Best Burner For Larger Furnace

Here is my light on diesel and switch over. The switchover was about the 10 minute mark of the melt and a three-quarter full crucible was melted and poured in 23 minutes. I used about 1 L of diesel and 1 L of waste vegetable oil to melt 3.8 kg of aluminum.

 

So what'd ya pour?

 

Today, just bars. Mainly cast aluminum into Ignots. I did 3 melts getting me almost 12 kg. I’m trying to consolidate boxes and boxes taking up valuable shop space. Also testing out the trays. The ones that were polished came out 10 times better. I also wanted to test the big blower a little harder for an hour run as well.

 

In the first minute while you're lighting I can't see what you're doing at the controls but I assume you turned on the fuel/air to both your igniter torch as well as the torch already in the furnace? I've most recently been doing my preheats with propane but also commonly use deisel. For deisel I drop a piece of oily rag into the bottom of the furnace. Just a piece of it though. I light it first, then drop it in. Anything that will sustain a flame with some turbulance will do. I give it a bit of air then I slowly turn the fuel on. It lights up with a few chokes and burps like in your video, but it saves the hair on my hands and keeps me out of the smoke. I just let the rag burn up but I have sometimes retrieved it out and snuffed it. I've had it blow out of the furnace in flames which can be a little disconcerting so I'm attentive to it. When I use propane, which is most of the time these days, I light a small piece of fatwood which you can buy or make or get those waxy fire starter sticks at tractor supply. That holds sufficient flame to initially ignite the propane without having to turn any air on and it doesn't create residual issues. I've never tried to light deisel with the fatwood though because the turbulent combustion air would probably blow it out.
A major part of my own progression in operating my furnaces has been minimizing smoke events as well as distancing myself from the exhaust. That'll come with practice. I breathe in a helluva lot less smoke these days than I used to (except Winstons. I breathe in more of those than ever these days but that's a different topic.)
Those mini burners do a pretty nice job. I have to admit I was a little doubtful that they would deliver enough air but they appear to work pretty well. Results trump intuition I guess.
Your video editing must be pretty seamless. It was funny that as you kept adding metal I thought How big is that friggin crucible? It was a pretty fast melt though. Just a thought, lowering your charge in with tongs is a much better way to go. At the very least it keep your furnace much cleaner.

Thanks for the video!

Pete

 

Pete, I guess I need to give a little bit more of an explanation. Both burners had air flowing through them. I was testing out the big blower and trying to find the sweet spot before I move onto a copper melt. I first lite the one in my hand and when it holds a flame, I turn the other one on in the furnace. Then I turn the fuel off to the one in my hand and let the furnace one keep going. The one in my hand still has the air being pushed through it. In the video you see when I put the one that was in my hand back into the furnace, the furnace starts getting a little bit more air and pulls the flame in a bit. Then I walk back over to the board and turn on the fuel to that burner.

One thing I need to mention, when I turn the fuel on to the second burner it doesn't add twice as much fuel. The fuel amount stays the same being pumped into the furnace. It is just split between the two burners. But, in reverse when I turn the fuel off one burner, the other burner is pumping twice as much. When I do the switchover, for one second there is twice as much fuel being pumped into the furnace, until I get them both on the same fuel. For example; if both torches were running 50 mL per minute (a total of 100 mL per minute) when I do the switch over, the one that's still on diesel jumps up to 100 mL per minute and the WVO torch is at 100 mL per minute. That's why it jumps really rich for a couple seconds.

I only have the blower running at 55% RPM

I just did two major edits to that video to cut out 10 minutes. Five minutes before I switched it to WVO and maybe six minutes of the WVO melt.

Yes I almost need three hands to start the furnace. I have been watching some of Martin's (old foundry man) videos and it looks like he's using a diesel rag on a wire. I might have to give the diesel rag a try.

 

I will second or triple(?) the diesel rag idea. I simply use a single sheet of diesel-soaked paper blue shop towel lit and dropped into the furnace. I turn my combustion air on very low and then crack open the diesel. Lights first time every time. Then a bump in the fuel followed by a bump in air all repeated once more. I let it burn for 30 seconds or so with the lid open and then close her up and make a few fine tweaks and we're good to go with only the very occasional tweak after that. Very very easy with no fumbling. I started out using a lit Mapp gas torch to light off the burner but found it a lot more fiddly and prone to blowout. Eventually switched to the towel method. Not going back.

Denis