Hey guys, I am planning on using this type of open auger for ash removal. This is mainly used for ground animal feed systems. I was also warned to make the outlet tight fitting to the auger or otherwise it will jam.
Spiral augers work well with wood chips, but you need plenty of clearance to prevent jamming.
Feedstock augers can be a pain in the butt. They can be difficult to maintain air-tightness, especially if there is any heat expansion of the metals during run times. If they are open to the hopper then the entire auger housing becomes a great condenser of pyrolysis steam and gases. Feedstock left in augers overnight can soak up condensation (especially in damp climates), and you’ll start next day’s run with wet fuel. Arghhhhhhh!!!
If the feedstock is condensed fuel you might start out with oatmeal.
Clinkers in the ash can jamb an ash auger.
Have fun. You’ll find a good sense of humor essential to gasification. Like when you service a filter and forget not to scratch your forehead or rub your nose. And you especially need to know how to laugh when you were in too big a hurry to do proper fire-offs and realize you just clogged your pipes. Good fun!
Hey Don, those augers work great even for metal chip removal that are standard on CNC machines. Unless there is an existing application with that open type design and heat being involved, you’ll be blazing a trail for whether that spiral warps or not. I’m sure it’s a low cost risk, and fun.
Hi all,
One of the reasons Im going with a cored auger is the coreless augers will allow for blow by into the primary hopper. Then like April mentioned this can be reversed and cause condensing into the secondary hopper. So I am going to go with a larger cored auger with a long pitch. Just like in your pictures and like April has mentioned tolerancing has to be tight. My opening in the auger housing for the fuel to enter will have an angle cut to allow the fuel to better position it self as well.
Next year we are going to RnD a belt system that will have flexible paddles. This will create an air lock between hoppers and will work a bit smoother I think. We will build our own version but here is sort of what Im thinking about. http://www.mcmaster.com/#belt-conveyors-with-stands/=ppzo2q
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My plans are to use a 1 1/2 inch pipe close nipple with a pipe cap to seal the ash box and then unscrew the cap and use my 1/2 inch cordless drill to spin out the ashes. My gasifier will be above the bed so I might have to use a short piece of pipe with another short spiral auger inside to spin the ashes and char beyond the bed and into a container. There will be two of these under the grate and a little ash remaining above the augers might be good.
Hi Don
This is what I have done with my ash clean out and it works very well.
I have a short piece of pipe that I square key on to the end of the auger to hand crank the ash out.
I have made a metal dust pan out of a drum lid to catch the ash /char as it comes out, the put it in to 20 lt buckets to scream out the fines and feed it back to the gasifier.
I am looking at using another windscreen motor to drive the auger.
Thanks Patrick
Hi Patrick,
How do you keep it air tight?
Don
I have a 4 in nipple welded on to the barrel and an end cap on that. I welded a pice of ½ in round bar across the end cap to get it on and off, every third or forth day I smear some nickel high temp ant seize on the threads.
Thanks patrick
Here is what I was considering for an ash auger.
This is the auger or oiur hopper,
To create seal what we do is where the pipe niple terminates at the gasifier we drill or weld in a washer at the end of the saw cut side of the nipple. Then we drill and ream the hole size for the shaft to fit through. Install the shaft and pack this with high temp rope seal, pack this tight and then install the pipe cap with a clearance hole for the shaft to continue through.
Here is more progress, on the machines. I have gotten an extension on the build completion date that is more realistic. We should be close to completing the first one later next week. Sometimes it seems like you work your butt off and nothing is getting done when building a machine. This is one of those times, but things are getting done and soon we will start installing things and it will come together. I should have all of the components to build the auger hopper next week this thing is going to be huge.
That is impressive Matt. Thanks for sharing. I wanna see a video of it running!
ditto… i can’t wait to see it run with a load
Your looking good Matt !!
You may have said back in the post but what size motor?
Hi Wayne,
This is the GM Vortec 4.3 with 200 peak HP. We will run this at around 1650 rpm I think or somewhere in that range. We are going to offer this with the GM LS-1 4.8 ltr as well.
Hi Matt
Have you managed to get the parts for your governor ?
Is that ring gear plate from an automatic transition you are using as a flywheel ?
Thanks patrick
Hi Patrick,
Yes the fly wheel is really for the starter, it just sandwiched in between the crank and the LoveJoy. I haven’t had time to address the controller yet, thanks for the reminder ill have to send out an email early next week.
Hi Matt
If I may make a suggestion? Put as much weight as possible on to the flywheel as possible.
If you can get two manual flywheels bolt them together. It will help a lot with stabilizing the load / frequency of the alternator and check that your alternator has an AVR ( auto voltage regulator ). The bigger alternators usually have them, the smaller ones not.
These are of the expensive lessons I have learnt.
Also mount the governor actuator as far away as possible, as soon as it get over 60 c , from engine heat and internal resistance heat it will start to hunt wildly!
Good luck
Patrick