air pump

[monopolowa]

Has anyone tried using an air pump to get the fire going? I've started using one (the kind for inflating mattresses) with a metal pipe and it gets the fire roaring in no time. Also helps to move ash out of the cooking area.

[wotavidone]

Re: air pump

I tried it with my oven. Certainly works, It also works if you point the pipe up your flue to induce some draughting via the venturi effect.
However, my air pump is the kind you plug into your cigarette lighter socket, so it was OK for the experiment, but too cumbersome for regular use.

I've never quite gotten around to buying one with internal dry cells.

[david s]

Re: air pump

if you have daughters there should be plenty of hair dryers around the house.

[jeeppiper]

Re: air pump

I use a Weed Dragon propane torch....lay that inside the oven for five mins.

[V-wiz]

Re: air pump

Ive built a blast door out of aluminum, it works great, no need for tools, less than 40 seconds its placed at the entry and the fire is all lit.

[nissanneill]

Re: air pump

A petrol leaf blower gets the fire going more like a blast furnace!
Tried it once with wet wood and it worked a treat. I would not recommended using it on a regular basis as it gets the oven very hot very quickly, probably too quick for the bricks to react, a high risk of cracking your oven.
An old mate of mine had contract to provide the Port Pirie smelters with firewood which was used to start their blast furnaces after relining. Oil and gas fires heated the firebricks too quickly cracking the bricks and requiring an other reline.

Neill

[jeeppiper]

Re: air pump

Another thing that has been working well is "Wood Brick Fuel" These are made from recycled sawdust that are compessed into bricks. I use one of these to keep the fire going when the wood is wet.

[cobblerdave]

Re: air pump

A petrol leaf blower gets the fire going more like a blast furnace!
Tried it once with wet wood and it worked a treat. I would not recommended using it on a regular basis as it gets the oven very hot very quickly, probably too quick for the bricks to react, a high risk of cracking your oven.
An old mate of mine had contract to provide the Port Pirie smelters with firewood which was used to start their blast furnaces after relining. Oil and gas fires heated the firebricks too quickly cracking the bricks and requiring an other reline.

Neill

G'day Neill
Sensibly put .......


Try this at your peril

It's an old pic but always makes people smile
Regards dave

[nissanneill]

Re: air pump

In all honesty, it worked an absolute treat especially on idle. Give it some gusto and all hell breaks out, sparks fly straight up the chimney and after a few moments to a minute, you have a roaring and I mean roaring fire!

Neill

[wotavidone]

Re: air pump

A petrol leaf blower gets the fire going more like a blast furnace!
Tried it once with wet wood and it worked a treat. I would not recommended using it on a regular basis as it gets the oven very hot very quickly, probably too quick for the bricks to react, a high risk of cracking your oven.
An old mate of mine had contract to provide the Port Pirie smelters with firewood which was used to start their blast furnaces after relining. Oil and gas fires heated the firebricks too quickly cracking the bricks and requiring an other reline.

Neill

A small point of order -it is the slag fuming furnaces that are started with firewood and burners.

Once it's all alight, pulverised coal gets blown into the bottom as molten blast furnace slag is poured in the top.
It hasn't got much to do with firebricks. More to do with having a really big fire going when we start feeding the furnace.

We get the firewood by the semi load. It was always from the Wirrabara forest, supplied by Morgans.
I think it still is, maybe via the Jamestown sawmill? The bushfire might change things significantly, since about 90% of the forest was burned.

No fire bricks in the Port Pirie blast furnace. The tub at the bottom is lined with castable, but we only replace that every twenty years or so. Maybe once or twice in the 38 years I've worked there.
Apart from that, we don't actually "re-line" the Blast Furnace.

The walls are water cooled jackets, the protective lining is actually a layer of frozen slag.
We generally shut it to do maintenance that can't be done on the run, like repairing worn/leaking jackets, etc.

After a shutdown, the furnace is assembled by bolting all the water cooled jackets together, then we blow it in roughly like this:

a sacrificial gas burner is put in, lit, and coke gradually added, when the coke is alight and there is a nice big bed of burning coke, we start blowing oxygen enriched air through the tuyeres, and adding coke and sinter. Eventually the whole lot starts burning and melting and a mixture of slag and molten bullion starts running out the taphole.

This is roughly how it goes - it isn't a spectator sport.
It's tricky to manage, even for the most experienced of hot metal guys, so non-essential personnel aren't welcome while the furnace is being blown in - I've only seen it a couple of times.
We generally let spectators watch from across the road.

[wotavidone]

Re: air pump

G'day Neill
Sensibly put .......

[ATTACH]41508[/ATTACH]
Try this at your peril

It's an old pic but always makes people smile
Regards dave

Dave, I just showed your pic to the missus, she didn't smile mate, she laughed. A lot.

[nissanneill]

Re: air pump

wotavidone

I first started delivering hardwood to the smelters with Rod in the late 60' by the truckload. He had the supply contract for many years and kept it until age and failing health in his late 60's bought it to a stop.
We did this in my holidays and over the christmas breaks in between fruit picking/packing at their large orchard.
It was cut and picked up/loaded by hand then into 4 foot lengths and unloaded by hand. Boy a tipper would have been handy then. The wood was deemed as firewood as all suitable millable timber was first priority and the remainder was sent to Pirie. I got my truck licence then and had it since updating to a HC a few years ago.
He upgraded his equipment with a large tandem drive tipper and articulated loader but remained a sole operator.
Rod has retired now but the Wirrabara mill moved to Jamestown some years ago when in receivership. Barrie and Lance now have their sons run the mill and Paul sold out his share but still maintains all their blades and cutters.
I don't think they cut much hardwood as it is so difficult to get but the will be busy with the burned pine before it deteriorates and is unusable.

[wotavidone]

Re: air pump

Yeah they are going to suffer, even if ForestrySA replant it'll take years to grow new trees.
The Bundaleer fire put a dent in things last year, now this disaster.
44 jobs will go if they can't get logs to saw.
That'll be a big dent in the Jamestown economy.

SA is currently facing a collapse - mining exploration and development slow down, big manufacturers closing, nasty natural disasters, you name it, we are on the ropes.

My kids are employed, but they are the lucky ones.
14% unemployment rate for kids 15-24 years of age. It's only one in six or seven I guess, but that is a large undercass of kids who, if they don't get a start while they are young, will be unemployable for life.

The Government is facing a huge pension bill for those people of my generation who want to stop working. The short term solution, unplatable to people like me, but necessary, is to raise the pension age to keep us in the work force unless we are fully self funded.
Of course, if we aren't getting out of the workforce, where is the opportunity for the young people to get in?
I'm sure glad it's not me who has to decide the way forward.