My homemade forge burner blew up in my face on Tuesday

Had this venturi burner I built from a kit last year, been using it fine until last week when the nozzle cracked and shot a fireball back at me. Luckily I had my face shield on but it singed my eyebrows and melted the zipper on my jacket. Anyone else had a burner fail on them after months of use?

2 comments

2 Comments

stone.troy26d agoProlific Poster

Chuck that cracked nozzle and get a MIG tip for your burner instead. Standard .035 or .045 welding tips hold up way better to the heat cycling. Also check your flare fitting alignment, if it gets knocked out of square even a tiny bit the flame can start rolling back up the tube.

markc8426d ago

3 years I ran a .045 MIG tip on my homebuilt forge before I figured out you can just buy the proper nozzles for like 8 bucks. Felt like a real genius when I realized I'd been using welding tips that were basically clogged with flux every few months. The heat cycling thing is real though, I melted through three different brass fittings before I just gave up and went with stainless. I swear my forge has more "temporary" fixes than actual design at this point.