Progress

Here's the progress so far. Of course I mean progress on the woodgas truck, version two.

I went to visit Wayne in Alabama and came home all the same day. It was a long trip, but well worth it.

Wasn't too sure what happened when I got there - right as I pulled onto his street the Metro started bucking and stalling, the dash lights flickered on and off, and I barely made it up his driveway. Long story short, it turned out to be a loose ground wire:

Why a loose ground wire would kill the entire engine I don't know. It's a bad design, but at least the problem got fixed quickly.

With that straightened out, we got on to business. Wayne loaded me up with supplies and I helped him with some computer issues. Which reminds me, check out his latest video! I put this together for him:

If you haven't seen it yet, here's the site I built for Wayne.

http://driveonwood.com

It's a great place to learn about gasifiers and woodgas vehicles. Wayne is a woodgas pioneer, why not take it straight from the guy who drives on wood every day?

I've started building things now, and the plasma cutter comes in really handy. Here's some thick pipe I cut:

It's not smooth because I am still learning my plasma technique. And I'm officially very bad at making holes! I have five burned out heat shields to prove it:

The problem comes when I try to use the plasma to pierce thick stuff; it widens and increases into a bowl shape, and doesn't always punch through. Like this one:

There's just nowhere for the molten steel to go. So my workaround is to predrill the holes.


Finished the condensate tank. It's not hooked up, and there may be further changes made, but here it is:

And started the dashboard wiring. Here's four control cables, three new switches and a vacuum gauge:

Not bad for two days work, eh? And more to come...

Condensate tank

I have to get a lot of things done before I can go to Alabama with the truck. Here's one of them: the condensate tank. You may remember I was using a propane tank for condensate. Since that holds a measly 3 gallons before causing problems (and was full of water because the valve was plugged up), I took it off and went with Wayne's solution: a full out water tank. This is actually a well tank from the scrap heap. It was rusty and had plenty of scale and dirt in it. But it cleaned up pretty well, and should hold around 10 gallons or more.

Covering up the old holes and making new ones. Find leaks by filling with water:

The gas goes in the sides, and out the dual pipes on top. Single pipe is for the blower. Note the bolt on cover I made with the plasma cutter:

Long pipe is the drain. Now to install on the truck, and plumb it in!

Plasma Cutter

I have wanted one of these for  a long time... And I finally realized that I wan't saving money, time or energy by putting it off any longer. I have a lot of fabricating to do, and so I bit the bullet and bought a plasma cutter.

I shopped around to find reviews on cheap plasmas, and tried to ignore all the anti-Chinese sentiments from people who shelled out for a Miller or a Lincoln. I found several folks that said this model cuts as good as the name-brands, if you don't need the bells and whistles. As it turns out, plasma cutting technology has come a long ways in  a few years, thanks to digital power inverting chips that can crank out the amps in a small form factor. Everything is solid state inside, except the cooling fan and the compressed air.

I found the one I wanted, one of the few that can run 110 and 220v. Got it on Ebay for $285 shipped.

Here's my new Lotos 5000D:

It requires 110v or 220v, and a source of compressed air. It actually didn't come with an electrical plug, just bare wires. So I had to run to town and get one. I also had to assemble the air fittings and try to get them not to leak. Fit and finish? Yeah. But it's the right price.

It's not even as big as my Harbor Freight welder:

Sure it took a little work to assemble. But it ran like a dream. I've never used a plasma cutter before, and within 10 minutes of use I cut this 9" circle out:

Not bad, eh?

The jagged parts are operator error. I did this entirely freehand:

I also tripped the breaker, since this thing pulls a solid 20 amps along with the compressor's 15 or so. My shop suffers from Unplanned Electricity Syndrome, causing extension cords to sprout from unlikely places and get strung together at scary lengths. I make it a rule to only run one thing at a time, and for the most part this works out. But the plasma cutter counts twice. Plus, even when it was running on stored air, dad said he could hear a funny buzzing in the wall upstairs(?!) High frequencies, etc... don't want to buy everyone new computers. So I will be moving operations to the barn, which is wired with a basic service panel, and plenty of room for more if needed.

Here's the project compressor I got, which should be able to keep pace better. Needs new valves and switch.

And just for grins, here's a shot of my supply of tanks and pipes for the gasifier. I still need more, because some of them are the wrong size.

So now that I can cut and weld equally well, the first project is the condensate tank, visible to the right above. It will go under the truck bed to collect water condensing in the cooling rack. Here's Wayne Keith draining the same tank under his truck: