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Machinery, Trailers, Toyhaulers and Motorhomes => Machinery Builds => Topic started by: SPEC on February 07, 2009, 05:39:14 AM
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I;m putting this here cuz I'm using a hurculese, millitary engine to run this project.
I'll start out with this project has been on my mind for 3 years...I've dinked around with it, di tons of research... made a mess got discusted, whacked it up rebuilt...whacked it up again...
Woodgas is not a new technology, Hitler stormed Europe on wood...The 1st VW Thing was never meant to run on gas...it was built to run on woodgas...back in 1939
So how this works is you dump presized wood chunks into the generator, wich is a downdraft burn unit...Burn the wood in an oxygen starved envirornment...Harvest the smoke...Filter, cool and clean it...Then feeding it to the engine...
This was my 1st attempt using FEMA plans
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My uncle has a WWII generator that uses an aircooled 4 cylinder 4 stroke Hercules engine. It was rated at 20 hp and the gen set was rated at 10,000 watts continuous. Don't know if your using the same engine, but it is a cool unit. The cylinders and heads look like they are directly off a radial engine, with the pushrod tubes, and super thin, closely spaced fins.
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This ones liquid cooled, rated at 25,000 watts...Should power the shop and the house with tons of extra power to sell to the nabes ;D
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The next attempt was modified from the plans...It worked but made alot of tar,
Tar is bad and will destroy the exhaust valves...makes lots of power tho-
Woodgas only makes about 2/3 the power as the same engine on gasoline...Here's some pix of the second test firing
I went the all organic filters, thats the pix of the box full of wood chips,then with the plexiglass cover
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How many pounds of wood does it take to make an equivalent amount of energy as 1 gallon of gas in the same engine? That must be the big Hercules engine they used in the arc lights that were on ships to point out planes in the sky. Is it an inline 4, or horizontally opposed?
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Plk,
It's and inline 4...
A extremest fanatic owned it before me...I haven't picked it up yetI think I'm getting a lp carb for it as well...That makes the wood gas conversion really easy..
Wood to gasoline power properties...depends on alot of factors that I won't get into here...moisture content, species of wood, design of the generator, How overdriven the gasifier is being run ( how hard you are running it for the size of motor your pulling off of it)...The harder you run the gasifier the more powerful the gas coming off of it is...But then your reactor has a short life...Rouphly 40# of wood to a gallon of gas is a ballpark figure for wood with more than 20% moisture content...
Back to the Generator/reactor
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Spec,I truly applaud your work on this.Some of these technologies that were abandoned when petroleum was cheap and plentiful are very likely to be the way for us to move forward into energy Independence.
Not only that but I love the low tech of it all,It seems that progress has realy slowed down since we got microchips,and cnc's.
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Thanks Pat,
Here's the pix of the test fire...I made burnable gas, but too much tar to feed to a motor...Mostly was my fault due to not dry enouph fuel, and too wet of chips in the filter...The wood was only air dried...and the humidity that day was about 80%...so here goes...Camel turd in..and lit, lid off and no suction yet...suction fan on
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The last pic in the series is hard to tell but that smoke has a yellow tinge to it...Perfect to burn a clear flame with a few blue tipped flames...I didn't get pix cuz I was working alone, Had to hold the torch to keep the flame...
Here's the tar I was talking about earlier and what it does to engines
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Here's the pix of a prepped briggs...Shaved head,ported,valve job and a 10* advanced key way...Ran on wood then finished it off with gasoline, to clean the valves...I'd say they are clean now...
Pic of the adapter I had to build to convert to woodgas for the briggs
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Here's some of the innards of the last build...I built the suction fan from an old jeep blower motor, swiped one if Specinator's stainless bowls...
This ran a small engine,
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Way cool!
You're like our very own MacGyver!
Give the man some toothpicks, 3 used tampons, and an old drywall bucket and he can do just about anything! :D
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Wow!! I am following this closely! You should get a government grant from ho-bama for this......... Never mind, he doesn't want to spend money on anything useful.
