Mikey98118

Larry, Once again I would like to invite you to take the conversation to a permanent thread; in this case Forges 101. I listed you in the Sources section of my book all those years ago, because where to to buy needed parts are just as important to people as any other how-to information. Not using the forum as a platform to advertise, doesn't extend to the point of pretending you don't exist. Why not follow Wayne's example, and thread a careful path?

I looked at their figures, and was impressed. We come to expect giant leaps forward; unfortunately, in ceramic blanket, those come at high prices and low availability. There is such a thing as 3000 F use rated blanket on the market, but who can afford it? This product is an affordable step forward. On the one hand, we stuff extra lengths in the blanket to take care of the expected 4% shrinkage in normal use. But shrinkage isn't the point of these figures; it is being used as a gauge of break down of the product, as the amorphous silicate portion of the fiber breaks down, do to crystal formation. So, what is really being plotted is product's life expectancy, when the forge is kept at welding temperatures. Thus that small improvement is an important one.

Glad to see ribbon burners get a permanent thread in time for their coming advancements to be logged here.

We all cycle through the same (irritating) lessons; I find that knowledge is great at building perspective, but any time we let our selves get sloppy, we make the same messes as the rawest newbie

For me, half the point of rigidizing is to provide better support behind a thin hot-face layer; a belt and suspenders take on the deal is wise.

The other use of a choke is to prevent hot exhaust from running up throw your burner after shutdown, if it is positioned vertical down, or at a vertical down angle.

Reil was very early days. The first thing I discovered about flame nozzles, was that their design parameters depend on the speed and power of the burner's gas/air mixture flow. My own stepped flame nozzles worked on my high speed tube design, and even on a linear burners with a MIG tip gas jet, but were a total flop on linear burners with gas holes drilled into cross pipes.As it was c;ear bacl in the late nineties, what we ththought we know must give way to the observed facts. We all have a lot of trouble learning this lesson, over and over; a couple of decades go by and a dozen young guns are walking all over our cherished limitations We love to see photos; especially flame photos, but burner photos are nice to. If you will put either or both on the Burners 101 thread, and any text you wish to go along with them, you will gain the recognition for your burners, and folks will gain some information about them. This thread will submerge back beneath the cyber waves at the end of a month, and may not appear again for another couple of years.

I will email you my book notes On my Oz burners (you know I'm always working on a book). Thy are far from complete, but should give anyone like you a big push forward. And you know that you can query me about them at michael.a.porter@comcast.net, or on the Burners 101 thread here on the forum.

In the beginning, I kept mum about "T" burners, because they are Frosty's design, and therefore, Frosty's business; it was a question of respect. I have very little to say about Larry's "Z" burners for the same reason. However, it has become obvious over time, that the dynamics of his burner is utterly different from any of my designs. It isn't just a question of experience that is lacking, but nearly two decades of working with completely different flow dynamics. My every instinct is out of phase with his burners. You need to talk to the burner's designer, who has spent two decades refining his knowledge, and equally important, his feel for them. Going out on a limb, I would suggest that the decreased space within the forge, will change the amount of back pressure on the burner, but even there, flow dynamics between my burners and his are very different.

I looked at the videos. I like this Jarome guy, but he doesn't know much about building burners or forges. In another twenty or thirty years, he could have a lot to say.

Agreed; that's maybe why they are called "rules of thumb" rather than axioms? I'm beginning to cover my bets by calling them tendencies On the other hand, discoveries are always exciting; lots of possibilities with this one!

A 1 to 20 PSI regulator; sure; a 1 to 10 regulator? That is pushing things. Each burner size, and type, has a minimum gas pressure it will run on; below that minimum the burner's flame will pulse, as it attempts to burn back down the mixing tube; not good.

Linear versus jet ejector mini burners: Jet ejector burners tend to burn hotter than linear burners. Linear burners tend to run smoother than jet ejectors. The smaller the burner the harder it is to build and tune perfectly. The building aspect has to do with the differences between available parts sizes and optimal parts sizes; they grow as the burner shrinks. The increased difficulty in tuning seams to be an aspect of whatever makes smaller burners tend to be hotter burning. I admit not knowing the why of this, but it is easily observed. The conclusion, for now, seems to be that 1/4" and smaller jet ejector burners are simply more trouble than they are worth; this idea is bolstered by the emergence of saddles as a method for mounting gas assemblies on linear burners; thus, opening up many new choices of practical air entrance devices. So Larry, What you think; enough food for thought here? I would love to get you interested in building Oz burners; they are linear burners with gas assemblies mounted on saddles. And even though my new Vortex burners are mighty, saddle mount linear burners are the future

