Making your own lump?

Davec433 · November 2015

Saw the instructable on Naked Whiz:
http://www.nakedwhiz.com/makinglump.htm

Has anyone done it?

Carolina Q · November 2015

At the price of RO, there's not a chance I would bother. If I had to pay for RW, I might.

bud812 · November 2015

You would go to jail in Californiastan for doin that.

GATraveller · November 2015

You can make your own cloths also.......does that mean you should??

Image: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/c3/53/ff/c353ffefbf0ff3f1d3e7beb2558a1239.jpg

stlcharcoal · November 2015

Carolina Q said:

At the price of RO, there's not a chance I would bother. If I had to pay for RW, I might.

You'd be better off selling it for firewood. It's a 6:1 to 7:1 ratio from what you start with to what you end up with.

I did cost study on my wood stove. From what I spent buying and having cord wood delivered to my house it was a huge loss. Then I looked at what I spent doing it myself with saw chain sharpening/gas/chain oil/etc before I factored all my time and wear on other equipment (ATV, trailer, tractor, timberjack, etc.)......not much savings even if my time was worth nothing. I couldn't believe it because I ran that wood stove for almost 2 months straight and only saved about $20/month on the utility bill. I finally figured out where all my electricity was going--hot water. I have a geothermal system, so when it's not running, I'm paying for hot water--otherwise it's a byproduct via a desuperheater. Also, every time I opened the door to get wood, I let out heat and dropped the humidity in the house--so my humidifier was kicking on more than normal even though I had the kettles on top of the stove. I realize this was pretty nerdy, but it's what I needed to do to convince myself that I didn't need to be out screwing with the chainsaw......that thing is friggin dangerous even with all the safety gear I had on.

Davec433 · November 2015

Yeah making my own lump would be something I'd do once. I really don't think I'd be outside swingin an ace busting up wood into dust sized pieces in a regular basis, it's a lot of hard work.

Beavercreek_Smoker · November 2015

Yea I did that once. I had free oak from a downed tree. So I cut the chunks bought a metal trash can and built a huge fire. I drilled a 1/8" hole in the lid and let the fire burn out. Next day, I had charcoal. The volume of about 1/4 the amount of the wood I burnt up to make it. Tried using it for a couple of cooks but just way to smoky. I ended up using it to start fires in the fire pit. No regrets though, I think about that every time I open my wallet to buy more charcoal. $15 for a bag is well worth it.

Davec433 · November 2015

@Beavercreek_Smoker good to hear it's to smokey before I went down that rabbit hole.

DoubleEgger · November 2015

NPHuskerFL · November 2015

Will gladly pay for RW. I barely have time for anything let alone making lump. Cool home process but, I'll stick to buying it.

Mikee · November 2015

stlcharcoal said:

I did cost study on my wood stove. From what I spent buying and having cord wood delivered to my house it was a huge loss. Then I looked at what I spent doing it myself with saw chain sharpening/gas/chain oil/etc before I factored all my time and wear on other equipment (ATV, trailer, tractor, timberjack, etc.)......not much savings even if my time was worth nothing.

Maybe things have changed. The cost of a chainsaw, chains, sharpening tools, and gas/oil over a 10 year period is cheap. 20 years ago the only source of heat I had was a wood stove. It cost me well under $40 to heat the house for the whole season once the chainsaw was paid for.

stlcharcoal · November 2015

Mikee said:

stlcharcoal said:

I did cost study on my wood stove. From what I spent buying and having cord wood delivered to my house it was a huge loss. Then I looked at what I spent doing it myself with saw chain sharpening/gas/chain oil/etc before I factored all my time and wear on other equipment (ATV, trailer, tractor, timberjack, etc.)......not much savings even if my time was worth nothing.

Maybe things have changed. The cost of a chainsaw, chains, sharpening tools, and gas/oil over a 10 year period is cheap. 20 years ago the only source of heat I had was a wood stove. It cost me well under $40 to heat the house for the whole season once the chainsaw was paid for.

Times have changed, but when I compare the cost on my utility bill in Sept vs. Jan, it's about $80 for 1000 kwh with all other factors being equal. When I ran the wood stove for two months non-stop, it dropped to about a $20 in a similar climate. I'm sure if it was electric or gas heat, it would be significant, but this ground source heat pump is just crazy efficient. For $20/month I'll just run the geothermal and keep the wood stove for the power outages.

BTW, all my two cycle stuff got expensive now that I need to buy the premixed fuel at the hardware store to avoid the ethanol. I'm tired of having rebuilt or replace my carburetors every year. I run AVGAS is my generator, power washer, and other 4-cycle stuff. The 10% ethanol runs fine in my modern vehicles (except for the reduced milage), but it's terrible in our antique cars and small engines.

nolaegghead · November 2015

We have erhanol-free gas all over on account of all the boating here. Look for boat launches. Often there will be a gas station that carries it.

Mikee · November 2015

My guess is that the ground source heat pump is 2x as efficient as resistive heat. Right now in my area electric heat would cost me $180 to heat my apartment during the middle of winter. With an efficient ground source method of heating that could be cut in half. That would equate to $90 a month. Firewood could cut that by another $70 a month. Now a days I would rather spend the money on paying for heat rather than cutting and splitting firewood. Things change from when you are in your twenties to when you are in your fifties.

stlcharcoal · November 2015

nolaegghead said:

We have erhanol-free gas all over on account of all the boating here. Look for boat launches. Often there will be a gas station that carries it.