Darn it sure has greened up in Minesota this week!! Looks down right tropical. ;D
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Thanks Pac,
Don't forget the 2 16p nails and a car battery...I'll come over and weld up buggy chassis's ;D
E-farmer...
They gave out some grants awhile ago...It is an outrage in the woodgas community...Couple of million bux and No results or crappy results...
I want to stay under the radar on this... I have plans when I come down for the fall at LS...won't be gasoline in the 71 ;D
The new reactor....MMMM well it started it's life as many other things, with the price of steel still out of this world, I won't be rolling and breaking new stuff unless I have to...Pretty much all recycled ;)
Here's a drawing of the baseplant, This is just a suggestion tho
Kinda like Fabr and his Rorty plans...
This is just to give you guys an Idea of what's out there... Mine will preheat the air, To as close to spontaineous combustion tempature as I can get it, I've been researching steam injection as well...
HERE'S THE DEAL...I'm after the base elements in the wood, Hydrogen, methane, oxygen, carbon...I get stuck with some others that are usless (to me ) nitrogen,co2, and a couple of other inert gases...
The steam and preheated air should give me cleaner, more hydrogen rich gas than the last attempt...The pix I posted are of a stratified design, that was the last one I built
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Somethings I should have stated in the start of this thread, Gasifiers are like buggies in the sence that you wouldn't build a sand car to drive in the woods ;D
Each gasifier is designed for a specific application...This one is to be a stationary unit...Plus reactors are fuel size specific...The pix will try to show what I mean,
The other stuff is the materials to work with...Old water heaters,retired o2 tank junk trailer, and some used rectangle tubes ;D....ALL FREEEE
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I mentioned above on the gases that I'm after...here's the break down on them
Combustible fuel gases 20% carbon monoxide
19% hydrogen
1% methane
0.1% ethylene
Non combustible gases 9% carbon dioxide
51% nitrogen
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MMMMMMM WOOODGAS
mMy boiler make lot's of cubic feet of WOODGAS every day...TOO BAD there is no effective way to harness and clean it...
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Allright I was just fookin with ya.....
But it is true...Big hungry makes tons of WOODGAS and It IS NOT feasable to harness and clean the tars out of it...
Here's a few pix of the case of my new reactor, I know it looks like a hunk of shit...But keep in mind it's all recycled, the reduction and the bell on the bottom are designed to aid in the downdraft of HOT vapours,
Heat rises... So I'm ceating a loe pressure zone to increases the pulling effect...I still have to cut it back apart to install the ''tar ejectors''' and the ''Hot air intake'' I have a spine surgeon appt. tomarrow so prolly no progress
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I have a spine surgeon appt. tomarrow so prolly no progress
Hope that goes well for you...
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Thanks Yummi,
Went OK He ordered a couple more MRI's
The reactor is coming along slowly, I got the flange for the reduction built and welded on...NOW it's time to build the pre-heat manifold and air lines...It's hard to decide where the heat is going to be, Until after you burn it a few times...It's kinda like not painting your buggy until you've had it out and thrashed it a few times...
The reason this is important is A hot dry air creates a faster,dryer burn...Wood smoke is inherenty wet, so any thing I can do to crack the hydrogen/oxygen bond out of the water, is a huge bonus, Keep in mind that I have to seperate the water out of the gas before it goes to the motor...That's wasted fuel, and needs to be either tossed on the garden or re-injected as steam to the reactor...
Injecting steam is something I'll address later, I'm thinking 2 manifolds, a winsheild washer pump, and some tubing...But I'll have to burn it first to find the hottest point to mount the manifolds ;D
I'll get some pix today
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Here's a couple of pix,
the 1st 2 are of the manifold...Where it is at now isn't it's final spot, but close, the last one is of the nozzle placement, the pink thing is a ceramic cover to protect from some of the heat
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Looking great Spec keep up the pics this is a very interesting read.
