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I Forge Iron

Ribbon burner breakage


Jay Hertel

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Getting ready to build a new ribbon burner forge and keep reading about the burners breaking--i could be wrong but wouldn' it be better to make oval shaped burners instead of something that has sharp edges similar to softening the edge of anvil so that don't chip and have stress risers also it could possibly cover more area since ovals have less area then a rectangle would

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Wayne,

I had a ribbon burner that was manufactured, cast, and carefully preheated before firing.  It was made of Mizzou using the John Emmerling plans you have on your website.  Worked well till I cracked it in half, right at the joint where the front of the tube opening meets the castable.  Probably due to operator error in moving it around, but I'm going to change my next one by fully cutting off one side of the steel rectangular tube, so there is no sharp edge of steel in the middle of the casting.  I plan on welding on a short section of ~3/16 rod to the front edge of the short end caps to retain the castable to the burner, hopefully without stress risers.  In my experience casting refractory doors this works very well.  I may also switch to drilling the burner ports for more accuracy there as another has posted.

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Thanks for the insight still just duing the home work before doing the spending-- the last forge I built was just a n/a reil burner that was fully machined was awsome but as all awsome thing ended up missing been a few years since I've swung a hammer I'll keep ya posted

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I read about what you're describing Latticino and applied a little of my materials lab experiences with concrete. There is a sharp difference in the COEs of steel and concretes so there WILL be significant stresses with thermal cycling. Fortunately steel is malleable so it simply smooshes and stretches to match the refractory. Unlike steel, inside or outside corners really aren't significant stress risers but there are many advantages to putting rounded corners in the molds.

The real stress risers for concretes are straight edges and 90* angles in the rebar. To ameliorate this I welded a thin strip of 3/8" expanded metal to the long edges of the tube. And yes, I simple sawed one side off rather than torching an opening in a side. When I mounted the inlet straight down on the outlets 2x4 tests showed a need for a baffle/ deflector and I had some of the side I sawed off left over after making the end caps for the plenum so I welded one in half way across the plenum so it only deflected the flow rather than restricting it. When I mounted the inlet on the side I discovered there's no need for a deflector. 

Jay, you can make a multiple outlet burner any shape that suits your needs, the worst you might need to do is adjust the plenum to deliver reasonably even pressure to all the outlets.

Frosty The Lucky.

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