phissman Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 Hello gang. I'm new and have been reading as much as I can through the stickies. I am picking up a burner as a Bday present for myself. Chamber size for the forge I am building will be between 150 and 250cui. I am making the forge out of a 40mm ammo can. I am taking the Essential Craftsman class online, and plan on making small trinkets and knives. My question is have you guys taken a look at the Atlas burners? They have a 30k BTU and 100k BTU burner. Would I be good to pick up one of those or should I grab a frosty t 3/8" or 3/4" from eBay? Or is there a better location to pick one up? I want the reg and 1/4 turn ball valve too. Thanks for any info and pointers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 T burners are designed to be easels self built. If you read the burners 101 thread you will see you can build more efficient ones but they are more technical builds. Note, essential craftsman seems to go more for spend $ to get started fast insted of spending time to get started cheap. Nothing wrong with that unless it keeps you from smithing because you can’t buy tools. Hint, blacksmiths make tools, and have been doing so for a chunk of human history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phissman Posted November 5, 2019 Author Share Posted November 5, 2019 Thanks Charles. I made a cheap coffee can forge and have been using a simple torch head with extension hose to a 20lb tank for the first few modules. It's working, but its time to upgrade. I'd prefer to just purchase a burner from someone who has experience with building them. In those first few modules, I have made some tools already! Chisels and bending forks etc. I have a few found blacksmithing tools as well. Just need a bigger chamber than what I have, and more BTUs than this silly torch can put out lol. It looks like T burners on eBay with a reg are like 40-60$.While an Atlas 100k burner with reg is like 60-80$. Is there anyone who has compared the 2? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-son Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 Had to search for the atlas burner to find info, didn't know about it. Appears to be an extremely simple design, and while I like simple things it's rarely the way to go if you want high efficiency. What you save on a simple burner may cost you a lot in gas consumption further down the road. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 I just took another look and remember the site and how hard it was to close it down and escape. That said I wasn't able to get a good look but from what little I saw I have to say it's really crude, just a cross pipe and straight mixing tube. Selling by BTU is a marketing cheat, sure you need so many BTUs to heat a volume of chamber but absolute temperature is what determines how hot your forge will get. It's analogous to electricity, how much work it'll do is determined by voltage x amperage, trying to calculate by just one is pretty meaningless except for some specifics. Perhaps the Atlas burner is as good an example of how simple it is to make a working burner, it requires less shop skill then Ron's EZ burners and those are pretty easy. In Alaska it might be worth the purchase for the regulator and hose, a 0-30 reg and 5' hose will probably run you $50 - $60 and you need the fittings to make up to it. Of course that's the opinion of someone with: GOOD shop skills, more than basic tooling and practice researching. I spent more time coming up with a reasonably effective burner that requires minimal skills and tooling. What I wanted to do originally was turn the split dies and spin burner shells from SS exhaust tubing but the T works well enough as a good entry level build and is effective enough to do what I what and need. I can't say about T burners bought online, I've seen a number the seller managed to MAKE work but if you want a "Frosty T" you gotta build your own. The instructions are available here as is help from the designer. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 And you get tech help from the designer ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlatLiner Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 You have the inventors of both the T burner and the Mikey burner on this site and both are more then willing to help you out on building burners. I have no horse in this race or experiance with atlas burners but from what I understand about burners a Modified Riel, Frosty T, Modified Sidearm, Zburner, or Mikey burner would be more efficient and in some cases just as easy to build. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 Myself, I go solid fuel and build with mud and scrap.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted November 6, 2019 Share Posted November 6, 2019 6 hours ago, phissman said: info and pointers! Welcome aboard... Reading this is the best info and pointers to get the best out of the forum. READ THIS FIRST Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Another FrankenBurner Posted November 6, 2019 Share Posted November 6, 2019 Beware of forge burners on amazon and ebay. You will find several different types generally copying the concept of some known to function burner. It is difficult to find them actually built to the specs of the burner they are copying. Several examples being very out of spec or built in ways the original maker advised against. It is easy to make a pipe with fire at one end that looks like a good burner if you don't know what you are looking at. With just a little effort, it is easy to build one which performs better than that. If you do not want to build a burner, research the type of burner you want so that you can buy one which is built correctly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.Rotblatt Posted November 6, 2019 Share Posted November 6, 2019 In doing experiments on different burners, I tried a burner without any reducing bell like the atlas burners. It worked. Adding a reducer (I tried many types) always resulted in a better more stable flame. Given that, I did get a reasonably stable flame off a pipe and jet with no reducer, and that was in open air. In a forge it's a different animal. YMMV. DanR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey98118 Posted November 28, 2019 Share Posted November 28, 2019 On 11/5/2019 at 9:58 AM, Charles R. Stevens said: T burners are designed to be easily self built. If you read the burners 101 thread you will see you can build more efficient ones but they are more technical builds. I, picky-butt Porter do totally agree with these sentiments Nor do I think everyone just has to build a "pocket rocket.." You want to push the envelope? Then build a rocket. You wanna pound steel this week? Build a very fine Frosty burner, and get hammering! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey98118 Posted November 29, 2019 Share Posted November 29, 2019 As to the Atlas burner, what I don't see is any way to fine tune the burner. Homemade burners, and that includes most "commercial" burners, very a lot in performance; that is the whole point in fine tuning the burner. Straight out of the box, your burner may run great...or a long way from it. Without controls, you're just "rolling the dice." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.