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I agree this is pretty neat. Till this I never had heard of this methoed.
Just a SILLY (but hey you know me...) question. Is this more effcient than using the wood like a steam engine would??
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my guess is there would be no reason why you could not do both? capture the heat for steam, the gas for more heat, etc?
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or capture the heat for the garage or house and the gas to run equipment.
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Thanks Guys ;)
Nutz,
Steam is extremely inefficient for powering stuff, great for heating, because it's easy to move...It moves itself ;) Woodgas burns in the engine just like gasoline...only not as powerful, about 2/3 to 3/4 of the power...Now here's the cool part...a woodgas motor responds to the same Hop-up goodies as a regular gas engine...Only differance is a woodgas engine has to do it at or under 3,000 rpm's...otherwise your dumping burning Hydrogen out the tail pipe...Hydrogen burns much slower than gasoline.
Yummi and Boost,
The steam injector manifolds will be inside the gasifier, outside of the reactor case, welded to the hottest area of the reaction zone, about 5'' above the nozzles you see in the pix.
I plan on plumbing the motors cooling system into the Big hungry's...That way when it's 40 below, and I go out to start it... it thinks it's 70 and sunny, The motor won't really add to the heating power of ''The big hungry''... It already makes more power than the house can take, What I'm trying to say is that the small amout of coolant that the motor heats will prolly not be noticeable in the 650 gallons of water that are already in the system...
Now for cooling, and cleaning of the woodgas...These unfortunately will have to stay out side with the reactor, and the heat will be wasted, the reason they have to stay out side is safety...lots and lots of tubes and chambers full of explosive gasses, a gulp of fresh air from a leak, or a backfire from the motor could all cause an explosion, woodgas guy's call it a hiccup...The lid on the gasifier has a couple of pop off valves or a spring loaded lid to keep this from destroying the system...They release the pressure and keep most of the burning stuff in the gasifier...Ive experianced a couple of ''HICCUPS'' with my 1st one...I just had the lid sitting on top since it was a stratified, They're not sealed like a Imbert,or Monorator...SCARY AS HELL blew the lid into the Nabe's lawn...I think I got a pic of it ;D
Now before you guy's think I'm going to blow up me and the Nabe's...Hiccups are not a common occurance in the Imbert or monorator...What I'm building is a hybrid of the 2...
I better explain ;)
A stratified...All air gets sucked in thru the top of the unit, big opening to dump the wood/fuel in
Imbert... Is a sealed system where the air is fed from below, but the gas is sucked out even lower in the system...The only time the top is open, is when you are adding Fuel...You notice I didn't say wood...A well tuned imbert will burn just about anything you want as long as it's not to wet...I read about a company that burns old tires in there's to make asphault...
Monorator...These are cool, they are of the air pre-heat with a large hopper that is heated on the bottom family...These dry the wood/fuel so you can get away with wetter fuel, and they will feed the steam injection...(water from the wood, as condensate... is collected in a tank, then pumped into the steam manifold)
Plus with a larger hopper you get extended burn times between fillings...
So in combining the pro's of the 2... I can learn what I need to know about taking it on the road in My planned woodgas truck...Food for thought...Yummi 1600 miles away...Spec goes to visit...Pays about 30 bux in fuel for the round trip, but has to drag about a ton of wood chunks, and stop at wayside rests to pee and pick up some sticks ;D
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A woodgas truck? That's pretty sweet. I have been reading but now I am really interested.
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Ya Fabr and I have been hashing over the engine mods, and IGN. obsticals, for about a year now...
