YouTube Small systems Builds

I’ve thought about using one of my junky aluminum toolboxes for something like that. Make a hot box for wood or whatever fuel I want dry. Have the pipe coming fresh out of the gasifier running to it before it goes to the cooler.

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It is the very videos that are misleading and the people coming on this forum have the perception they can just build these crude machines and they will work. They are not here to become experimenters or developers, they are looking for a solution they can build a in a weekend. I know a number of people that have built these crude machine with no success. Robert Murrey Smith is one of them. He did a series on his build and then later in his next videos you can see his generator all torn apart with the head off. He wont touch gasification ever again after this experience.

There are a more failures that dont make it on video than there is success that do. Indeed these videos show proof of concept but that is all and yes they need further development to be viable as a daily use system. They are not showing the times it didnt work and the all the problems encountered only when it worked long enough to get a good video for views.

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Ill take you on, I can have fuel ready to run from raw wood stock in an hour and a half. After we start running I can help you keep your machine running and after the valves are all glued down we can use my machine to provide lights while we fix it.

Yeah dont forget to subtract the energy input from your process. The splitter and saw dont run on air.

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I don’t know Matt

But I think I have made some of the finest glue around.

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And here we go again, " You woodgas and you’ll tar up and destroy your engines!"

An overheated engine will be destroyed.
A contaminated oil engine forces to hour after hour loaded work will destroy itself.
Allow abrasive crap to be sucked into the engine for any length of time will rapidly wear the piston skirts and cylinder bore. Destroying that engine in mere hours.

An engine with a tars stuck valve is not destroyed. You crank it over. bending the valve, the push rod, it is damaged needing repair.
You tars stick the piston rings it loses compression then needing chemical wash or partial tear down rings freeing up restored. Not destroyed!

An engine is a working TOOL.
Any tool used wears a little bit each and every time. Every time used. Tools are supposed to be worked and used. Not set up, locked up, worshipped, as a garage queen car.

So to learning woodgas making . . . learn loaded engine running and real woodgas OPERATOR System best practices for darn sure do use an easy, few nuts and bolts, single or dual cylinder aircooled engine.
Learn the tools you will need. Parts in chemicals and gaskets to repair and restore.
Learn. Move forward. I partially tear mine down before a put to hard use to learn these things.
Firearms person, you’d best learn to field strip, reassemble to function BEFORE the need out in the field. Grrr. The stories I have there. On firearms and working engines.

Because it is true 75% of the sucess learning to actually use wood gas as a motor fuel is in the Operators side of it. NOT A MAJIC WOO-WOO GASIFIER AND EXOTIC FILTER TRAIN.

Yeah. Yeah. Learning woodgas making mistakes on a multicylinder water-cooled engine is going to cost you a lot of time, money and effort.
Follow Wayne Keith’s lead on this. He carefully foot feels cracks open his throttle BEFORE cranking his engines up. Stuck throttle felt he up-ass gets out and long bars over that engine carefully feeling for a valve stuck down hitting. And ponders long and hard, what did I do to create this.
And even then on his new to him woodgasing tractor learning he pictured up a valve stuck down bent push rod. Opps! He said. I needed to flare settle back in that char bed doing that last .

The DOW is a do-it-yourself; for yourself forum promoting and using wood-for-engine fuel power.
Not the save the world.
Not a brainiac peer exchange to build a better system to patent and get a million dollars.
Not a platform for there is only one god possible - Charcoal. And I am his prophet.

Keep it up. Myths spinning. You will be busted.
Steve unruh

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I have done both. Each has its place so I will stay out of this discussion. :grimacing:

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Pass the popcorn Don

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Cheeky.
This is not a debate.
And I am not an entertainment clown.

The many now DOW walk-aways disgusted with you games players and myths creators are real too.

On using charcoal or wood the list of those I respect is mighty short who do use both as they deem appropriate.
Kristijan. DonM. BenP. K.V.L. one or two other who’s names slip me at the moment. Apologies.

Even on straight woodgas for engines I have come to learn to really only trust the judgements of those with woodpiles that they have committed to heating their homes with. Practical, practicing Realists. They know wood sweating.
So sue me; trash me; attempt to pull me down as a non-inclusive bigot. eh.

Here’s my culture class to that, “I’ve been thrown out of better bars than this one!”
(Then you are supposed to say, “And don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.”)
S.U.

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Not trashing you Steve

I am sorry I was just trying to inject a little humour and throw the thread off the rails

Wood charcoal each have their place

I like you I get all kinds of interesting ideas and feed back from you and many others
But this to me is a hobby, something I try and contribute to and grow knowledge.

But it’s not something I take too seriously

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Hmm. Yes the hobby aspect of it. They come. They go on to the next interest.
Do realize that there is a core of us here who have years and years all-in working at this. Lots of cold, cold shop time cutting grinding, welding. Then the sweating your nuts off doing the same through the summer shops heats. Us 90% perspiration versus inspiration type guys.