Linear versus jet ejector mini burners Jet ejector burners tend to burn hotter than linear burners. Linear burners tend to run smoother than jet ejectors. The smaller the burner the harder it is to build and tune perfectly. The building aspect has to do with the differences between available parts sizes and optimal parts sizes; they grow as the burner shrinks. The increased difficulty in tuning seams to be an aspect of whatever makes smaller burners tend to be hotter burning. I admit not knowing the why of this, but it is easily observed. The conclusion, for now, seems to be that 1/4" and smaller jet ejector burners are simply more trouble than they are worth; this idea is bolstered by the emergence of saddles as a method for mounting gas assemblies on linear burners; thus, opening up many new choices of practical air entrance devices.

My favorite way to make a gas jet for a 3/8" gas burner, with a high speed flame, is to insert a 1/64" O.D. by .020" I.D., by 9/16" long stainless steel heavy wall capillary tube in a 14T (for tapered) Tweeco MIG, and to sand the end back somewhere between 1/64" and 1/32" shprter, during final tuning, to dial in its performance. It has turned out that the turn- down range of 3/8" Mikey burners are long and smooth; therefore a 1/4" burner is kind of gilding the Lilly.

My favorite way to make a gas jet for a 3/8" gas burner, with a high speed flame, is to insert a 1/64" O.D. by .020" I.D., by 9/16" long stainless steel heavy wall capillary tube in a 14T (for tapered) Tweeco MIG, and to sand the end back somewhere between 1/64" and 1/32" shprter, during final tuning, to dial in its performance. It has turned out that the turn- down range of 3/8" Mikey burners are long and smooth; therefore a 1/4" burner is kind of gilding the Lilly.