Here's the truck that's gonna get it
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I been out in the shop making a mess... pissing and moaning...My wacky Tracky broke the clutch cable...Poor little Fooker has been trouble free for 9 years for me ;D...So I got some holes drilled and the pre-heat tubes welded, drilled, and fitted 8)
The offset on the nozzles is to creat turbulance in the reduction zone...I still have to punch the holes in the intake manifold, weld the tubes into it , and stich weld them to the case...Then it will be on to the tar ejectors ;)...I'll have some more pix tomarrow ff: gg: gg:
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Something I forgot to mention is this...All of these welds need to be tested to 30'' of vacuum, thta's one of the reasons It is so slow inbuilding...As I said before air leaks can be exciting...And messy too ;D
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how do you know when you are living a PATHETIC EXISTANCE
Your tubing center looks like this
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Pulled the cover off my tubing center...I guess it's been over a year and a couple of months since I used it last...That sucker used to get used everyday, for a good part of the day...2 winters and a summer's worth of dust on it :-[ :'(
Back to the woodgas ;D
I got the intake manifold and runner's welded up and mounted, The reason for such a unit is to preheat the incoming air equally, There really wasn't room to make it more aerodynamic, these aren't as fussy as the engine the gas is going into as far as smooth airflow goes...
Durability in a hot hostile inviornment is very important ;D
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I got the experimental tar ejectors bent up, notched, and fitted...I just need to re-notch some Buggy tabs, so I can bolt them in since they will be getting changes and they will burn out...Yay buggy parts ;D
They are all different angles and lengths...After a few good long runs, I'll be able to read them like spark plugs....Then match the rest to the ones that have the most heat damage and cleanest nozzle...Thats how you can tell one is too long or short... ;D
sorta sounds like BLACK MAGIC...like porting heads used to be ;D
But it's not ;D
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An after thought,
I am thinking that the ejector nozzle may be too short to be effective...They are driven by the air moving thru the pink noxzzes to draw tarry air down the tubes, and out the ejectors...any aerodynamic experts here?
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You're out of my league on that one,spec.
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Well,
I got an update...Still no plasma cutter :(
That'll be on the do's and don'ts thread :(
But I did pick up my power house mm: jj: mm:
Model #JX4C3....Brute electrical grunt power with a herculese engine...Here's the pix...
BTW...We got any electrical guru's here...I got 3 phase power...Not quite sure what to do with it all...I'd like to power the shop and dump power to the house...But electricity really likes me... 5: 10:
this is me :j
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Last week I exploded the wrong clutch that was in my 71...The woodgas truck...It had the 3 finger job in it instead of the diapham one...fooked up linkage...blah blah blah...So we changed out the clutch and adjusted the trans...Now I can drive it to LS for sand in your beerfest...anyway back to the post...I bent up a new ergonomic shifter and put some gimp freindly seats in it...I need some cool ideas on what to put on top of the shifter that will look cool, I hang on to it like a pistol grip...Oh yeah...doing some floor work too...39 years old up here...It's way cleaner than most...But does have some "thin spots"...
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...
DTS FLAG WILL BE ON TOMARROW jj:
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I need some cool ideas on what to put on top of the shifter that will look cool, I hang on to it like a pistol grip...
(https://dtsfab.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.competitiveeaters.com%2Fimages%2Fpickle_000.jpg&hash=41e00aaa61506ee20fed45fbff2fcc68014a206f)
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(https://dtsfab.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi153.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fs233%2Fbuggyland%2Fsmileys%2Frofl.gif&hash=1afe2ff8082f68c8aac507b9eb2114118997c992)
ergonomic and expressive!
PERFECT!
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OK,who's gonna cast it up for him?
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If we're gonna cast it up we might as well do the dancing pickle dude :o
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Last week I exploded the wrong clutch that was in my 71...The woodgas truck...It had the 3 finger job in it instead of the diapham one...fooked up linkage...blah blah blah...So we changed out the clutch and adjusted the trans...Now I can drive it to LS for sand in your beerfest...anyway back to the post...I bent up a new ergonomic shifter and put some gimp freindly seats in it...I need some cool ideas on what to put on top of the shifter that will look cool, I hang on to it like a pistol grip...Oh yeah...doing some floor work too...39 years old up here...It's way cleaner than most...But does have some "thin spots"...
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...
