Forming Integral Flares

Oct 27, 2003 4 Replies
T

In researching propane burners (which in itself is a fun persuit, at least, when you keep you fingers away from the flame :), I've wondered upon other ways for the venturi and flare. A few days ago I cast some ZA-12 in a conical shape and pounded some brass tubing down over it, to stretch the end. This forms a pretty good flare, but is utterly useless on steel, because all the tubing I have (EMT, water pipe) is welded and it splits very early at the seam, even when orange hot. (Naturally, the peg also cools the metal very quickly - I can only get maybe 1 or 2 strikes against it before needing to heat again.) Any ideas around this? And don't say hydroforming damnit, I can't do that! ;)



I'm not opposed to forging, but I don't have any stake-ness to work this kind of inside surface against.



Tim


-- "That's for the courts to decide." - Homer Simpson Website @

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I

Spinning?

I have taken some 18mm steel tube (shower rail with the plastic coating peeled off) and simply chucked it in a (wood) lathe. Heated to low-red heat with a blowtorch, it can be trivially worked with a handheld polished steel rod. I made a tube with a neck going down to 4mm or so without trouble.

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S

I've forged flares out of black iron pipe. I happen to have a stake with the right taper to it, I figured how hard could it be? It turns out to be a whole lot of work (speaking as an amateur blacksmith with about

13 years experience). I have also bought stainless steel flares from Larry Zoeller snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net

Stainless flares last a *lot* longer than iron. They get pretty hot in use, at least in a forge. They also work far better than my forged flares, running smoother at a lower psi for the same burner assembly.

Steve Smith

Tim Williams wrote:

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T

Hmm.. What's the difficulty? I'd think it would be relatively easy with a good stake, just stretch it out as you go around.

Sure do! My cheezy-ass 30ga. galvy steel flares turn to 100% scale within half an hour of use, very fragile ;-)

Tim

-- "That's for the courts to decide." - Homer Simpson Website @

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