Propane burner question

[bigjason6]

Hey guys, would you think a burner of this caliber would be adequate for light to medium smelting? Maybe 25 to 35 pounds or so at a time.

http://img.tapatalk.com/a6f9605c-613b-989a.jpg

[tryNto]

looks a lot like the 1 I use, works fine.

[alfloyd]

That is a low pressure burner, max 35,000 btu.
The high pressure burner is smaller and puts out around 70,000 btu.

The one like the photo will work till you get to a large pot, then it is slow to melt a lot of lead.

I have both and use the high pressure one to melt/clean my wheel weights with.

Just my 2 cents worth. :)

Lafaun

[Uncle Grinch]

How do you tell the difference?

[alfloyd]

"How do you tell the difference?"

The low pressure burrner has the 2 to 3 rings of holes and is about 8 inches in diameter.
The high pressure burrners are about 5 inches in diameter, funnel shaped with a center insert with notches around the center insert.
The low pressure burner is quiet and the high pressure one sounds like a jet engine, but not too loud.

Hope this helps.
Lafaun

[badbob454]

i started on a coleman single burner ,on a dual propane stove ... im sure this will work fine for for up to 30 pounds just examine the legs to make sure it will hold up to the weight

[MGySgt]

Build a frame to hold your pot of angle iron (old bed rails work fine). I have done up to 75 pounds on that same burner.

[Lee W]

It will be fine. I use an old Garland restaurant stove and I melt 200 lbs at a time with it.

If I were to upgrade, I would get something like this:

http://bayouclassicdepot.com/kab6-kick-a-banjo-burner-plus.htm

[Ziptar]

It will be fine. I use an old Garland restaurant stove and I melt 200 lbs at a time with it.

If I were to upgrade, I would get something like this:

http://bayouclassicdepot.com/kab6-kick-a-banjo-burner-plus.htm

I was just looking at those today. This weekend I was give a smelting pot that is half of a stainless steel Beer Keg.

They'll hold ~300lbs of lead. I was oringally looking at the SP1 or SP10 but I saw that KAB6 will hold a 40 gallon pot. Thats 320 lbs of water so it's up for the task. It's 3 times the price of the other two amazon has it for $125 for free shipping.

I read up on some home brew forums about it and adding a windscreen is a big plus or raising the hiught of the burner.

Not sure which one I'll get yet.

[Adk Mike]

High Pressure is the way to go if you can get one. Another way to tell if its high pressure is the regulators are sometimes adjustable and have a red top. Mike

[Kenley]

I now use the "bean cooker " burner on an old BBQ grill. It works well. Years ago, a church gave our shooting club a whole lead roof from an old church as payment for cleaning up the property. It consisted of two sheets of pure lead approx 8'x 10' We cut them up with an axe into approx 40# strips. It was a good load in a 3/4 pickup. We scrounged three gas fired home water heaters and cut the tanks off about 10 inches high. You have to plug the center tube at the top, but the resulting cavity makes the pot heat from the inside as well as the bottom. We made triangle shaped ingot molds by blocking the ends of 3" angle iron. On melting day, 5 of us did the whole roof in about 4 hours. I still have some of the fruits of our labor. That was in 1987.

[reload68]

You get your heat/btu's from the regulator output. Be sure and get a 10-15lb regulator. The outdoor grill ones are usually around 1-5 lbs and will be slow to melt. I just upgraded and glad i did.
David

[bigjason6]

Here's the burner I decided to go with. It definitely looks like it will support a decent amount of lead.

http://img.tapatalk.com/a6f96030-bfc1-7582.jpg

[midnight]

Just a heads up. Bass Pro has their 58,000 btu $40 fish fryer on sale again for $29.97. Just got the flyer in the mail a few minutes ago. If they would sell it without that aluminum pot and fish basket it could be even cheaper. Us Scots know about being frugal. Did you hear about the Scotsman who accidently broke a bottle of iodine? He got his razor out and cut his finger so he wouldn't waste it.

Bob

[jetsfan-24]

hey i have one just like the pic 2 post up i have,nt had a chance 2 try it yet anybody have one is it any good ?

[DukeInFlorida]

Here's the skinny on btu's, and pressure regulators:

Low pressure regulators are rated at 10 psi, and ONLY produce 58,000 btu per hour or so. NOT enough for smelting lead properly.

Medium/high pressure regulators are rated at 20 psi, and are set to give about 185,000 btu per hour, perfectly fine for smelting. That's my recommendation.

HIGH pressure burners are rated at 30 psi, and idle at 210,000 btu min per hour, and will go much much higher when running. They are the ultimate burners for smelting.

A btu is the amount of heat it takes to raise the temperature of one pound of water one degree.

A cubic foot of lead weighs 800 pounds!!!

A 200 pound batch of lead, to get it to 700 degrees, will need 210,000 btu's.

There's a 50% heat loss (not all of the produced heat goes directly into the lead. about 50% of it rolls of the side of the smelting pot, and is lost to the atmosphere. Global warming?)

So, a 55,000 btu/hour smelter will take almost 4 hours to get 200 pounds to temperature (700 degrees).

A 185,000 btu/hour burner will take about an hour for the same batch size.

Most of you are smelting batches smaller than that, and are used to waiting with your low pressure burners. It's only when you step up to the big boy batch sizes that the time to smelt starts making a big difference.

Here's the tip: The price difference between the 55,000 btu burner, and the 188,000 btu burner, and even the 210,000 btu burner isn't all that great. For the small difference in price, go with the biggest burner you can get. Even if only doing 50 pound batches. It will save your butt when you step up to the big leagues, and start running 200 and 300 pound batches.

[bryonbush]

big jason6. not to let you down, but that burner will deff let you down. i have the exact one and it takes forever. return it and get one on sale this thanksgiving. you use the burner and let the wife have all the cooking pots and **** that comes with it.

[evan price]

I do 75-100# batches on my turkey fryer burner with 10 psi regulator, no problems at all. And it was about $30 for the whole setup, which is quite plainly inexpensive.

[missionary5155]

Good morning
Too increase the efficincy of the burner make a sheet metal wrap for around the pot large enough in diameter to give about a 1" air gap on the outer diameter of the pot. So figure pot diameter plus 2". I pop riveted mine together. Make the sides taller than the pot by about 1" This way the heat is directed up the sides also. Add a loose fitting top and temps get real hot faster. But a larger BTU burner is a help if melting large amounts.
Mike in Peru

[bigjason6]

big jason6. not to let you down, but that burner will deff let you down. i have the exact one and it takes forever. return it and get one on sale this thanksgiving. you use the burner and let the wife have all the cooking pots and **** that comes with it.

Well, I fired it up last night and melted down a bunch of range scrap in a stainless saucepan. Worked quite well!