DTS FLAG WILL BE ON TOMARROW jj:
Considering we have had some lively gun control debate lately...
How about a real Pistol Grip?
Find a use for those soon to be useless hand guns..cut the grip off and weld it to your gear shift!!!
Make it functional... the trigger can operate your horn or washers or something..
Mmmm.. im excited about that....
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That won't work, some of us actually get to use our guns for shooting. In Oz that would be a good Idea though. ;D
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That won't work, some of us actually get to use our guns for shooting. In Oz that would be a good Idea though. ;D
No good Boost, no guns left .... :-[ :'( :police: YOU have the opportunity! YOU have the power! You have ..YOU have... uhm... nuffin I suppose......
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I got the experimental tar ejectors bent up, notched, and fitted...I just need to re-notch some Buggy tabs, so I can bolt them in since they will be getting changes and they will burn out...Yay buggy parts ;D
Spec? Mate? This looks decidedly illegal! It aint gonna blow up n stuff is it?
If it is, do you mind videoing it and posting the results? Or get someone whos not blown into lil biddy pieces to post it up... and and can you NOT do this until the next batch of pickles is cooked up n sent off?
Good bloke... that Spec...was.....
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Yep, leave a note for the ole' lady in an envelope marked "read only after disaster".
Inside it should read something like.
"Don't forget to take the trash out. Sorry for the mess. The camera is on the workbench, don't forget to post up the vid for the guys at DTS.
Spec"
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Spec? Mate? This looks decidedly illegal! It aint gonna blow up n stuff is it?
If it is, do you mind videoing it and posting the results? Or get someone whos not blown into lil biddy pieces to post it up... and and can you NOT do this until the next batch of pickles is cooked up n sent off?
Good bloke... that Spec...was.....
I'd be happy too ;D
Fooker you prolly jinxwd me now...I already boomed a motor and a reactor ;D
I'm bringing it with me when I come.......
WE'LL TEST IT IN YOUR SHOP.......AND YOU CAN HOLD THE CAMERA ;D
So it's the dancin' pickle dude??? on the shifter????
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I'd be happy too ;D
Fooker you prolly jinxwd me now...I already boomed a motor and a reactor ;D
I'm bringing it with me when I come.......
WE'LL TEST IT IN YOUR SHOP.......AND YOU CAN HOLD THE CAMERA ;D
So it's the dancin' pickle dude??? on the shifter????
You makw me aplug and Ill cast it for ya. (serious)
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;D
I'LL Bring it with me
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Since it was a cold dreary, rainy day I got some time in on the reactor...
I got some flanges cut for the top and the bottom...mostly ass...er I mean head scratching...
I'll need to take it apart in the future, to adjust the tat ejector's, and some maintenance, so it has to un-bolt....And be air tight to some serious vacuum numbers...Got that herculese pulling all it's air/fuel off of it...
Came up with some new grate idea's...will prolly have more tomarrow
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I wanna see it work! :)
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I hope to have some more pix tonight...
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Well tomarrow came and went...
But Today I got some time in on the reactor...
I got the clean out opening fitted and welded up
The collar for the upper hopper fitted and welded up, and re-fitted, the upper hopper will be slide on & off, Goobed up on the bottom to seal it...
I have some more ass ....er head scratching to do on the H20 injection before I go much further, I want to catch the water vapor coming off the wood in the chamber and re-inject into the pyrolization zone... This will increase my Hydrogen production... so I don't want to get ahead of myself with the outer shell, But I can fit the clean out,and get that welded up...
