Supaburner's for Model & Toy Steam Boilers Explained

Supaburner's for Model & Toy Steam Boilers Explained and how to make one.

Edited By Blue Heeler on 12/07/2019 08:43:01

Brilliant burner. Can you explaim the fiberglass wick a bit more, ie how do you make or where do you obtain the wick.

+1 for further details of fibreglass wick

Now you have explained how it works I'm going to make one. Thanks for sharing.

Chris

Fibreglass wick as for lamp for aromatic oils, or threads pulled from woven fibreglass cloth, think I'v got some of that, it was called Dynal cloth 50 years or so ago, we used it for abrasion resistance on the leading edge of the tailplane of our Cessna topdressing aircraft. I have mad similar burners, but both ends of the burner tube went into the fuel tank, and the burner end consisted of a complete loop with the little hole in the bottom of the loop. I used asbestos string.

Ian S C

Fibreglass wick as for lamp for aromatic oils, or threads pulled from woven fibreglass cloth, think I'v got some of that, it was called Dynel cloth 50 years or so ago, we used it for abrasion resistance on the leading edge of the tailplane of our Cessna topdressing aircraft. I have mad similar burners, but both ends of the burner tube went into the fuel tank, and the burner end consisted of a complete loop with the little hole in the bottom of the loop. I used asbestos string.

On second thoughts don't use Dynel, it,s not fibreglass, but acrilic, I forgot that.

Ian S C

Aren't glass fibre raw materials IE woven cloths and roving's pre coated?

Regards Ian.

Fibreglass wick should be pretty easy to come by from large hardware stores, eBay, BBQ & fireplace sellers etc.

Ian, a closed loop supaburner sounds interesting. I will have to make one and try it out.

Looks impressive. Did you actually crimp the end trapping the wick fibres? Not ideal for silver brazing I would have thought. Also, is the lid an air tight fit, or just lacking a breather hole? Third question: how many burners to replace the 4 wick x 1/4" diameter burner I made for my Ellie tram? The wicks are ceramic by the way, a step up from fibreglass. 4). Any reason not to have 2 or more burners supplied by the same tank?

Your workshop is indecently tidy and orderly. I am jealous, as mine is like a commando training obstacle course.

G'day Simon,

!. You can just poke the loose fibres in before silver brazing.

2. I have fibre washers on some and O rings on other screw caps so pretty air tight.

3. Not sure about that.

4. I've seen 2 and 3 wick Supaburners with the copper tubes at staggered lengths. They give off a lot of heat. Just need the spirits container big enough to feed them for a period of time. Best thing about these burners is that the materials are pretty cheap and makes multiple experimentation possible. I want to give one of Ian's closed loop ones a try.

Ian,

I collect campingstoves and have a stove that runs on petrol it is a closed loop as you describe, the burner hole is at the bottom of the rim and when lit is very efficient, the filler cap doesnt have a open whole in the cap, there is one but is has solder over it so that if the stove over heats it melts the solder to dump the pressure, the stove was made in the 40's - 50's possibly earlier.

Martin P

What a wonderful idea for a burner.

I wonder if stove glass fibre rope could be used as a wick.

Thanks for answers. One more, what diameter is the burner tube? Sorry if you said it in the video.

G'day Simon,

The smaller one the copper tube is 1/4 and 5/16 for the larger one.

Yes that's fine, just unweave some strands.

Fascinating stuff Blue Heeler. How do you control heat output?

Mick

Thats a great idea. However I would not change my wick burner in my Roundhouse loco though. I know that the burner runs out of meths before the water level becomes unsafe in the boiler.

If anybody has a go at fitting one to an old Mamod i would also advise caution as i think some of there brass boilers are soft soldered and the above would apply even more.

Ever cautious 🤔💥

Bri

Don't know what Blue Heeler used(probably similar). I use 1/4 OD copper mainly, but as I don't buy much, its a case of whats in the junk box. I did have some copper plated steel tube from a fridg, that worked ok, it was either 6 mm or 1/4".

Ian S C

Ian, do you happen to have a photo of your closed loop burner?

Cheers,

Jim

Sorry Jim, can't even remember where I put it. The first one I built, the tank was vertical copper tube about 2 1/2" high x 1" dia, the loop tube 3/16" copper tube went into the tank near the bottom, and was bent up so the the hot end was above the top of the tank, it worked but was not a good design as the flame area was too high to be of any use. I did make a few more, but as I use gas for heating most of my hot air motors I didn't do too much development work, perhaps I'll have another go.

Got a tin boat about 26" long powered by a hot air motor with a single wick meths burner, perhaps a pressure burner would give it a bit of a boost, must try that.

Ian S C