Making miniature gas jets from capillary tube & MIG contact tips, etc. For building a gas jet from fine tubing (capillary or hypodermic) and a MIG contact tip, I recommend using a Tweco, Miller, Lincoln, or Radnor 1-1/2” long tip (excluding their threaded portion, which is 1/4-27). If you can get a tapered tip, that’s good; otherwise you will have to spin it in a drill under a file, to taper it yourself. Just because there is a welding supply store in your town doesn’t mean that they will have the MIG tips you need in stock, or that they will bother to sell you one or two of them, even if they do. Your sale is hardly worth their paperwork. You can buy MIG tips on line as few as five or ten at a time for less money than they will cost at your local welding supply store, and chances are that the shipping charge won’t amount to more than the gas and time you may waste receiving a rotten experience, while trying to buy them locally: Radnor and Tweco Model 14T-052 MIG contact tips are available from amazon.com, or eBay. Stainless steel heavy wall capillary tubes are found in outside diameters of about 1/16”; that can vary from .060” to .065” diameters depending on the manufacturer, and MIG contact tips can vary by up to .003” in the diameters of their orifices; so, you may end up with an interference fit that requires little effort to mount Or you may need to swage the MIG tip down around the capillary tube, silver braze the tube into the MIG tip, or you could even need to drill the MIG tip hole a little larger. Because stainless steel capillary tube comes in vary limited inside diameters, and you may elect to employ EDM tube. Miniature burners (3/8” size and smaller) bring up for the first time, an instance where friction of the moving gas molecules down these tiny orifices become a major design factor. In larger burners the smaller the gas orifice diameter the hotter a given size of burner tends to burn, in even the longest available MIG contact tip. Now, do to friction we find a 1/2” long capillary tube (within such a tip) if .020” inside diameter will make a hotter output flame than 1/2” long tube with this diameter. It becomes necessary to adjust the capillary tube’s length, to overcome the lack of orifice choice sizes. In the case of a 3/8” size burner, you can only choose heavy wall stainless steel capillary tubes with .020” orifice diameters, and then cut and sand it down to a finish length in the MIG tip of .406” (13/32”) long, to gain the best result from this part. Torch tip cleaners are made from a harder stainless steel alloy than capillary tube, but it isn’t so much harder that they can be successfully used to bore orifice sizes larger, but they are perfect for using them to get rid of internal burrs, so that the holes where the fuel gas inters and exits the tube can be made round; use a magnifying glass to assure this result. Heavy wall brass or even copper capillary tubing, normally employed as electronic discharge machining (EDM) tubes, can also be used as gas jets. Even thin wall stainless steel hypodermic tubing can be used, so long as both its inside and outside diameters are listed; it is available as dispenser needles, and as 3’ to 5’ lengths. MIG contact tips come in limited orifice diameters, as do capillary, hypodermic, and EDM tubing. You must begin your search for a convenient tube with the desired orifice size (inside diameter). Next, you try to find a MIG tip with as close a match to its outside diameter as you can. Saturn Industries, Inc. has been a practical source of such tube in the past. If the tip’s diameter is within .005” oversize to the tube, it is easily swaged down to trap heavy wall tube in it; with a tapered MIG tip, you may be able to create an interference fit by squeezing plyers around the thin section of copper. With a plain (not tapered) MIG tip even thin wall tubing can be swaged into the MIG tip, but you have to drill a 1/4” diameter hole in a short piece of 1/2” x 1” mild steel bar. Begin by scribing a line on the 1” face of the bar, somewhere near its center, using a combination square. Then scribe a second line from it, over the 1/2” face. Use the square to find the center of the line on the 1/2” face, scribe a cross mark, and center punch it; drill a 1/4” hole completely through the bar. Use a thin cutoff disc to cut completely through the bar at the first line, and then clean off all burrs. Slide the desired length of capillary tube into the MIG tip, and place it within your new swaging die; Tap its top with a hammer. Cut off the excess tube to within a 1/16” beyond the die, and hand sand it back even with the MIG tip’s face. Then clean out any internal burrs, with torch tip cleaners. If the MIG tip’s orifice is only a little too small for the capillary tube, You can use torch tip cleaners to enlarge it a few thousandths of an inch. You will find one round file in the set to be small enough to push back and forth within the MIG tip, while turning the tip slowly. Every few moments, you need to check the enlarging hole against the capillary tube, as it gradually increases. Wire gauge drill bits can be hand spun in a pin vice to enlarge holes in MIG tips to within a couple of thousandths of an inch of your capillary tube; keeping the hand filing (with torch tip cleaners) from becoming tedious. Only increase the size of thousandths of an inch at a time, when drilling in copper. Don’t depend on your eyes for guidance. Pay close attention to the amount of tension felt in your fingers. Start drilling by barely touching the bottom of the tip’s hole. Stop frequently to clean burrs out of the drill bit, and blow them out of the MIG tip, from the hole’s other end. When you feel a sudden increase in tension on the bit, reverse its direction until the hidden inner burr in the hole is knocked loose, before continuing to drill. You must drill as deep as you can into the tip, starting from the threaded end. By the time you must switch ends to complete the hole you should have learned how to drill well enough to mate up both ends. Because you don’t have a miniature drill press and drill vise ($$$), your hole is going to end up oversize at bother ends, which will both taper down smaller as the hole gets deeper. You may be able to push up to a 1-1/2” long length of hypodermic or capillary tube into it with just enough interference to trap it in place with the help of a few light taps. Or, you may have to finish up the hole with some help from torch tip cleaner files. It is important for the outside of MIG contact tips in most burner sizes to be tapered for proper flow of the air, as it passes by the gas jet on its way from air intakes into the mixing tube, or into the mixing area in tube burners. How important? How small is you burner? The smaller the burner the more important it becomes. MIG contact tips come in several orifice sizes, as do hypodermic needles. Just as heavy wall capillary tube can be made to serve as proper gas jets in small burners by varying short lengths to match output velocities of different gas orifice diameters to different mixing tube diameters, so can capillary and hypodermic tube serve the same purpose by varying longer lengths of larger