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Gas Burner not burning right.


plane_crazzy

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I just finished the sheet metal, and the burners for my first gas forge build.  One of the burners didnt ignite at all... the other seemed to be burning well, but I do not have anything to compare to.  I posted a video on youtube of it burning. I do not have the flares done yet for the burners, but I was anxious to see it all fired up lol.  The burner that did not fire up seems to want to burn out the venturi hole instead of the propane igniting in the forge chamber. The injection nipple is the same set up on bother burners and I do not see a reason why it isnt burning right. Any help?

 

http://youtu.be/E061WLzY41Q

 

Also going to attach a couple pictures of the flame.

post-12133-0-64269200-1369968267_thumb.j

post-12133-0-01013600-1369968320_thumb.j

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Wot are you using for a regulator?,,is it a good one with adjustable pressure? If not it may not have the volume of fuel to run both burners,,,,something has to be different in the way they are both set up,,,my guess is Tom hit it on the nail, Pipe dope, even the white or yellow tape kind can do just this.

Interesting that you posted pics of flame but not how the burners are set up,,,and while I am trying to help sort this out, did you push water through the lines and see if the stream went straight down the tubes?....A burr on one orifice could cause the problem also....

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The flame looks pretty well formed but there's too much yellow and the sound isn't quite high pitched and loud enough. From this end it looks to be burning rich, not quite enough air.

 

Is the back of your forge open? What is the volume? and what dia are the burner tubes? Will the #2 burner run without the #1 burner lit?

 

I use thread protectors for flares on my burners to good effect. They look like pipe couplers but aren't strong enough, they're just screwed onto threaded pipe to protect the threads in transit. My local plumbing/heating supply gives them to me as they're not worth paying shipping to return them. Of course you could forge the thread protectors into flares once you remove the galvy but mine do what I want so I let em be.

 

To clean the jet use either torch tip cleaning files or a pipe cleaner. Tip files are the best way I know of to enlarge the jet orifice dia. Your flame looks too rich so don't enlarge the jet. Use a pipe cleaner to be safe.

 

If it's still running rich, a LITTLE ORANGE flame coming out of the forge door is good but yellow flame inside is BAD. Try backing the jet away from the throat a little at a time as this will lean the flame out. If it's persistently rich you may want to use the next smaller mig tip. OR are you using mig tips for jets?

 

If you're using a drilled hole in the feed pipe you'd need to drill a smaller hole. Yeah, smaller.

 

How about posting some pics of the entire burner and forge with something to help gauge the size. The video was good but too close to get a good overall idea of the set up and what's going on.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

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My apologies Frosty, I should have included more info on the burners themselves. I am using the Z side burners with the ward reducers.  They are 3/4 burners using mig tips threaded into 1/4" black pipe nipples. I have torch cleaners so I will try that. Any idea why one burner would burn rich and one wont ignite at all? I will take a pic of the whole burner assembly when I get a chance.

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No problem, I need to know different things depending on what's going on, including pics and better yet a video with sound is great.

 

Why doesn't one burner light while the other does. My first thought is back pressure from the front burner. Have you swapped positions? Have you tried just running the one that won't light now? The other back pressure connected question is: what's the volume of the forge and is there a back door?

 

What size mig tips are you using? I am assuming both burners are as identical as you could get them without going to extremes.

 

The front burner looks good for running rich. Running rich can be a back pressure issue too but it's hard to say without being there and tinkering a little.

 

To lean the burner out try backing the jet back a little at a time. The farther back from the tube (within reason) the more air it will entrain and leaner it will burn. It should not be making a softish whoosh, it should be roaring like a jet engine without the turbine whine. Gas forge burners are loud, it's the most common and justified complaint about the things.

 

Don't worry, this is a basic tuning issue, even if you do need to build a bigger forge. We'll get it going.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

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I do have the mig tips as far down the reducer as they can reach, I will try raising them up some and firing it up again. I tried shutting off gas to the "good" burner and just lighting the other one.  when I did this the gas was wanting to go out the side of the reducer. I actually lit it there and had a flame going out the side.

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Last time I'm going to ask. What is the mig tip size? What is the volume of the forge? Without knowing this stuff I'm just guessing. I asked more questions and can't do you much good without some cooperation.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

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Not having the info yourself is a good reason, I just get frustrated trying to answer questions without knowing what I have to work with. After the TBI I can get sucked into trying but it doesn't do either of us any good.

 

From the burner pics, pull those jets back till they're about 1/4-1/3 across the intake port. and start tuning from there. Mig dia. is right so should work once positioned correctly.

 

486 cu/in is WAY small for those burners but if you get them tuned they may work okay. You're running 600-700 cu/in worth of burner in under 500 cu/in volume so it's going to  develop back pressure it unless you have plenty of opening. If you have a back door you may need to open it or back pressure is going to shut the back one down even if it's the only one burning.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

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yeah... as designed thats about what the forge should have been... I ordered fire bricks through a pottery dealer and when they came in they were undersize so it cut down on my volume a good bit.  Right now both ends are totally open. so there is a 4.5" x 6" doorway in front and back.

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Pottery suppliers are a last resort as far as my experience goes. Try a HVAC outfit, if they don't carry refractory they'll know who does. I buy from EJ Bartells, great guys and good supplies. Regular fire brick can often be had from a concrete company, the guys who load cement trucks usually carry fire clay as well as all kinds of cements, anchor cements, etc. as well as brick, paver, flag stone molds.

 

It's beginning to look like you need to do some burner tweaking.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

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