# Tools, Tips and Tricks
**URL:** http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/tools-tips-and-tricks/2624
**Category:** General Discussion
**Tags:** tips-tricks
**Created:** [July 18, 2016, 9:01pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/tools-tips-and-tricks/2624 "2016-07-18T21:01:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 21
### Author:  [@Pelletpower](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Pelletpower)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2022, 8:31pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/tools-tips-and-tricks/2624/401 "2022-02-20T20:31:51Z")
> [@SteveUnruh](#):
>
> Metric equivalents?
It would be M22 and M16? But 1/2 and 3/8 is used as normal overhere. In pipes, not bolts and nuts.
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### Author:  [@ForbiddenTuna](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/ForbiddenTuna)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2022, 4:21pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/tools-tips-and-tricks/2624/402 "2022-02-21T16:21:18Z")
I posted this in one of my threads but figured I should archive it here.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTxhvrPCBOE)
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### Author:  [@Norman89](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Norman89)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2022, 3:18am UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/tools-tips-and-tricks/2624/403 "2022-02-22T03:18:51Z")
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce2B0Kv-muQ)
Just something crazy that works for me
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### Author:  [@Norman89](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Norman89)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2022, 3:56am UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/tools-tips-and-tricks/2624/404 "2022-02-22T03:56:23Z")
I think with simple add on’s any system can be able to do this trick
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3Y-j_zVv-o)
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### Author:  [@Bobmac](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Bobmac)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2022, 4:00am UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/tools-tips-and-tricks/2624/405 "2022-02-22T04:00:07Z")
I have done that before Marcus and collapsed my plastic filter barrel. Lol. I never tried it again. If I switch back over to a stronger steel hayfilter barrel I will try it again. Good Job on finding a new going down the road driving trick in cleaning the fines out of the charcoal bed. In gasification there is still new things to learn. BBB on down the road.
Bob
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### Author:  [@Norman89](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Norman89)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2022, 4:03am UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/tools-tips-and-tricks/2624/406 "2022-02-22T04:03:33Z")
I could hear my barrels talking some if I was at high rpm, but my regular high idle seems to do it pretty well. Now it does weaken the char bed some since it burns so much so fast, but I just drive really easy when I need to do that and it seems to work really well at getting the vacuum ration back where it needs to be
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### Author:  [@Bobmac](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Bobmac)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2022, 4:07am UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/tools-tips-and-tricks/2624/407 "2022-02-22T04:07:42Z")
I think Marcus you are passing the 75% learning they have been talking about. Good job, with the learning of the WK Gasifier system.
Bob
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### Author:  [@Bobmac](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Bobmac)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2022, 4:31am UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/tools-tips-and-tricks/2624/408 "2022-02-22T04:31:01Z")
I think this is where Wayne thought the grate shaker would help. I was still use mine, a couple pushes with the button and the charcoal bed fines pass by the grate. Last year just before winter set in hard at my place, I noticed my grate shaker had quit working. One more thing to add to the need to fix list on my truck.
I don’t think @Wayne even installed the grate shaker on his last few builds.
Bob
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### Author:  [@Norman89](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Norman89)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2022, 4:41am UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/tools-tips-and-tricks/2624/409 "2022-02-22T04:41:31Z")
Yep, I read where he talked about that’s the only thing he would change is not bother with the grate shaker. So I didn’t put one in, and in 4000 miles this is the very first time I have had a tight char bed. Every single other time I had high vacuum it was a char blockage somewhere (firetube capsule, crossover, center post, rear tank, hay filter) and the only thing I changed was the last few days has been almost straight pine fuel, and larger pieces then normal. The pine chunks so easily I tend to let it get a little wild and larger then the Doug fir
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### Author:  [@ForbiddenTuna](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/ForbiddenTuna)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2022, 3:57pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/tools-tips-and-tricks/2624/410 "2022-02-26T15:57:45Z")
I’m thinking of trying my hand at a cast refractory hearth to try out the Svedlund design. I can make a cardboard form to get the hourglass shape it needs but I’m worried that without a sort of rebar then the refractory could crumble faster.