diameters to overcome tolerance changes in those orifices. Also, the longer lengths can be more easily interference-fit in place or bent in a bow to keep them in place, without need for silver brazing. Lengths and diameters will remain a matter of trial an error, because of tolerances; plus or minus .001" of an inch is a lot of difference when the orifice is .023" or less. Remember, the mounted capillary tube must be closely inspected under a lighted magnifying glass to make sure all burrs are completely eliminated from the tube’s orifice; it needs to be completely round; not jagged; otherwise the gas stream won’t be smooth Tapered watchmakers reamers are called pivot broaches; they are another tool for enlarging deep micro holes in copper, and brass; tapered micro reamers Note: Diamond reamer sets are meant for working on glass beads, and are too crude for reaming drilled gas jets a few thousandths larger. What they are good for is shaping long tapers into MIG tips and capillary tubes behind such holes, to increase gas flow into them. They are a low cost handy tool to keep around for deburring small holes, and working in inside corners, etc. Pivot cutting broaches allow faster hole enlargement then drill bits, and also serve to bridge any gap in bit sizes and needed orifice diameters These broaches are very small, and fragile; they must be mounted in pin vises, just the same as tiny wire gauge drill bits are, and handled with the same kind of delicacy, with the same motions, lest you bend the broach, or snap one off in the hole. Although handling these tiny broaches takes care, they don’t require much work, or time to do the job. You will probably want a lighted magnifying glass and a pair of tweezers, to pick out the right broach from a set of them, for mounting in the pin vise. The new orifice will not be parallel, but will end up slightly tapered; probably by less than one thousandths of an inch all around the periphery of the capillary tube. If, you are committed to silver brazing a capillary tube in place, continue reaming, until it will slide into the tip to its desired length; its end will stop against the wall of the tapered MIG tip’s orifice; helping to stop the filler alloy from plugging up the capillary tube. If you would rather avoid silver brazing, cut the capillary tube 3/16” over of the desired length. Place the tube in the MIG tip, and screw the tip into place in base of the burner (or within a threaded hole in a block of steel; whatever). Tap the whole assembly against a metal surface, or tap a hammer against the excess tube, until it comes within 1/8” of the MIG tip’s front face (tap it—don’t slam the hammer). Use a circular motion on very fine sandpaper (at least #400 grit; finer is better) to reduce it down even with the tip’s face; use the torch tip cleaners to remove the tube’s internal burr. Rotary tool and micro drill Electric rotary tools are the answer to overpowered electric die grinders, which are a grim necessity to unlucky professionals, and should be avoided like a potential trip to the emergency ward, by novices. This leaves electric rotary hand tools as the frequently under powered and overpriced alternative. There is a type of micro drill that trades lower RPM for higher torque; this tool is just right for power grinding and sanding on small parts; it can be slid along inside a split pipe, taking the place of a drill press for making acurate micro holes in burner jets. The tool’s low price seems almost to good to be true; it isn’t though; I bought one last week; its body is a 1.585” diameter aluminum cylinder, that is 3-3/4” long; its speed is 20,000 RPM; the highest recommended speed for a 1-1/2” cut off disk, and still about right for most micro drill bits. Its price is $27; cheap for two essential tools in one Silver brazing capillary tubes Most air/propane torches have gas jets that can be removed, drilled, and silver brazed, in order to mount a capillary tube in place directly within it. While this involves hot work, it is also more tolerant about drill alignment in small burners, as the capillary tube can be easily bent after the jet is replaced in the goose neck, if your hole wasn’t drilled quite parallel to the part’s axis. Most old gas jets contain a spongy looking section, which is meant to act as a fuel filter; unfortunately they just end up doing a fine job as a clog maker. Drill completely through the sponge; it has no value. Following this method enables you to re-task nearly any air/propane torch. While there are a variety of sources for capillary tube, the easiest way to find any particular orifice size you need, still remains blunt end dispenser needles; all of which are stainless steel. Most easily available heavy wall capillary tube, or thin wall hypodermic tube, is also stainless steel; Stainless requires the use of brazing alloys that contain 50% or higher silver content (the higher the better it wets part surfaces), and flux that is rated for use with stainless steel; most of these are black flux. I recommend Harris white flux for use on stainless thin wall tubing, rather than black flux, which is likely to be too aggressive for thin wall tubing. Just before brazing, use fine grit sandpaper to break up surface oxide, and to scratch up the tube’s smooth surface, wherever you want the silver braze alloy to adhere. Equally as important is to keep the flux well away from areas you don’t want the filler alloy to overrun, like the end of the capillary tube. Handy Flux Type B-1 for brazing stainless steel, nickel, tungsten, and super alloy; effective from 1100 to 1700 °F (593°–927°C) Rio Grande 65% silver content brazing alloy #3101100, which is excellent and inexpensive; it is especially recommended for small pieces, such as stainless needles and capillary tube It is best to add flux to a length of tube, and push it into the MIG tip, leaving excess tubing protruding from its end; then cut, sand, and deburr the tube to fit, after brazing. Note: the higher silver content (50 % or more), which helps joining alloys to wet stainless steel, nickel, and tungsten, also does a superior job of wetting copper and brass. Brass or copper EDM tubing can also be used to provide the right size gas orifices, by combining them with MIG contact tip holders of other sizes. Various diameters of Drawn brass and copper tubing are available through Saturn Industries Heavy wall nickel and stainless steel capillary tubing can be hard to find in desired orifice sizes, but are still available from Small Parts, which is now owned by If you have the choice, I recommend heavy wall capillary tube (AKA gauge tubes) over thin wall hypodermic tube, if you can find them in the orifice diameters desired (as they are far less inclined to be partially dissolved by flux, should you be a little slow in your braze work). Different companies have various orifice sizes available; one of them well stock tube in .020” inside diameter, and another will stock .023” instead Various heavy wall stainless steel capillary tubes are also available from 1/16” O.D. in various inside diameters are available from Sigma Aldrich 1/16” (.0625”) O.D. in various inside diameters are available from Lab Express

