tardster Posted January 26, 2019 Share Posted January 26, 2019 Well I lit up the forge today and had to adjust the burner depth to get a decent flame out of it. I can't go down any farther but with the right pressure it doesn't seem to bad. I did notice after a few minutes I would need to adjust the choke to get the blue flame back, is this normal to have to adjust several times while its running? I took a couple real short videos of it running, the first is right after I lit it. Once I put my phone down the flame started to get orange-ish and yellow so I adjusted the choke and got the blue flame back. The second video I put a piece of 1/4" thick 5160 steel in there and after a couple minutes it was glowing pretty good. I still have a few finishing touches to do to it but I'm happy with it so far... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey98118 Posted January 26, 2019 Share Posted January 26, 2019 You have a weak (and reducing) flame coming out of your burner. Could you show us the burner running outside the forge, so that we can bertter determine just where the problem is? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tardster Posted January 26, 2019 Author Share Posted January 26, 2019 I'll try to get it out and fire it up here in a little bit, I'm almost done with the honey do chore list for today lol. I thought it was weak myself but I thought it was because I only had it at 18 psi in the 2nd video, the first video it was around 10 or 11 psi. When I went to turn it up it would almost blew the flame out but I also had a firebrick in the back blocking off the opening. I figured it almost went out was because it wasn't allowing it to vent properly with the brick back there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey98118 Posted January 26, 2019 Share Posted January 26, 2019 10 minutes ago, tardster said: I figured it almost went out was because it wasn't allowing it to vent properly with the brick back there. No; that isn't it, becuase you show the front of the forge running wide open, so the flame is not being smothered. I would look to see if the gas jet has debris in it, enstead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tardster Posted January 26, 2019 Author Share Posted January 26, 2019 Here you go Mikey, the first video is at 12 psi, the 2nd is at 18 psi and the last is at 20 psi. I don't know what happened because out of the forge it keeps blowing itself out no matter if I give it more gas or air or lower the gas or air. Sorry about the shortness of the vids but it kept blowing itself out as soon as I would start to adjust the choke... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey98118 Posted January 27, 2019 Share Posted January 27, 2019 Three guys in one week! Put the burner back into the forge. Now, reverse the direction you are use the choke in. When you open the choks from the front of the air opeings, instead of from the back you have no control at all. Once you use the chokes on your burners correctly we will be able to see if you even have a burner problem. And you will have to have the burners in the forge then, or they will simply blow out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tardster Posted January 27, 2019 Author Share Posted January 27, 2019 OK I went out and used the choke from the other direction. This time when I lit it up I got the whoosh and seen the flames come out the end of the forge, kinda startled me a little bit lol. Here is a video of it running at around 15 psi, I'm sure I have more tuning to do but it did seem to run better and got hotter faster. I did however get the same nice blue flame for a few minutes and then it would turn yellow and orange so I would have to adjust the choke to get it back to blue. I'm not sure if I'm just not using enough or to much psi or not because when I would move the choke I would get a real nice deep sound with the blue flame but then it would flutter some and almost go out until I moved the choke back to where it was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey98118 Posted January 27, 2019 Share Posted January 27, 2019 As far as burner design goes, that flame looks good. I don't see a tuning problem either. What the video indicates now is some interference in either the air flow ( unlikely), or the gas flow. You should check the gas train out, starting with the gas jet, and working your way back, until you find what is interfering. I always put my bet on debris in the line somewhere; and this useually collects in the gas jet, as it is the smallest area in the whole gas assembly. Do you have a set of torch tip cleaners? Anyone who has a gas forge should keep them on hand for moments like this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tardster Posted January 27, 2019 Author Share Posted January 27, 2019 I'm not quite sure what it is that's causing it to do that Mikey, you mentioned something about it being clogged up yesterday so I grabbed my torch tip cleaners and made sure it wasn't clogged up. I went through everything and made sure there wasn't any blockages anywhere else in the line. It's a full 20 bottle of propane so I don't think that could be it. Who knows, I'm sure I'm not doing something right. Maybe I will get a new regulator and see if that is the problem, it's the 1 that came with the burner so I'm sure it's a cheap one lol. On a good note though I was able to run the forge for 30 minutes playing around, I just made sure to adjust the choke when I would here it start to act up some. I managed to make me a horrible looking pair of tongs out of some rebar but at least I made something and got to use the forge for the first time so that makes me happy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 27, 2019 Share Posted January 27, 2019 Did you take the mig tip out and clean it from the threaded end? If not you can knock the clog loose and push it back up the line to be blown back into the jet later. Sometimes breaking it loose from the supply line and cleaning it that end pointing down will allow hard gunk to fall out. Unfortunately the gunk in propane is often waxy or greasy so it's tacky and has to be shoved out. I've never found a solvent that reliably cuts propane residue, there are just too many varieties. Heat and an air hose works sometimes but you still need to break the mig tip loose and putting high psi air on something the size of a mig tip is too close to holding a cartridge and rapping the primer for my tastes. I never did find that 0.035' contact tip. Heard it bounce off something though, scary sounding WHACK. Just in case anyone is thinking about compressed air. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tardster Posted January 27, 2019 Author Share Posted January 27, 2019 Frosty, I did take the tip out but I did not clean it from the threaded end as you asked. I just poked my tip cleaner in from the other end so I will re-clean it from the threaded end. Oh and I made the same mistake and cleaned, or should I say tried to clean a mig tip that way and had the same results as you did lol... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 27, 2019 Share Posted January 27, 2019 The closer you get the more little things matter. Did you find it? Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tardster Posted January 28, 2019 Author Share Posted January 28, 2019 Nope, I heard it hit the wall and bounce off a few things I didn't even try lol... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 I just had to look, I wanted to see how much damage it took. Wasted effort of course, I've dropped larger things at my feet and never seen them again. There's gotta be a dimensional warp or something where dropped parts and tools go to hide till you buy another one. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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