Just wondering if anyone has any experience with making a propane gas burner for entertainment purposes? I'm putting my dream lighting rig together and currently it lacks the ability to send twelve foot high flames into the air - this would seem to be an oversight and must be addressed.

The theory sounds simple - a cylinder of propane, a fairly high volume regulator, a manifold, an electric valve for each nozzle, and an igniter. I think the type of valve I need is an Arco Red Hat and a spark igniter seems convenient although Patrick insists a pilot light would be best. In practice I'm sure there are many lessons to be learned but google is obsessed with car exhaust flame throwers and I have yet to find a link to someone who has done what I need to do.

Any ideas?

Rob

Are you auditioning for the Darwin awards?

Rob - two words of warning:

Great White.

Other than that, I can't wait to see pix when you get it figured out! I agree with Patrick: a pilot light type arrangement as opposed to spark-driven ignitor. Just make sure the pilot light mechanism doesn't get blown out by the gas.

-Zeke

Possibly useful link.

http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/000735.php

Okay, not really what you wanted, but Flame Engineering has a whole product line including parts.

--Nathan

I was really just kidding about Great White, I'm sure you've more sense than that (should've added a smily).

One further thought - you could use a standard plumber's butane torch as your igition source - very hard to blow out, with a good long directional flame. I'd imagine a canister of fuel would last 30-40 minutes if set low enough.

Essentially, you want to make a large bunson burner, it seems. A large tube set vertically fed from the bottom with gas, a relatively large diameter and an adjustable air inlet (so you could tune the gas/air mixture, and some length to make sure the gas and air mix, hitting an open flame just past the top of the open tube. By adjusting your gas flow and air mixture you should be able to make anything from a wavy flame to a jet type flame. You could place your gas valve well away from this and turn it on and off by hand (stage hand's job).

This of course assumes you're using a lighter-than-air gas, it would be disasterous to use a fuel whose vapors sank.
-Zeke

You could buy some second hand hot-air ballon propane burner assemblies which are designed to do exactly this (shoot a jet of flame) using a pilot light that won't go out (and is also re-ignitable from a piezo spark ignitor.

The down side is that they consume around 20l of propane per minute and have extremely high BTU ratings - expensive audience burns, anyone?

...it would be disasterous to use a fuel whose vapors sank.


A fuel like... propane, perhaps? Propane is heavier-than-air.

Welcome to the wonderful world of propane and propane accessories.

See, I knew someone here would know which -ane sank! Is it propane that's used in bunson burners in chemistry lab, or is it something else?

-Zeke

Again, wrong thread, but I'm new to King of the Hill too. I always thought it was boring, but it's really grown on me. Unique characters as well. After Tivo let me see all of the Simpsons, Venture Bros, ATHF, Family Guy, Futurama and Sealab, I've moved onto King of the Hill and am enjoying it. (btw, Sealab is annoying now.)

I think they cancelled sealab didn't they ? I can still watch venture brothers even after seeing all the episodes several times. I hope the new episodes are as good as the first season was.

High school bunsen burners usually burn methane, also known as "natural gas". They wouldn't *need* to, but they usually do because there is a house natural gas supply and natural gas is cheaper.

Use a pilot light. You could have starting issues with an electric lighter. They can be addressed, but it's too hard. You basically need to design the valve and ignitor so that there is a combustable mixture at the spark.

On second thought, you can cannibalize a gas grill burner with piezoelectric lighter for this purpose. You'll need two valves, one for the main combustor and one for the grill burner. Start the grill valve, ignite it with the piezo, then turn on the main valve. You could do all of this electronically, of course, and some experimentation should help you get the timing right (you need to wait until the grill burner lights before opening the main valve). The grill burner provides the "pilot" for the main burner, but it has a remote start that someone has already worked all the bugs out of.

FWIW,

Jim

About the grill burner pilot, don't let the main combustor flames engulf the grill burner because it will burn it up. Have the grill burner in a compartment so that it can start the main combustor but not get destroyed by the main burner.

Fire! Fire! bbbrrrrhhhaaaaghghghg Fire! Hyahhhh!