Making miniature gas jets from capillary tube & MIG contact tips, etc. For building a gas jet from fine tubing (capillary or hypodermic) and a MIG contact tip, I recommend using a Tweco, Miller, Lincoln, or Radnor 1-1/2” long tip (excluding their threaded portion, which is 1/4-27). If you can get a tapered tip, that’s good; otherwise you will have to spin it in a drill under a file, to taper it yourself. Just because there is a welding supply store in your town doesn’t mean that they will have the MIG tips you need in stock, or that they will bother to sell you one or two of them, even if they do. Your sale is hardly worth their paperwork. You can buy MIG tips on line as few as five or ten at a time for less money than they will cost at your local welding supply store, and chances are that the shipping charge won’t amount to more than the gas and time you may waste receiving a rotten experience, while trying to buy them locally: Radnor and Tweco Model 14T-052 MIG contact tips are available from amazon.com, or eBay. Stainless steel heavy wall capillary tubes are found in outside diameters of about 1/16”; that can vary from .060” to .065” diameters depending on the manufacturer, and MIG contact tips can vary by up to .003” in the diameters of their orifices; so, you may end up with an interference fit that requires little effort to mount Or you may need to swage the MIG tip down around the capillary tube, silver braze the tube into the MIG tip, or you could even need to drill the MIG tip hole a little larger. Because stainless steel capillary tube comes in vary limited inside diameters, and you may elect to employ EDM tube. Miniature burners (3/8” size and smaller) bring up for the first time, an instance where friction of the moving gas molecules down these tiny orifices become a major design factor. In larger burners the smaller the gas orifice diameter the hotter a given size of burner tends to burn, in even the longest available MIG contact tip. Now, do to friction we find a 1/2” long capillary tube (within such a tip) if .020” inside diameter will make a hotter output flame than 1/2” long tube with this diameter. It becomes necessary to adjust the capillary tube’s length, to overcome the lack of orifice choice sizes. In the case of a 3/8” size burner, you can only choose heavy wall stainless steel capillary tubes with .020” orifice diameters, and then cut and sand it down to a finish length in the MIG tip of .406” (13/32”) long, to gain the best result from this part. Torch tip cleaners are made from a harder stainless steel alloy than capillary tube, but it isn’t so much harder that they can be successfully used to bore orifice sizes larger, but they are perfect for using them to get rid of internal burrs, so that the holes where the fuel gas inters and exits the tube can be made round; use a magnifying glass to assure this result. Heavy wall brass or even copper capillary tubing, normally employed as electronic discharge machining (EDM) tubes, can also be used as gas jets. Even thin wall stainless steel hypodermic tubing can be used, so long as both its inside and outside diameters are listed; it is available as dispenser needles, and as 3’ to 5’ lengths. MIG contact tips come in limited orifice diameters, as do capillary, hypodermic, and EDM tubing. You must begin your search for a convenient tube with the desired orifice size (inside diameter). Next, you try to find a MIG tip with as close a match to its outside diameter as you can. Saturn Industries, Inc. has been a practical source of such tube in the past. If the tip’s diameter is within .005” oversize to the tube, it is easily swaged down to trap heavy wall tube in it; with a tapered MIG tip, you may be able to create an interference fit by squeezing plyers around the thin section of copper. With a plain (not tapered) MIG tip even thin wall tubing can be swaged into the MIG tip, but you have to drill a 1/4” diameter hole in a short piece of 1/2” x 1” mild steel bar. Begin by scribing a line on the 1” face of the bar, somewhere near its center, using a combination square. Then scribe a second line from it, over the 1/2” face. Use the square to find the center of the line on the 1/2” face, scribe a cross mark, and center punch it; drill a 1/4” hole completely through the bar. Use a thin cutoff disc to cut completely through the bar at the first line, and then clean off all burrs. Slide the desired length of capillary tube into the MIG tip, and place it within your new swaging die; Tap its top with a hammer. Cut off the excess tube to within a 1/16” beyond the die, and hand sand it back even with the MIG tip’s face. Then clean out any internal burrs, with torch tip cleaners. If the MIG tip’s orifice is only a little too small for the capillary tube, You can use torch tip cleaners to enlarge it a few thousandths of an inch. You will find one round file in the set to be small enough to push back and forth within the MIG tip, while turning the tip slowly. Every few moments, you need to check the enlarging hole against the capillary tube, as it gradually increases. Wire gauge drill bits can be hand spun in a pin vice to enlarge holes in MIG tips to within a couple of thousandths of an inch of your capillary tube; keeping the hand filing (with torch tip cleaners) from becoming tedious. Only increase the size of thousandths of an inch at a time, when drilling in copper. Don’t depend on your eyes for guidance. Pay close attention to the amount of tension felt in your fingers. Start drilling by barely touching the bottom of the tip’s hole. Stop frequently to clean burrs out of the drill bit, and blow them out of the MIG tip, from the hole’s other end. When you feel a sudden increase in tension on the bit, reverse its direction until the hidden inner burr in the hole is knocked loose, before continuing to drill. You must drill as deep as you can into the tip, starting from the threaded end. By the time you must switch ends to complete the hole you should have learned how to drill well enough to mate up both ends. Because you don’t have a miniature drill press and drill vise ($$$), your hole is going to end up oversize at bother ends, which will both taper down smaller as the hole gets deeper. You may be able to push up to a 1-1/2” long length of hypodermic or capillary tube into it with just enough interference to trap it in place with the help of a few light taps. Or, you may have to finish up the hole with some help from torch tip cleaner files. It is important for the outside of MIG contact tips in most burner sizes to be tapered for proper flow of the air, as it passes by the gas jet on its way from air intakes into the mixing tube, or into the mixing area in tube burners. How important? How small is you burner? The smaller the burner the more important it becomes. MIG contact tips come in several orifice sizes, as do hypodermic needles. Just as heavy wall capillary tube can be made to serve as proper gas jets in small burners by varying short lengths to match output velocities of different gas orifice diameters to different mixing tube diameters, so can capillary and hypodermic tube serve the same purpose by varying longer lengths of larger diameters to overcome tolerance changes in those orifices. Also, the longer lengths can be more easily interference-fit in place or bent in a bow to keep them in place, without need for silver brazing. Lengths and diameters will remain a matter of trial an error, because of tolerances; plus or minus .001" of an inch is a lot of difference when the orifice is .023" or less. Remember, the mounted capillary tube must be closely inspected under a lighted magnifying glass to make sure all burrs are completely eliminated from the tube’s orifice; it needs to be completely round; not jagged; otherwise the gas stream won’t be smooth: https://www.amazon.com/Magnifier-Marrywindix-Handheld-Reading-Magnifying/dp/B0140WO6KS/ref=ice_ac_b_dpb?ie=UTF8&qid=1490393108&sr=8-3&keywords=magnifying+glass+with+light Tapered watchmakers reamers are called pivot broaches; they are another tool for enlarging deep micro holes in copper, and brass; tapered micro reamers: http://www.micromark.com/mini-hand-tools/reamers Others are available from: http://www.esslinger.com/five-sided-cutting-broaches-avai Watchmaker's Pivot Broacheslable-in-0-013-to-0-227-diameter-stub-15-to-80/ Note: Diamond reamer sets are meant for working on glass beads, and are too crude for reaming drilled gas jets a few thousandths larger. What they are good for is shaping long tapers into MIG tips and capillary tubes behind such holes, to increase gas flow into them. They are a low cost handy tool to keep around for deburring small holes, and working in inside corners, etc. Pivot cutting broaches allow faster hole enlargement then drill bits, and also serve to bridge any gap in bit sizes and needed orifice diameters These broaches are very small, and fragile; they must be mounted in pin vises, just the same as tiny wire gauge drill bits are, and handled with the same kind of delicacy, with the same motions, lest you bend the broach, or snap one off in the hole. Although handling these tiny broaches takes care, they don’t require much work, or time to do the job. You will probably want a lighted magnifying glass and a pair of tweezers, to pick out the right broach from a set of them, for mounting in the pin vise. The new orifice will not be parallel, but will end up slightly tapered; probably by less than one thousandths of an inch all around the periphery of the capillary tube. If, you are committed to silver brazing a capillary tube in place, continue reaming, until it will slide into the tip to its desired length; its end will stop against the wall of the tapered MIG tip’s orifice; helping to stop the filler alloy from plugging up the capillary tube. If you would rather avoid silver brazing, cut the capillary tube 3/16” over of the desired length. Place the tube in the MIG tip, and screw the tip into place in base of the burner (or within a threaded hole in a block of steel; whatever). Tap the whole assembly against a metal surface, or tap a hammer against the excess tube, until it comes within 1/8” of the MIG tip’s front face (tap it—don’t slam the hammer). Use a circular motion on very fine sandpaper (at least #400 grit; finer is better) to reduce it down even with the tip’s face; use the torch tip cleaners to remove the tube’s internal burr. Rotary tool and micro drill Electric rotary tools are the answer to overpowered electric die grinders, which are a grim necessity to unlucky professionals, and should be avoided like a potential trip to the emergency ward, by novices. This leaves electric rotary hand tools as the frequently under powered and overpriced alternative. There is a type of micro drill that trades lower RPM for higher torque; this tool is just right for power grinding and sanding on small parts; it can be slid along inside a split pipe, taking the place of a drill press for making acurate micro holes in burner jets. The tool’s low price seems almost to good to be true; it isn’t though; I bought one last week; its body is a 1.585” diameter aluminum cylinder, that is 3-3/4” long; its speed is 20,000 RPM; the highest recommended speed for a 1-1/2” cut off disk, and still about right for most micro drill bits. Its price is $27; cheap for two essential tools in one: https://www.amazon.com/Yakamoz-0-3mm-Aluminum-Portable-Handheld/dp/B06XGQ24PS/ref=sr_1_23?ie=UTF8&qid=1499815821&sr=8-23&keywords=micro+drill Silver brazing capillary tubes Most air/propane torches have gas jets that can be removed, drilled, and silver brazed, in order to mount a capillary tube in place directly within it. While this involves hot work, it is also more tolerant about drill alignment in small burners, as the capillary tube can be easily bent after the jet is replaced in the goose neck, if your hole wasn’t drilled quite parallel to the part’s axis. Most old gas jets contain a spongy looking section, which is meant to act as a fuel filter; unfortunately they just end up doing a fine job as a clog maker. Drill completely through the sponge; it has no value. Following this method enables you to re-task nearly any air/propane torch. While there are a variety of sources for capillary tube, the easiest way to find any particular orifice size you need, still remains blunt end dispenser needles; all of which are stainless steel. Most easily available heavy wall capillary tube, or thin wall hypodermic tube, is also stainless steel; Stainless requires the use of brazing alloys that contain 50% or higher silver content (the higher the better it wets part surfaces), and flux that is rated for use with stainless steel; most of these are black flux. I recommend Harris white flux for use on stainless thin wall tubing, rather than black flux, which is likely to be too aggressive for thin wall tubing. Just before brazing, use fine grit sandpaper to break up surface oxide, and to scratch up the tube’s smooth surface, wherever you want the silver braze alloy to adhere. Equally as important is to keep the flux well away from areas you don’t want the filler alloy to overrun, like the end of the capillary tube. Handy Flux Type B-1 for brazing stainless steel, nickel, tungsten, and super alloy; effective from 1100 to 1700 °F (593°–927°C): https://www.riogrande.com/Product/HandyFluxTypeB1forStainlessSteelandNickelSilver/504088?gclid=Cj0KEQjwnazLBRDxrdGMx-Km4oQBEiQAQJ1q60FC-v7KeRWzi_XJDs7x1OEmdLMsXXpT0DGGUBK93mAaAi9W8P8HAQ Rio Grande 65% silver content brazing alloy #3101100, which is excellent and inexpensive; it is especially recommended for small pieces, such as stainless needles and capillary tube: https://www.riogrande.com/Product/silver-wire-solder-20-ga/101100 It is best to add flux to a length of tube, and push it into the MIG tip, leaving excess tubing protruding from its end; then cut, sand, and deburr the tube to fit, after brazing. Note: the higher silver content (50 % or more), which helps joining alloys to wet stainless steel, nickel, and tungsten, also does a superior job of wetting copper and brass. Brass or copper EDM tubing can also be used to provide the right size gas orifices, by combining them with MIG contact tip holders of other sizes. Various diameters of Drawn brass and copper tubing are available through Saturn Industries: http://www.graphitesupplies.com/Precision-Brass-EDM-Electrode-Tube-1630-OD-x-073-ID-X-16-Long_p_8471.html Heavy wall nickel and stainless steel capillary tubing can be hard to find in desired orifice sizes, but are still available from Small Parts, which is now owned by Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=srs%3D3041233011%26search-alias%3Dspecialty-aps&field-keywords=capillary+tube If you have the choice, I recommend heavy wall capillary tube (AKA gauge tubes) over thin wall hypodermic tube, if you can find them in the orifice diameters desired (as they are far less inclined to be partially dissolved by flux, should you be a little slow in your braze work). Different companies have various orifice sizes available; one of them well stock tube in .020” inside diameter, and another will stock .023” instead: http://ziggystubesandwires.com/Capillary-Tubing Various heavy wall stainless steel capillary tubes are also available from: https://microgroup.com/store/fractional-stainless-tubing.html 1/16” O.D. in various inside diameters are available from Sigma Aldrich.com: https://www.labemco.com/capillary-tubing.html 1/16” (.0625”) O.D. in various inside diameters are available from Lab Express http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/analytical-chromatography/analytical-products.html?TablePage=19913022

