[Stoves] tuning a new stove

Wed Mar 26 13:54:36 CDT 2014

Dave,

What you are doing does sound very familiar to me (and probably to many 
others).   I started my experiments with what is now called TLUD back in 
2001.   And I have gone through many learning experiences.   I even 
recognize the coconut-juice cans (because they are of steel, not aluminum.)

I will encourage you to experiment.   You will learn much.   But I do 
not have time to repeat what I have already done.   There are more than 
10 years of messages in the Archives of this Stove Listserv that you can 
examine.

I respectfully recommend that you leap forward and conduct experiments 
using designs that are freely given by the people on this Listserv.
(Personally, I hope you will examine the TWO Troika documents at my 
website   www.drtlud.com   as a new starting design that is still in 
need of much significant experimentation that you seem very qualified to 
conduct.   And also see the various micro-gasifiers described in the 
manual by Christa Roth -- with new edition due VERY soon.   Christa, 
please tell us of the progress for release in digital and printed formats.)

Also, you will make major advances when you attend any of the Stove Camps.

And depending on where you live (almost anywhere in the world), there 
could be someone relatively close to you with whom you could gain much 
experience.   And I travel quite a bit, so I might be seeing you.    
Please tell us where you live?   Or maybe you will come  to visit me in 
Illinois where I have saved many of my earlier experiments and would be 
happy to show them to you.

Paul

Doc  /  Dr TLUD  /  Prof. Paul S. Anderson, PhD
Email:  psanders at ilstu.edu
Skype: paultlud      Phone: +1-309-452-7072
Website:  www.drtlud.com

On 3/25/2014 4:51 PM, David Young wrote:
> As I mentioned before, I'm interested in experimenting with coffee
> grounds as ND-TLUD fuel, and I've been reading the conversation between
> Jock and Crispin with great interest.  I've decided to set aside
> my previous TLUD, which was a very primitive MIDGE-like stove, and
> create a new one that has separate primary/secondary air supplies,
> some preheating of secondary air, and (I hope) some opportunities
> for improvement.  My goal with the new stove is to achieve cleaner
> combustion and to take control of the rate of combustion.
>
> After my old stove burned for a few minutes, red-orange flames would
> start to lick the top of the chimney.  If I put a pot of water on the
> stove, soot would cover its bottom.  If my understanding is correct,
> this means that the supply of wood gas from the primary combustion
> exceeds the air supply in the secondary combustion, or the secondary
> combustion is too cold, or both.
>
> My new stove is made from a stack of three 18-ounce steel beverage
> cans[1], bottom, middle, and top, and a 15-ounce vegetable can.
>
> Bottom can:  I cut up this can into there cylinders and made a primary
> air control from it.  I took the top off the top cylinder with a can
> opener, and then I cut a notch out of the bottom of the cylinder: this
> is the primary air aperture.  The middle cylinder, I slit along its
> height.  Then I folded out a tab for my fingers to grip.  I nestled the
> middle cylinder inside of the top cylinder.  That gave me an adjustable
> air aperture.  The bottom cylinder, I saved for a future project.
>
> Middle can: holds the fuel.  I have drilled 9 1/8-inch holes into the
> bottom of it to provide primary air.  I took the top off of the middle
> can with a can opener.
>
> Top can: serves as concentrating ring, secondary air supply, and
> chimney.  I have drilled 32 1/8-inch holes around the diameter of the top
> can, close to the bottom, and I cut a circular hole out of its bottom about
> 1 1/4-inch in diameter.
>
> In order to retain some heat in the chimney and pre-heat secondary air,
> I have cut a large hole into the bottom of a 15-ounce vegetable can and
> press-fit the chimney into it.
>
> I did not arrive at this arrangement all in one day, btw.  I started
> with two 18-ounce beverage cans (fuel can, chimney can), experimented
> some, and built up from there.
>
> I have attached some pictures of the parts and of the entire assembly.
>
> BTW, for consistency's sake, while I develop the stove, I'm burning
> wood pellets exclusively.  In order to shorten burn times, sometimes I
> fill my fuel canister most of the way with chunky char from previous
> tests, and then I fill to the top with wood pellets.
>
> In a test that I ran last night, the stove settled down a few minutes
> after starting into a blue flame with yellow tips.  There was no
> visible smoke at that stage.  Gradually the flame grew longer, and
> the top turned orange.  Sometimes a little flame would reach over
> the top of the secondary combustion chamber.  At that point, I tried
> to turn down the primary air in order to keep the combustion in the
> chamber.  I'm not sure if that upset the stove's equilibrium or if it
> was a coincidence, but the flame kept going out.  Sometimes it would
> spontaneously re-light with a pop, establishing a feeble blue flame
> that way.  The re-established flame would go out again fairly soon.
> Sometimes the stove did not re-light in a reasonable amount of time
> (there is only so much smoke I will tolerate!), and I had to restart the
> stove with a match.  Does this behavior sound familiar to anyone?
>
> Ordinarily, I would assume that wind was blowing out the stove, but the
> air outdoors was fairly still last night.  On the same table as the
> stove, a candle burned for the entire time that I experimented with the
> stove.
>
> I have been thinking about the variables that I can adjust to improve
> the stove's performance, and there are a lot: I can add more secondary
> air holes (or try to plug some up), remove the secondary-air preheater,
> shorten the preheater, create a gap between the primary chamber and the
> secondary with a wire, extend the chimney by a few inches above the
> preheater, etc.  Any advice what to try, first?
>
> Dave
>
>
>
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