That’s funny Wayne, you have a good sense of humor. That’s great that you are still doing testing on what really makes these things “tick”. If it wasn’t for your experimenting and sharing what you have learned I would still be blowing buffer lids 40’ in the air and lighting ditches on fire! (nothing I couldn’t put out)
The only thing that makes this fun is having a trouble free ride. I agree with Steve U that your fire tube and preheat combo, the very heartbeat of what makes a successful gasifier, is patent worthy but I’m sure glad you are sharing it with guys like me. Thanks, herb
Good Morning Herb.
Thanks for all the kind words. It really makes me smile to read of all of yall out driving and smiling.
Thanks
Wayne
Hi Herb (and Wayne), Glad to hear it is working OK in this extremely warm weather we are having (That’s a joke). Did you drain condensate after the run or pull the Caddy into a heated garage ?? I don’t have one of them. I hate Mondays. I just keep thinking it’s Friday to keep from going crazy but this week and next week I have to have mechanical / repair work done on MY body and dread the thought. It was 4 above F this morning and up to 8 F last time I looked. Supposed to warm up some later this week after some more snow today and maybe I can get some work done on the next hearth. Mike
No Mike I didn’t think about draining condensate when I parked it Sat. Didn’t do anything with it Sun, when I went out today it was froze solid. I started it the same way I did Sat, I took my shop stove fire with me!!! Man it really starts good that way. A couple of shovels full of red hot char and it’s off and running! I’m sure some of you have done the same thing I’m just kind of amazed by it. I’ve never made a collection tank for the condensate so all I have is 1" hoses coming off of both filters and one hose coming off of hopper, when I parked it today I pulled the plugs and everything drained ok, guess I lucked out!. latter
Good design Herb, Thanks for passing it on. Wayne used to use a wood plug in his tank and probably still does. Metal on metal items corrode up and are hard to deal with. Per Max I have tried using a copper based anti seize compound on many of my fittings but it doesn’t seem to work much better than wheel bearing grease or old fashioned oil based pipe compound. The rubber hoses won’t crack and if they do, SO WHAT ?? Bend them like you know what. I have a lot of 4" pipe caps around here that are rusted on solid now. Will take lots of heat grease to get them loose again :o) but we all like heat grease. I had trouble locating good metal blades for my saber saw today to enlarge my rotor holes. I probably have ten of them somewhere ??? One hardware store had 24 tooth rated for 1/8" (China junk) … I need 32 or 48 tooth if you catch my drift. Can’t even buy a decent hack saw blade anymore … Mike … We had around 3 inches of snow here today … 10 degrees F as I type at 9PM central …
Thanks Mike, just blind luck more then anything. It was half way warm here and we have weather coming in so I decided to “work up” some fuel for the Caddy and shop. I had a couple of logs 6 or 8 ft. long 16 to 20 inch across, I sawed them up into 3" long pieces and split them.
pic1 pile of fuel after about 2 hours of running spliter
pic2 had to take center section off roof so I could get it all in hotbox. doesn’t dry wood much but it does keep the rain and snow off, kind of
pic3 I end up with a lot of these, little to big for fuel, these are the knots after spliter gets done gnawing on them
My wife videoed spliter running but we can’t get it loaded on our junk computer, the smart people are coming over Chrismas and maybe I can get one of the grandkids to feel sorry for me!!!
Hi Herb, We are supposed to get nailed tonight. I hope Wayne doesn’t have tornadoes as this one moves across his area dragging gulf moisture up here. I went to play music last night in the freezing drizzle. slick. The cold temps behind this storm will keep me indoors. My back hurts like hell so I know this one is a biggy. I don’t know if it will catch you but if it is going to, put the caddy in the shed. I’ve started working on another gasifier but I won’t find my tanks tomorrow morning. I haven’t cut any wood in months. I have piles to burn / gasify up. I can’t lift a sack right now. My truck gasifier should run OK if I choose to use it but my trailer will be plowed in by Monday. Mike
Yeah this is supposed to be a big bad one. O well I have the Caddy in shop and plenty of wood so let it come and get it over with. Didn’t know you played, what do you play? I play the Banjo a little bit.
I took the hopper off Caddy because it’s not cooking water out of wood like it used to, it’s pretty well plugged up in there. I took the lower section out two just to look things over, I must of shoveled rocks in with wood sometime (bout 3/4in) because there were a lot of them on top of grate stuck down in there, some went though grate, found them in with ashes. Got to go! Gunsmoke is on, yeah I’m living in the past but I like it!!! latter
Hi Herb, Gunsmoke is good so far. I wonder if Wayne has any pictures of the bird nest of nails that formed on his grate when he was cutting up construction lumber a few years ago. If you ever run coal in your units you will get rocks on the grate as well. Well, good luck on your end. I wish I was in Arizona right now … Mike
Yeah Mike, Gunsmoke was “extra” good today.
I was fooling around on YouTube and I found a couple of videos of the Caddy!!! My Daughters did them last summer when I gave them a ride, I didn’t know they put them up. They aren’t that great but they do show it running on wood. One is starting it up and the other is when we got back home from the ride, that one shows it running. If anyone would care to see them Google “Wood Powered Caddy” First one that comes up is DOW, the next two are the ones. Not very exciting but they are all I got. I will eventually figure out the video thing, I just can’t find a plug-in for the computer on my “Super 8” movie camera and those bright lights are something else!!! latter, herb
Thanks Herb,
Enjoyed the videos!!
SWEM
Morning HerbH
Your rocks may not be introduced in rocks but ash melted and slagged down then into chunks.
Does happen depending on the minerals in the base woods, your temperatures, your internal turbulance and the actual grate grid and activity there.
Regards
Steve Unruh
Thanks Steve, after I read your post I went out and cleaned fire tube and grate and took another look at the pieces that were on top of the grate. They look like rocks and smash like rocks so I guess they’re rocks. I think I know where I picked them up, when I put the sides on my hotbox there was a gap at the bottom in a couple of places so I shoveled driveway dirt/rocks up against there to close it in. I think some of them got inside and I ended up shoveling them in with wood/fuel when I fueled up Caddy. Another lesson learned
I hope everyone will have a happy and safe Christmas, if you can still see through all the nonsense and clutter that is out there about Christmas and still are able to see and understand the real reason for Christmas you will truly have a MERRY Christmas!!! latter, herb
Yahoo!! Finally figured out how to post the video of the wood splitter!! Check it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arkfTZ_ji0o
Great video, mesmerizing. Fuel, fuel, fuel!
I like it Herb
Damned, that thing makes a racket…
I wonder if you could take a hatchet head, split it in half with a touch, and then weld the 2 halves back into your existing head, giving you a “+” or “X” shaped split pattern. It looks like you currently get lots of thin/wide chunks that might bridge easier. Awesome design though…
Herb, that is the kind of inventing that built this country. It looks like fun!
Garry
Thanks Herb,
You got it going on !!
Herb; What kind of wood was that in the picture. Your splitter works better that I though when you were just talking about it. But I use oak. I don’t think it would work for that-- what do you think?