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I guess some pictures would be nice huh? :P
This set is of the upper hopper...It mostly just holds and pre-heats the wood chunks...This is where I want to capture some of the water vapor I intend to inject into the reactor...When I get that far I'll post some pix
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Here's a couple of the clean out door...Keeping in mind this sucker could see upwards of 30" of Vacuum...Dollars spent on this project....ZERO except for wire/gas/electricity
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It looks awesome bro. Not sure exactly what the hell it is other than a bunch of tubes so far but i know where you are going with it. Very interested in this so keep us posted. Also have you ever heard about the h2o buggy. Look it up on youtube. Thats a real story. After the guy got it all figured out he said you could drive across the united states on like 12 gallons of water. Said you could put tap water in it...snow..or if times were tuff pee in it. After he got it all figured out some towel head offered him 2 billion dollars to put it on the shelf and forget about it and he told them no that hed built it for the american people. About 10 days later he died in a resteruant. Someone had posioned the food. His house was ransacked and no ones heard of it since. You should really look it up. Pretty cool and i think kinda on the same level as you are thinking...
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I read all about that a while back...It was one of the inspiring things to doing this...
Plus I'm Pretty much a Renegade when it comes to most aspects of life
ff:
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Spec
You will need a army 6x6 to carry that thing when it is done. ;D ;D
With your bad back you for damm sure will need a crane to lift it.
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Spec
You will need a army 6x6 to carry that thing when it is done. ;D ;D
With your bad back you for damm sure will need a crane to lift it.
;D
This one is a stationary unit ;D
Ya,
I'm already am using the E-hoist to move it around...
The Mobile one will be a bit smaller and built alittle lighter...
Off to the shop and garden for me ;D 8)
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Plus I'm Pretty much a Renegade when it comes to most aspects of life
ff:
WHAT?? You shxtin me arent ya?
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COOL! you should watch the discovery channel's "The Colony" they built a rudimentary one of these hooked to a small engine spinning an alternator to charge their car batteries and light their building at night and charge their tools! Great show, even showed how to build a Tesla coil for one of their inventions...
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It looks awesome bro. Not sure exactly what the hell it is other than a bunch of tubes so far but i know where you are going with it. Very interested in this so keep us posted. Also have you ever heard about the h2o buggy. Look it up on youtube. Thats a real story. After the guy got it all figured out he said you could drive across the united states on like 12 gallons of water. Said you could put tap water in it...snow..or if times were tuff pee in it. After he got it all figured out some towel head offered him 2 billion dollars to put it on the shelf and forget about it and he told them no that hed built it for the american people. About 10 days later he died in a resteruant. Someone had posioned the food. His house was ransacked and no ones heard of it since. You should really look it up. Pretty cool and i think kinda on the same level as you are thinking...
If I remember correctly, it was the same guy who invented the Meyers Manx buggy kits. Been a while since I've seen the video's though
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Stan Meyers was the water powered internal combustion engine guy, Bruce Meyers was, then sold the rights, and now is again, the Manx buggy guy.
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water powered internal combustion-dream on guys. Wanna buy a bridge in London? LOL!!!!
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Does anyone know how spec is I haven't heard from him in a while..
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Specs fine.I hear from him nearly every day. He's been busy.
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Oh OK cool I was start'n to get concerned about him cause I've sent him a few PMs and he hasn't replied. Oh and I haven't seen any recent posts from him.
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:o
ff:
:nw
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water powered internal combustion-dream on guys. Wanna buy a bridge in London? LOL!!!!
hell yeah! Is it cheap? just a thought though... are they talking about hydrogen combustion (could be 'loosely' called water power... sort of...maybe...)
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Let's jump start this thread.
http://www.escapefromberkeley.com/2008/08/contestant-wayne-keiths-big-trip/ (http://www.escapefromberkeley.com/2008/08/contestant-wayne-keiths-big-trip/)
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Wayne Keith is the premier woddgasser in the US... I t was his work that really inspired me to build this and research... he's drove more miles on woodgas than anybody else I know of
I actually am pulling my reactor into the shop today eyes
I have the chipper almost all put back together...so the welding table will be cleared off ;D
Hopefully I can actually make some progress in the next week...I might even be calling on some of our vendors to lend me a helping hand with some parts...That will need to be made to get the genny up and on woodgas
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This is an awesome read ;D
http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/01/wood-gas-cars.html#more (http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/01/wood-gas-cars.html#more)