Tom, a lot of people here, including me, will always be standing by you…
For me, you are one of the teachers, one with the dirty hands…
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Hi, Tom!
3.10.2018
Have you got new overalls? And cleaning “creams”?
Just for the “soot-peace”?
When assuming, rotating steel-brush (brass) the lid edges and seat-tracks.
New outer-ringtrack fitting. (better: All the tracks)
Personal opinion is, that the tiny spiral feather does not belong in the feather-arm mechanism!
The surface of the lid has by far enough lifting power, when “puffs” appear.
The feather bow is serving the purpose fully!
An (adjustable) “hindge-point” between the lid-center and the bow is all you need.
The end-loop looks tiny (not original); make stronger!
And add a practical excenter— lock for convenient handling.
(Over—the edge - type)
Thus, the normal qualifications are restored…Thumbs up!
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Good morning Max;
Believe it or not— we haven’t been able to find a store that sells coveralls or overalls in any of the store in the nearest town— too many city folks have moved here and they wouldn’t be seen in overalls, I guess.
By that “tiny spiral feather’ you are referring to that is a valve spring out of a Chevy engine. As it compresses it puts the pressure directly down on the center of the lid. In the first three pictures you can see how much it is compress when the feather is latched down. The bend up on the loose end of the feather, is as large as it can be and still allow me to tuck the end under the latch. The valve spring is compressed as far as it goes.
At one point I took a sheet of glass and laid it on the surface the lid seals on to determine any high spots and ground them down with my 6” angle grinder. But yes, a good buffing with a wire wheel every now and then would be good.
Had an extremely heavy rain storm all night and water came into the basement, so I have to get to work. (I’m still in my PJ’s) TomC
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Hi Tom
I don’t post much but i do a lot of reading and read all of your post it makes me do alot of thinking.
Ps. You can probably find overalls on line. Check out ebay.
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Hi, Tom!
3.10.2018
Army surplus, Night-watch-man stores, Ski-overalls…
Mine-workers supplies… just name it… paint overals…
I still reject any “extra” feathers on a feather! Flimsier!
A lock-on handle manouvering an excentric over-the-edge (self locking) mechanism is the original standard—well thought out solution.
The loop is underdimesioned; not original. The female hinge on the main lid reveals it.
Drainage pipes blocked? (in the cellar)
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Tom,
There are Flame Resistant 9 ounce twill cotton coveralls on Amazon for $60 in the navy blue color. https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B008NNLOXI/ref=olp_twister_child?ie=UTF8&mv_color_name=0&mv_size_name=6
WalMart also carries the old fashioned bib overalls for about half that price.
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Good morning MaxG
The American/English term you are searching for is “over centering hinge latch”.
Oh. And either bow-leaf-spring, or flat arched spring.
Regards
tree farmer Steve unruh
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Hi, Steve!
3.10.2018
Thank you Steve!
It helps to be understood the right way, correct!
Concept can fail, if the terminology distracts from aim…
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Opps! Your too fast for me. I came back to add to my post and you had already read it and answered. The feather alone without the spring would have to be perfectly straight from henge to latch touching in the center on the lid. The thickness of my feather is such that it would not bend even then. With mine the way it is, you will notice in pictures 1&2 that I drop an oversized hut over the post and I pick a nut whose thickness gives me the tension on the lid-- it is variable. Not so with a feather by it’s self. Incidentally, that is not a complete valve spring. Chevy uses a double wound spring. I took the lighter one from the center.
I will get the clothing I need when I go to Green Bay which is a much larger town. Yesterday, I had to dig a hole down to some plastic pipes I had buried years a go for my outside boiler -which I do not use any more. I am going to run my electrical cables through them out to the shop. My wife didn’t complain about the mud, like she does soot.
To you who are trying to help with my clothing problem, thank you for your interest and recommendations. I hesitate to order such clothing because I do want them to fit well, not just cover my butt. I would like to try them on over my street cloths before I buy them. They will come.
Until then, I am trying to think what I did that might have created my problem (other than the lid, which I am listening to Max on my lid design) I went from 5 to 10 nozzles which does concern me, but JO has mentioned that he has two sets of nozzles and his gasifier runs the same on one or two sets. It doesn’t affect the gasifier that much. The other change was my reduction bell. Before I gave no thought to the size shape of the RB. I took what ever came out of the junk I used. Is RB large enough? The RB is 6" diameter and 4" from restriction to the grate top. In order to get ash behind the wall of the RB I had to leave holes around the top edge of the Bell. I am thinking of filling the holes in and placing a commercial insolation behind the wall. That would eliminate a possible source of air to crystalize the ash on the grate. ( I just went back through my posts trying to find dimensions of the RB and My God, this is a long thread. Maybe at some point I need to split it. ) TomC
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Tom,
I too have read all of your posts, for many years now. I was very sad to hear of your fire. I was glad to see the new building and I was hoping you would not get down because of it all. I have stolen many of your ideas, learned much from your ongoing dialogue Max. It is so over my head at times and Imbert based, I keep reading on, hoping to make sense of it all and it will all click someday. As the old saying goes, there is more than one way to skin a cat! I have an old MTA that will chunk wood someday. It has steel rear wheels that will not be hard to adapt.
