New burner

[ebb]

I am smelting on a fish cooker that was given to me for this purpose and I do not get a good blue flame but get a lot of yellow instead. I suspect that the previous owner left the cooker outside and that rust has caused the holes in the burner to get enlarged. I am thinking that a new burner will be the answer to my flame issues. I looked at burners and some make a lot more BTUs than others and some are high pressure and others are low pressure. What in your experience is best for me in my smelting process, and why??? Thanks

[Barry54]

Dad said “don’t throw good money after bad”

Yellow flame is rich or not getting enough oxygen. Can you post some photos of it?

[ok-22shooter]

I have two fish fryers. Both have high pressure regulators, one will blow out the flame if the pressure is turned up to high. per the internet, a yellow flame means lack of oxygen. If the burner is cast iron, not sure how much the holes could be enlarged by rusting. Just to confirm, most burners have an adjustable air inlet. Does the flame change as you adjust the opening? I have also had issues with mud daubers building nests inside of things, even water faucets. Rodding out the inside with wire to see if anything comes out might be advised. 40 years ago I build a 24" tall tripod stand and used a very old and rusted cast iron burner out of a water heater to smelt in a cast iron pot. Did not worry about zinc back then and it would melt a pot of lead very quickly.

Low pressure regulators have gas pressure in the inches of water range, typical burner on an outdoor grill. Less than 1 PSI. High pressure regulators can be up to 15 PSI or more. When smelting clip on wheel weights, I am very careful to sort out the zinc weights but I still miss 1 to 10 in 50 pounds of cold weights in my cast iron pot. I bring temperature up very slowly using a type K thermocouple and PID readout of temp. That means using the bottom 20% of the burner output. I do not want the bottom 1/3 of the weights to get overly hot b4 the top has melted and climb above the zinc melting temp. Once the full pot is melted at ~650 degF, zinc can float on the top. I do crank up the burner just b4 labeling out lead as I need about 725 degF to keep lead from sticking to my bottom pour label and filling mods well. Cooling the pot down and adding warmed WWs (elimination of moisture), any zinc quickly floats to the top. At one time I tried heating the top WWs with a hand torch to make things quicker but WWs melted so quickly with the direct flame, I was concerned a missed zinc would melt.

I like having the high pressure regulators.

[BK7saum]

Second checking the interior of the burner for obstruction. i have had mud daubers or other insects clog or partially obstruct the passage through the burner, reducing flow and getting a yellow flame. I would troubleshoot this one before buying a new burner. Id say low pressure, clogged burner or possibly orifice.

[greybuff]

can you soak it in citrus cleaner to remove rust and dirt and than rinse. after a good rinse blow it out with air?

[Mk42gunner]

I had a spider build a nest I the air inlet for my turkey fryer. Took the plate off, removed the web, clear blue flame.

Robert

[poppy42]

I bought a new burner for mine off Amazon $20 bucks. It’s not that big of a deal! Stop messing around, spend the $20 and get a new one! Thermometers for smelting wheel weights, I don’t think so. Not for me. When the wheel weights are all melted it’s hot enough! If they are not melted, it’s not hot enough! The chances of you getting a turkey/fish fryer hot enough to melt zinc are not very good! I’ve gotten busy and not checked mine for an hour and the few zinc ones were floating on top of the melt!

[45_Colt]

Possible it is set up for natural gas? Larger jet(s) and an air adjustment is typically done for this conversion.

45_Colt

[ebb]

I blew the air inlet out with the air hose and it did better but not as good as I would like. Cleaned it last year must do it again I guess. between then and now have smelted all the lead I own into Lyman 1 lb ingots. The last 20 or so came out purple, tooo much heat ????? I messed with the Heat all evening it was either too hot or not hot enough. But purple Ive never seen before

[BK7saum]

I blew the air inlet out with the air hose and it did better but not as good as I would like. Cleaned it last year must do it again I guess. between then and now have smelted all the lead I own into Lyman 1 lb ingots. The last 20 or so came out purple, tooo much heat ????? I messed with the Heat all evening it was either too hot or not hot enough. But purple Ive never seen before

If you have a spider web or mud dauber blockage, blowing it out with air is not going to remove or completely remove the obstruction.

[BK7saum]

Maybe it is time to get a new burner. I have had the 3 I use for 15-20 years. Yeah bugs or trash have clogged them over the years but, so far they always clean out an burn very well when I use a piece of wire followed by the air blower.

[gwpercle]

And make sure you set up and hook up and turn on (open)_ the valves in the correct sequence . Mine had two valves , one on the tank and one in the line I was opening the the wrong one first and getting no-low flame .
Download proper instructions ... I had no idea I was doing it incorrectly .
There is some sort of "safety feature" in the system that mandates you set it up and turn it on a certain way for it to work right .
My experience with wheel weights is zinkers will melt and steel will float ... I test every danged weight with sidecutters ... I AM NOT ruining a pot of good wheel weight metal with zink... don't think for a second they will not melt before you can find them all and get them out .
Gary

[ebb]

Thanks for the help!!! Yes I will clean the air inlet properly, and a if needed a new burner is no big deal. High pressure or low??? Mine is made p of spare parts form old gas grills the valve on the tank, a newish rubber hose I bought, a regulator from the grill, and a little brass valve attached to the burner. The sequence is new to me but I will make sure to use it in the future. Are the purple ingots from too much heat? this batch was from sheet lead from dry wall in the radiology dept my friend was hanging drywall in, so no zinc.

[shooter bob]

Purple usually means pure or close to pure lead. Sheet lead you have is probably near pure

[WRideout]

In my experience, very hot lead will turn colors, including purple. When added to the casting pot for use the boolits come out looking normal.

Wayne

[ebb]

That was my thinking, it had glue and some paper from the drywall and maybe some sand from being outside for years, so I was pretty sure it was not impurities. I think now that my whole stock pile is in ingots I am forced to make some bullets. I get to take the wheel weights from a custom truck shop close by and they may have some, I'll check next time I go to town.

[kevin c]

Once you get the burner working properly, I might suggest wind screens around it so the heat all goes to the pot, an insulated jacket around the pot, and a lid on top. It’s amazing how much propane you’ll save as a result, and even if you don’t have a really high BTU unit, directing the heat to the pot and keeping it there will speed up melting the metal.

[ok-22shooter]

I had made the assumption that you had a "factory" kit. A few posts back you stated it was made up of parts. A grill regulator will be low pressure, 11" WC is 0.4 PSI and some grills have 7" WC pressure. If you are melting lead with your current setup, you have enough BTUs. If the burner is for natural gas, it would have a bigger hole (almost twice as big) than propane and therefore more propane would flow thru. they extract the propane/butane out of the gas stream as it is worth more money. the natural gas that gets to our houses has much less BTUs per cuft than propane.

45 years ago, the only thermometers were glass and very expensive. I used wood matches or slivers of wood held in the molten lead for a few seconds to see if it chard. the info is out there at what temperatures wood starts changing color. to those who don't use a thermometer when smelting lead, it's great that you have not had an issue. as I own 3 PID controllers and a multimeter that reads a type K TC, I like the feedback in temperature. one of my turkey fryer base and cast iron pot are tucked inside an old propane grill round body turned on end. the lifting grill lid has become a door to add lead to the pot and then label out. the shell temperature gets to 140 degF on top so is doing a pretty good job of blocking wind and keeping heat in the pot.