Mikey98118

update: It took some time to find an up/down 110V to 220V transformer I was comfortable with purchasing. Finally found a Japanese model for $110. It arrived today, so I could finally check out the grinder on full power; there was pretty good power for such a small grinder, but the speed control circuit did not work at all. I don't personally mind that, since I plan to run speed control through a separate circuit, but others would probably feel ticked off by that. All in all, am still happy with the purchase.

Okay; I definitely advise you to go ahead and use your burner as a torch. Pay no attention to what those other guys said

To add to what Buzzkill and Frosty told you: (1) You have twice the amount of 3/4" burners needed to turn your forge yellow hot; not orange like you show. (2) The photo seems to indicate heavily oxidizing flames, which is what I would expect from such a small gas orifice in a 3/4" "T" burner. Follow Frosty's advice, so that your burners will produce nuetral flames; then you will be anle to follow Buzzkill's advice; resulting in fuel reduction, along with a whole lot less scale on your parts

Perhaps there is a point of confusion. While heating up the inside of the forge with your burner would be the fastest way to melt these little silica particles in place, most of us just pass the burner over the inside in patches. All at once, or area by area; either way will work just fine.

External lips greatly interfere with air intake. Probably, an internal lip would not be equally bad, but pretty close to it. Ironically, the threads will not create drag, because they will create a barrier affect, forcing the incoming air to flow away from their tips, will a single ip will do the opposite; it will create a ring of vortices, which inhibits air flow.

So, I looked this torch up on Amazon.com, and it is not a bad design. However, its double tube construction will prevent its being protected with a stainless steel outer tube; this means that it will oxidize away pretty fast, if mounted within a forge. Also, its flame tubes are crimped on their ends. Once those ends oxidize away, the torch will not function properly, unless you can again crimp the ends of the remaining tubes.

I find these canister torch-heads a fascinating and irritating subject. The irritation comes from ludicrous advertising, and the difficulty in assuring that you get a quality product; especially as higher prices do not assure better quality from drop-shippers!!! For some of us, using dual-fuel torch-heads is pretty much of a rabbit hole, leading straight to Frustation Land. However, adding a propane adapter hose, so that a larger refillable gas cylinder can be used, and a stainless steel tube over the torch-head's own stainless steel flame retention nozzle, to keep its thin stainless steel wall from oxidizing away in short order, can make dual-fuel torch-heads viable and efficient for mounting in heating equipment...so long as the torch-head does not leak. Anyone who successfully runs the gamut of obstacles can end up with a neat little forge burner, with controls thrown in...IF; all others crash and burn. What can you do to improve your odds? Carefully read customer reviews of both product and seller on Amazon.com. If the product only has a hand full of sales, move on. Some drop-shippers, who are selling junk, can and will just keep redoing their offers, to get rid of the tail of bad reviews. Welcome to the wild East, Yankee! Did I mention thick stainless steel enough times to get the message across? Brass torch-heads cannot be efficiently mounted, without melting. Thin stainless steel flame retention nozzles will oxidize away far too quickly, to be economical. Don't think I'm trying to discourage anyone. I continue to play this game, and find it rewarding; just don't think things are "cut and dried," cause they're not.

Yes, that is true, but for short periods it can be exceeded. It takes time for a 16 ounce canister to chill down. Just like racing an engine for short periods, to merge in heavy traffic is expected, but continuing to race that engine is a very bad idea. Nevertheless, practicality is completely on your side, for these sellers merely compete like carnival barkers for the sucker's attention. No one is dumb enough to think a barker has their interests in mind

You might want to read the Forges 101 thread for answers on how to mount burners; not the Burners 101 thread, which is devoted to how to build burners. Although Buzzkill and Frosty have given you good answers, already.

I don't think the usual drop shippers even bother with that. I think they just cut and paste the handiest description from a similar product. No ""writers" needed.

So the 220V 3" angle grinder arrived from China through Alyexpress.com (a few days early). The first thing I noticed was that its cast aluminum gear housing was clean and sharp; no flaws or inclusions. The motor and gears are fairly quiet. Even though it is meant to run on 220 volts, you can plug it into a 110 volt outlet, with its speed control turned up full (6), and it runs just fine; doing this is the equivalent of running the grinder speed control at half speed (3) from a 220 vold outlet. So, you can use this tool while you wait for a 110 to 220 voltage converter (which you can also order from China, or buy through Amazon.com) to arrive. The only disappoint I have so far, is that the The mandrel's collet only allows 1/8" rotary tool accessories to be mounted (this grinders threaded spindle is hollow, so that it can allso be used as an angle head rotary tool). There is plenty of room in the angle grinder's spindle to mount a 1/4" collet, if you can find one that fits. The motor is mounted in a plastic case, which I find easy to wrap my long fingers around. Most people would probably prefer using both hands, and at full power that would be the only safe position to use. So far, I am delighted with this product, which costs no more than one of the cheaper rotary tools on Amazon.com. However, you must be prepared to put up with some hassle when buying the tool. None of these sites were developed buy people who knew what they were doing. Also, there is a wide range of pricing for what at first appears to be the same tool; don't believe that for a minute, and become "penny wise and pound foolish." If you want to see how cheaply you can come by a second tool, fine; you can always use it for parts.

