Daves Smokehouse....Part 9 Test Runs

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s2k9k

AMNPS Test Group
Original poster
Sep 8, 2011
11,324
182
SEUSA
Part 1 - The Burner.

I've been wanting to build a smokehouse for awhile now and seeing Jerry's at NFL just pushed me into doing it but the weather isn't cooperating. Two weeks ago it rained all weekend, last week I was TDY and got home yesterday to more rain which is supposed to continue through tomorrow. I wanted to get the base built which includes expanding my patio but it is just too wet to do anything out there. Well after seeing all the talk about Keith working on his pipe burner this past week I said "well at least I could get that done even if it is raining". So I ran up to the hardware store today and got eveything I needed.

First off a big Thanks to Boykjo, Jckdanls07, Dave Omak and everyone else who has provided much needed info on making a burner!

Pipe, end caps and a regulator/hose:

I drilled and tapped one end cap for the orifice:

Cut the slits in the pipe:

I needed to ream out all the burrs inside the pipe but had nothing that would reach in that far so I just taped a file to a very long screwdriver and went to town with it:

I started with four 1/4" air holes in the end cap and fired it up, I was getting a lot of yellow flame with the gas turned way down low so as it was burning I started to enlarge the air holes. No good, still a lot of yellow flame so I decided to add more holes. I kept drilling (didn't really care, the cap was only a buck) until I got a good blue flame but I still have to keep the gas turned very low or the yellow comes back.

Here is what I ended up with:

I think I might need a smaller orifice but am concerned I might have cut the slits in the pipe too deep. Would having the slits too deep cause a yellow flame?

Here is the burn with the needle turned very low, any higher will give yellow flame:

Well if the weather ever cooperates and my yard ever dries up I can get started on the base so until then...........
 
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Would having the slits too deep cause a yellow flame? 

I believe so in a round about way. More burner surface opening requires more gas, more gas requires more air. I think a way to try and increase air mixture is to use a bell reducer small end sized to your burner pipe and larger end of bell reducer with a short nipple and cap to fit. Would give you more area to drill holes. Never tried this but have seen several cast iron burners with a "bell" on the end for this purpose.
 
Dave.. I goofed around with mine today and made the 4 air holes ever so slightly bigger... made a big difference as far as how hard the air and gas blows out the slits... blows to hard now with just barely turning up from low... so I imagine with yours having 8 air holes it has to be blowing pretty hard and the flames detaching from the pipe and blowing out... the last one I did before enlarging, the holes were 5/16 ( I think).. that worked best so far... I tried to drill a 3/8's hole first but it was to big... to close the the side and almost went into the center hole.... I don't think the depth of the slits is the problem... but then again I've been known to be wrong before...:biggrin:
 
Would having the slits too deep cause a yellow flame? 

I believe so in a round about way. More burner surface opening requires more gas, more gas requires more air. I think a way to try and increase air mixture is to use a bell reducer small end sized to your burner pipe and larger end of bell reducer with a short nipple and cap to fit. Would give you more area to drill holes. Never tried this but have seen several cast iron burners with a "bell" on the end for this purpose.

I like the idea of the "bell" reducer.. I also thought about welding a flat piece of 1/4" plate on the end of a 2" nipple and making the kidney shaped vents and using the kidney shaped shutter to control the air... use reducers on the other end of the 2" nipple to get down to the 1" pipe...
 
No blowouts Keith, I can crank it pretty high and it sounds like a jet burner but it keeps on going. To get a nice blue flame I have to turn the needle almost off and I want more flexibility than that.
I agree, I like Maple's idea and fittings are cheap. I think Dave O. said the same thing on your thread.
 
now remember.. if you turn your tank on to fast it will go into safe mode and the pressure will be very low... did it once already...
 
Dave, morning....  From the looks of the  picture on the package, that orifice is for a 50,000 + btu banjo burner....   If you have numbered drill bits, check the size of the orifice....  Using a ball pein  hammer, close the existing orifice...  gently tap on the brass until it closes.... if the brass work hardens, gently heat it with a torch to about 300-400 degrees.....  using a numbered drill, from the hose side of the orifice, redrill the orifice to about 1/64" or #76....  you can always drill larger....   from the chart, 7 to 11 psi doubles the Btu output...  maybe an adjustable regulator would help too......  

From the flame getting rich with a tweak of the valve, sounds like the orifice is too big or too much pressure for the burner design..... 

