My IFB/fibre-blanket furnace build.

Discussion in 'Furnaces and their construction' started by OMM, Sep 20, 2019.

  1. OMM

    OMM Silver

    Jason, actually I think you’ll be impressed. The left side of the board will be for Burner “A”, The right “B”
    The two three-way valves will be a quick switch for burn A or B from diesel to vegetable oil. The three-way ball valve pointing at the needle valve will do it’s fine adjustment. The two ball valves at the bottom are shut off‘s for air and fuel A and B.

    There will be nine lines attached to this board.

    I’m hoping my layout will be so easy, I can consider this keeping it KISS for me... as well anybody else that has an eye for fire.

    Large oil filled PSI gauges and regulator I still have a little space for. lol. No digital gauges for me... that would require another power source.
     
    Last edited: Oct 18, 2019
  2. Jason

    Jason Gold

    So you'll have 2 tuyeres?? When you make the switch from A to B, how is the heat inside the furnace going to affect the non running side with out air moving through it? I had A & B on one burner and it always had a blower running through it. When I made the fuel switch, I just slowly closed off the diesel and slowly opened the WMO feed. If the transition was seamless, it was a successful swap.
     
  3. OMM

    OMM Silver

    Yes, I will be able to have one torch running on diesel and the other one simultaneously running on vegetable oil. I’ll even be able to blend them % if the ball valves are halfway.

    Or I can have both torches running on diesel or both torches running on vegetable oil.( Page 2 post 36 video 1).
     
    Last edited: Oct 18, 2019
  4. OMM

    OMM Silver

    Three more pieces machined up in the whole scheme of things. (Yes, SS).

    1/2–13x4 1/4 has two flats measuring .350”.

    The three-quarter diameters has .250×.750 on one end and .350×.750 on the other end, with a .125 web in the middle, with a total length of 1.625.
    These are some of the critical pieces for the lid flipping.
    Before:
    B2526F53-BFAE-4A51-9832-8C845191C7FE.jpeg
    After:
    5A95C8A9-13D4-4A16-969F-405F86D36728.jpeg


    082369D6-3318-47F2-B80E-ACBF1A23A72C.jpeg
     
    Last edited: Oct 20, 2019
  5. OMM

    OMM Silver

    I see what you’re meaning Pat. As well Jason pointed out in an other thread how his bottom lid flange is failing. Thanks guys.

    While doing some final fitting of the lid today. It was difficult (not impossible) to line up the screw heads in the little V’s of the wall. As well it was sitting up on the .030 stainless steel flange on the wall... So off came the bottom flange.

    I counter bored the brick 3/8” to fit 1.5” dia. fender washer. And put her back together. I’m going to just friction fit the lid to the side walls. The Green marker line on the bottom of the lid is where the IFB on the side walls stop. The red is where the old bottom flange was.

    Before:
    F11B9944-5741-4A9F-9283-93FC8FD5EE25.jpeg

    After:

    9B9C6BC5-1643-4D24-9E30-0C95080ED3A1.jpeg
     
    Last edited: Oct 22, 2019
    Melterskelter and Jason like this.
  6. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Much Better Matt. I got a lot of use out of my lid design and I'll just cut the delaminating steel outta it and replace it with fresh steel. I'm dumb like that. The refractory in the lid is still good and I have no internal steel in it. I didn't install anchors and I only have that ring holding it. So IF I ever have to replace the refractory, I'll do it differently. ;)
    Drill out my current lid? Not a chance in hell! You probably haven't had the joy of trying to drill refractory. It is perfectly miserable stuff.
     
