Thanks for the post Herb.
In the past I have had people to laugh and make little of a woodgas vehicle. I know right off they have never ridden in one!
SWEM
PS I fired mine up early this morning and will be dark when I shut it down.
Hi Herb and Wayne, Just lost another friend (65).
Iām glad you all are still at it. I canāt walk up steps yet or jump in the back of my trailer so things are parked for now. Tough to lift the sacks of wood and just dangerous while Iām trying to let the internal rips heal up. Herb, I still can crawl under a truck to do brake lines. Glad you got yours done. I bet you had fun bleeding the lines (Not). I often just take a nap while under the trucks :o) ā¦
On the disks, I do it that way at times. I usually just take the chainsaw to logs and then split with an axe on a 3 foot high cutting block. I usually cut 2" or so thick disks. I like your processor. It looks like you have to rotate your slab. How well does that work out ?? I have a couple of ancient cherry trees down way back on my place. A year ago I would walk over the hill (1/4 mile each way) with my chainsaw and a backpack with frame. I would load the pack and frame up with cherry disks and hike back and then chop them. Now I have trouble walking the 50 feet up to the road. I have to watch my feet and kick them out etc etc etc ā¦ Learning to walk again at age 59. Have to be real careful with all these wet leaves and walnut roller bearings. I have fallen several times. (Painful)
http://www.intergate.com/~mlarosa/images/woodgas/80-miles-cherry.jpg
http://www.intergate.com/~mlarosa/images/woodgas/cherry-fuel.jpg
are a couple of older pictures
http://www.intergate.com/~mlarosa/images/woodgas/daily-chore.jpg
is a more recent one.
Keep on diggin to the center of the earth. (A Talking Heads tune)
Mike
Herb, I am also processing cookies into chunks. This summer and fall I have chunked up over 6000 pounds of fuel. (about 4500 miles) I use a chainsaw to make the cookies and a Estwing āFireside Friendā 4 lb. hatchet to split them up. My cookies are about 3" thick. I use all sorts of wood, mainly ash, oak, elm, box elder, soft maple. The oak splits sort of like butter, but not the elm.
My right arm is getting tired. And presently I am trying to figure out some sort of mechanical cookie monster to save me. I like your lever action machine, but I donāt think it could handle the elm and other tougher woods. And it would still draw on my arm. Iām looking at some sort of vertical hydraulic spliter with a wide blade. I;m thinking I could split into rows and then turn the whole mess and cut the rows into chunks. My arm is really wearing out and I need to do something so I can keep on woodgassing. What a blast!!!
What kind(s) of wood are you running?
John Stout
John & Herb, Elm is the toughest to split but one of the best fuels. I prefer cherry (easy to split) but elm delivers the most power after black locust here. Ben Peterson had some kind of splitter thing he was selling a few years ago to do the disks. Think slide hammer if you catch my drift. Wayne has the best setup but he also has an endless supply of slab wood. Alabama pine and the such. I collect wood from my trips so have a couple of sacks left of Wayneās wood. I burned up the rest in Illinois on my way home. Around here we have a lot of hard woods but they make creosote and corrode the H out of everything. They also burn slower so require an oversized gasifier to use them and there is a critical mass kind of thing. Iād better go home and go to bed ā¦ Packers won at any rate so us locals (and wife) are happy. I listen to a Cleveland station in the middle of the night. Iāll get to hear their whining in a few hours ā¦ Mike
Thanks for the reply and the great info again and thanks for the pics Mike. āCookiesā that a good name for them, they split pretty easy but it still gets old, I know what you mean John. I remenber reading about your Fireside Friend, sounds like a nice tool. Iām working on a āDrop Hammerā to do my cookie splitting. Going to be ran with a half HP elc. motor, the shaft, now 1 in. running on wheel barrel tire which picks up a 2 in. solid shaft 36 ins. long, running up and down in a sleeve, with hatchet head welded on bottom end drops it at top of 8 in. stroke onto a cookie. Donāt know what will happen but I think I will call 911 before I start it up just to be safe !!! If it works Iāll post pics. I just use whatever kind of wood I can get, I donāt know my wood apart, Iām a metal man and never worked with wood much. I know chunking slabs is a great way but if you donāt have a saw mill cookies arnāt a bad way to go, I really like my bandsaw for cutting the cookies, goes though a 20 in. log in about 2 mins. Thanks for the info on the elm Mike. Happy woodgassing everyone!