What would you guys use as a binder? Wires in a basket weave or maybe expanded sheet metal? Or should it be fine without a skeleton.
My idea is to use my 100lb propane tank as the main body, weld in a circle of sheet metal as a shelf for the refractory to rest on. Duct tape some heavy cardboard to the shelf and make the form, then cast it in.
I’m posting this here because it’s just a one-off question for refractory.
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### Author:  [@Handy\_Andy](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Handy_Andy)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2022, 4:42pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/tools-tips-and-tricks/2624/411 "2022-02-26T16:42:25Z")
Hardware cloth or chicken wire is somtimes used.
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### Author:  [@r\_wesseling](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/r_wesseling)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2022, 4:50pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/tools-tips-and-tricks/2624/412 "2022-02-26T16:50:24Z")
Hi Cody,
In the foundry business we use ‘refractory’ in our melting furnaces. We sometimes reinforce the lids with stainless wire. A 2 foot piece of stainless cable that has been teased apart gives a lot of good reinforcing material. I don’t know were your local foundry supply house would be. Here in Denver it’s [UniWest](https://www.unitedwesternsupply.net/foundry/).
Rindert
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### Author:  [@ForbiddenTuna](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/ForbiddenTuna)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2022, 4:54pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/tools-tips-and-tricks/2624/413 "2022-02-26T16:54:21Z")
I might use some stainless hardware cloth or chicken wire if I can find that. I should probably find some stainless cable and have that perpendicular to the wire to point towards the narrow end of the hourglass for some lateral strength.
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### Author:  [@Pelletpower](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Pelletpower)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2022, 6:05pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/tools-tips-and-tricks/2624/414 "2022-02-26T18:05:52Z")
No experience at all, but I think it is counterproductive to bring in some form of steel. No forces on the heart so no reinforcement. But again, only my thoughts, no experience.
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### Author:  [@ForbiddenTuna](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/ForbiddenTuna)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2022, 6:10pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/tools-tips-and-tricks/2624/415 "2022-02-26T18:10:23Z")
It will be inside the refractory as a skeleton, like concrete uses rebar. It won’t be outside of it
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### Author:  [@Pelletpower](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Pelletpower)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2022, 7:24pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/tools-tips-and-tricks/2624/416 "2022-02-26T19:24:56Z")
Insaine heat. Exactly why it will cause problems, different heat coef. But again, only my thinking, no real life experience.
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### Author:  [@machinemaker](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/machinemaker)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2022, 7:25pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/tools-tips-and-tricks/2624/417 "2022-02-26T19:25:38Z")
I have used castables with small stainless “needles” as a part of the mix with good results. I second Rindert’s recommendation of Uniwest. I used them for the foundry I had in my own shop and while at the Alumax R and D labs in Golden.
kent
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### Author:  [@Pelletpower](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Pelletpower)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2022, 7:27pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/tools-tips-and-tricks/2624/418 "2022-02-26T19:27:24Z")
Needles maybe, and skeleton?
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### Author:  [@Woodrunner](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Woodrunner)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2022, 8:24pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/tools-tips-and-tricks/2624/419 "2022-02-26T20:24:06Z")
I dont know if this is of any help for you, Cody, but here are some pic’s of spare-part for Svedlunds gasifiers (unfotunately from 1942 😕)
Some info: they where casted in “Silicit” a long gone brand name, for a refractory material often used to repair retorts in city-gas plants.
A sort of silica material with crushed fireproof bricks mixed in for filling.
No reiforcements in these, even if i believe it wont hurt with some.
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### Author:  [@ForbiddenTuna](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/ForbiddenTuna)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2022, 10:58pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/tools-tips-and-tricks/2624/420 "2022-02-26T22:58:11Z")
This is great actually! I was wondering the full dimensions.
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