Is it better to use stainless "exhaust tubing" to convey the air from the blower to the furnace, or is it not? E.g. the inlet to a "woefully under-powered" furnace that I'm seeking to improve upon - get it hotter than the anemic asprirator Burner currently in use - has a tuyere of about 2 1/2 inches / 63.5mm. The blower, being of plastic, does not want to be close to the furnace, which was intended to be durable rather than well-insulated. Translated: The furnace's outer shell tends to get a mite warm. Hence a 4ft /120cm blast pipe is wished, if not more, feeding into the part housing the ersatz-Quiky burner - which is a good deal shorter. How much shorter - say, 18 inches / 450mm. Note that these will need cleaning, fitting, and then welding. I have ample argon, er70s-2/6, e309, and nice sharp 2% lanthanated, e3, and thoriated tungstens. (The last kept in reserve...) Stainless, or regular tube???
Don't have the tube right now. Non-stainless is cheaper, but furnace-proximity seems inclined to grow rust...
I'd suggest simple common steel pipe. As long as the tube burner end is out of the path of the flame swirl within the furnace, it will not even get glowing hot. It is cooled by combuistion air. Use paint if you don't like rust red. Nothing wrong with stainless of course. Just needlessly more expensive and a little harder to source. I had initial problems with my burner tube tip, but that was my fault for having it too far into the furnace. Now it resides a couple inches outside the furnace bore and gets hottish but does not glow, and it is not deteriorating. Denis
I'm burning propane not oil, but agree with DavidF. Some use an old metal vacuum cleaner hose. I retrofitted my T-Rex naturally aspirated burner with some dryer exhaust hardware and a pineapple juice can. Most of the burner doesn't get very hot. I can touch where the burner sticks out of the can with my finger and the rubber gasket around it and the dryer quick connect never melt. The furnace end is very hot though. And I've cast iron using propane with this setup. Most important for me is to be able to control both fuel and air easily. So that's more juice-can-tech on the blower intake. Things are a little different with oil and your Quiky but this might give you an idea.
I went stainless steel. My burner gets a little bit gummed up around the end. This is mainly due to using WVO. I just dip the torch in a little bit of diesel fuel and use a green kitchen sink scrubby. I just deliver the air using a garden hose. It seems to work fine for me.