I liked this āmanualā splitter. The head weight could be adjusted for the wood youāre splitting. Watch your fingers!
Iāve already partially lost a couple of fingers. I put the tip of my right finger back on myself as it was still hanging on. It worked but it is tough to write and sign my name. The nerves even regenerated some. ALWAYS wear good gloves when chopping ā¦ ML
Hey Carl that video is something else! That may work just fine crunching ācookiesā. The operator better be very careful, may end up missing more then fingers!!! Mike you are a little to serious about woodgasing if you are cutting off fingers buddy, sounds like you need to wear some type of metal gloves! ha!
I worked up enough nerve to turn my new cookie cruncher on today, I hit the switch and ran the other way. I just have it chained to work bench to try it out for now. It went up 8", tripped and dropped, pick up pin came around again, picked it up, tripped and dropped. Didnāt get to put a cookie in it because itās not fastened down good enough. I think itās going to work, sure shook the concrete floor in my shop. I let it run for a short time till it looked like it was going to walk off with my workbench. Iāll post pics when I get it mounted better. latter, Herb
Herb, Lost finger tip between a sledge hammer handle and a rebar with a sharp edge while digging for a survey stone in a farm road on a survey job. OOPS. Other one was lost to a sharp knife. M
I feel for ya Mike, it really sucks to get hurt. Got my cookie monster fastened to the biggest chunk of tree trunk I could find today, itās about 36" high and about 30" across, it probably weighs 6-700 lbs. Hit the switch and it sit there and ran so I throw a cookie up on the top of tree trunk and stuck it under there about 2"in, it dropped that 2" X 36" long solid shaft with hatchet head welded to it down on that cookie and split it real nice, I split the whole 18" cookie. It runs a little too fast, I took the 1" flat pulley off the half horse motor, I started turning a new one tonight, going to make it 3/4in. so it turns slower and will have more power, shooting for one drop/blow per second. I should be ready to take some pics tomorrow, yeah, I donāt have to splitt with hatchet any more!!!. Herb
Cookie Splitter is up and going!
Cookie Splitter is up and going and it works GREAT!!! Got the 3/4 in. pulley done and on the motor, it turns about the right speed now, gives enough time to reposition the cookie for the next drop but better hurry, it drops about one time per second. Here are some pics!
pic 1 Back about 6 ft. from it
pic 2 Wheel Barrel wheel driven by half horse motor, shows pick-up pin about to hit lift hook, pick it up and trip
pic 3 Lift lever guide spring loaded back for next revolution
pic 4 Hatchet head welded to 2" X 36" long drop shaft
pic 5 Drive motor with 3/4 flat neuraled pulley
Thatās pretty cool Herb. Thanks for sharing that idea. Even I can build one. I used to have a slide hammer with a chisel end but this is way better :o) ā¦ Mike
Herb,
You got it going on !!
Herb,
Now there is some Rube Goldberg technology!
I hope you put a video together so we can see it in action.
Howdy Herb,
I like it, very simple. Average Woodgasser will have most of the parts in the yard.
I think even I could make one 
Good stuff
HWWT
TerryL
Nice looking setup you got there Herbā¦
Very good design Herb. A āpile driverā for a wood driver. Now you can really go.
Thanks everyone. You know what they say " Necessity is the mother of invention".I ran it today for a while and I must say I have never had fun splitting wood before but today I did. I wanted to keep going but a friend is coming over tomorrow to video it working and Iām about out of ācookiesā until I get more logs. So hopefully I will have a video up here tomorrow if we are smart enough to get it posted, Iāve never done that before. Glad you all liked it, I will get some better pics in case anyone would like to make one. It didnāt cost me a dime, it all came out of my ājunkā, I think I worked on it for about 4 days but there was a lot of head scratching involved, you could put one together in half that. Herb
Took a few more pics while it was running.
- half hp elc maytag washing machine motor w/3/4 in flat drive pulley
- pin on wheel about to hit hook
- lift lever about to hit wheel center wing nut which kicks lever off pin making it trip and drop
4.guide for lift lever to move back and forth, also small spring behind there to pull lever against center wing nut - 3/4 in. bolt welded to 2" shaft where lift lever is hooked, also serves as stop for drop shaft
- axe part way up or maybe falling I donāt know
- back side of stump, showing slot I cut in there where 3x4 wood beam fastens "
