Home built burner

Not I.

I use two pieces of 1" gal pipe, one 9" long and the other 2" a brass elbow, a straight connector, a 2" piece of stainless pipe to fit the connector, a 0.8 mm mig tip and a piece of brass tube, and finally some brass connectors to fit to the gas tube.

It works for me.

Regards Charles

K4556 wrote:

DO NOT USE GAVANIZED PIPE Use black pipe anywhere that will get hot so as not to poison yourself. Blacksmiths have been seriously hurt and killed by zinc poisoning in the couple of years since I started paying attention. You don't want to go there.

I've never built a Rex style burner but I bought one. As far as I'm concerned they are the best of the bunch. I can't say my experience is very broad but I've experimented with venturi burner designes and seen some home and commercially made forced air burners in action and I'd take the Rex hands down over them all. I did manage to make a decent venturi burner but it was just ok. Nowhere near the range of use I get out of the Rex. If you have the means to machine one then by all means do it. The smoothness of the bore is important as is being able to control the air intake.

If you build one from pipe and fittings then take the time to sand out the interior areas and weld or otherwise fill in any transitional areas. Have a good choke design that will give you a smooth full range of air intake from wide open to nil. You can buy welding wire feed tips in various sizes to use for your gas port. Try a few sizes to see what works best for your burner. Lots of folks want to talk about varying the pressure on the gas with a guage. That's fine but you can operate with just a needle valve and restrict the volume.

I had fun building burners. When it was all said and done, the one I bought was not much more expensive than buying parts to make your own. Something else I recently discovered was the ceramics suppliers may carry burners you can buy. I recently saw a commercially made venturi burner for kilns for 40 USD. Don't know how well it works but it might be a way to go. Anybody know anything about these?

GA

So is there any truth the drinking lots of milk for an antedote to welding galvanized?

matthew ohio

I have been in the metal working business for a long time so fabrication and materials is not a problem. My main interest was in whether the REX type burner was really best or whether there was a certain amount of "hype" involved.

I have become very cynical about much of the information on the WEB since everyone, and their brother, is now posting what they purport to be the word of God and about some subject, or another, that they know nothing about.

Thanks for the information and if I am successful I'll post dimensions, materials and construction method.

Again, thanks to all for the info.

Much snipped

Ibid (k4556ATinetDOTcoDOTth)

This certainly was a cure much touted by older welders when I was a apprentice however I never saw it applied in practice. Personally I always thought it prudent to grind the galvanizing off before I ran a bead.

Ibid (k4556ATinetDOTcoDOTth)

I have no reference for this, but the way I heard it, milk is a little congestive--creates flem in your lungs. I can see how this might protect you up front , but now how this would help after the fact.

Steve

I've built maybe 20 of these burners:

Steve

K4556 wrote:

Hi Kyle,

Good if you can get black pipe, and if you can I would advise you to do this.

However with the design I outlined galvanised pipe isn't an issue. The flare is the only part that gets seriously hot and the straight connector is stripped of zinc when it is made to force fit the stainless steel flare.

The burner tubes stay "cold", the accelerator stays cold, even the brass elbow stays cold, so there's no issue with "Zinc Flu" or heavy metal poisoning at all ;-)

I like the simplicity of the design as it's more than adequate for any purpose, efficient and extremely easy to build. Added to this you have the option to add forced air if you need to. Doing forging or bronze melting I haven't needed forced air. Now that I'm setting up for wootz, I'm glad I have air as an option.

A burner is only as good as the unit it goes into.

A Bernzomatic JTH-7 (available everywhere) will melt bronze in 3-5 minutes when used with a suitably make micro furnace, or a 1 brick forge. No effort what-so-ever.

Regards Charles

Kyle J. wrote:

No, I think it's just something to make give you hope. A mild case will make you sick for about 48 hours, and you feel like you have flu, hence the name "Zinc Flu".

