cilbuper

If the triphammer or powerhammer is driven by an internal combustion engine, you can use woodgas for that as well. It is all a matter of what is available and whether you have to pay for the biomass.

I couldn't find the edit feature for my first post but I wanted to correct my posting about what gases came out of wood. While it does produce about 20% CO, it also produces 20% Hydrogen, about 2-5% methane and some N2 (nitrogen). Does anyone know if nitrogen is harmful to forging? Thanks!

I'm going to start the "brake rotor" forge tomorrow and start getting the pieces together for the gasifier. I'm really excited to see if this will work!

you are right about it producing more than just CO. The source I was reading didn't make it very clear as to when it was just CO being produced. I believe prior to the wood becoming charcoal there is methane and another flammable gas. Thanks for the correction!

Most of these issues are a non factor. You make the gas on demand by starting a fire in the fuel container, allow it to heat up, add your dried (the drier the better, more energy) biomass, cover the container, turn on the blower, wait till the white smoke is cleared out (5-15 seconds), light the flame and you are in business! The process is very simple. You could make a wood gas forge in 2 hours, maybe less with a 55 gal drum and a smaller one to fit inside the 55. Some piping and a blower and that is about it. I have heard of people making a large burner for less that $30 total. Most pieces can be found in abundance at a scrapyard (old water heater, drums, etc) and either free or very cheap on Craigslist.org. I'm set on making one of these. I'm going to make a simple charcoal brake drum/rotor forge first and it will be convertible into a wood gas forge as well. I'll make a how to for everyone! I'm REALLY excited about this. Thanks for your response! Oh, one more question. I know that using coal, coke and charcoal with iron turns it into steel with the addition of carbon. Will using only a gas hurt the metal working process? Thanks again!

Greetings, As I am new to iron working please excuse this post if this topic has already been covered. I recently was introduced to the production of "wood gas" which is a syn gas or producer gas. It is essentially CO (carbon monoxide). When you see wood burning you are actually seeing the CO that is coming out of the wood igniting, giving you the flame. It is a very simple gas to produce and can be made from any biomass from wood, wood chips, saw dust, paper, cardboard, leaves, grass clippings, etc. The heat output from the gas varies with the amount of oxygen available and can be increased with a blower, much like adding oxygen to coke, charcoal, coal or wood. The temperatures will reach 1500 degree farenheit without problem and have heard of some setups reaching 2000 to 3000 degrees. Making wood gas is not too much more difficult than making charcoal in a 55 gal drum. In fact, making a wood gas forge should be a "marraige" between a simple brake rotor/drum forge (with a blower/hair dryer setup) and the charcoal drum. I believe that when you make charcoal, most of the gas that is given off is CO and is lost in the process. My theory is that we could eliminate the step needed to make charcoal and utilize the lost energy from the fuel needed to make the charcoal and the mass lost from the charcoal (which is converted to gas in the process) itself. My initial calculations seem to indicate that there is a 200-300% increase in the amount of energy recovered from the wood if converted and used directly as "wood gas". If this could be done there would be almost no need to buy fuel as free wood/biomass can be found almost anywhere: pallets, builders/contractors, tree trimmers, lumber mills (scrap), lumber yards, landscapers, you name it! A little more info on Wood Gas. Wood Gas also used to be called "town gas" as it was the main gas that was used/piped throughout town before petroleum was discovered. This was the gas which burned in street lamps at night to light our town streets! It is a truly amazing "re-discovery" which I happened to stumble upon while doing research on WWII. During WWII the Germans (and I'm assuming Amerricans/Brits/etc) needed to improvise when it came to fuel for their cars/trucks. Well I stumbled upon the report that over 1 million German cars and trucks were converted to wood gas burning vehicles! It is truly amazing that this gas can be used to power ANY internal combustion engine! It works the best with a gasoline powered engine but I believe that even a diesel engine can be properly modified to run on CO (Carbon Monoxide). I am not sure if newer fuel injection engines will work but older engines with carburetors sure will. I have seen video of tractors running with wood gas as a fuel! Sorry my first post is so long but I am just amazed at what I how little I knew about what wood can fuel (I could write a book about that which I did not know!). If anyone has any questions I would be happy to answer them. If someone would like to see some more information I will make a post with more indepth info and videos of this gas. Cilbuper

I would like to introduce myself, my name is Mike and I am new to blacksmithing (is that the correct word?). I have always been fascinated by those who have the ability to work with metal and have always dreamed about doing it myself. I am 29 years old and have worked with computer/network's for the last 10 years and have hated most of it. I would like to start this off as a hobby and possibly move towards it as a career, if I find that it suits me and I can sustain myself. Any advice as to what to read or do is GREATLY appreciated! I do not know any of the black smith "lingo" so bear with me while I learn. I look forward to becoming a contributing member of the forum! Thanks in advance for any help you may provide in the future and thank you for reading this!