Argh! I need a cup of coffee before going any further with this.

Stop it, stop it!!! want to be aggravated by this problem, and you're making me grin. Soon I'll be laughing out loud

You are welcome, Steven. All the lurkers who also need that question answered thank you for asking it

It is good to keep the misconceptions down

AFB, It is a one-off for most people. Since fumed silica is also used as a binder in various refractory mixes, and as binder to mix with ground zircon powder, in heat reflective coatings etc., a gallon jug isn't all that much for some people. Steven, For your use, that jug is A Lot!!! You must remember that commercial "colloidal silica" solutions are sold as full of the silica as possible, to offset shipping costs; not because the supplier supposes that their customers will necessarily use them "as is"; some do, and others don't. So, why would a small amount of fumed silica do the job? Because the thickness of the sheath of glass coating left on the individual ceramic fibers is only a few nanometers thick. The solution is drawn along the fibers by capillary action, leaving the fumed silica as a surface film after the water drys out. Where the individual fibers cross one another, they collect in a large enough lump to act as a weld; this is how ceramic wool is rigidized with colloidal silica (well, once it is heated to red incandescence). So, think in terms of cups of fumed silica in a typical spritzer bottle. Do not mix up any more rigidizer than that at a time, because once mixed, the solution must be kept from freezing in your garage. If allowed to freeze, the solution must be thrown out; it will never be colloidal again.

No; colloidal silica simply consists of silica particles small enough to stay in solution, when mixed into water. Fumed silica is made up of molecular chains, a few molecules long; they are, by nature, tiny enough to qualify for this use. Simply mix them into water to suit, and add a little food die to the solution, to enable you to see how well your rigidizer is doing its job. The next question is usually "how much fumed silica to how much water." You will be glad to know that "to suit" means exactly that. If your solution ends up to thick to spritz, just add water until it will. If too little silica is present in the water, it does a weak job of rigidizing, but you can repeat the process as many times as you want. So, anyone would have to work very hard to mess up So, how will you know if you get enough rigidizer on the ceramic fiber? Once you think you have enough, using the visible evidence provided by the food die, heat the insulation to red hot, using your burner. Once cool, use the touch test to decide whether you are satisfied with the result; if not, just repeat the process as many times as desired, until you are

So, ye wist not to use it any other way?

Oh, good one, Frosty! And written "in tune with the music," so to speak

And if not tongue in cheek, I use them wistfully; for these good things are just not in the cards. "To ere is human" and even worse, historic. The more new products that come on the market the more errors in judgement must be corrected On the plus side, at least the new gas forges get hot enough. So, before we shake a finger, it is good to remember all the 'red hot' forges that we used to see What I like best about your idea is choice; he can use it to save fuel most of the time, and still have space for tall objects, likr helmets, bowls, or crucibles when needed.

Getting back to his point; it is a very good point. This little mess has been bugging me for a couple of years. And my answer to his problem was sloppy, because I only have a hazy idea of a workable exact solution. The best I can say is what will lesson it. Not precisely why some burners in some forges experience it. What I can say precisely is unhelpful, but here it is. "Your burner is a little weak." It's not a lot weak, or your forge would not be getting to yellow incandescence with it. How's that for cold comfort? Unhelpful all over the place, right? So, we muddle along, with advice that can at least help; here is more. The mixing tube on your burner is too long, which weakens its flame somewhat. So shorten it down to nine times its diameter. And now you are being asked to modify your forge's burner by someone you never met; what's the chance that such advice is inviting? And furthermore, you will still need to increase the insulation in your forge's ceiling, so my advice is still less welcome; in your place, I would feel quite reluctant to take it. Finally, I cannot guaranty you that my advice will work out perfectly for you. I can only state that "in my vast experience..." blah, blah, blah. What a pickle! What to do? Well, you could just act on the first advice, and see how it works out... And finally, I could point out that your burner is top pointed and pointing straight down, which invites this problem. Manufacturers should mount their burners up high on a side wall of box forges, in order to avoid it. How's that for adding insult to injury? Now, aren't you sorry you brought up that objection? But, I'm not. It is long past time this mess got addressed. Anyone else want to "step up to bat, and take a swing"? Ugh! how about "...top mounted, and pointing down"; that should make better since

I think they stopped selling the burners, first. And you're right; they were the best part of the deal.

That is sad. at least there are a few other good commercial forge designs still available on the low end of the market, even if the very best deal isn't around anymore. A couple of the all stainless steel oval forges are still worth picking up, although you would be well advised to replace their burners...

No dispute here, but I am merely agreeing that a small air gap (less than 1" thick) will have some insulation value. And since it would also help to reduce the internal volume on what I consider to be a an overly tall internal volume, it would probably serve a double benefit. On the other hand, I like that recuperative forge scheme, being an impractical total over-doer at heart, my own self

Yup! And since getting the two surfaces to mate perfectly would probably be a pain, ain't that nice? So, if he chooses ceramic board, or Morgan K 26 bricks, he could just drill small holes in the top plate of his forge shell, and drop screws through them, and screw them into a suspended ceiling, to hold it in place.