So the M-1 has brought in a lot of new inquiries and many have asked to make a larger one. So here it is the M-1 MAX 
7 Likes
I did a quick video making charcoal with this concept of using a passive grate and some intervention to flow the fuel through it. I can fill that lower barrel drum in less than an hour. I estimate this will get me 2 hours of run time running the Predator 8750 genny
8 Likes
Matt,
I like what you are doing with the charcoal-making process. Once you are satisfied that it is sufficiently perfected, I’d like to give it a try. That grate between barrels would be a good product to market. Keep up the good work. How do you find time to do all you do?
8 Likes
Here is one of two M-1 MAX builds. I should have this one ready to run by end of day tomorrow. A bit more work than anticipated and it a lot bigger than anticipated as well. This thing is huge!!
This a cross draft design Im trying out, it has built in water drip direct to jet. Hopper capacity is 2 cubic foot and it will have twin silica bag filters. Need to finish up the access cover, lid, and wheel chassis and dolly handle and it will be ready for paint.
14 Likes
Looks really good Matt 
4 Likes
So I fired this puppy up tonight. Had a few issues getting going, I suspected the cross draft was not working so I punched through the partition at the top to bypass it going into the filter. I probably should have troubleshooted this a bit more. I think my fuel may not have been processed small enough and I may have been coming on too soon with the water drip I dont know. But for a good while it ran pretty stable but it dies out long before the hopper is empty. So I think too large of fuel is causing my issue.
One of reasons I wanted this cross draft was to get heat out of the hopper so I could integrate the water tank. Now that I have this bypassed this is an issue as the water in the tank is boiling.
So I have a few options, I can raise the pick up tube so the inlet higher up, process my fuel smaller and put some vents in the water tank both internal and external. I figure a bit of steam mixed in the gas maybe a good thing to help keep the valves wet.
10 Likes
Looks great!!! let us know what you figure out.
3 Likes
I patched up that hole and drilled a new one higher up in the pick up tube. I smashed up my fuel into smaller pieces and gave it another try. It worked!!
I drilled hole internally into the top of the water tank as a safety precaution.
So I think I got it, I just need to make a crusher / processor now and I think Ill be all set.
This one here is mine, the second one will ship out to Washington when complete
7 Likes
I thought about that. I made (and breathed) a lot of dust doing that. Anymore I cut my wood chunks smaller before I put them in the tlud just so I don’t have to breath dust.
Rindert
Just posted these pics because this tlud is so simple and works so well. I learned a lot just from two coffee cans. Yes the wind screen helps a lot. Here cooking some salmon. It’s a place to start if you have zero experience.
9 Likes
Put a full hopper load of fuel in this thing to see how long it will run for. It has a pretty fast water drip and is running stable. It had a hard time getting going, might be the left over fuel from last night. In the future Ill smash it down before reloading.
Start time was 1:45 PM
6 Likes
Do you mean lighting up or making gas?
4 Likes
Engine would not come up to rpm, took about 5 minutes before it took off.
2 Likes
I think my jet needs to be a few inches longer. Its not burning down evenly or is this what we want?
1 Like
Hi Matt , when restarting up on old charcoal its always best to give it a stir around and try and get some newer coals in front of the nozzle so to make it more reactive , another reason that its best to try and get the size of your charcoal between 1/4 and 3/4 inch also keeps rat holes down to a minimum .
I use a small wood mulcher with hammers and a 1 inch screen in it driven with a 12 volt dc motor with a gearbox from a wheel chair plenty of torque and nice and slow so little flying dust works great for me .
Dave
Just found this item for sale on market place its a ice crusher so tempted to buy it for the $50 he wants just to see if it would crush charcoal
9 Likes
What size ? dominoes ? dice ? corn flakes ?
1 Like
Im smashing the fuel down to about the size of a quarter.
1 Like
Nice thank you, Yeah Im a noob here all over again. haha Thank you guys for the advice
2 Likes
Hi Matt,
Size does matter, a lot, the upside is the ease and reliability of the system with good fuel prep.
I get my best results with a spread between 3 and 12 mm (1/8 to 1/2")
Sieving that is a piece of cake.
The gas temperature stay’s low, the gasifier relative cool , gas stay’s dry.
When you overdue the waterdrip, then your charcoal becomes moist and a pain to restart next day.
I adjust waterdrip according to my load needed, with a baseline 1 drop per sec, (20 drops equals 1 ml ) = 0.18 liter/Hr for each Kg of charcoal consuming.
The max i went up to this date = 1 liter /Hr per Kg charcoal, but then i am running the engine at max and use the exhaust wall surface to turn the water into steam before injecting that into the gasifier
I tend to run the level of the charcoal bed not lower then 24" above nozzle, that certainly helps ,in my case, to have good power output.
6 Likes
Ok yeah I can only get about 2/3 of the hopper that will run stable. So that make sense.
Yeah the water drip is impressive, when I get it good and hot I can dump quite a bit of water into that thing. I think a more refined with steam flashing and automation controls could really improve this.
Cheers, thank you for your input 
2 Likes
Hi Matt , is this still a cross draft ? or have you converted it into a updraft ? can you do a sketch or explain how you have the inlet and outlet positioned and the distance between the 2 if it is still a cross draft .
Thanks Dave
1 Like