Regards Charles

I use one in my furnace myself. Martin

Mart> Too much work ;-) Charles

Want to be your life on it? There's other options - like not burning zinc. I've got a buddy who sniffed some zinc while welding on a fence pole. He drank some milk and came out fine. Personally I think it was all the cigarrettes he smokes.

GA

Gday all,

Be warned, this is what i did, I used saftey gear - glasses, gloves and a plastic apron. Do this outside as the gas released can be hydrogen and this is EXPLOSIVE. So DON'T SMOKE!!!! no naked flames sparks etc. This is a potentially dangerous process, YOU MAY BE INJURED and I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY IF YOU TRY THIS, it is off your own back, I supply this for your information only. CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED.

Best option 'IN MY OPINION' is to avoid the problem. When collecting the bits for my burner, I couldn't easily get black Iron fittings, so I used gal, but i etched the gal off first, which took most of it off. I used Phosphoric acid, as that what I had - its the stuff they use to eat rust away. I was told by a former galvanizer, that the best acid to use is Hydrochloric acid - also sold as pool acid. Be careful if you do this, acid is dangerous, always add acid to water not the other way round. Btw, I was also told that the liquid left after etching the gal with hydrochloric acid, makes a good flux for soldering.

I repeat: Be warned, this is what i did, I used saftey gear - glasses, gloves and a plastic apron. Do this outside as the gas released can be hydrogen and this is EXPLOSIVE. So DON'T SMOKE!!!! no naked flames sparks etc. This is a potentially dangerous process, YOU MAY BE INJURED and I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY IF YOU TRY THIS, it is off your own back, I supply this for your information only. CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED.

That Said, this is what Ron Reil said on the subject:

"There is absolutely no reason to burn off any galvanizing on a burner bell or even on the burner tube. It is better if they are galvanized to prevent rust degradation of the burner over time. Yes, there will be a tiny amount of zinc burned off the tube when you first fire up a new burner, but nothing of any concern. If you are concerned, go outside for a half hour when you first start up a new burner. If your burner bell ever gets hot enough to burn off the galvanizing, a bigger issue will be the fire in your shop or garage as it is burning down. Burner bells should remain at bare hand temperature always, except right after you shut down, and only then will they get a little warmer, but certainly not warm enough to vaporize zinc....again your shop is burning down if they do. The amount of misinformation out there about galvanizing zinc and burners is huge."

Ron is a very experienced smith and designer of burners. But I still decided to opt to remove the gal.

Regards Rusty_iron

Never tried, never will. :)

matthew ohio

That makes sense I guess, just something my shop teacher told us years back. Did a quick google on it before posting, just repeated what I heard back then.

matthew ohio

Thanks Charles :)

Having once taken a welder with an acute case of zinc poisoning to the hospital I'd recommend not getting it, milk or no milk.

This chap had been brazing the corners of galvanized sheet metal "drip pans". About lunch time he began to experience severe abdominal cramps and about 20 minutes later we were driving him to the hospital. The original diagnosis was acute appendicitis and only the Boss's loud protestations convinced the doctors to have a look in the "poison book" before they started cutting.

Ibid (k4556ATinetDOTcoDOTth)

Ya k4, The REX burners are as good as you can get with an aspirated type burner. They produce a flame that is stable across a broad range of pressures. There is a book out by a guy named Michael Porter. He shows you how to build burners that are very much like the REX product. The book is not all that well written but the basic data is very good and it's only $20.US. It helps if you have a lathe and milling machine but Porter shows you how to rough them with hand tools. The Rex burners use the same principles but have been tweaked up a notch and are finely constructed. However, the increase in performance is infintesimal! Both burners will fire a forge hotter than you are likely to ever need. If you have more time than money, like me, make them yourself. If you want a link to check out the book let me know.

Glen G. in Pittsburgh

Zinc can be nasty but it really isn't that toxic. What will really POISON you is Cadmium.

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K4556 wrote:

You obviously aren't married to a viper, the sharp side of my wife's tongue can whither me to my core :-(

Regards Charles