You have already done this all once with only a hope it would work, your latest version will way out perform the old one I’m positive of that!
My Dad used to always tell me that anything will work if you make it work. As many different styles of successful gasifiers as there are running on this site, the statement still holds true, you are right around the corner from great success!
Please press on, we all appreciate you very much, your wife will again be happy to go for those beautiful country rides driving on wood!
Bryan
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Hi Tom, I know with out a dought you will figure this problem out on your gasifier. I have intently been reading your thread with everyone’s input. Even though I have a WK Gasifier with 12 nozzles, I have been having a similar problem with weak gas. It runs great going down the road and then it just loses power. Very frustrating, so I know what you are going through. Hang in there, the light will come on and you will solve the problem. On my gasifier I think it is letting air into the hopper when it gets up to running temperature. But not though the hopper lid, and I can’t find any leaks. I am hoping you solving your problem, will solve mine. Maybe if I solve my problem, it will solve yours, who knows. It is great having friends like you all from all over the earth.
Gasification is a Wonderful life journey, even if our bodies do not agree.
Bob
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Thank you who have recently come onto this thread. Koen-- at some point I will be coming to the dark side. I have a couple of hundred gallons of char in 55 gallon drums. Then for sure, I will need your experience ( and your lovely wife) Smokeyjim when you are thinking, jump in with some of your thoughts. A lot of what the rest of us are saying are just thoughts that we throw out for all to consider. Ray and Pepe, your input is always welcome-- even on buying coveralls. And Steve U.your comments often help clarify what I or others are saying. Very helpful. Bryan and Robert, your words do boast my spirits to continue. TomC
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Hi, Tom!
5.10.2018
I have had a long thought of answering or not!
-
The silo lid and seat needs thorough smooth cleaning and a
silicone-rubber ring-gasket between the inner and outer rings. -
Nozzle-tip de facto hole diameters.
-
The cylindrical insulation cavity around the cylindrical
reduction tube is hermetically sealed outward, and
surrounded by only ready made gas. So what are the
speculations about oxygen leaking in
from the surrounding ready-gas?
(907)
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Max; I’m glad the “answering” won out. I am in trouble and any thoughts for anyone is appreciated.
- I will wire brush the seating surface. I don’t believe you are seeing the space between the two rings that make up the seal in the lid. The diameter of the two rings are deferent by about 1 1/2 inches-- thus a spacing of 3/4 inch. ( I believe you are only seeing the 1/8 in. just inside the outer ring.-- as seen in the 7 th picture. The remainder of the 3/4 in. gap is filled with and automobile rubber seal-- round, made out of open cell foam with a glazed surface. In the 9 th picture you can see the round curvature of the gasket protruding above the ring very slightly.
2 Hmmm. Embarrassing when you use a word in your second language, that happens to be my first and only language, and I have to look the word up in the dictionary. Well done. After consulting the dictionary I read your comment as, " Nozzle-tip in fact hole diameters". I have questioned the diameters as well but feel JO’s comment has pretty much eliminated that as a problem.
- ( again back to the dictionary- “hermetically” thanks for stretching my vocabulary) The upper and lower rings of the reduction tube are cut very close the the 8 in diameter of the fire tube and I assume that that space is filled with ash. Your question makes me realize that ash probably is not air tight or hermetically sealed. But the total out side of the reduction tube is insulated with ash, which during assembly, I used a special spoon to fill the area through the slots just below the top ring and was able to pack it tight through that slot.
In thinking along these lines, I question where “air” would come from. The bottom ring would have to leak from the ash pict, which I feel would be all “woodgas”. The top ring would have to draw from the oxidation zone, and there should not be any raw air in that location.
The largest place for air to get around the reduction tube would be through the slots under the top ring and around the button reduction tube ring and into the grate. But again, how would raw air get down into the reduction tube?
I have to tell you my most recent thought is, I have 3 rings sandwiched together where the ash pit, reduction tub, and the hopper come together. From all of my tare down and rebuilds one or two of those rings were not as flat as I would have liked. I use a special latex high temperature calk between the rings and bolts through the rings to seal them… My most recent thought is maybe I relied too much on this calk. A total tare down would be required to see. That is my next plan. TomC
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Tom, I used that high temp latex on part of my last build and I am not fond of that stuff. I don’t think it bonds to steel like silicone does. I think that the fiberglass flat gasket with silicone above and below and then bolted together would be better next time if you end up taking it apart.
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Hi, Tom!
5.10.2018
-
The main-lid side has the “ditch” full of char-crumbs; how
the heck can one expect any thightness there!? Half eaten
away?Clean it up with a rotating brush and acetone and use
cilicone rubber with a smooth surface.
If possible, glue it to the (upper) lid track.Beware of electic motor sparks! Acetone! Let dry first!
Put away the Acetone bottle before brushing!
Metal sparks too!