  7. OMM

    OMM Silver

    Today I was working on the pull/flip handle. I want all my furnace pieces to always be intact. I’m working on a adjustable pull handle that doubles as the flip lid mechanism. I have two or three of these( ball bearing clevis) in stock and I was thinking using these,
    9834F71B-7BAF-4E9E-B34B-5DD31F711CE7.jpeg
    but… It’s funny how somethings go missing while you’re working. I really wanted to replicate the little button tube to tube lock/unlock (that is on my central vac quick connect) instead of a pull pin. I couldn’t find any links to anything on the web referencing a part to order. So I just took the good old paper clamp and added some stainless steel ( just for Jason...lol) pin locators. Hopefully the heat doesn’t react with the spring steel. This is what I ended up going with.
    4E25643F-BD12-46D8-ACE8-8C032FE5C220.jpeg

    I went back to my original design for the flip lid mechanism as I still wanted the pull handle and I wanted the lid radiating when open 225°-ish from the closed position. The parallelogram didn’t offer this as the radiating heat would be facing one of my fuel lines.

    So I decided to over complicate now for simplicity later.
     
    Last edited: Oct 24, 2019
  8. OMM

    OMM Silver

    I finally finished up all the little bits and bobs of the lid flipping mechanism today.

    I have another video of the whole assembly, but it needs a lot of editing.
     
    Tobho Mott likes this.
  9. DavidF

    DavidF Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    Set a fire in that thing at once!!
    It's just too purdy to be shown here :D
     
    Al2O3 likes this.
  10. OMM

    OMM Silver

    If all goes well, she’ll be a burning Tuesday. Purdy or beautiful is in the eye of the beholder (thanks for the compliment). The inside I suspect will get totally destroyed in time. The outside, I’m hoping for some natural heat colour. This is where I will consider it beautiful/Purdy! Anybody have a guess the temperature range majority of the furnace will change to with a A16 3/4 full with iron??? David, what are your outside temperatures of your furnace, well melting cast iron?
    02161CF7-E255-4517-B6C2-5211A05CFBE6.jpeg
     
  11. Melterskelter

    Melterskelter Gold Banner Member

    "I predict" full blue on the sides. At least mine gets in the 500 to 600 range.

    I think your lid opener and "stroller" handle are quite elegant. BUT, look at where you arm is in relation to the inside of that lid when you are fully opening the lid. That may prove to be a bit on the toasty side when the interior looks fully white hot and it immediately hurts your skin to stand within 3 feet of the open furnace and you notice your eyebrows smell funny and are curly on the ends. I think you will want to be Capt Hook using a 4 foot bar of 1" sq tube with a 1.5" hook on the end to lift that lid open and closed. No big deal, but I think you might want to have something made up so you don't get near the end of your melt and have to scramble and make do. Maybe the hook will do double duty as a skimmer.

    Looks great.

    Denis
     
  12. OMM

    OMM Silver

    Thank you very much Dennis.

    This will be A fun part of it. I absolutely love how stainless steel memorizes it’s top temperature. This will also show me where my leaks are as I’m going mortarless. I’m OK with a full blue. But I was more hoping for a rainbow of colours.

    I found it during my testing and watching back of the videos, if I used my hand with my back to the hinge point there was a possibility of less radiant heat. In the video, I did it two different ways for opening, But for closing I put my body in position in a safer fashion both times.

    I might add and extension handle if heat is a problem. I will be using a full face shield, So hopefully it melts, before my eyebrows lol.
     
    Last edited: Oct 25, 2019
  13. Melterskelter

    Melterskelter Gold Banner Member

    Oh, you will get your rainbows! I suspect there will be an area near the base uncolored for an inch or so, with increasing color above that over a few inches. Unless your build is perfect, there will oil-on-water-like patterns as well. It is and will be pretty, I am sure.

    Denis
     
  14. DavidF

    DavidF Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    My furnace is lined with 3" thick solid refractory. Pretty weird, but I can melt bronze and still be able to put my hand on the outside of the furnace. It takes an hour or so before the heat starts to soak to the outside and typically the furnace has been off for at least 20 minutes. Ive never really checked the shell temp after an iron melt but I doubt its ever gone over 500F Maybe 250-300F ?
     
