cost of wood gasifier

High Ben, What would be a low, medium and high cost to building your designs. Additionally can you list tools and skills that would be needed please.

Also, do you have to be able to weld in order to make a gasifier? Thanks Kim

I was also interested in figuring out the cost of making a gasifier. What would be the small, medium and large size approximate cost if all labor and tools are all free and provided?

Sweet, I have your answers together in a free report I give out. It will give you costs, skills required and more.

http://members.woodgasifierplans.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/free-wood-gasifier-plans.pdf

Also see attached file in case that link ever dies.

Kim,

In order to get a gasifier built, someone is going to need to weld. But that someone doesn't have to be you. You could find a good blacksmith or a technical college or high school metal shop class to take it on. Welding is such a valuable skill to have and the price of welders has come down so much. For $1000 you can get these new small 200 amp mig welders from lincoln or miller. A weekend welding class could bear fruit.

I do lot's of crazy stuff, usually without much money just from being resourceful and making trades. If you could barter your time for welding time that would be cool.

Can you see this as a possible or cost effective way to go for someone living in an apt in a shtf scenario? What are the minimum requirements for safety in an apt setting? Is this dlable cost and legality wise in a rural setting if one is living in a tiny house? Trailrr?

What are minimum skills needed or abilities needed to do this?

Mindy Wolff

Mindy as I mentioned on another thread and Ben agreed A wood gassifier to do basic cooking could be easily made with a couple of cans that you may cook on and boil water. Ben mentioned this was a good idea for an urban environment as the other ones weight about 500 pounds. Kim

Thanks Ben, this document was really helpful and with tons of information. I was surprised how cheap it would be to make one if labor/welding/cutting is done by yourself.

I really appreciate it, you rock!!!

Cheers

Jan

Thanks Jan. Those cheap propane tanks are the magic sauce. And some good scrounging never hurts.

Mindy:
I would use the small cookstove in an apartment setting for heat and cooking. For power a single 12 volt solar panel is fine for charging phones. They sell these tiny little inverter generators (1800 watts) that are super quiet and use propane. I would get a big propane tank to stuff in the closet and one of those little gensets and you would be nicely prepared. Propane stores well and its good for grilling. See this link:

http://www.generatorsales.com/order/Honda-EU2000i-Tri-fuel.asp?page=EU2000i_Tri_Fuel

Thanks for the link to the costing Ben. Could you also comment on the level of welding skill/size/type of welder needed? I have a small MIG, flux core, unit I'm learning. Would a better unit be needed?

Ben Peterson wrote:Sweet, I have your answers together in a free report I give out. It will give you costs, skills required and more.

http://members.woodgasifierplans.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/free-wood-gasifier-plans.pdf

Also see attached file in case that link ever dies.

Thanks for the link, having a good read of it now.......

Max:
I like to see at least a 200 amp welder. There are some new ones by Lincoln and Miller in that size for only $1000 new! Crazy cheap in my opinion for a good machine.

You need basic skills, but nothing too fancy. I tried to make the joints overlap in the design so you have a good area to burn into and no need to grind any weld away.

Flux core is good wire and I use it for structural steel.

If its a really small mig welder that sold for $300 or $400 I would probably not use it because it won't have the power to melt into the metal. You must have air tight welds on most of the machine and a crack or weld that didn't penetrate could cause a safety issue or a performance issue. You could suck air into your gas stream and burn up some of your gas, making it weak on the flare side. Hard to troubleshoot!

Sounds like a nice time to recycle an informative thread with this book by a participant in it: Wood Gasifier Builder's Bible: Turn Tree Branches into Biofuel in Minutes

Quoting from the link: "Sheltering in? In times of war, natural disaster, pandemic & national emergency people have turned to a little known technology called wood gasification to transform sticks and branches from their own property into clean gaseous fuel."

Another interesting quote: "The Wood Gasifier Builder's Bible is a step-by-step construction manual to build a powerful woodgas generator with advanced features, yet needing only a minimal build budget. Wood gasification extracts the stored sunlight in wood to create a gaseous biofuel rich in hydrogen. It's like having your own personal scale natural gas refinery."