Is my regulator dying?

[blaser.306]

I have a 14" diam. 14" deep made from 1/8" rolled sheet steel pot for smelting and it seems to be taking forever lately . usualy takes about an hour and a half to melt a 5 gal. bucket of ww/range scrap and now two hours and next to no melty ! Outside temp is 14 deg celcius (57 F) and it seems to be taking forever to get anywhere. As I just received about a ton of lead pipe I would like to speed up production so I can have it all (most) smelted before the snow flies. Any sugestions?

[uncle joe]

what kind of heat source? if it's propane, a high pressure regulator would be the thing to have, they are usually small diameter and have a tall adjusting stem. We have some new fish cookers here that they call jet burners on them. Basically just a pipe that has a cap on the end with a small hole drilled in it like a jet in a gas appliance. These things are called jet burners because of the type of burner, but they sound like a dang jet when they're turned up.
I would expect your burner needs blowing out if it sets outside any.

[hoosierlogger]

I have gotten a few 20 LB tanks with junk valves. So bad that the flame wouldnt get very high on the gas grill to cook anything. If you get a tank with a good valve, keep it and have it refilled instead of doing the exchange.

[Pepe Ray]

Also11
Since we're dealing with unknowns here-- The first thing I'd check is excessive draft around your pot. Large surfaces loose heat rapidly with minor air movement.
A sheet metal shield such as an old appliance cabinet, surrounding your pot will show signifacant improvement.
Pepe Ray

[Bill*]

In the last 10 years, I'll bet I have looked at 4 or 5 gas BBQs that were "slowing down" or wouldn't burn right. I usually find a spider web in the area where the gas hose opens into the sheet metal tube feeding the burner assembly. I don't know why, but spiders seem to love that area for nesting. Their webs screw up the air/fuel mixing being done there

[fryboy]

also check ur burner as from time to time a small drop/splash of lead will land there and it melts , add another drop/splash from time to time and it will plug up the burner , i had one ww do me in one time- it acted like i was low on propane and i couldnt get the melt to finish melting , got a new bottle- same problem, ended up heating the burner with a torch, that was when i noticed that there was more than that one ww's worth of lead coming from the cast burner , a heat shield does help , and not just spiders like the burner mud daubers and wasp and assorted hornets like them as well

[farmerfish77]

On my ice house I had some type of fly make it all the way up the hose next to the regulator. You may want to take hose off and blow air through it. In my experience regulators normaly don't go bad.

[blaser.306]

Thanks for all the posts guy's . After making my post I went back out to the smelter . I finally started getting some action , But like I said brute force and ignorance are a hard combo to beat ( when their on your side ) I took my casting ladle and gave the regulator a smart rap and voila fire ! I don't know whether it was something lodged or stuck and it realy doesn't matter . The burner is working like never before , I mannaged to get two full pails of range scrap done before I couldnt see out in the yard ( Partly from dark and partly from beverage ). But again thanks for the ideas !