  15. OMM

    OMM Silver

    Very interesting. My build is using 2 1/2” of the light IFB with an additional 2 inches ceramic insulation before the 0.031” SS(4 1/2 total). Your opinion and Denis’s are on very opposite ends of the spectrum... . My thoughts (which... Way in at nothing) there will be little to no colour change in the SS.

    I stripped down the prototype mini torch tonight 12C34FEF-4CA0-4F7C-8F80-31FC0056CC6E.jpeg

    and completed the build on the double burners.

    97484842-C1BB-44DB-8240-AEADEF4A1220.jpeg

    One of the burners I added propane to with no Air on a 1 pound propane tank. I think this will be enough to trigger Diesel ignition.
    BCCF5F2F-4179-4C02-9D8E-728313C570E7.jpeg
    My next test is to try to ignite diesel open air... but, it’s good to know both torches can handle 1 pound propane tanks with no blower.
     
    Last edited: Oct 26, 2019
  16. Is that flame bending?. My furnace with dense castable refractory 2.5" thick went a brown colour on the 316 stainless which indicates about 400 deg C. The tuyere pipe has some purple visible after the last iron run.

    all-you-need-to-know-about-the-heat-affected-zone-1.jpg
     
  17. DavidF

    DavidF Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    Wasnt an opinion, its just the way my furnace behaves. There are some pretty large differences in size and construction methods between everyone's furnaces. Size, fuel type, lining thickness and type of lining are all going to play a role in how much heat soaks through...
     
  18. Melterskelter

    Melterskelter Gold Banner Member

    My "opinion" is really just a guess based on my furnace's performance and offered in jest. I have measured its skin temp only a few times, but it seems to top out in the 500-600 range after an hour or so of running at 2.5 to 3L per hour of diesel. It is simply lined with 2" of wool and Satanite. I would expect its soak-through of heat to be much faster than a furnace lined with 3" of dense castable, which would be slower than a low density castable lining, which might be slower than a dense castable/wool combo etc. There are way too many unknowns here.

    The opinions won't matter one lick soon as the proof will be in the firing and ultimately the skin color of your furnace. I am anxious to hear how it all goes and wish you great success. Don't be surprised or discouraged if it takes (quite) a few melts to really get the optimum response out of your furnace. I can remember some really long melt times (pre fuel flow gauge) that consumed 12 gallons of fuel total where now I expect to get through a similar-sized melt with only 4 gallons or so. For me, having an accurate fuel flow gauge has been very helpful allowing me to reliably get optimal performance from my furnace, though many seem to get along fine without one. The other important key has been to simply recognize the color and volume of flame of the exhaust from my furnace and importance of keeping the burn just slightly in the reducing (sooting) air/fuel mix. With the experience gained, I can now pretty much set my fuel flow, set the shutter on my combustion air to a mark on the blower box, turn down my compressed air, and be confident I am in the "sweet spot."

    Fire that baby up!

    Denis
     
    OMM and Mark's castings like this.
  19. DavidF

    DavidF Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    Hell yea, thats what im sayin too!!
     
  20. OMM

    OMM Silver

    yes it is. You are seeing it deflect off the floor/base and back up. The angle of the burner is 5° down.

    To get that blue flame, I really had to play with the LP volume. Anything more would turn to A neutral flame (amber). There is a small piece of copper wire, as a spin vain inside the torch to keep the inside tube central and mix. The torch might look like 7 pieces but it’s really 8.

    I’m still holding strong for Tuesday.... I guess excitement is starting to mount....
    Maybe some have enjoyed this thread and maybe some have considered this yawnsville... . Melting metal is my goal....

    I’ll leave this thread and any updates (today’s and tomorrow’s) progressions absent, until you guys can see fire! Hopefully this will please our leader!

    P.S. Thanks to all for taking the journey with me and giving helpful hinters along the way.
     
    Last edited: Oct 27, 2019

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