Much as I HATE videos the sound tells the story here. It's burning into the mixing tube, I don't believe it's just burning in the plenum, that sounded very different in my test versions.

Where are you lighting it? 

At what psi are you lighting it? NO,  do NOT tell me the psig, it doesn't matter, all you're doing is getting it working properly, high vs low is as accurate as you need.

You have no interest in being able to preset the forge for a general temperature. Cover the gauge with tape or a bag or something, reading it is only confusing the base issues.

Frosty The Lucky.

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:

 

Edited September 22, 20205 yr by jt0119
Added more information

What does the pic tell you about the flame? In a still it's clearly burning VERY rich AND lifting off the burner block. Your poor baby has serious issues. 

I don't recall seeing pics of your burners from the outside. Just the inducers, linear, porter, T, etc? A still pic will help and if a T another through the intake ports so I can see where the jet is.

Give me a look see and we can get to details.

Frosty The Lucky.

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. 

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. 

You're lighting it below the ports, INSIDE  the burner? Toss in a piece of burning paper or use a Bernzomatic type torch in the forge and crack the valve slowly. 

Where did you see that design and did you ask him/er what was wrong? It's certainly not mine.

However I'll do what I can. Stop thinking lift off is your problem, it's burning like a cigarette lighter it's so rich flames can't stay on the block. You're burner is running rich and you THINK closing the chokes is a good idea? 

Lose the chokes, take them off, they're screwing you up. Properly tuned a T burner burns as tuned throughout it's range. They have a very flat induction curve.

What's with the elbow between the inducer and the plenum? BAD idea lose it. 

Put the 1/4 turn shut off valve on the hose AT the regulator, not on the burner. Lose as many fittings between the hose and burner as possible. All that junk is likely to do, is knock the jet out of alignment. Cover the gauge or better still take it off, it'll only confuse you.

Frosty The Lucky.

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. 

 

Put the shutoff between the tank and the regulator if that’s your only option. Remember, it’s for emergency shutoff, not adjustment in use. 

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. 

The point is SPEED. In an emergency, you want immediate shutdown. 

If that's the only place for the shut off valve then that's where it should be. Shutting it off with the regulator isn't a good idea and the tank valve is slow. I prefer to see them near the tank so if something goes flamingly wrong you don't have to reach through fire to shut it off. 

I just see lots of junk hung off the gas fittings and tend to react. If that's the only way you can make up to it, then that's what you have to do. 

I tend to forget everybody doesn't have the excellent HVAC shop I have up the street. I have yet to come up with something they can't work with. They're awesome.

Yes, the elbow between the inducer and the plenum is an issue, T burners don't like going around corners. It's part of what stunned me about how well they work in a ribbon burner.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

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. 

No need to sir me, I'm just a guy on the internet. I go by Frosty though I understand some folk are brought up to sir everybody. I'll probably only kid you a little. 

We'll get it tuned up.

What size mig tip did you use?

Frosty The Lucky.

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.

I'll probably tease you every now and then anyway.

An 0.030 should be running lean not rich but the elbows can have profound effect on T burners. 

We'll see how it goes.

Frosty The Lucky.

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?

Lets see what you have and what happens, then we'll take things logically. 

For instance if you're running a 0.030 and it's running rich after removing the elbows then there's something else wrong than the jet's position. 

One thing at a time and never plan the next change BEFORE you see what the last one does. 

Frosty The Lucky.

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. 

That's a little better. Looks like? the size is stamped in the side of the mig tip. Anyway, try trimming it back about 1/32" and deburring with a torch tip file. 

Have you deburred it? Try that before trimming it, there could just be a little obstruction impeding the propane jet.

Frosty The Lucky.

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: 

Did you trim it before? It's a little better but I'd expect more change. Take another 1/32". Do you have more mig tips in case?

Frosty The Lucky.

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"

Back on page 19-20 Dan was playing with a ribbon burner with 1/8 inch ports and he landed at 123 ports.

He was using a different inducer so it is not a same same kind of thing but I figured it was food for thought.

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. 

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: