Ultrasonic Cleaning of stove burners.

Kerophile beat me to the post. Thanks for the link-up, though.

And, an update on the method in the link. I've found that carbon felt, sold by vendors on eBay for use as windshields with pop can stoves, makes a better sealing material around the threaded burner base than the slips of copper. The felt is heat proof and softer, and makes a better seal.

Carbon felt also makes a dandy pad for your spirit pan. Being black in color, it doesn't show the dirt or crud like the white fiberglass pads do. So far, it seems to be holding up better for me.

 

Oops!
Also forgot to mention...

When heat/air cleaning regulated burners, I remove the jet and the spindle/cleaning needle. Then I use this little guy to plug the spindle hole:




It's just your standard run-of-the-mill spindle nut that I've closed off with a turned slip of brass and some silver-brazing.

 

Gary it is difficult to reduce pressure on my 2 stage air compressor to less than 125PSI, have you tried higher pressures? than in your original post by the way appreciate your great and thoughtful posts .
Lou

 

Holy smokes! I'm guessing that quote attributed to me is from the other thread? I'm getting confused here.

Anyway, I've done lots more burners than a measly dozen by now.

Now, on the air pressure? Nope. 125psi won't work. WAY too high! That much air would quench the reaction and cool off the burner. You want 10-30psi, just like I said. Crank it up to 40-60psi when you are done to blow out the remaining ash from the reaction when your burners all cleaned.

But, hard to regulate a two-stage compressor (an expensive and advanced piece of gear I'd point out)? :o

Naw. It's simple. It's called a regulator. Every air compressor should have at least one regulator fitted to it. Otherwise... what's the point? Most air tools won't operate correctly at pressures that high, be it jitterbug sanders, rotary sanders, sprayers or most nail guns.

Regulators go at the point of use:




It'd be a good idea to include a water trap in the line from your compressor, too. Especially if you are thinking about spraying with it.

All these things are available from compressor or tool shops. Or, even at Home Depot. Swing by the Home Depot website and do a search for "air regulator" and you'll see what I mean.

 

G,,day Gary , further to water traps .
also good for air tools , you don't want water in them causing corrosion .
bead blasting etc same thing and even blow drying stuff , dry air is best .

it is also surprising how many people don't drain water from the compressors receiver (tank) .
failure to do so will cause premature failure of the receiver , sometimes with catastrophic results .
cheers
kerry

 

George,

Yes, new jets and needles were fitted early on. Think I'm going to figure out how to create and post a video so you can see what is happening...

Thanks,

-- Sam

 

Please pardon my butting into the conversation here, Sam and George. I've read through most of the posts you've made about this stove since sometime back in February, Sam. Maybe I've missed it, but have you...
- thoroughly cleaned and flushed the tank and lines while you rebuilt the stove?
- performed a de-coking of the burner?
- cleaned any wire mesh rolls present in the fuel path?

Lastly, do you use clear, water-white K-1 kerosene? And, do you keep the fuel tank topped up at 2/3 or more?

 

Don't forget to clean the riser tube !

Wire bottle brushes do the job nicely.

Measure twice cut once.

 

BernieDawg

Gary, do have a two stage La-man extractor dryer in line with the compressor; a must have with the moisture here in the Southeast .....drain the compressor daily and can get up to 2-3 pints of water out of it.........moisture in compressed air can screw up a lot of hard work
will work on getting a pressure reducer in line again my appreciation for the sound advice
Lou

 

Bd,

When did you film my burners?

Seriously, very similar although mine do not have quite as many tongues of yellow flame... But very close. Same overall "orange" tint to the flame.

In answer to your other questions. Fuel line is new. Tank wasn't cleaned but I've prob burned 1 to 1.5 gal of fuel thru it. Fuel is "Kleen Heat" which is the cleanest Kero I can find. New jets, new packing, new needle valves, new inner and outer caps (have tried brass, stainless and plain steel -- makes no difference). Have not cleaned burners with air or water quenching -- that's where I was going next.

What was the cure for the burner in your video?

Thanks much,

-- Sam

 

Hi Sam
Well, I was wondering if you might say that.

The video shows a lot of "meteors" (yellow streaks), in my case caused by residual dirt, carbon, etc, in a restored 111T. The "fix" was to burn a couple of tanks of fuel through it and a lot, but not all, of the meteors went away.

Typically, in my experience, reduce the meteors to a 1/4 of what you see in the video, and that's pretty much normal operation for silent burners with kerosene as fuel. Maybe I'm just a slobby guy and settle for less. Some of those streaks, I think, are caused by moisture in the fuel, hence the practice of keeping the tank topped up and the fuel containers without a lot of air in them and tightly sealed to reduce moisture contamination from humid air.

I've tried Kleen-Heat and did not like it at all. It is a "deodorized" kerosene used mostly by lamp and heater people, though the resident Aladdin expert in town claims it will foul Aladdin lamp wicks.

I use Kleen-Strip K-1 kerosene and find it performs much better. Your mileage may vary... but I wonder if the streaking could be a coking of your burner from the different hydrocarbons in the Kleen Heat. ? A comparison of the MSDSs for the two products might be instructive.

All my questions above related directly to dirt or debris in your stoves systems. Well, that and water in the fuel. If you have flushed your system of any dirt, and if you filter your fuel into the tank, and keep moisture out of your fuel, I reckon that is the best you can do. However, if you are able to gently tap one of the tubes of your burner during operation with a metal object (screwdriver) and have a big "meteor fest" result, then perhaps it might be worthwhile to decoke the burners. It could be that the carbon in the burner is the source of your streaks.

Also, adding a spritz or two of carburetor cleaner to your kerosene in the tank may serve to clean some of your burner carbon. 'Course, you'll see more meteors while it does that.

For me, a few streaks just don't bother me. Sorry, if that's not the answer you were maybe looking for. PT me if you want to have a decoking done.

Cheers,
Gary

 

words of wisdom

OK Gary; got the regulator set up in line and after the filter / dryer / particulate remover; whew; lot of plumbing and removing rehooking have to replace seals on the La-Man moisture extractor but everything should work now like the ability to cut the psi down from 150lbs.; it is a heavy duty set up for sandblasting, spray paint, air chisels and such, can't wait to get the torching going the "right way"
thanks again.
Lou

 

Gary,

Thanks for the info. I've been using the kleenHeat exclusively so I'll give the plain kerosene a try.

Yes, I get a small meteor shower when I tap the burner... So a cleaning appears to be in order. I have a stash of probably 10 old burners so was planning to cobble together a system for cleaning them all with the air method. A riser for the 2 pint stoves, that won't work in my sea swing, is in my pile of parts so I was going to use it as the base. I just need to find an adapter for the bottom so I can get to a US thread for the air fittings.

In Anchorage now so this will have to wait until I get back home.

Thanks again,

-- Sam

 

I buy clear undyed kerosene at Enmark gas stations in my area. Bulk, about $4.30/gal.

Ken in NC

 

yipppiiii 100% right on!! 10-20 lbs pressure and the shower of sparks was awesome Gary. George; thank you again....guess this is where bigger is NOT better yep 150 lbs. must be cooling and blowing out the "embers".

Gary; was not able to take pix of the "shower of sparks" just wondering if all this info should be in a separate "sticky" divided into "ultrasonic" and "torch cleaning" for lack of better terms

Lou

 

Gary (and anyone else who wants to weigh in):

I shot 2 videos. The first is shortly after startup. The burner on the left is an almost new Optimus. The burner on the right is original from the stove (I did put a brass cap on it). There is a difference between them, but not as much as I was expecting. Lota yellow tongues in the flame for both burners.

The second video is much shorter and from about an hour later. Flame color is improving but still lota yellow tongues.

This is burning Kleen Heat. I haven't made it to the big box for a can of K-1. Am wondering if this looks normal. If not, is it the fuel -or- do I need to give the tank a good cleaning? All the fuel lines are new and I do have an in-line filter (in addition to filtering the fuel as it goes into the tank)

Video 1: http://youtu.be/pjJqbhON1Y4

Video 2: http://youtu.be/x9nvlUDg63M

Thanks,

-- Sam

 

Hi Sam, I could live with those flame patterns. Put a few tanks of fuel through them and they should get progressively better.
Best Regards,
Kerophile.

 

Thanks. I will do that!

-- Sam

 

Thanks so much George and Gary!

I picked up an ultrasonic cleaner and have had great results with it so far.
George, your little separate bottle trick makes cleanup a breeze!
It really is a joy to use.



Gave de-coking a shot over the weekend too!

I neglected to take pictures of the process, but used a little pancake air compressor and a propane torch, with the burner gently held in a vise.

Did a practice run on a nasty gummed up Svea 123R burner, then once I realized just how easy it is, gave the Campus No. 4 a shot.

Here's the results!









Lots more to do before it goes in the reference gallery, but man-o-man! What a fun burner!
It is burning much, much better and more reliably now.

Thank y'all so much for enlightening me on the process!
It's so easy!