Who? Matt Ryder. KVL. Francois Pal. Marcus Norman. Wayne Keith. And about a hundred and so others just as serious, such as myself. Year. After year. After year.
Not a hobby.
A driven passion. The passions drives reasons varies. The commitment and personal costs we pay do not. Ask out wives. Or ask our walked out former wives.
S.U.

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I believe i dont should take place in this debate, i haven’t been writing here so long, still a newcomer, but: i don’t really like people arguing away, i just want give a point of wiew: i believe we should TRY not to PUSH newcomers in any direction, charcoal or raw wood, more make the state: raw wood gasifiers can be a LITTLE more tricky to build/operate? Not trying to influence anyone, or discourage anyone? Just point out the risks(tar)?
Easy for me to say maybe…
But: as long i’ve been into woodgasification i’ve always stand by my believes, charcoal? Not for me! Dirtier, un-economic, losts, less power, harder to get fuel, as i collect woodgas related stuff, i’ve even had turn down offerings to pick-up old charcoal gasifiers and stuff, for free, wich i ofcourse regret today, the reason i started to try some charcoal gasification is i started make my own charcoal, for forging, (coke or coal are more expensive than gasoline or propane in Sweden) i realized i got a lot of smaller char, and if the fuel are there, free, why not use it?
And: im still going to prioritize raw wood for the fuel-hungry builds, and im going to build some small charcoal gasifiers just for the usefulness of it.
With this written i don’t want to offend someone, or favor one of the fuels, just write a little…
Maybe i wrote this because i’ve had the honor to meet some of the real woodgas-oldtimers (whereof many has passed, may they rest in peace) their words and belives was the LAW, nothing else made any sense, many of them laughed at my early attempts, one of the actually told me: boy, give up, you never going to make this work, you werent born when we run on wood. Very encouraging.

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There you go Goran!!!
What is the secret sauce to make woodgas work for you?
Perseverance. Perseverance. Perseverance. I do hope that precise word translates over well.

Fall down a lot. Get back up a lot. Always pushing forwards. Learning. Improving.
That youtube fellow Robert Murray Smith did not have this. So he did not earn the worthiness.
Fellows as diverse and separated as Flash001USA and Johan Liddel did have this. Earned their worthiness. Succeeded.
Regards
Steve Unruh

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Reading all of this truly interesting conversation brought this to mind:

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I have years and years at this too.
I pick away I build something I walk away from it I pick up another aspect of something.
I build an engine to test something. I walk away, sometimes for months, once for a few years.

Everyone is different but no one is special we all put our pants on one, leg at a time.

Respectfully Wallace…

Yes we are all a little crazy, and its not a competition.
If you guys some some of the things I tried to build and failed at you would think me maddest of all.

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Not sure if you have come across this guy yet , he has a full build up video so far and its getting very near to firing it up for the first time .
I think this guy is a neighbour as the surrounds look very close to our local area .

Dave
I just realised i think he is up north in NSW due to the raging floods in one of his video’s

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I have never seen an actual working shop with floors that clean and shiny and tools with no dirt, dust or iron filings. I know I’m a slob but I doubt this guy is from NSW Dave. My guess would be a whole different planet.

Haters gotta hate :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Haha Tom you sound like me i have dirt for a floor and hardly a roof as a shelter for my tools and don’t get me started on all my electrical equipment that’s under cover in the gazebo with no walls ,so the wind blows all the rain in , i am living proof that not everyone has a shed , that’s a bit of a lie as i have been busy after 10 years of all the above i now have a shed that is almost finished , it will still have dirt on the floor though !

Dave

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Thanks for pointing out this guy Dave.
I’d been preview snapshot seeing some of works on the righthand Look-at-this on youtube.

He’s making a chipped wood offset hopper auger fed system. He says a mix of Drizzler and Imbert. To my eyes more like a GEK IV.
He sure is putting a lot of fabrication into an unproven self-design . . . fabbing on it for a year now without any shown step by step trialing of his gasification ideas . . .

Anyhow it all begins with a fuel wood supply imho. He shows his on-property to him here in episode 1.5 And he does burn wood for cold season heating so he will have some relevant wood-for-power experiences:

By episode 6 he shows his electrical generator he will be using at least. He needed to get this he says due to flooding power outages.
a SABER 9kVA
Specs here:

Decent enough machine. But I think for woodgas he’d been better off with one of their inverter units. And he’s really, really going to regret not getting electric starting.
Regards
Steve unruh

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Steve that generator is the run of the mill tradie type generators that most of the workers use , i have picked them up for a song over the years never paid more than $200 for them , this is the generator i have been using for around 7 years now , the first one i bought was again second hand , it was used if a coffee shop trailer they bought a new one after 2 years and i got this for $200 due to the carb needing tuning , around 4 years later i got another one , this time i paid $400 and now this is the model they sell , will have to see how wood gas will work on this EFi model .,
https://robocarpower.com.au/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=3
Dave

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I like the idea of a side draft. Please excuse me if someone has already made this comment (too many posts in the thread) but I think with a little ingenuity, a side draft can be made to power a smaller truck. It has a huge advantage in not being so tall that it sticks up above the truck.