Home built burner

20$ for the book, another 30 in parts, your halfway to the price of the Rex and you haven't even started yet :-) Personally I value my time pretty highly. I know I sound like a salesman but I mean every word when I talk up those things. I've never seen better.

GA

Had one of those. Traded her in on smoother model :-) Like the "good book" says "better a corner in an attic than a palace with a shrew".

GA

TG I've got a shed full of home brew to retire to if the going gets too rough ;-)

It's okay to retreat as long as there's beer involved ;-)

Regards Charles

Mike is a gentleman to talk to, apparently he's coming out with another book, but I don't know when it'll see the light of day. I'm on a casting list that he's on.

The people that want to build burners aren't necessarily doing it for the cash saving, sometimes it's to create "the" burner. The book gives the novice the basics, and has a lot of designs for forges and furnaces as well as the burners.

Eventually you can figure out your own designs, as stated earlier in this thread I've designed a very useful burner that is more than hot enough for a home forge, furnace or heating application. It is also very easy to make. The only hard bits are the gas welds, and even those aren't difficult.

Definitely worth buying the book... and no I don't get a commission on sales ;-)

Regards Charles

Hey all, In the original post the author stated he was in Thailand and duties and shipping added to much to the cost of an already $150. burner. I built mine out of the scrap pile for next to $0.00, from stainless even! No question about the merits of a genuine Rex. But I still think it's like comparing a Vette to a Ferrari, the only much difference is about $100K. GSG

Kyle J. wrote:

So, what list would that be? Been reading lindsay books catalog way too much.....:)

matthew ohio

I'll send you an invite... bugger inviting seems to be not activated on this list, so :-

Hope to see you there soon.

Regards Charles

And that's the first rule of a good woman - You have to be _allowed_ to retreat when you decide it's time.

GA

Picture! :)

Alvin in AZ

No. :/ Oh heck, wasn't expecting an email... :)

You got no place to host your pictures? :)

And one step from "File 13" is file12...

Email the picture/s again and I'll look for them (this time;) and post them if you want?

Alvin in AZ

If it works, it works. :)

Alvin in AZ

Looks interesting.

I'd use black iron pipe - less zinc in the air.

Having a Ron's version - I suspect you use force air -

I have Ron's version with a large reducer on the end. No fan is needed it draws and the bell increases the velocity.... My torch roars.

Whatever. I also suggest adding a flair to the protective outer pipe you have - it will stabilize the flame on a cold unit or a low flame.

Looks like it got hot! What pressure were you running ? assume propane.

Martin

Mart> Chilla wrote:

I agree use black iron if you can get it, but zinc fumes are not a problem with this the burner tube stays cold. The stainless steel flare (and it's an alloy used in exhaust pipes) gets hot, but that's it for heating up.

The option for forced air is available, but I don't need it for melting brass and bronze. Maybe when I start making wootz I'll have to use forced air, at this time I only need propane.

It gets hot enough to do the job, I've run it from 50 KPa to 300 KPa, hence the discolouration. The flare has only changed colour, no deformation or corrosion, the alloy is really suited to this purpose.

Regards Charles

Mart> Looks interesting.

psi = kPa/6.89 or 7 psi to 43 psi (or 3 atm's)

Forced I guess 43 would be a bit hot - I run in the 30's and it is hot! Naturally it was near the sea level - 400' - rich in oxygen - lots of trees

That seems to get plenty hot and handle more than enough pressure for small furnaces.

Good job.

Had to get my mental cap on - I was working in Slugs and Frigories:-)

Martin

Mart> I agree use black iron if you can get it, but zinc fumes are not a

Many of you may or may not know me. I was one of the original group who started this list a number of years ago. I don't have time very often to read or post to newsgroup lists so I am probably not recognized by most of the new guys. However, many of you are probably familiar with my burner information web site and my Reil and EZ burner designs.

It is not necessary to remove the galvanizing from burner tubes. Black iron can rust and become rough inside, which reduces the gas flow and efficiency of your burner. There is little or no risk in using galvanized pipe for your burner tube, and it is actually to your advantage to leave it on the pipe. If you ever do get the end hot enough to gasify the Zink, which you shouldn't if it is mounted correctly, the tiny amount of fumes coming off will not have any impact on you. You should not be breathing the fumes from your forge anyway. Most of the gasses are not particularly dangerous, but they are not particularly good for you either. If you lightly file/sand the inside of the galvanized burner tube it will become very smooth and will remain that way, insuring maximum gas flow through the tube.

