do so without producing any tar or engine stalling during that run. Then do this day in and day out. Build a gasfier out of junk you will end up with a piece of junk!
Like this guy, watch here at the time stamp he is trying to light the machine and states 3 to 5 minutes from cold to flare off. He tries to light but is unsuccessful and cuts the video. But note the shadows on the ground before and after the cut. lol. Yeah that was way longer than five minutes more like 2 hours. He is running an Imbert gasifier on charcoal and making claims users can run this unit on charcoal. This is decieving, because it is obvouse he is not testing this and just assuming it will work. I know what happened he clinked it up on the test run before the video. https://youtu.be/6bA1Av-WK6k?list=TLPQMTQwMTIwMjQ3iK2ZWbjCjA&t=429
Good observation Matt.
An old saying here in Alabama ( Don’t give me mountain ousters and call it seafood )
Any not knowing rural local-yokel vernacular . . .
mountain oysters are male mammal testicles. Usually from wild game. Domestic animals can contribute too.
We ever get again to long-pig situations (true stories out of WWII starvation prison camps) you well hung better watch out for your family jewels.
S.U.
Rick, learn and self-quote this using wood for energy wisdom-mantra:
“My char bed is my life.
Without a good, maintained char bed I will have no Life. Just a Lier’s smoke and mirrors.” Me-mine.
“Take care of your char bed. And your char-bed will take care of you.” Ben Peterson
Regards
Steve unruh
I have surrendered… for today. I’m too damn stubborn to let it beat me. So I think you’re right. Maybe I’ll make a video detailing the misery endured trying to make a FEMA actually work.
But for the remainder of the day, I’ll hang out with my woman and watch football. A wise man once told me, " If it kicks your ass, take a break."
Yup you belong here; Its the guys that have all the crazy ideas and that stuborness that actually will end up being great at this. Many get discouraged when we try to steer them in a new direction because generally we try to re invent things we have never even built before. But that innovation and crteativity is what is needed later once you have the grasp of real working machine. Dont give up and yes take a break dont let it beat you to death. We have all been there.
Hello Rick, here on this forum we all wish you success, well, everyone in their own way tries to make a gasifier according to their needs and trick the wood into giving us gas to drive the engine. The features of this process have already been well explained to you by my friends, so you can be prepared that it will take some patience and time to succeed, if it helps you, the link below is my test of a raw wood gasifier, which is quite easy to make.
Hi Rick, I saw some where are FEMA was turned into a down draft charcoal gasifier. I could not find it in our library, it might have be someone on the you tube that showed it.
I made a drawing of what they did from memory. You can see the FEMA build and what modifications are needed to change it. The good news is you just need to add to what you have already built. Like the nut nozzles , heat shields, air intake manifold surrounding the nozzles.
HV_Druck holzgas columbien pdf.pdf (3.1 MB) rick, my first building guide was this pdf from a project from south america…
my first downdraft gasifiers from propane tanks has worked really well from the beginning…
first motor, a honda gx 160 runs in july 2020, first test run one hour to see if it works for longer time, it was very exiting …with not so much charcoal runs a motor!!!
only the nozzle from up, because made of normal water installation pieces was not ideal, and not keeps up for long, so i made the nozzle entering from the side…
You have built some amazing stuff in a short time Giorgio. I thought you were one of the long timers here. Much admiration.
Hi Rick , never ever give up , walk away and sleep on it and then start at the very beginning again , the FEMA is a devil of a gasifier its design was made to fry your brains by the government to weaken your spirits to make you kneel and beg for forgiveness and to make you there slave , but fear not help is on hand .
Take a little/ medium / long break walk away and think about why its not making burnable gas , everyone before me has given you the answers now put them in order and have another try , a few steps i would consider first though would be , make sure your charcoal starting fuel is nice and dry as possible , also the wood chunks your going to follow on with , now on your system where ever your gas comes out you want to put a small fan or blower on there and start blowing back through your system not overly strong just enough so you can feel it come up through the grate of your gasifier , then while the fan is blowing start spraying soapy water on everything , the number 1 cause of problems will nearly always be air leaks if you have followed the design to the letter and have the correct fuel .
The other thing i have noticed is that when pulling the gas through the system you can over pull and get plenty of smoke but no flammable gas , so if possible get a variable speed controller for your fan , start up with a strong pull and once you have some smoke coming through the system then start slowing down a little at a time till you start to see it trying to light .
I am no expert when it comes to Gasification but i know what i know through 16 years of trying and yes the Fema was the 2nd gasifier i built that ran almost straight away and I was well on the way to having my eureka moment if only the generator would run for more than a half hour without me banging it or topping it up with fuel , but one thing it did for me was get me hooked , i have to admit i found Gary Gilmores simple fire not long after that and the rest as they say is history , run time in the thousands of hours generating mainly in spring /winter and autumn for my top up battery power and running power tools ect on Inverter generators .
Re read what everyone has suggested with a few beers and sleep on the thoughts of us all and then start again with a fresh head ready to warm your hands around the FEMA flare before moving on to building a more user friendly system that will keep you busy for many years to come .
All the best Dave
PS welcome aboard
Thanks to ALL for ALL the advice. Later today I’ll try yet again. I now have an awesome looking charcoal bed.
After that…well let’s see how it goes. My Detroit Lions actually won a playoff game yesterday after a 30 year wait. Maybe its an omen. Try long enough you will succeed. Hopefully not 30 years later…lol
Are you from Michigan?
That’s some nice looking charcoal Rick. Drools, drooled, drooling on myself. Fill that charcoal half way in the firetube 12" above the grate. Light it up with the suction blower running, then put the rest on top of the hot coals. Should get a flare in minutes. If not the charcoal bed above the grate will need to get abstablish if it is to loose.
From is a good word. I’m a SE Michigander living the dream in NE Florida.
I may be moving that way in a few years. I have family in your area and friends in Georgia, yeah part of my retirement plan is moving anywher south of Michigan. I hate being cold Im not desinged to live here.
Here’s a link to my last build where Giorgio shared some more details about the one linked before.
I didn’t build mine exactly like that guide showed but it ended up turning out pretty good after some problems.
A bucket of charcoal like what you showed would run my generator for around 2 hours working it hard.
With the first simple fire charcoal gasifier I could be running the generator within a few minutes from lighting it with very little smoke. My last down draft gasifier has been taking a little bit longer to get good gas but almost always under 10 minutes and very little smoke. Of course, if you look at my build thread, making the charcoal could still fill the area with smoke depending on how it was made and if it was dry or not.
You have to be really close to getting your gasifier working. I think Dave’s idea could be why you can’t get it to light. Mine won’t stay ignited if the gas is being pushed or pulled too fast. Mostly I don’t worry about flaring mine. I light it using the mattress inflater and then hook the hose onto my generator. Most of the time when the gasoline in the float bowl is used up it is making good gas and all I have to do is get the air/fuel mixture adjusted and it’s making electricity using charcoal as the fuel.
I put something in the workshop music thread for you Matt. Sorry.
Charcoal looks great, thugh a bit on a large size for my taste. Wuldnt hurt to crush a few big peaces and mix in to fill the voyds.
Giorgio, l had no idea you only did this for 3 years! Hat off.
