Case_8 Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 (edited) 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, 2020 by Case_8 Attempted photo resizing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ted Ewert Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Case_8 Posted February 20, 2020 Author Share Posted February 20, 2020 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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