Assurance clauses about flammable liquids! Ahead of…Then about the “stability-line” of the feather boom:
Broadside, you can achieve a stabilizing line, only if a
line from the hinge-point to the latching point, is projecting
below the lid-closing plane.Provided, that this line touches the lid and seat line, you
achieve just neutrality. -
When the silo is off (for better sealing) (at last!) stick down
your hand with a calipers and measure the real = de facto
nozzle-tip diameter measure!Stop guess-working, when measuring is possible!
Evaluation works only by measures, not by guessing!I hope we are not back to the “over the shoulder (thrown)”
attitude, when solving problems!During early middle ages, many european faculties used
latin as the main teaching language, that influenced the
writing language all over…In my case english is the third language of four.
-
“Speculation ended”?
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Oh sorry, Max and all; We always say “a picture is worth 1000 words”, but may it takes more than just a picture.
The area between the two rings is just that; a ditch that allows condensate to run off the lid and into the ditch and then through those “half eaten away” holes allow the condensate to go through onto another plate which feeds the condensate out to the main condensation ring. In photos 7 & 9 I believe you can see the outside ring has about 1/4 in. flat surface. That is the sealing surface on the main lid side. That contacts the rubber seal on the top side between the two rings.
Ok! I’m back. It is chilly and raining, so I put my winter coveralls on and went to the shop. With my health what it is, the coveralls made me feel like a “bomb squad” person going in to disarm a bomb. Those coveralls are heavy.
Anyway I was able to get the gasifier torn apart. I found a place on the ring that holds the hopper on where it gave the appearance that the seal was squeezed to the point that there was no calk in that area to seal it. There was no “white ash trail” there but there was a black/brown char look on the surface where there should have been calk. I am going to have to give some serious thought as to how I fix this. There may be a problem with the ring holding the fire tube also. It was dark in the shop by the time I got that ring pulled out.
- Way back in post 903, I unscrewed the nozzles and took them out. I have no “inside micrometers” any more so I found a drill that fit the hole perfectly and it was 5/16 in. dia. So the de facto nozzle-tip diameter is 5/16 in. (They say when you lean a new word it is good to use it often, to remember it and get use to using it )
I have a lot of respect for anyone who speaks more than one language. Even the Spanish/ Mexicans that are flooding our country, IF they speak Spanish AND English/American, I feel inferior to them in that category.
- Until my truck is back on the road, I believe there will be more speculations. As a rebuild, the question of dimension for all the various parts will probably get reviewed and we will have to speculate on staying as things are or to change.
Just questions and thoughts; Kristijian and JO have gone to a “grateless” design. At this point should I consider that and what are the + &- 's ? Clean the ash pit or clean the cyclone. I actually have a plate in my ash pit where the gas leaves it to stop ash from coming directly off the grate and out to the cyclone.
If and that is a capital"IF" I end up having to make a new hopper which path should I take? 1. a good condensation collection such as JO’s, or 2. a heat mantle around the hopper-- sorry but the “plank” is not in consideration. I do like the story about the race driver who created a “modulator”. We have had a few attempts to duplicate a modulator but I don’t think any have incorporated all the modification to closely copy it.
I do not think you will see me using a feather bow as you have described it to me. The tension on the lid is all determined in the original design/build. If you want to change the pressure on the lid, you have to go back and redesign ; the width, thickness, curve, and/or the distance between the latch and hinge. For mine when I want to change the pressure all I do is change a spacer under the spring. Ah well; Time to say goodnight. TomC
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Tom,
On the + side:
You never get constipated.
Last night I went to the train station to give youngest daughter and her boyfriend a lift. On our way home they wanted me to buy them drive-in junk food. The line was long and we ended up idling for 25 min. No problem. With the Rabbit gasifier I would have developed a pita constipation.
Also emptying everything from the cyclone pot is convinient. A 5 second job.
On the - side:
With the charbed somewhat separated from the heart the hesitation sympthomes are greater. It seems it takes a while for the char pile to start glowing and able to handle a sudden increase of gasses from above.
Also, sometimes at hard pulls, eruptions in the char occur. I can actually hear char ratteling in the cyclone and the vacuum ratio suddenly lowers more than I like. I imagine wood falling down faster than it gets chared and I’ve actually made some tar this way from time to time, with a sticky throttle as a result. Not good.
My advice will be to keep your grate as is.
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Thank you JO for the recommendation. Another case of I hear someone is doing something and with out knowing how it worked out, I think I have to try it. My mind doesn’t want me to miss out on something. Your honest opinion probably same me some work. TomC
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Hi, Tom!
6.10.2018
I think there is a bit of a “jump-jerker” in every body, but
with a degree of discipline, we can fullfill one project at a time!
-
Good to include everything that is dependent of the condition
of this central flangeing! -
Calipers, pushing and pulling measure inner and outer
diameters on holes, as well as bolts, shafts, tubes, etc…A cylindrical bore(shaft) is an excellent measurig devise too.
Waiting, seeing, hoping,… pictures…
-
No speculation on my part, today.
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