Gasifier

[wildbill hickup]

Tom,

Had some problem getting on the IRC today, so here's a short post. Made up a couple of gasifiers like you said(the paint can kind). Got a good bed of coals in the stove and tosse the first one in (loaded with cedar) man that thing burned hot, not for very long though about 15 min. When it was done I fished it out with a poker and set outside to cool. Next one had maple in it, and I thought the cedar was hot!!!!! Burn time about 50 min, During experiments furnace never went on once kept house at 70f and it was 3f outside. You've got me hooked. I have my grandson now so the stove will have to stay out right now but, when he leaves this afternoon can't wait to try some other types of wood.

Thanks again for the suggestion

Wildbill

[TomW]

Bill;

And, don't forget, the leftovers in the can is fairly high grade chunk charcoal which can be burned itself for even more heat. Or use it to get the bed of coals going quick next time.

I have to admit that idea was not mine originally but seen online in my constant research into interesting things. It was, in fact, a method for homebrewing charcoal for melting aluminum and I noticed the gas byproduct.

By the way I don't think we have had any problems lately with IRC. At least that I know of.

See you there soon.

Cheers.

TomW

[veewee77]

What post/story was this about the paint can gasifier?

Doug

[Rob]

I was just curious, if you were able to achieve blue flame with the paint can

method ? I tried this a few years back with coffe cans but never was able to achieve

a clean burn, some smoke purple flame with orange.

Rob

[wildbill hickup]

I'm not sure if it was posted on the board. I do think I saw it on the board in a discussion about gasifiers (larger ones). It was something tom suggested to me on the IRC. IN short take a paint can & lid and punch some holes in the lid(small holes) maybe a dozen or so. Now fill can with small blocks of wood or bark seal the can with the lid and put on fire. Pretty soon smoke will start comming out of the can (make sure at least some of the holes are right next to the hot coals of the fire) the smoke should ignite like a blow torch. Burns very hot. In addition what you have as a byproduct in the can is charcoal. That can be saved for your grill or used for smelting. As for me (right now) I will stockpile the charcoal and add to future fires in my wood stove. So I guess you could say I'm burning the wood twice plus I'm getting a hotter fire.

[wildbill hickup]

Rob,

No I was not able to get a blue flame, mostly yellow and white some purple. But it was deffinatly hotter than just burning the wood. It could be that there was not enough Ox in the stove. Now some people may not want a really hot fire in their wood stove, my stove is a little small for the 4 bedroom 2 story OLD farmhouse I live in and latly we have had temps to -22F so I'm trying to supliment my furnace. In addition to the gasifier to dissapate some of the extra heat I put a couple of sheets of copper flashing on top of the stove(heatsink)as discussed in another post. These copper fins stick up about a foot from the top of the stove and along with a fan have helped to get the heat into the house. Here's the bottom line in the outside temps we have had.

No stove, just furnace.

    Furnace stays on continuasly, barely maintains 60F

Stove by itself

    Furnace gets a break comes on less frequent still temp about 60

Stove and heat sink with fan

    Furnace gets a pretty good break and temps 60 - 65

Stove w fan heatsink and gassifier

While experimenting with this temp in house reached 70F furnace never came on it was approx -5F outside

This is all not particularly scientific, but I did notice a BIG difference.

 

[nothing to lose]

What size can you using 1gal ? 5gal?

Just curious If it was any of my posts reffered too about the charcaol makeing, gasifeirs, or heatsinks on wood stoves. Doesn't matter of course, just wondering if anything gives anyone ideas or if I was just babling and rambling along.

On this flame color people mention often. Where do the different colors come in and what are they in general, does anyone know? Like Blue the pure and hottest flame, yellow the coldest flame and the most impurities? Kinda a color chart of the fire rainbow is what I am wondering. Where is the most creasote and steam, Yellow?

Today I will be looking for some platinum for mine. Also plain ceramics like those blue flame ventless heaters have or the older style just red hot gas heaters use also.

I heated the Rock house I rented with nothing but a wood burner Sat. night. Closed off a couple rooms, but heated most of hat big NO insulation solid rock house. Never got quite as warm as I realy wanted it upstairs, but I had the large room with wood burner about 95F and the next room was holding around 80F. I'll be doing this paint can test myself, I need to cool the coals AND get more heat. 2 times a least I had red hot spots in the lower sides of my stove. I don't like that, so I have to cool the coals down, but raise the heat in the flames at the same time for the rest of the stove.

What I am thinking now is the coals in the stove bottom, some type of closed container of wood on a grate above the coals, pipe the wood gas through a burner made of pipe and holes capped on the end under the coals. Some sort of baffle plate with air holes between coals and wood container, platinum ceramics on baffle, and maybe a small pipe along each side capped ends with small holes drilled into it for mid height air inlets from front to rear of barrel. These could be looped back under through the coals to preheat air, thus provide hot oxygen to the fire at all levels. Also connect to out door vent pipe so as to not suck cold air into house. Heat sinks to get the heat into the room. Doesn't matter how hot the woodburner gets if the heat stay inside, it's in the room and house where it's actaully needed

 Well gotto go

[jimjjnn]

Put some firebrick in the bottom of your stove so it will take the heat instead of your stove bottom

[TomW]

Jim;

Firebrick or the cheapest thing on earth [sand] will work to keep from burning out the stove bottom. Let some ashes build up helps too if you have a stove with no grates. Heating with wood for all of my life.

T

[jh]

Guys,

I gave the paint can gassifier a try.  I filled it with oak strips that were left over from the cabinet shop.  It burned for 60+ minutes with a blue flame some of the time.  I got some nice charcoal too.  It really heated up the room.  I used it over the coals in my fire place.  The second time I tried it, it built up some much pressure that it blew the lid off the can.  So be careful.  

JH

[pyrocasto]

Thanks guys, I will now be trying this. We cant get our fan to kick on until a blazing fire has been going for an hour, and we cant pull it out to mess with the thermostat, so maybe this could help.