jt0119

Oh, no. Nothing I make anytime soon will resemble a Chili forge. I've had plenty of other issues with my forge, to the point I'm just gonna bite the bullet and buy one so I can get back to work and tinker over time. It may not be a Chili Tabasco, but I'm looking reeeeeeal hard at that one. That's not the point of this thread, though. 

Honestly, I'm beginning to think Version 2.0 is going to look suspiciously like a Chili Tabasco

Yep, all drilled and melted out at this point as well. 

Thanks Frosty. I got the block cast a couple days ago and spent this morning testing it out, and it just will not heat my forge. It burns a lot better, but I let it run for a good 15-20 minutes and only had parts of my forge get up to dull red. Cranking it up higher doesn't seem to do anything except give me more dragon's breath, and blocking off an end only makes it run worse. 

Eh, I decided to quit trying to reinvent the wheel and I'm just gonna use the exact specs you figured out. At this point, I just need my forge back up and running. I'm gonna get a test run knocked out tonight and hope that it ends up working. 

I went with Mizzou, and yeah, it's definitely not too happy about being drilled. I still have the steel plate I used for my initial testing, so I'll just drill those out bigger. It'll be way easier to test it now that I've got a hole in my forge to put the burner in. 

I updated after changing two things, but I've been testing more between updates. After trimming the length of a .035 down to be CRAZY short and still not seeing hardly any difference, I kept the length the same and limited the amount of fuel going into it as much as possible, and it's still running rich. 

I was coming to that same conclusion as well. Since I'll have to recast the block anyway, would it be worth it to drill the holes out some with a cheap bit and see if that helps any? 

Alright, just to eliminate the mig tip as the problem for it burning rich, I took one of my extra .030 tips and cut it as short as I felt I could and still be able to remove it. Ended up here:

His post/videos on YouTube was what inspired me to go with 1/8" holes. I did a fair amount of testing outside the forge, and 63 seemed to be the sweet spot for what I had. That said, I'm kinda doubting whether I knew enough at that point to accurately judge a sweet spot. 

Also, just because I wanted to see if it'd change anything, I pulled the burner out from the forge a bit and got these. 

Yeah,the first two pictures I posted today were using the T completely unaltered, as it was previously tuned. I've been playing around since those with various lengths on the mig tips, but I think I overshot it. I've got 7 more of both 30 and 35s.

-1/32"

Yeah, I saw the stamp when I took it out to compare it to the sizes I had. Made that process a lot easier. Deburring didn't make much difference, so this is what I got after trimming it down, same relative pressures: 

Alright, elbow and chokes are gone and this is what I'm getting with the valve just barely cracked, then turned up some. 

Edit: also, after checking, it looks like I used a .035 tip. 

Just so I have something to test tomorrow if I don't see much of a difference after removing the elbow, if I'm running rich, I should be removing length from the mig tip to draw in more air, correct?

Wasn't brought up that way, just a habit I picked up somewhere around high school and it was only reinforced by working in retail 

Gut instinct is telling me I used a .030, but I experimented with both that and .035 and can't fully remember which I ended up using. I have plenty of both, though.

Totally understandable, sir. I was pretty caught off guard by how difficult it was to go from one relatively standard fitting to the other. I spent a few days figuring out how to use the fewest number of fittings and go from that 1/8 nipple to 3/8 flare with what I had access to. I'll ditch the elbow tomorrow and report in with any results. 

And that's all I use it for anyway, but at that point, I may as well just use the regulator or the tank itself to cut the fuel supply. 

No, not inside the burner. "Below" was in relation to the burner as it was mounted in the top of my forge. Poor choice of words on my part. I light it how you describe with a Bernzomatic torch.

The elbow was more about positioning the inducer than anything else. If it's a hindrance, it can go. 

As far as the T burner goes, I used your plans, but had to get creative going from the nipple holding the jet to the 3/8 flare fitting on my propane hose. Unfortunately, my regulator and hose are all one piece and can't be separated without damaging both, or if they can, I don't have the tools to do it. 

Alright, I forgot that I drilled dowels I used out with a 7/64 bit instead of the 1/8 they were sized at assuming they'd just burn out over time. Drilled them out the rest of the way and got the following pictures in what's going to be the final orientation of the burner. Seems a little better to my untrained eye. Running at low pressure. 

Got a view of everything, the jet, and the block. 63 1/8" holes driven by one of your standard 3/4" T's. I added some chokes when I was using it as just a regular Venturi and had those mostly closed off in the last picture I posted. Opening them up obviously leads to quite a bit more liftoff. 

Lighting it at low pressure, somewhere below the ports. Other pressures and lighting positions don't seem to change much. 

Edit: welp, decided to flip my whole forge upside down to see if burner orientation would change anything, and got this:

I knew this was going too smoothly. I don't feel like it's working nearly as well as it should be. This is it running from about 5psi up to 20. Toying with the idea of side mounting it to see if that helps. 

Well, I was going to post about being concerned with how quiet it is, but after reading the thread some more and watching a few videos, it seems like that's pretty standard. I think my first NARB might have been a success! I'll get some pictures tomorrow once I'm done adapting my forge to accept it. "Stoked" doesn't even begin to describe how excited I am to put it through its paces.

Hey guys, I'm getting ready to cast the refractory for mine and wanted to check how important the alignment is on the dowels I'm using for the holes. Is it just as long as they don't touch each other at the top, or do they need to be as straight as possible?

See, conversations like this show me just how much more I have to learn about this, and I absolutely love it. 

That helps immensely, thank you! Something to keep in the back of my mind, for sure.