Gas forge revisited

Hi Rusty,

Yeah Ron's a cool dude, he's working on replicating the wonder burner I own (that's not it's name it's just very good). The burner allows me to smelt/melt bronze and brasses in 5 - 10 minutes from a cold start. Sure it's more to do with casting, but casting and forging both have their uses in what I do, and both use very similar technology. Anyway I managed to take detailed photos, and even a 3d cut-away with lightwave, so hopefully he can make this burner that the company in Australia doesn't make anymore (today they make a less efficient burner for industry... bastards).

The galvanized bell shouldn't heat up enough to be an issue, as long as you have a removable flare. I found that the gal water pipe for the burner tube, and the air intake gal bell didn't heat up at all.

However as I was a little tricky when I made mine I got a 1 inch pipe connector (also gal), ground it down and force fit it into a stainless steel ex-exhaust pipe flare, so when the flare burns out I can replace it. The pipe connector is the only part that the zinc comes off, so I let it burn for a while when I was inside having a cuppa and when I came back there was no zinc fume issue... well in this case anyway.

Recently I found a large bore gal pipe (came from a section of a hills hoist), about 2" diameter, I got it to work, but the burner tube is getting hot this time, so I will have to make a flare for it, to avoid any zinc fume issues.

Regards Charles P.S. I've had zinc flu and I definitely don't want it again.

Don't bother taking the galv off, it won't cause any trouble.

You can buy stainless burner flares (the hot end) from Larry Zoeller. I've forged flares--they were a *lot* of work, despite having a tapered stake, they didn't last long (made from black pipe), and when I replaced them with Larry's flares I found that his work a lot better, you can run a stable flame down to a lot lower pressure (like if the forge is idling while you do something else).

has all kinds of useful stuff, good guy.

Steve

Rusty_ir>Gday all,

Does anyone have one of the Tank Manifold Kits? How do you find them? Anyone with a review?

Regards Charles

Steve Smith wrote:

Sure I could buy them, but I'd have to wait for them to be shipped from the states, and I've have to spend the money and I've already spent too much..... :-)

I fould this tutorial for making your own rolled flares, I intended to use some scrap stainless sheet I found in a dumpbin, and see how thay go.

I now have all the parts, bar a few gas fittings and the hose.

Ok so while I wait for the gal to etch off, who can answer the question about piezo igniter. How and where on the burner do i mount this thing? Do I need a sparkplug attached? or will the unit on the end of the lead do the job?

Rusty_ir> Don't bother taking the galv off, it won't cause any trouble.

Yeah, it sounded like you would have some shipping time from your earlier post.

The flares from sheet stainless are pretty interesting. Please let us know how they work, especially how long the flares last. They are sure easy to replace.

The comment was made in the article that you don't need a flare on a burner used inside a forge. You don't need one to keep the burner lit, but you do need some way to keep the flame where you want it, at the end of the burner. This is much more useful than a flame that crawls back up the burner body. The flare is a reliable way to do this, there are others, but I don't know of anything better.

Steve

Rusty_ir>Sure I could buy them, but I'd have to wait for them to be shipped from

And

Really cool thanks. :)

Seems like that would depend on where it's at and hot it's going to get there? What could be easier than a spark plug tho? :)

Alvin in AZ

Yeah, he said he didn't understand what was going-on, at that point.

Bet he's got a good guess now tho. :)

My guess is the situation he was talking about was forming-its-own speed reduction spot inside the crowded burning area with the crucible and all? So the walls and the pot were the "flare"? If so, sounds pretty efficient.

That's what happened to me when I melted and cast 95 lbs of lead and 65 lbs of lead, twice each (four pours).

(removed the two-headed part)

Alvin in AZ ps- "whats the matter with you boy? you got lead in your bumper?" "why yes sir, as a matter of fact, I do :)"

(homemade mold that would work for both sides)

(two 1 gallon cans, since they had to be torn-off)

(bolt placement was very important to me)

pps- 322 lbs of lead and hardware equals (right at) 120 lbs taken off the front axle and 442 lbs of traction-weight added to the rear axle all with 322 lbs in the bumper

ppps- yeah well, my excuse is, I got struck by lightning :)