Author Topic: Propane Burner  (Read 6734 times)

Offline NormanV

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Propane Burner
« on: August 09, 2017, 06:03:44 AM »
A few years ago when I built my furnace for melting aluminium, I also built a burner to use propane. The design of the burner was a bit of a guess but it has been totally successful. It is simply a 1" tube with air holes and a 1mm jet for the gas.
What I have found though is that it works perfectly in the kiln but if I withdraw it, to use it for brazing,  the flame moves away from the end of the tube and goes out. I did read somewhere that fitting a cone on the end of the tube would help. I made a very crude cone from tin plate and indeed it did the trick, albeit a very broad and ragged flame. I have lost the cone and would like to make a proper attachment for the burner to allow me to do brazing. I have made a straight tube, larger in size, that fits onto it but the flame just blows out when I try to light it. Has anybody any suggestions on what I could do to make it burn out in the open and not just in the furnace?
Thanks, Norman


Offline NormanV

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Re: Propane Burner
« Reply #1 on: August 09, 2017, 08:22:15 AM »
I think that I have partially solved the problem myself. I covered over most of the holes and now get a flame that stays alight but is a bit on the large size for the brazing that I want to do.

Offline mattinker

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Re: Propane Burner
« Reply #2 on: August 09, 2017, 08:26:14 AM »
Norman,

Here is a photo of a burner that I made recently, it is based on Michael Porters excelent book "Gas burners for forges Furnaces and Kilns" this is a 3/4", it uses a 1" spacer (1" pipe size) and a piece of stainless that I reduced to fit on the outside. 75mm long is about right for the length, and, it doesn't need to be conical if it has the spacer. A 1" pipe burner uses 1 1/4 spacer and 1 1/2" stainless  for the "flare". Stainless stands up to the heat far better!

Offline NormanV

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Re: Propane Burner
« Reply #3 on: August 09, 2017, 03:21:33 PM »
Matt, that looks quite a bit more complicated than mine. When the sliding part is back and covering the slots does it pull air in at the back through the cone and do you get a nice conical blue flame?

Offline mattinker

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Re: Propane Burner
« Reply #4 on: August 09, 2017, 03:57:21 PM »
Norman,

the 'micky" burner is very efficient, the 3/4" when running wide open gives a nice conical flame 6 to 8" long. you can make it run lower, but this is for a small forge that I hope will get up to welding temperature!
Mickey's book starts with a 1/2" burner that will silver braze and works up to a 1 1/4" for ceramic kiln use!

I haven't made any videos yet, but there are a few on Youtube




Regards, Matthew

Offline catceefer

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Re: Propane Burner
« Reply #5 on: August 09, 2017, 04:56:40 PM »
Norman,

I do not know whether it will help, but I needed a torch for brazing a large copper structure and put together a torch to run on propane and compressed air from a normal compressor. I used an old oxy-acetylene torch as a basis. The torch worked well, with a fairly large flame. The details below are from a post that I made on another site. Later, I build a more refined version that gets hotter, uses less air and has a less wild flame.

The attached image gives the details and sizes of the torch.

Finally, I decided to build a compressed air assisted propane torch. I found some useful information on the internet and used it to build my own.

I took a disused oxy-acetylene torch and made a new nozzle to fit onto a swan neck. The sketch below gives the main dimensions, none of which seems to be too critical.

I made my torch before I had my lathe working, so everything it rather loose and wonky. I brazed it all together and it works.

I have connected the air line from the torch to the hose from a compressor and the gas line to the propane tank. I have blow-back arrestors in both hoses. I use the torch with the compressor and propane set to full.

The settings on the torch controls themselves is quite critical and needs careful setting. However, once the right combination of gas and air is found, the flame is quite compact, extremely hot and very noisy.

I used it on copper, using Rotherberger-Rolot S2 rods.

This short video shows the torch running. The flame is off-centre, mainly because the whole thing is a little wonky. 
&feature=youtu.be


Regards,

James.

Offline chipenter

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Re: Propane Burner
« Reply #6 on: August 09, 2017, 05:38:32 PM »
I think you need a flair , a shallow expanding taper on the tube that fits over the burner , then adjust the flame by the pressure regulator .
Jeff

Offline NormanV

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Re: Propane Burner
« Reply #7 on: August 10, 2017, 02:40:35 PM »
Thank you all, there are a few ideas there for me to mess around with. I know that I am trying to reinvent the wheel, messrs, Seivert and Bullfinch have gone there before but I am trying to do it without spending any money. I'll have to go to a few car boot sales and see what I can find.

Offline drmico60

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Re: Propane Burner
« Reply #8 on: August 11, 2017, 12:50:10 PM »
Here is another propane burner based on the Mike Porter design:
http://mikesworkshop.weebly.com/propane-burner.html
Mike

Offline russ57

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Re: Propane Burner
« Reply #9 on: August 11, 2017, 10:58:31 PM »
Search for 'Ron reil' burner - he was an early 'practitioner of the art' of homebuilt burners - if I recall, his web pages also cover some other styles, all of which inspired mike porter to develop his, with I believe higher efficiency.

-russ


Offline mattinker

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Re: Propane Burner
« Reply #10 on: August 12, 2017, 04:31:44 AM »
Ron Reil was the person that inspired my first burner. Micky Porter came along later, he did a lot of research and, in my opinion, came up with a better more efficient design. One of the thing about Micky's design is the use of MIG welding tips for jets, cheap and far better than anything home made!

Regards, Matthew.