There's more than 2 cents there....  
biggrin.gif
 ...   Dave

No. Size <--- NATURAL ---> <LP>

          --- --- 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 7.0 11.0

80 .0135 428 463 495 525 654 1273

79 .0145 494 534 571 605 755 1469

1/64 .0156 572 618 661 701 874 1700

78 .0160 602 650 695 737 919 1788

77 .0180 762 823 879 933 1163 2263

76 .0200 940 1016 1086 1152 1436 2794

75 .0210 1037 1120 1197 1270 1583 3081

74 .0225 1190 1285 1374 1457 1818 3536

73 .0240 1354 1462 1563 1658 2068 4024

72 .0250 1469 1587 1696 1799 2244 4366

71 .0260 1589 1716 1835 1946 2427 4722

70 .0280 1843 1991 2128 2257 2815 5476
 
Dave, I have the same regulator/hose and orifice (#57) that Keith has and he is having the same problem. I am going to try a larger end cap and see how that does then I am just going to wait until I get the house built and see what kind of temps I get. The flame really isn't too bad and I think it's manageable but the real test will be inside the insulated house with a heat sync/diffuser plate.
 
Part 2 - The Base.

First let me say "I am slap wore down!"
Well the weather has been cooperating with me this week and though it was supposed to storm today I wanted to get started anyway. I think the storm got lost because it never rained a drop!

Last year I enlarged my patio with patio pavers and when I decided to build the house I needed to go a little bigger so the house wasn't right next to my kitchen window. Today I layed another row of pavers and built the base for the house. It is just an outside wall of cinder block one row high with patio pavers for the floor. Sounds easy huh? Well I'm glad I never took up the trade of mason!
With my concern of the burner pipe getting hot I didn't want to run it through the wall of the house so that's why I went with pavers for the floor. I put a sleeve through one of the cinder blocks so I can just slide the pipe in and it won't contact any wood.

Here's the base, it looks a little messy but the cement hasn't dried, when it does it should all be the same color:

Here's the sleeve:

I slid the burner in just to see how it would look:

Now before anyone says "it's going to burn your house down" it will be 15" from my house (good airflow all around), it will be completely lined with concrete backer board, I only plan on smoking sausage and jerky so it should never go above 170* and I won't ever get any grease in it, I've been using my GOSM up to 300* and filled with grease for a year and a half and have never had a fire! I feel very confident this will be very fire safe!

Gotta go TDY next week but am taking a few days off Memorial Day weekend so I hope to have the house completed then! (if the weather will let me)
 
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good deal Dave.. your ahead of me... I went to HD today (wife wanted more plants).. so I went and looked at supplies.. thinking I'm just gonna go with tongue and grooved pine on the outside (lightweight)


shoulda put anchor bolts in the cement.. no big deal though.. you can just use redheads now... looking good though.. like the way you did for the burner...
 
Thanks Dave!
Thanks Red!
Thanks BD!

Yea still a long way to go but hopefully it will be done by the end of the month.

Dave, I have a saying whenever I work on or build something, "It's going to look good even if it doesn't work!".
 
Looking good!

Are you guys doing this without any kind of safety, in case, for some reason, the flame goes out?
If you are, you've got more guts than I do. I've seen a couple exploded buildings first hand!!!! They damaged other buildings within several hundred feet.
If things go wrong, all it takes is a little static spark to make the nightly national news!!!! :icon_eek:


~Martin
 
Looking good!

Are you guys doing this without any kind of safety, in case, for some reason, the flame goes out?
If you are, you've got more guts than I do. I've seen a couple exploded buildings first hand!!!! They damaged other buildings within several hundred feet.
If things go wrong, all it takes is a little static spark to make the nightly national news!!!! :icon_eek:


~Martin

I do worry about that...
 
Martin, my safety is I will never run this unattended and I will be using a Mav to constantly monitor smoker temps. If i see temps drop that will be a good indication the flame went out and I will be right on top of it to find out why the temp is dropping.
I don't really foresee the flame going out because no wind will be getting to the burner like on my GOSM where the bottom below the burner is open and wind can play havoc with the flame.
I know anything can happen so I will always have a close eye on it.

I used to do overnight smokes on my GOSM and would sleep through the night because it kept temps so well but then I decided it really wasn't a good idea and haven't done an overnight in a long time. I started using my Mini WSM for larger cuts and smoking them hot to get them done faster during the day when I could watch it.
 
You could go the thermocouple and solenoid gas cut off route.  No flame = no more gas flow just like in the stove or hot water heater in millions of homes across America.  If you wait until you notice a temp drop, you will already have a very dangerous buildup of explosive gas.
 
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