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10:31 am
March 26, 2010
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So far I've got by for many years using venturi burners (from 3/4" to 1.25") with MIG tips for gas ejectors and find them wonderfully simple, easy to make, reliable, easily tunable and with a VERY stable flame provided they are used indoors away from wind. The 3/4 " ones will also operate over a wide range of gas pressure making it easy to turn the heat up and down via a regulator without tinkering with the choke.
...... however I get ****ed of with the noise and am starting to thing about experimenting a ribbon burner (also for the even heat). Since these need to run full on to prevent burn back I'll use PID temperature controller to turn it up or down.
I,ve got no experience of blowers or blown burners and was wondering if the smaller blowers used for bouncy castles would be up to the job. (I'm finding it hard to source a cheap blower to play with over here) They are typically rated around 1/2 to 1 HP so I guess they generate the volume of air needed, just wondering about the pressure needed for a ribbon burner
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Small-Bo.....2a0dbe002e
I'm also wondering if the noise from the fan becomes just as annoying as the noise from a venturi burner.
5:19 pm
March 22, 2010
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I am using one of grants blowers and I have pretty much no fan noise, its very quite. I like you had no experience with blown forges prior to undertaking the ribbon burner forge and I am quite happy with my first delve into them.
Whatever you are, be a good one.
Abraham Lincoln
6:23 pm
April 21, 2010
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Question, can Grants blowers be modified to adjust the speed? I think part of the problem of why I gotta run away from the forge while lighting it and turning on the blower is the high speed it starts out at... Can they be rigged up to some sorta control?
7:05 pm
May 22, 2010
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I also have one of Grants blowers ... It's an HB-8, 110V, 140W, 112 CFM with a static pressure rating of 36 oz.
I do not see an RPM rating on it, nor is there a way to control this on the motor itself. I believe you would need to ask Grant or possibly an electrician who knows about these types of motors to see if you can vary the speed with an after market switch/dial without hurting the motor.
It can be done, the question is, will it hurt the motor. :help:
If it's any help :help: I run mine at full tilt all the time, wide open and just limit the amount of air to the burner with a gate on the incoming tube to the burner.
Also, be aware that when you reduce the RPM, you will reduce the amount of suction (Static Pressure?), so be careful there =) .
Brad Roland :hot:
10:04 pm
May 22, 2010
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Try using a gate to limit your airflow. I've never had to run from my forge when lighting it ... although in hindsight .... hahaha, just kidding.
here's another way, Light your Forge like Darryl Nelson, ... toss a burning piece of paper in the forge, turn the gas on, then turn the blower on ... That scared me the first time I saw him do that ... looking back on it now .... I laugh! :spin:
Brad Roland :hot:
2:59 am
March 22, 2010
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Here is what my blower/gate/infuser looks like...
[Image Can Not Be Found]
Whatever you are, be a good one.
Abraham Lincoln
9:27 am
March 26, 2010
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Larry L;7047 wrote: I am using one of grants blowers and I have pretty much no fan noise, its very quite. I like you had no experience with blown forges prior to undertaking the ribbon burner forge and I am quite happy with my first delve into them.
Yeah, seems ideal .... 'cept they're not available over here:( I'm looking for something cheap to play/experiment with for now. I'm kinda thinking of looking into shipping over a few of Grants tong V jaw tongs sometime in the future it's much more cost effective than making them myself. Might get a blower then as well.
Pictures below show the forge I'm replacing. Its about 16" x 7" opening, 23" deep. I've got a longer narrower one that uses 3 off 3/4 " burners and does most of what I need. This one comes out for occassional use. It runs of a 1.25" venturi ..... and a roofers torch as a pilot for the temperature control. The single burner gives a very uneven heat, the walls where the thermocouple is run much cooler than the centre ... hence the ribbon burner experiment.
The roof is 2 layers of 1" ceramic fibre board that has stood up reasonabley well (I don't run it too hot) but is beginning to crack. I don't like wool roofs because they always tear out in chunks. I think castable wont be insulating enough so am going to experiment with a roof made from arched bricks. The ones in the photos are available off the the shelf and make an arch with a diameter of aound 4'. I've cast the ribbon burner to match the brick taper so it should drop in as the "key stone" for the arch. Might cast another a bit narrower.
Temperature control works real good, I can see me saving a lot on propane costs, working conditions will be much nicer and forging bronze copper shoiuld be much less frustrating. Safety does worry me .... hence the pilot light
You can also see the flame failure safety device that cuts of the gas supply if the pilot light goes out ... still needs a bit of experimenting since it seems to sense heat from the forge rather than a flame. I might use another thermocouple in the pilot flame and a bit of electronic jiggery pokey in the "box"
The frothy stuff all over the levers is soapy water .... leak detecting
[Image Can Not Be Found]
[Image Can Not Be Found]
10:02 am
March 26, 2010
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Larry L;7084 wrote: Here is what my blower/gate/infuser looks like...
Larry what size inlet are you using for the inlet to the burner? I'm using 1.5" because I've got some fittings to hand but suspect I should use 2".
Somewhere down the line I've picked up that the inlet to the mixing chamber should be bigger than the the total outlet to "pressurize" the chamber and ensure an even spread of heat across the outlets
4:02 pm
January 18, 2011
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I'm in the dark re ''ribbon burner'', have they been around awhile ?
Also, thanks Dave for providing a pic of the ''bouncy castle fan/squirrel cage fan'', that would have really puzzled me! Any idea how the name''Bouncy castle fan'' came to be?
General Patton: ''The English and Americans are two peoples held apart by a common language''
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."
— Dr. Seuss
4:41 pm
March 22, 2010
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david hyde;7090 wrote: Larry what size inlet are you using for the inlet to the burner? I'm using 1.5" because I've got some fittings to hand but suspect I should use 2".
Somewhere down the line I've picked up that the inlet to the mixing chamber should be bigger than the the total outlet to "pressurize" the chamber and ensure an even spread of heat across the outlets
Yeah I think 2".... thats a 2.5" gate valve I have in my inlet side for scale
Whatever you are, be a good one.
Abraham Lincoln
7:20 pm
NWBA Member
November 8, 2010
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While I don't own one of Grant's fans, they are the quietest for the output I've seen. On my larger forge I run an ancient Kirby vacuum cleaner motor with a speed control. At full blast it'll blow the bricks away when lighting the forge. Yes- it sounds like a jet engine but once up to temp, I can idle the thing back to where I'm not even sure it's running. Shop Vac motors can be set up the same way. Linsday books ( http://www.lindsaybks.com/bks8.....index.html ) has articles on converting fans of all sorts to use for forge/furnace blowers. My main rig is still the venturi, however.
They only remember you when you SCREW UP~!!!
2:40 pm
May 30, 2010
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I have one of grants larger fans and it works very well for my Ribbon burner. I also have a centaur forge blower but the noise is extreme. Both of these fans are larger then needed and I have only a small portion of the the blowers output going through the gate valve. One thing I have been doing is using mig tips as the orifice for the propane like many do in a naturally aspirated forge. This allowed me to fine tune my ribbon burner.
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