Yes; there are problems we can help with, and others we can't. I had to deal with angry readers who were told "there is no such thing" as a 14T Tweeco MIG contact tip, by welding supply store clerks who simply didn't want their business. A google search will show this to be one of the most common tips out there. The problem was that people expected to walk into one of those stores and buy a single $1.50 (at the time) tip, like they were ordering a hamburger at a MacDonald; not so much. The thing is that being a parts supplier is a lot of responsibility; it isn't easy to talk someone into doing that gig.

Forced drying and preheating refractory Please note that no refractory is actually water proof. Only hard refractories with high silica content, which have been heated high enough and long enough to turn their silica content into glass, are even water resistant. Think of your refractory as being "bisque fired only" and you will have a good handle on its tendency to re-absorb some water content, from water vapor in the air. Ceramic products are finished glazed to seal them from water absorption; unfortunately, that isn't practical on refractory All this is just to remind you to run you forge on low, and give it some time to drive any accumulated moisture out of its refractory, before bringing it to incandescent temperatures, if you want to avoid cracking and spalling. Even indoor forges, which haven't been run in a while, should be preheated before use. Ceramic fiber products also absorb water; therefore, they should be flame dried before finish coats, which tend to seal in water content, are applied; steam pressure will cause rapid spalling of the finish coat. If you seal the burner port, it is wise to drill a small hole (1/8") in the bottom of your forge's shell, to allow steam to exit the forge. I've not only had steam, but even water drops drain from a forge after it has set idle for weeks in cold or rainy Seattle weather.

