Merlin05 Posted November 14, 2021 Share Posted November 14, 2021 Fired up my Atlas forge this afternoon, it wouldn't work at all at first. Finally had to remove the gas burner outlet orifice(the brass piece in the pic below) and rod out the tiny little hole. Got it reassembled and fired it up. But it's sputtering. Not constantly but every once in while it will go from the standard burner hiss to a "cough, cough, cough" type behavior. No flame when it's sputtering. I used a steel brush bristle to rod out the tiny orifice; I'm not aware of having anything else that small to clean it out. Any ideas, thoughts, suggestions/ Just noticed: Mine didn't come with the pressure gauge. Also, tank is full. Thanks, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted November 14, 2021 Share Posted November 14, 2021 What did the manufacturer say when you called them for support? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey98118 Posted November 14, 2021 Share Posted November 14, 2021 It might be a build up of wax and tar from the propane fuel. Compressed air may clean it out, but the forge isn't made to be easily cleaned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merlin05 Posted November 14, 2021 Author Share Posted November 14, 2021 20 hours ago, ThomasPowers said: What did the manufacturer say when you called them for support? The answer to that question is literally in the first half of the first sentence in the OP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted November 15, 2021 Share Posted November 15, 2021 I don't see anything about contacting Atlas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted November 15, 2021 Share Posted November 15, 2021 Nope, not a word, not i this thread anyway. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merlin05 Posted November 15, 2021 Author Share Posted November 15, 2021 In the OP: "Posted Saturday at 06:00 PM Fired up my Atlas forge this afternoon,...." Any of you expect a response on a late Saturday afternoon or Sunday? ETA: I just sent them an e-mail using the same problem statement as above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted November 15, 2021 Share Posted November 15, 2021 It was a gentle hint that contacting the folks who are supposed to be supporting their products might be a better idea than talking to random strangers possibly on the other side of the planet. I don't know what their field support is like; when I was in that role for the company I was in; we provided 24/7 service. I carried a pager for years! Of course that was some time ago, hence the pager. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merlin05 Posted November 16, 2021 Author Share Posted November 16, 2021 Tried it again yesterday afternoon. Went over the instructions word for word to make sure I RTFM; near as I can tell, it's installed correctly. Worked fine until it got hot and I put the metal into it to heat it up. I thought maybe putting the steel shank in there was disrupting the gas flow, but then that doesn't make sense: the whole purpose of this forge is to put metal into it and turned them knives or whatever. Here's a picture of the forge and how it's designed; this is a stock pic from the Atlas site. The brass piece is what I removed to clean out the tiny orifice. Note that the directions state to make sure the burner is centered into the forge; you can see the three @@ allen head screws used to position and lock it into place above. The only other adjustments are how deep the burner goes into the forge (they want it about a 1/4" from inside) and of course the regulator. Any other ideas, suggestions or help? One Contact form with e-mail and one VM: still no response. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 Is the back end sealed up? If so may be an issue with back pressure. What type of regulator do you have? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey98118 Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 If you just poked a wire into the gas orifice, from the outside, it wouldn't necessarily get rid of an internal ball of wax and tar... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timgunn1962 Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 What pressure are you running at? Have you tried running at a higher pressure? To work properly, the mixture needs to be moving along the burner tube towards the forge, faster than a flame can travel through the mixture in the opposite direction. If/when the flame speed exceeds the mixture speed, the flame will run back up the burner tube until it runs out of mixture and the flame will go out. Gas will coninue to flow, will draw in air and mix with it, the mixture will travel along the burner tube until it reaches the hot forge, where it will ignite and the process will repeat. The flame speed is variable and is affected by several things. Among these are temperature and pressure. Increasing either will increase the flame speed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timgunn1962 Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 At startup, the forge is cold. The mixture temperature is low, and so is the flame speed. The flame will tend to stabilize within the forge. As the forge gets hotter, the flame speed increases and the flame stabilizes closer to the burner nozzle. If the gas pressure is high enough, the mixture speed will be sufficient to prevent burn-back once the forge reaches its full temperature. If the gas pressure and mixture speed are not high enough, at some point the forge will get hot enough for the flame to run down the burner tube. When this happens, the flame heats the burner tube as it runs along it, increasing the temperature of the next gulp of mixture and causing it to burn back more readily. If this sounds anything like what you are seeing, try running at a substantially higher pressure and see if the problem goes away. Gas flow varies as the square root of the pressure, so you want to at least double the pressure to see if it has an effect. I'd probably aim for 4 times the pressure to double the gas flow and mixture speed. You might need to start low and increase the pressure as the forge heats up. If it works, you can then experiment to see what your setup needs as a minimum. If it doesn't work, you can try something else (Charles at Atlas seems to have a good understanding of their kit and can probably point you in the right direction), but it's an easy thing to check. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted November 17, 2021 Share Posted November 17, 2021 The intake end of the burner looks mighty close to the forge opening, it might be getting exhaust. A forge's exhaust changes as it heats up and may explain why the sputtering only happens after it gets hot. Bear in mind, I think Tim's explanation is more likely. I never try to contact a company via email or the contact link on a webpage. My experience has been zero response unless I'm looking to buy in quantity. I call on the telephone and talk to live people. It's faster, easier and you get better results. Tim may have Charles's direct number even. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merlin05 Posted November 17, 2021 Author Share Posted November 17, 2021 20 hours ago, ThomasPowers said: Is the back end sealed up? If so may be an issue with back pressure. What type of regulator do you have? The back end has a small opening at the bottom; probably 80-85% closed. Regulator is the 20 psig that came with the unit. I don't know what pressure I'm running; as stated my version did not come with a gauge. I'll try a higher pressure. Thanks for the help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merlin05 Posted November 18, 2021 Author Share Posted November 18, 2021 Got an e-mail from Atlas: He says it's moisture. The insulation sucks moisture when cooling; it's boiled off when heating, causing the sputtering. This makes sense, since I don't keep it running very long once it starts sputtering, not knowing if it was defective or I was doing it wrong nor wanting to blow up my shop with me in it. Next time, I'll let it run and drive on. Thanks, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted November 18, 2021 Share Posted November 18, 2021 Is the insulation coated with a castable refractory like Kast-O-Lite 30 and Plistix 900F? I've never had a problem with our forge we made, sucking up moisture to make the burner sputter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merlin05 Posted November 19, 2021 Author Share Posted November 19, 2021 Irondragon, from Atlas Forge website: "The Atlas forge uses Plicast CG LWI cast refractory, cured and baked for 6 hours at 450°F. Ready to use right out of the box and it will last much longer than wool based forges." I hope this helps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted November 20, 2021 Share Posted November 20, 2021 Materials do NOT attract moisture (form condensation) cooling down, have you ever seen condensation on a coffee/tea cup? The last sounds like marketing. One last thing. If the burner is drawing moisture from the heating forge liner with combustion air then the burner intakes are TOO CLOSE to the forge openings. No way a little moisture cooking out of the liner ,in itself, is enough to cause the burner to sputter. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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