As to the thread about burners, the T-Rex burner is by far the finest naturally aspirated propane burner available in the world today. So much so that NASA is buying them from Rex, and NASA needed the hottest possible burner for the application they are using them for. NASA coined the phrase "high intensity burner" when discussing the T-Rex. One of the things that make the Rex burners so superior is their tuned design. They will operate smoothly from zero gage pressure, actually an ounce or two depending on the sensitivity of the gage, up to the flow limit of the jet, which is reached when the gas velocity through the jet reaches the velocity of sound, about

1100 feet per second....what I refer to as "the wall" on my web site.

Rex and I have been discussing designing a blown version of the Rex burner. With a blown T-Rex you would easily be able to melt steel, or any other metals you might wish to cast or alloy. On my web site I have a section about "How Hot Can These Burners Get," if I remember the title correctly, and there you can see one of my burner designs being used to melt and alloy metals that require 3,300° to liquefy. Please don't blame me for the total lack of safety exhibited there.

I noticed a lot of discussion further up the list about the "Combustion Handbook" and burner design. There is a lot more to burner design than you will find in that book, which is sitting here on my desk as I write this. Burners are all about fluid dynamics, and once you get the basic engineering design complete, then it is a matter of making iteration after iteration of your design to home in on one that works really well. The Rex burner required almost two years to perfect. There is as much art in burner design, as engineering, with a little bit of common sense and serendipity thrown in as well, and no, there isn't a good burner book available out there anywhere....just doesn't exist. You need to gather all the available information, and then draw from all of it to build a burner. It may take you a long while to come up with a good one, or you may never do so.

A closing comment and I will go tend to my horses. One of my horses, Glow, was horribly mauled by a cougar two months ago, and she has required my almost constant attention since then, which hasn't left much time for forge work. You can see Glow's injury at the bottom of my Home and Shop page linked below....but this isn't the comment. I wanted to warn you new guys about mounting your propane bottle below your forge on your forge cart. That is a very cute and neat way to go about it, but it also a very foolish arrangement. Propane bottles have safety blow-off valves that can malfunction, not to mention the hose and regulator you have on them. Do yourself and your loved ones a big favor and get a heavy commercial grade propane hose made, not a BBQ hose, that will allow you to position your tank at least 15' from your forge when you are using it. When you have the hose made, also have a flexible spring steel armor sheath put on it so if you drop a hot, or sharp, piece of steel on it sometime, it will be protected and eliminate the possibility of you being horribly burned, or worse.

I currently have a thousand gallon propane tank that feeds my shop, home, and emergency generator, and next week that will increase to 2000 gallons. I have a regulator on the tank, one on the line coming into the shop, and one on my forge. On my web pages I speak of double regulation, which I consider a minimum requirement, and as I have done here on my ranch, triple regulation is even better. Double regulation also provides you with a stable operating pressure even as your tank pressure changes, assuming the use of single stage regulators. Double stage regulators are very stable with just one, but you have greater safety with two.

Ron Reil

Golden Age Forge

Garden Valley, Idaho Phone: (208) 462-4028

Ron, thanks for dropping in. I just wanted to say a lot of us have gained immeasurably by your work and web pages. I hope your horse gets over the cougar attack.

Regards,

Pete Keillor

Aw aren't you the guy on one of the casting Yahoo! lists ;-)

I agree Ron,

The burner tube shouldn't get hot at all, well my crude efforts haven't anyway. My pipes stay cold, only the flare gets hot.

I found that a stainless steel flare does the trick nicely, I can replace that as needed. Haven't needed to yet, as I used a stainless meant for high temperatures.

The T-Rex wasn't what I needed, as I was only melting bronze and this doesn't take much in the way of rocket science.

I haven't used forced air through my crude burner, maybe it will work for what I need to do, but if not a T-Rex with forced air sounds just about right :-)

Definitely a good safety tip, something I never really considered, all my fittings are industrial fittings, but are still rubber tubes :-(

Aw now you've made me jealous, my wife threatened to leave me if I got a tank like that :-(

Regards Charles