William James

Guess i should update things here.

This was a freakin’ disaster as i recall.
I would advise against digging ditches 70cm deep
And a spade-width and putting a
2mq “pond” at the low end of the field and then trying to recover/recycle that water.
Especially in our climate which is spotty both in the way of too much or too little rain.
I think at some point the land just got way too
Filled with water, then summer came and everything went bone-dry anyway.
Not to mention trying to pump water horizontally
Is just not going to work…
A pool pump might have worked better but honestly the “pond” was only 2 feet deep.
Built a huge mound filled with wood at the bottom
end which only grew rats.

In the end that field had to be abandoned and we moved on to an even bigger disaster which also involved ineffective swales. Just lost that land too.

Swales on flattish land should probably be wider and softer than i was able to do. I suppose i did the best i could with a shovel and 1 day with a backhoe, but still…di-sas-ter.

Btw…
I still use a pump. From an IBC tank into a hose and onto plants in a greenhouse so i suppose all was not for nought.
William

For me, as someone who had Waaaaay too much comfrey AND is has an Ag-businessthe problem is how to sell it.
There are products on the market that contain comfrey but i generally think the market is negligible, apart from home-made creams and oils potentially being sold at farmer’s markets.

Hugely generous plant without much economic use. really a shame.
W

I’ve looked into it superficially. A lot of the negativity surrounding comfrey comes from one study where they overloaded rats or pigs and then found liver damage. Even if anyone would never consume the amount in the study , it kept the bad rap.
William

Does anyone think some sort of repair/restoration would be easy or worthwhile?
W

tony uljee wrote:could be that the machine was running far to hot and the core has overheated causing the varnish to melt and leak out between the laminations of iron plates.

That’s kinda what i was worried about. The machine runs and welds. Should i be worried a out using it??
Thanks
W

John C Daley wrote:I dont know what you mean by ' Image says it all"
I use arc welders a lot, but that plate has inscriptions I am having trouble discerning.

The copper plates have all kinda of bumps gunk on it. They are hard almost like metal. Doesn’t wipe off.  Thanks for the manual.
W

Hi, found some strange stuff on the inside of an old welder i’m planning to use. Image shows it all.
Thx
William

Gerry: I Didn’t use the bench as a thermal mass storage because
A) that would have required a manifold, something I’m hesitant to build since it seems beyond my capabilities.
B) I thought wrongly that it might store some heat anyway.
C) the bricks around the insulated heat riser and the stone on the top hold heat.
D) This is a small little room where we make morning coffee or will go to when it’s cold and we’re working outside, so not much need for prolonged heat, although i made a fire at noon and at 7pm the room was still comfortably warm.
William

Hi Gerry. Thanks for the reply.
1) exhaust chimney not insulated. i could lokk into that.
2) the bench and “volcano slope” are just cob and old clay bricks. No pipes/no manifold. They don’t seem to collect much heat which is unfortunate.
3) i think internally the heat riser is about 30cm. I realized too late it was too big but the firebrick slabs didn’t really fit together well and i learned later how easy cutting brick is.
4) heat riser is insulated with perlite and surrounded by galvanized sheet roofing pounded out flat.
5) fire tunnel il 60 cm and 17cm tall. I built an extra front-piece to get the wood loading thing up higher to make a “J”. The gasses go up above the heat riser hmthen come down around the bricks and then 15 cm from the bottom they enter the exhaust pipe, so the outside temp reading around the inlet is lower than it would be up higher.
6) so far stone lid is ok. Went up to @ 90 celsius today. We’ll see.
Thanks again.

Gerry Parent wrote:
1) Is the exhaust chimney outside insulated or single wall pipe?
2) Is your bench a bell (hollow chamber) or is it a pipe run?
3) What are the dimensions of your heat riser? It looks really big to me from the photos. Overall dimensions also look off to me. Was your dog house the right size as a form to produce the necessary final dimensions for the core?
4) Is the heat riser insulated? This is the key place where high temperatures are needed to help burn up the wood gasses and produce a clean burn.
5) Can't exactly tell how the flow of gasses proceed beyond the top of the heat riser. Do they travel all around that brick mass or between the firebrick heat riser and metal shell?
6) The stone on top may very well crack and crumble from the intense expansion/contraction experienced over the heat riser if not protected with some insulation.

Finished product: