Ceramic Nozzles V2.0

[Andrew Golabek]

First properly successful ceramic nozzle tested today in my foundry, attached are some pictures.

-Yes I know the burner is too far into the forge, this was just a test run, and the mount isn't permanent so I had to run it like this for now. 

Worked pretty well, any ideas for future nozzle shapes?

[Andrew Golabek]

This nozzle was homemade, and fired in the foundry pictured, made of calcined alumina, with bentonite, and carbon fibre for the green state binder. Total weight when fired was 23.7grams, Internal length of 34mm, and width of 33mm.  

The firing schedule was approximately as follows

-air dry until no longer cool to the touch

-dry in oven at 200f for 30mins, and then increase temp to 300f, hold at least 20mins

-transfer to forge while hot, slowly increase forge temp until red hot, and then full blast

-final temp approx 1300c, total firing time from start of 30-40mins.

[Andrew Golabek]

[Frosty]

This is your oil fired burner isn't it? I forget, what kind of oil?

Frosty The Lucky.

[Andrew Golabek]

3 minutes ago, Frosty said:

This is your oil fired burner isn't it? I forget, what kind of oil?

Frosty The Lucky.

No this is a propane one, had some trouble setting up one of my gasoline ones, so decided to try it, had the propane tank anyways. Running with a 0-30psi regulator 

[Frosty]

Did you follow one of the proven burner designs or design your own? The flame looks pretty good in the pictures but It's running a little rich. If you have a choke on it try opening it up a LITTLE at a time till the flame clears out. It should burn a lot hotter.

Frosty The Lucky..

[Andrew Golabek]

It’s my own design, I think the burner tube is a little on the long side, but I’ll try to open the entrance first, thanks

[Frosty]

I think it's close enough to tune for max output now. I'm not a caster so I don't know what kind of atmosphere you want in a melter and I believe what you're melting makes a difference too. Good job on the burner.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Andrew Golabek]

Running at a lower propane pressure in this picture but I think I got it running just slightly lean now, opened up the choke and filled the intake a bit. Should have a full range from oxidizing to reducing atmosphere now for casting  

 

what do you think of the nozzles which have A swell and then close narrower at the exit? I’ve seen them advertised for industry burners, not sure how it would work on one of these though

 

sidenote, instead of a mug tip I used a 1/8th steel capillary tubing, cutting it short left a nearly perfect sized outlet for the propane (just slightly oversized)

[Frosty]

That's a better looking flame, MAYBE a little lean but not much. Make small  adjustments and test after every one. Tiny adjustments the closer  it gets to what you need. 

1/8" is WAY larger jet than I've ever used. Can't argue with results though, that puppy looks HOT.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Andrew Golabek]

1 hour ago, Frosty said:

That's a better looking flame, MAYBE a little lean but not much. Make small  adjustments and test after every one. Tiny adjustments the closer  it gets to what you need. 

1/8" is WAY larger jet than I've ever used. Can't argue with results though, that puppy looks HOT.

Frosty The Lucky.

its got a choke, so adjusting it from here should be easy :),

the actual internal diameter of the tube is approx 0.04 inches, maybe a little smaller, was hard to tell using the calipers. 8 inch 3/4 pipe for mixing, and i think 2 or 2.5 inch reducer coupling

[Frosty]

0.04" is much more reasonable from what I know about the devices. You REALLY had me wondering how you got that nice a flame with a 1/8" jet! I was going to be pumping you mercilessly for how you pulled it off!  My head was not wrapping around those numbers at all. 

WHEW saved us both!   Good job Andrew.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Mikey98118]

 

the flame is perfect; right up against lean, but not over the edge into it.

If you look into the design of gasoline and kerosine burners of the last hundred years, you will see that the heating tube only goes a short distance into the burner's heating chamber; I believe that is prudent to keep the tube from overheating. While a stainless steel tube isn't likely to collapse, overheating it will produce oxides on its inside surface, which will flake off and enter the gas jet over time.

[Andrew Golabek]

Awesome, pretty happy with my first propane burner :), tested today melting 2kg of copper alloyed to be classic bronze, worked perfectly well, although my mould making wasnt up to par haha

Yeah mikey I think thats probably what happened with the previous gasoline burner, when the fuel wasnt flowing through, the inside oxidized, leading to problems with sufficient fuel flow, So I decided to make this propane burner.

[Frosty]

Thanks for your evaluation Mike, I thought it looked pretty close to right but I used to look for a different flame shape and type till you showed me where I was mistaken and why. I'm still developing a new eye for flames. I'm pretty happy to be this close in my evaluation. 

Frosty The Lucky.