This is the problem with every bit of well meant advise about suppliers; we can only go buy what we run into in our own areas. We can't do anything to prepare people for the malice, lazyness, and greed they must deal with in their local merchants; they have to roll the dice and take their chances.

You are quite right, Larry. the first problem is that McMcMaster Carr adjusts their numbering system as their inventory changes. I had to adjust the number of the right part once already, while I was righting up the information. Although that post is only two years old,it is out of date again; so this is two changes in three years. I expect that their numbers will change still more over time. But the bigger problem is that I have given up on building burners with these parts at all; they have two many problems. I only recommend mounting capillary tubes, or hypodermic tubes in MIG tips nowadays. this came about in discussions of how to build canister-mount 3/8" burners, which replaced this older design. But now that the original 3/8" burners are being discussed again, I supposed it will be necessary to write an updated version. I'm glad you showed up, and hope you can find the time to contribute on a regular basis. Something came up in one of the other threads, which could be of interest to you, and through you, to the blacksmiths community. There is a guy posting photos of very hot flames, from pretty mediocre burners. What I see that is different about them is their flared flame nozzles; he uses a lot more taper than what is generally recommended. If you take the time to investigate the phenomenon, It might lead to something good...after all, isn't this kind of thing where most progress comes from?

And all those lurkers who read this too.

I note that your flame nozzles have a lot more than the recommended taper; and if this has anything to do with those very hot flames, the rest of us may have to rethink what we think we know on this subject!

One last thing about zinc coated pipe parts: 1" and smaller pipes tend not to quite fit inside each other; you need to file or power sand a few thousandths away from them, to get them to fit. When the zinc coating is gone from the mixing tube and spacer ring, getting the flame nozzle to accept the spacer ring, and the ring to slide freely on the mixing tube becomes a whole lot easier; kind of helps make up for the effort of getting rid of the coating