Burner size and possibility of melting 20lb Propane tank?

[psychbiker]

I got my propan tank cut and made bout 150lbs of ingots already. Took 4 hours. Worked well. Gonna get a 55gal steel drum, cut in half, make a slot for gas hose and use to set over pot for a wind shield.

Questions: the steel turkey fryer stand was glowing read and the tank seemed red. Could be paint burning. I wasn't over 650 degrees. Any chance the bottom of a propane tank will get so hot and melt through? I may weld some new tabs on the fryer to reinforce it.

#2. The burner is great, 150,000btu on full blast, which I don't do. It's only 3.5" diameter burner. Takes bout 20-30min to melt 40lbs. That's on medium flame as I was concerned with melting the steel pot and stand.

Would a wider 6" burner be better? Heat bottom of pot more evenly? I hear guys using weed burning torches which are narrow so guess it doesn't matter.

[2ridgebacks]

Your drum will be an improvement over what you have. However, i'm going to suggest that you buy firebrick and fire brick around it and then cut a piece of steel as a cap and let your pot poke through. That is what I do, I also reinforced to stay in with plate steel. When you reinforce the stand with steel you need to make sure to allow enough air to get in for combustion. Holding the heat against the pot is paramount. We are melting well over 400lbs in 20-30 minutes with a hot pot.

[country gent]

The melting point of the steel tank is way higher than youll get melting lead under normal conditions. Aluminum pots fail not because they melt but do to laed temps being in the weaking heat range of aluminum. Steel is much higher on both the weaking temp point and melt point. On the heat shield allow for air flow in as the burner needs air and fuel to work properly. When you cut the drum to hieght. cut the hole for the pot 1" on a side bigger in dia, this allows flame to flow and follow pot. Also round bottom egde cut the slot for the hose and with a 1 1/2" -2" hole saw cut severl rows of holes around bottom to allow air in to burner. Also leave a place to light burner thru easily. Sounds like your off to a good start successful smelting sessions already. Depeneding on your set up a 30 gal grease drum may be sized better to it, but harder to find.

[gwpercle]

What you want is a burner used for boiling crawfish. Turkey fryers are too small.
Check out the Bayou Classic High Pressure SP-1 Jet Burner. If it doesn't have JET in the description it's not what you want.
When we boil crawfish we have huge pots of water to boil, 80 and 100 quart size , can't wait all day to get the water boiling, hungry Cajuns aren't to be kept waiting too long, so you use the Jet burner to get that water going , quick quick !
The jet burner has a large pipe coming up in the center, no burner or ring of flames like on your gas stove, it's just a big flame that shoots up at the bottom of the pot, the newer ones have a spreader so that not all of the flame is concentrated in one spot....and it sounds like a jet planes engine fired up.
Gary

[bangerjim]

Steel will not hold it's own weight at around 1,700F. Why do you think the Trade Center Towers collapse started? The steel beams could not support their own weight, let alone that of the floors above. Insulation on the beams when the things were built would have saved thousands of lives by slowing the collapse.

I really doubt you will EVER get there with lead in the pot. Key is the contents.

Remember the pot gets as hot as whatever is in it be the contents act as a heatsink. If you thing you can get a big pot full of lead to 1,700F with a wimpy turkey fryer, good luck!!!!! Those things are low BTU output.


My plumber's furnace sides get dull red when on high at first, but once the contents start to melt, I back off the gas.

Just watch about getting the frame really red and hot with a full pot because the frame can and will collapse on you!!!!!

banger