I have a very old propane burner. It is solid cast iron including the four inch and a half legs. It has three rings each with it’s own regulating valve. It works great!
Normally, I use it on a metal table, The other day I rearranged stuff and put it on a Formica covered wooden table. I week later, without thinking, I lit it. Long before any lead stared to melt, it had burned a ten inch round hole completely through the inch and a quater table top.
The point I’m trying to make is how much heat comes from below the burner. I quickly added some steel and aluminum sheets to protect the rest of the table. Maybe mounting an aluminum heat reflector just under the burner, would focus more heat energy to the melting pot instead of just being lost. Especially if you have a burner mounted higher up like most big fryers
What do others think?