Natural gas burner for smelting?

[Gswain]

Anyone have recommendations for a good burner for doing 100-150 LBS of lead using natural gas? From what I understand, I need around 30K BTUs to be effective without having to wait around for 6 hours for it to melt. I have thought about using one of these http://www.bayouclassicdepot.com/618ng-10-jet-natural-gas-jet-burner.htm hooked up to my NG supply, but I am concerned with how it will do at lower flow settings, because I do want to be able to regulate the temp of my pot so I don't melt WWs with zinc. Would I be better off to go with something along these lines? http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_15490_15490 and just convert it to NG? Or should I look into a single large jet style burner? The first link seems like the best option to me, as it would allow it to be far more compact. The pot I will be using is approx. 8 QTS max capacity, made out of 3/16ths steel bottom and 1/8th inch sides. Thanks for the help!

[Calamity Jake]

My home made smelter uses a burner out of a NG hot water tank with adjustable shut off valve and compressed air, quick disconnects.
My smelting pot holds about 100# but I only smelt about 70# at a time. The burner melts a pot full of raw WW in about 40 minutes.

The burner in your first link says you need 12" clearence between pot bottom and burner to keep from melting the pot, that makes for a tall unstable setup for 650° lead unless you can build a wide base stand and a good wind shield between burner and pot.

[Gswain]

I read that too about the 12" clearance from the flame, but I think that ws suggested by someone using a crappy aluminum pot with no water in it or something. I am nowhere near concerned about having the burner melt my steel pot.

[iomskp]

I would go with the first one I have used the bigger one with 24 injectors and it worked a treat the good thing about going a bit bigger is that you can always turn it down.

Regards iomskp

[MT Gianni]

I have seen a burner similar to the first one in a lot of commercial fryers. IIRC, they ran around 200,000 BTU hr. 35,000 is all you need for smelting, over 100,000 btu's would require at least a 1" line for the pressure drop depending on how far you were from the Meter/Regulator or pressure drop could cause burning in the venturi of the burner. You would still need a regulator with either set up. Most bottom pour pots are 750 -1000 watts, @ 3413 watts per 1000 btu 35,000 BTU hr is 10 times that amount.

[GabbyM]

When they refer to melting a pot are they talking about an aluminum pot? I think so.

You can melt an aluminum pot over a camp fire. Trust me on that one.

Looks like a dandy burner to me.

Bottled propane is off the chart for price.
I’d say fix up a lead melter and a gas cooking grill to feed off an outside NG line.
If you do much outside cooking. Bags of charcoal at $8.50 around here. If you are like me and don’t do much outside cooking then running a NG line and regulator just for lead melting may be futile.

Many people scrap out water heaters for burners and regulators but they are not all that hot.

[cajun shooter]

Home gas is a low pressue feed of about 8 PSI. The burner is important but the pressue that the gas is fed at is more important. For all lead smelting you should use a High Pressure Regulator. Your house will not supply the correct pressure and you will be taking twice the needed time.

[toddrod]

I run a 23-24 tip one like you have in the first link. It works perfect for 8qt stock pot I use to smelt with running off a 1/2 inch line. I use this same burner to boil all my crawfish and crabs with. Dirt cheap to run too.

[MT Gianni]

Home gas is a low pressue feed of about 8 PSI. The burner is important but the pressue that the gas is fed at is more important. For all lead smelting you should use a High Pressure Regulator. Your house will not supply the correct pressure and you will be taking twice the needed time.

Delivery pressure downstream for a Nat. Gas regulator should be 7" water column or 1/4 psig. Burner pressure should be 1/8 psig or 3.5" water column. anything other than that will cause flames lifting at the burner tips or fires inside the burner venturi. Natural gas is very stable with a narrow burning range of 5%-15% gas to air. Changing burner pressures changes that ratio quickly to your detriment.

[Gswain]

Ordered the 10 jet burner from bayou classic, ill post up pics on it when it gets here and let yall know how it works :)

[miestro_jerry]

I built a burner out of a NG water heater, it worked well for me, but kept me at a certain distance from the house. So I bought the very short propane type of turkey frier at Wally World. It worked much better.

Natural gas pressure at your house can be as low as 6 ounces.

Jerry

[zxcvbob]

One of these days I'll build about a 5000W electric melter. Or maybe 7500W. Electricity is a lot cheaper than propane or Coleman fuel.

NG is the cheapest, but the pressures available are so low it's hard to use. Takes a pretty big supply line. Use an old NG water heater if you're going to try.

[Beagler]

Home gas is a low pressue feed of about 8 PSI. The burner is important but the pressue that the gas is fed at is more important. For all lead smelting you should use a High Pressure Regulator. Your house will not supply the correct pressure and you will be taking twice the needed time.

8 psi is to high for home pressure. My smaller high pressure cooker runs between 8-10 psi. 1 psi = about 27 inch wc your home low pressure runs about 1/2 psi so depending on the appliance it will operate from 10 to around 13 inch wc

[hedgehorn]

I have a camp chef stove that I resized the orifices on so I could run it on NG. There are guides online to help you size them based on BTU and pressure. Here in Utah our house pressure is 4 ounces. (quarter psi) I have no issues with clearance on the burner. My water heater sure dont have that kind of clearance. Propane actually has a higher BTU content

[Iron Mike Golf]

...You can melt an aluminum pot over a camp fire. Trust me on that one...

Oh yeah! In Boy Scouts, many, many moons ago, we melted the lid and pot of a cast aluminum dutch oven together on a camp fire.

[lwknight]

One thing about it , the jets can be changed to propane jets if you ever wanted more fire power for about $15.00.
The propane versions can use from 5 to 30 psi depending on how much btu you want. The jets are touted for up to 10 kbtu each.

This new info has got me brain storming all kinds of ideas.

[DukeInFlorida]

The real cheap propane burners (yes, I know the OP asked about natural gas) only run at low pressure, and low BTU's.

You want a burner that when running sounds like a jet engine. The low pressure type is OK for boiling corn on the cob. But for lead, you want it to ROAR.

For natural gas, I would imagine (since it's going to run at ambient pressure) that you want the burner with the most number of holes.

[Kraschenbirn]

I've got an old 2-burner plumber's(?) gas ring that I picked up 4 or 5 years ago at a builder's salvage outlet. Using a 6-qt dutch oven, smelting does take a bit more time but NG is a lot cheaper than propane, too.

Bill

[cajun shooter]

Mt Gianni, You have misunderstood my post about the home gas. As far as the pressure that I posted as being 8 lbs,that was given to me by the propane company.
I have used high pressure outside burners here in Louisiana since the 60's. We are the ones who showed the rest of the country how to fry Turkeys. I did not nor did I say anything about changing the gas line into a home. I thank you for posting your knowledge about gas pressure but it does not pertain to me advising the use of a high pressure regulator with the burner outdoors.

[Sonnypie]

Makes me glad I'm a small pot kinda guy.

[Gswain]

Damn, forgot to update this. The burner I got works like a champ, itll melt 300 LBS of wheel weights in about 35 minutes going full blast. The burner is mounted about 10" below the surface that the pot rests on. Adjustability is fantastic, itll happily idle with a very small flame, or roar like hell if you want it to. It actually got my entire grate assembly red hot, glad I made it out of 1/4 by 2" bar stock. Even with all that lead on it it didn't budge.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/four27_cobra/P7020091.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/four27_cobra/P7020092.jpg