Andrew Golabek Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 Note; this is being going to be used for a gasoline burner of my own hybrid design, reminiscent of the riel linear burner, and a coleman stove. (I've posted in the alternative gas-oil/gasoline forum on here about the details of that build.) The reason I'm attempting to build a ceramic burner nozzle is that the original burner nozzle from my gasoline burner oxidized away quite quickly in my foundry/forge, probably this was accelerated by the slightly oxidizing conditions it was originally being run at, and the burner design caused flame in the nozzle, this excessive heat destroyed the cheap exhaust coupling I used for the nozzle within the last 3 months-probably a total of 10hours of run time. So after some attempts at making the forge work with an integrated nozzle, and the coils built into the refractory, (didnt warm up fast enough for this burner design), I decided to try and make a ceramic nozzle Process I had some calcined alumina, zirconium silicate, and bentonite left over from rebuilding my foundry. Chosen composition was 97% wt calcined alumina, and 3% bentonite, final actual 96.9% alumina, 3.1% bentonite.-I wanted to minimize shrinking during firing, and drying because I only had a few hours to make it. The powders were weighed out, and mixed dry, and then 25% wt water was added, this was still too dry for hand forming, so I added water until the clay was just on the sticky side of plastic. The clay was squished, and folded until the even consistency and absolutely no difference in moisture or visual appearance was noticeable. The clay was shaped into a ball, and formed into a nozzle shape on the end of a new burner pipe (8x3/4 pipe nipple), placed onto a heating vent under cover of a terracotta bowl, and dried, then dried in oven up to 400f (200c) approx 1 hour. After this drying it was very fragile, but I threaded it onto the burner pipe to attempt to make threads on the nozzle. Placed back into the oven, and brought to 400f, then transferred into orange hot foundry, with a steel cup covering it to prevent flame hot spots. after 10 mins the burner was put to maximum, and it was heated for 30minutes, during which that was the hottest my foundry has ever gotten. It was cooled until orange/red, and then removed and placed onto the lid to cool. The nozzle has a ring to it, and only one small surface crack, shrinkage approx 2-3%, it will need to be ground out slightly to fit the burner pipe Next weekend I will test it in the foundry. Pictures Foundry minus the lid, with the old burner installed heating up. Full blast, the old burner was not functioning perfect due to its state, however it was needed to fire the new nozzle. The view through the burner shows how hot the forge is.The lid along with some extra stuff I put to maximize the heat. Believe it or not this picture was taken in the middle of the day, you can imagine the colour is extremely distorted, this was during the hottest part of the sintering. The nozzle, still very hot, cooling off on the lid of the forge. Complete nozzle, due to the shrinkage didn't thread all the way onto the pipe. Testing next week :), any suggestions or comments welcome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey98118 Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 Your use of ceramic for flame nozzles is clever, and so I am loathe to discourage you...but gasoline costs just as much as propane, and is considerably more dangerous to use for burner fuel. Gasoline and kerosene burners are normally used in places where fuel gases aren't easily available. You are reinventing the wheel, because of modern all-steel air/gasoline torches from China being cheaply available on the market. Finally, there are guys already using gasoline torches to heat coffee-can casting furnaces; so far, they find the flames to be disappointingly cold compared to propane burners. However, I suspect that they can't get the torches close enough to the furnace entrance hole because their old-fashioned rebuilt torches have brass nozzles, which would melt if they were placed within the entrance. The Chinese torches have steel nozzles, which you would be wise to change-out for #316 stainless steel. We have found the same inappropriate brass flame nozzles to create problems for people who want to use commercial bottle-mount propane torches on coffee-can forges. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Golabek Posted March 12, 2018 Author Share Posted March 12, 2018 The original nozzle was steel, not brass, I'm happy with the burner as is, just wanted the nozzle to last longer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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