[TheForge] Problems with propane burner

[Ralph Sproul]

    Frosty and Marc,  I'm using a 10" section before I hit the two 90 degree
elbows on my burners.  I used the two 90's for a few reasons.  (all found by
trial and error over 8 different burner "ideas" or "progressions")   :-)
..........or more likely put as "oh shit, that don't work to
good"..........and back to the drawing board.

    1)to slow down the velocity of the straight burner tubes and keep the
"cold spots" off the floor from unburned gases.
    2)it provided better mixing
    3) it created a "trap" that would allow the burner to idle at 1/2 psi as
the "chimney effect of a straight up burner took 5-8 psi to keep the burner
idling..........and I didn't consider that any form of fuel savings.
    4) the 10" section gives the induction into the two 90 degree sweeps
that form the "trap" a good enough velocity to mix the gas and leave me with
a burner flame that is 1" off the floor - yielding no cold spots.  I'm using
2" radius weld t's for the 90's.......all the same inside ID.


    I have gone from the slotted burners to the reducing T's(Side arm).  I'm
using 1 1/4 to 1 in the sizes and get great results.  The slotted burners
ended up being affected by as little a breeze as my modine style ceiling
furnace fan distorting the burner performance.  I classify these new side
arm T burners as "windproof" or maybe "wind resistant" might be a better
term.   I can place a 24" shop fan on one side of the forge(opposite the
burners) and it does not affect the burners at all.  It takes an updraft to
change the burner performance so that's why we can call it "wind resistant".
    I find the 1 1/4" stainless flare needs to be placed 1 1/4 -1 3/8" up
the 1" burner tube and tack welded in that position. The jet is located
about 1/2" before the entrance into the 1" reduction section of the T.
    The ends of my furnace are wide open.
    Doug Wilson has one of these forges and claims he can slide the bricks
in and do forge welding in it...........but then again, Doug can forge weld
just about anything.  I have not tried as of yet.  I'm positive his results
would be better than mine :-)

    Hope some of this helps.

Ralph

>
> I always use street ells to minimize turbulence, weld ells are much
better.
>
> Ralph's burners use a more conventional configuration for the air intake,
> he's slotted the pipe behind the jet and uses a sleeve to control air
> intake. This is the basic commercial configuration simply because it works
> better than most. Drawing intake air through either a single or double
> intake "T" is used commercially to develope high volume vacuum. Basically
> we're making suckers instead of blowers. Regardless, there's a surplus of
> performance in either configuration that allows us to make excellent
burners
> for a few bucks.
>
> Also, Ralph's tube is straight for a goodly distance before it hits the
> bends.
>
> Lastly I could certainly be wrong about wider turns being better than
> tighter ones. Smooth could well be much more important than radius.
>
> >
>  >
> > > Lastly, how completely are you closing your forge up? If you're not
> allowing
> > > enough opening for exhaust gasses to escape you're really building
back
> > > pressure and inhibiting your burner performance.
> >