We used to order 1000 gallons at a time of 93 premium non-ethanol for the flight operation I ran. We had auto-gas STC's on the helicopters and would sneak it onto the airport in 5 gallon cans. It saved a ton of money not just on the per gallon cost, but the stopped the valve sticking problems. 50/50 mix with 100LL was the way to go.....just enough to cushion the valves, but not enough to gunk up the guides.

MO state law exempts aircraft fuel and premium fuels, but all the counties around St. Louis require it even in premium fuel. The lobbies also got it pushed through that they don't need to label the pumps, so to be sure, you have to do you're own alcohol test. It's pretty easy--take a test tube and fill it a quarter of the way with water, mark the line with a sharpie, add fuel, then shake. If the level moves up, there is ethanol.....it mixed with the water.

nolaegghead · November 2015

I run ethanol free in my boats, mower, all 2-cycle engines, generators, everything except the cars and bikes.

The requirement was taking advantage of the MTBE phase out (an early oxygenate that loves to haul-asss in the groundwater polluting and it's toxic) and giving the farmers a huge gift in terms of regulatory inflation of corn prices.

I would bet just about everyone on this forum has spent hundreds or even thousands of dollars fixing or replacing damaged motors and fuel systems that would have otherwise been fine had there not been ethanol in their fuel. You probably didn't think it was the ethanol when your fuel turned into jelly and clogged up your carb. It probably was.

It's a huge piece of bad legislation. With ECUs, oxygen sensors, knock sensors, mass flow sensors, etc, there's no significant emission improvement with ethanol except in rich combustion, and an ECU will run a stoichiometric mixture. Makes me mad as hell the special interests keep us all suffering.

stlcharcoal · November 2015

@nolaegghead

Man are we on the same page here.....scary. I get so sick of our local politicians bragging about how cheap gas is here in the Midwest. It's $1.70/gallon right now, but I average 2-3 MPG more when I drive with fuel that's ethanol free. They tried to get it bumped to 15% a few years ago and thank god it got shut down.

What gets me is that yes, the corn farmers got a huge gift (as an occasional corn farmer, I benefitted), but that extra $$$ per bushel didn't go very far to pay for the milk, beef, bread, etc that went way up because everyone wants to grow corn rather than wheat, soybeans, etc. All of these crops can get exported easily, so it's not like we were hurting to sell the corn.

Both of the company Expeditions are FlexFuel, but good luck finding a station anywhere that sells E85. I used to be near one every once and a while and tried E85 in the old company Explorer. The RPMs would fluctuate at idle 200-300, then if I tried to tow the charcoal trailer it felt like I was running on 2 cylinders. I averages 12-13 MPG when I normally got about 18 on the highway. The fuel was only 25% cheaper, so it was a wash not factoring in the potential damage. Now E85 is just as much or MORE than regular 87. Plus it costs a lot more to produce.

I'm all for the environment and getting off of oil, but this stuff is not the answer. I was worth a shot, but let's give natural gas a whirl Electric is pretty cool too--drove a Tesla P85D earlier this year and WOW!!!!

RiverRatSkier · November 2015

@stlcharcoal Not sure if you are familiar or not, but there is an ap for that. Puregas is an ap that will show you the nearest station that sells non oxygenated gas. It does look like the immediate vicinity of St. Louis does not have anything listed, but there are some surrounding areas that have it. Maybe you get near one of them at some point and can pick up a few cans worth.

It sucks that it needs to be difficult to find an appropriate fuel for a mass market product. Sucks more that the majority of the population does not know there is a problem.

Mikee · November 2015

nolaegghead said:
I would bet just about everyone on this forum has spent hundreds or even thousands of dollars fixing or replacing damaged motors and fuel systems that would have otherwise been fine had there not been ethanol in their fuel.

Never had a problem with ethanol fuel and that includes the boat and generator. It doesn't gel. Even the old style gas would turn to monkey piss in a year.

nolaegghead · November 2015

@stlcharcoal This is definitely ripe for bipartisan support. Ethanol based fuels actually have a larger carbon footprint. And they FN suck.

@Mikee - if you have low humidity conditions and new equipment...and if you use that equipment frequently you are not going to have problems with 10% ethanol. That said, and say, as a hypothetical it had no negative impact on engine performance or maintenance, you should be aware that we're burning more fuel making the ethanol than we get out of it in energy if it was not there. Couple that with we're turning food in a world where people are malnourished into fuel, that's abundant, just because we are operating on a theoretical basis of inefficient engine technology from decades ago and applying that as an excuse to satisfy corn farmers that we're trying to ween off of government subsidies.

My progressive science super-ego as well as id, and logic (gawd forgive) all tell me that's bad for the economy, environment, the consumer and the future of our planet.

Mikee · November 2015

@nolaegghead Ethanol fuels do have issues but they have been exaggerated. I seen mechanics, and owners, blaming ethanol fuel for their issues. The mechanic at my marina said he seen several fuel tanks with lots of water. Phase separation does not leave water in the fuel tank. Someone with water in the tank has a leak. Ethanol fuel when stabilized should last 2 years, no different than before,

As for mpg, 10% ethanol will reduce gas mileage by 3%. Not the 10-20% some claim. I agree it does not affect the performance. It can enhance the performance.

I don't see people starving because we use more corn for ethanol. The reason is that we grow more corn. There is still plenty of corn. Is a farmer going to sell his harvest for le$$ for ethanol production vs higher prices to feed people?

Darby_Crenshaw · November 2015

Read 'the omnivore's dilemma"

the more corn we subsidize, the poorer the farmers get

ethanol is a shell game. No need for it

Making your own lump?

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