Well, you wanted photos, this is my 1 1/4" burner, I made it in 2002 (I think) there wasn't much information about at the time, the Mig tip jet idea hadn't been generalised, so I made my own jet, I can't remember what size it is! I had a very ropey lathe which meant that the jet tube is well lined up with the tube. I am going to try a replacement nozzle, but because of the biggish jet size, the venturi effect is pretty powerful, it's hard to get it to run well! My idea is to make a 1" Mickey Porter burner to replace it, although, I want to have a go at cast Iron with it.
Looks good. You might try to remove the inlet reducer and put the end of a MIG tip just forward of the air opening. Should be easy to add an 045 MIG contact tip. I'm using a 1-1/4" burner with just holes in the side of the pipe and it works well. At least I used to use it, I'm using a drip burner now to burn waste oil.
Looks good. I like the adjustable height stand. You will need a combustion air blower in order to melt iron with propane, else the iron gets very red, very hot, and stays very solid.
PatJ and oldironfarmer, Thanks for your comments, I am going to change over to a mig tip jet. one of the things that Mickey Porter talks about is how with the bigger burners, the Venturi effect is very high, as things are, I have to choke it right down to keep the flame alight! I have heard of people melting cast with this size of un blown burner, the problem is not in the flow, but keeping it alight! I will experiment some more when I have the 1" burner running!
Dad did numerous iron melts with a 1 1/4" n/a propane burner, so I know for a fact it can be done. It was essentially a scaled up Reil burner, a melt log or two were posted up on Ron's page back in the day. I'm currently using a 1 1/4" T burner and thinking about a "Mikey" burner for the added adjustability. Curious why you're looking to step down in size? Al
Gippeto, Thanks for your reply. It's nice to know your Dad managed to get Iron melts with an 1 1/4" n/a propane burner.When I made my burner, I thought 1 1/4" would be good as it was "big" and would do everything, but, I suspect that as it's not running at it's best and I have to choke it down, it's not very efficient. So, the opinion on the Gingery tool forum was that a 1" Mickey burner would be more than adequate for my foundry and that I could get it to run more efficiently, use less gas on my Al melts. I have flames coming right out of the exhaust at the moment! I based my burner on a cross between a Reil burner and a mongo burner using welded rather than screwed pipe fittings. I have a 6"x2" stainless nipple to make a new nozzle for the burner and I'm going to adapt a mig tip to it. Regards, Matthew
How big is your current orifice? I imagine that is most of the issue with your current burner. Looking forward to seeing your new burner.
Popped back over to Ron's page to grab the jet sizes dad was using in 1 1/4" burners for the sake of comparison...#56 and #54. He was around 2430'ASL. For the nozzle, what's the flare rate? Dad was using 1:12, I use 22degrees included angle for the most part but have used the stepped flares that Michael Porter talks about in the book as well. Any video of it running? That's always interesting. Al
It was so long ago, that I'm really not sure, I can't find the drill bits I used so it's difficult to measure, I've got the mig tips Mickey recomends, but I'm going to buy a 1.5 mmdrill to get the optimum size he recommends. I'll let you know about the results.
I used a 12 to 1 Flare rate, I was going to try the stepped Type to see if that was better. Sorry no videos for the moment! I think I answered the nozzle bit in my answer to oldironfarmer!
Nice burner. I agree about the flare on the end. Doesn't seem to help in my experience. I've always heard #57 drill bits are the way to go, though I don't see why other sizes wouldn't work. It should just be about the amount of gas getting into the chamber right? That said I did just use the #57 and haven't had problems.
I use metric as I don't live in the US, Mickey suggests a .054" orifice opened out to.059" which converts to 1.4986mm, 14ยต ( less than 1/10" of a thou!) smaller than 1.5mm, which is a very standard drill bit! I may well have got it wrong all those years ago!
