Jon’s Burninator / propane puffer
I said I was going to have a go at making one of these here and I have a working prototype now. Its ignition system is not yet working, I want it to be automatic and electrical, but we tried it out last night with a small methylated-spirit burner instead and it worked well!
We only ran it up to about 2 bar but it did exactly what I wanted it to, it blew large brief balls of yellow flame into the night sky when i hit the go button - what is more it did not blow up or kill anyone, which was a relief.
How it works:
The propane gas builds up pressure in in the second pressure chamber (limited to 2 bar for now by the regulator) and is released by the solenoid (bought from eBay for next to nothing but quite expensive normally) in short bursts.
At the same time as the electrical pulse opens the solenoid, the car ignition coil is (supposed to be) fired, igniting the gas as it escapes - but as of yet I have not built the necessary driver for it (i tried to make one using just a relay, but it did not work).
[ later note - while the square wave driver bought worked well for making the ignition coil make decent sparks they were not strong enough to ignite the gas as it escaper, so it is back to using a pilot light. ]
A friend suggested i look up Ruben’s Tubes……. and they do indeed look fun!
for ignition i originally attempted to use a car coil and a solenoid/relay. I think the relay open/closed too fast to make things work. I ended up purchasing an ignition coil from a fuel oil boiler. It requires electrical current from a generator or inverter as it\’s 110 volts (240 where you live?) but the spark generated is very impressive.
I did end up also using a 2nd propane cylinder just to feed a pilot light. I had a difficult time always getting the ignition coil to ignite the propane. Now when i \
the bus driver
17 Aug 07 at 11:59 am
yep, i tried that exactly, with the ignition coil and the relay, but it does not work - i have got a 10A, fully adjustable square wave signal generator on its way which should work. I could go for the pilot light way, even run it off the same cylinder, but i like the idea if having it all remote and the gas escaping and the ignition being simultaneous and no flickering pilot light……. i will film it when i have it working, you will see what i mean!
admin
17 Aug 07 at 7:26 pm
so the spark from the car ignition coil was not powerful enough to ignite the gas as it escaped, very disappointing.
Jon
30 Sep 07 at 8:17 pm