My ribbon burner forge builds up a lot of scale (too much air, according to what I’ve read here.) So I turn my blower down, and increase the propane. But when I turn the propane up, I get a very bad “cavitation” type sound from the forge. Its not only very unpleasant, but actually kinda scary sounding. Scratching my head to figure out where I went wrong. The forge still works, but can take a little while to heat the steel compared to what I feel it should be doing.

Note: I do not know what pressure my propane is running, the guage is faulty. Even if turned off and bled it still reads 5 or 6 psi.

Has anyone experienced this phenomenon with their forge? 

 

Edited February 19, 20206 yr by Case_8
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When you turn your air flow down you'll start to get burnback through your burner. This is because your flame front exceeds the velocity of the gas exiting the hole. I have found that most ribbon burners have way too many holes for efficient operation. I run mine on six holes and it gets as hot as I want with no problems whatsoever. Plug up about a third of your holes with Kaowool and see if the problem goes away.

Wow only 6 holes?! Mine has 18-21! I must have really gone astray in my calculations. I just cut some kaowool yesterday and have lots of material to make plugs. I’ll give this a try tomorrow. 

Thanks Ted!