Qriley Posted January 18, 2020 Share Posted January 18, 2020 Hey yall. I ordered a 3/4" t burner because it was cheaper than i could by the material to make my own. Also i lack some of the necessary tools for the build. The burner i have will not stay lit. I have a 0-30 regulator with gauge. I've tried various pressures to no avail. It will burn very loudly. (Popping and all sorts of turbulence). But only at low pressure. Like 5 lbs. At 12 to 15 lbs of pressure it will calm down and run smooth and quiet for a few seconds then it goes out. I had it in the forge and it would never calm down it was just a very loud turbulent yellow flame. I will include pictures of what i have. Ive been reading for and hour trying to figure it out but nothing ive found has helped me understand the problem. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Frosty sent me his plans to build his burner.. But after reading them i realized that i need more tools than i have available. This is my first dealings with a propane forge ever. Anyway thank yall for the help!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted January 18, 2020 Share Posted January 18, 2020 Not sure but the problem may be in your propane tank. If I remember the tanks with the handle like yours have an internal safety valve to prevent too much gas from escaping rapidly (can't remember the name of the valve). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qriley Posted January 18, 2020 Author Share Posted January 18, 2020 Thank you for that information! I think i figured it out though. I put a 0.030 mig tip in and it seems fine now. It came with a very very small tip already installed. so just for kicks i figured i would change it out and sure enough it helped a bunch. Very good quiet flame stays on until i turn off the gas. Thank you for responding tho! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey98118 Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 The burner looks problematic too. The first and second photo shows a regular "T" fitting, instead of a reducing "T". The second photo shows a shows the MIG contact tip to be out of center in the "T" fitting, and and out of axial alignment with the mixing tube . I can't see whether or not the MIG tip has the right orifice for this burner size, but considering what I can see made wrong, a mistake there would be no surprise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qriley Posted January 19, 2020 Author Share Posted January 19, 2020 I believe the mig tip orifice was the biggest problem. I changed it to a 0.030 because i had one on hand. it worked pretty well after that. I will measure the alignment in the morning but it could be the angle of the picture that makes it look off too. I wish i would have caught the "T" size being a 3/4"×3/4"×3/4" when i ordered it. I think im gonna order the right size "T" and replace it. But if the thing will get it to temperature i may just leave it. The mig tip made a huge difference tho. I only paid 15 buck for that burner so if i do end up replacing the "T" its not too big a deal for me. Thank you for taking the time to look at those pictures and respond! I appreciate the people here on this forum so much! I am learning more than i thought i would need to know when i began this project! Hopefully tomorrow i will be banging on some hot metal! I figure that if it all goes wrong i can have a gas heater for my shop and go back to my coal forge. Hah!!! Oh man i hope this thing works!!! Hah!! Well thanks again!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snodganistan Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 New to the forum, but I have been lurking a while. I just built a t-burner and have a similar, but not as pronounced a problem as described by Qriley. The burner will light and run fine for quite a while, but I found that once it got good and hot (burner flare at the bottom starts to glow red after 10-15 min of use) I got a sudden loss of pressure, the burner sputters and I got a quick lick of flame that appeared out the top of the "t" valve. I immediately hit the shut off valve and cooled the whole thing down, but is that common in a properly set up t burner? Do I need to limit the time it is on, or give it time to cool back down, or was it running too hot? It worked great for a solid 10 minutes. No issues, good heat, and steady flame, then quick and very pronounced disruption. My burner looks much like the one posted here. 3/4 tube, 6 in long with 3/4 to 1" flare at the bottom and a 1" to 3/4 reducing "t" on the top. The mig tip I'm using is a .035 tip and I am at practically 0 elevation here in Illinois. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzzkill Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 Was your propane tank outdoors or inside? With the weather we've had in the past few days if your propane tank was that cold before you started running the burner, chances are that the drop in pressure is related to freezing of the tank or regulator. Even if it was in a heated structure this can still happen and is more likely the closer the tank is to being empty. One way to find out if this is the issue is to place the propane tank in a shallow pan of water (wouldn't hurt to use warm water if outside) and run it again for the same amount of time. Don't use so much water that it can float the tank as it goes empty since that can allow the tank to end up on its side and send liquid propane through your lines. A properly constructed and tuned T burner should be able to run for hours with no problems related to heating of the burner itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snodganistan Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 (edited) Ah, I had not thought of pressure change due to temp at all, but yes. It had been sitting inside, and I moved it outside to the garage before running. It sat there for a good half hour - 45 minutes before I started it up and the garage was about 10 degrees. I'll pull it inside to let it warm up, and try the warm water trick. My workspace is currently unheated and I opened the garage door about two feet and turned on an exhaust fan to keep the air circulating for CO. It was warm enough near the forge, but the space overall was freezing. Would something like a home brewing fermenter warming jacket wrapped around the tank solve that problem? They are electric wraps made for 5 gallon buckets, and have heating elements that can be set to a particular temperature. Something like this Thanks for the tip! Remove commercial link per TOS Edited January 21, 2020 by Mod30 Link to Amazon removed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzzkill Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 I've never tried a heated blanket, so I have no personal experience there. Some people aren't comfortable with the idea for safety reasons. I've been using a kit for hooking 2 propane tanks together and have had no problems. However, I'm only running a single burner that is smaller than 3/4" and I've only fired up the forge for fairly short sessions recently. They were longer than 10 minutes, but not several hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 There is a sticky on freezing propane tanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snodganistan Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 Got it, thanks. Making my way slowly through that sticky. Lots of opinions on the matter I see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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