The Fusion Burner - Wilesco version constructed (scroll)

Mister Occlusion · The Fusion Burner - Wilesco version constructed (scroll)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta02c8JG2LQ

Fusion as in a fusion of all of the ideas and systems that I've seen, distilled into a simple and ugly little burner that works well, is reliable and (in my opinion) about as safe a burner as I am likely to ever design.

It uses Bowmanish style tubes, which have become my favorite, since you do not need exotic wicking, since the wicks are internal and will not burn up.

It has a medium sized fuel cell that sits snugly up against the firebox and is firmly held in place with a magnet.

It has a remote fuel cell that may be used to safely top up the main cell, without fear of overfilling the burner

and

Because of the way the fueling system is designed there is ZERO chance of the burner overflowing with hot flaming meths.

Pictures first, while I wait for the youtube video to load.

This is the burner that I knocked together for my Franken-J 65. It is made entirely out of copper pipe from the plumbing section. The main tank is, I believe, 3/4" and the tubes are 1/4" stuff left over from my condenser project

Here is the burner inside Frank

And here it shows the remote tank next to the burner filler line. Notice that the tin will have to be dangerously full of meths in order for fuel to flow into the burner's tank of its own volition. During use tonight I never had the can more than half filled, and that was enough for a boiler and a half worth of water.

The can, by the way, is some sort of aluminum alloy spice/salt shaker from a bulk food store. I used a combination of epoxy putty and aluminum soldering paste to get the bass line fixed to it.

Here you can see that the inlet pipe is below the level of the burner tubes. This demarks the maximum level of meths that can be inside the main fuel tank.
The burner gets hot enough in use that I cannot hold it by the fuel tank for long with my gloves on, so this system is very effective against the hot meths expansion problems suffered by tray type burners.
You can maintain an optimal fuel level at all times, also, for a consistent flame this way.

Canadian pennies. The copper cladding makes them easy to solder...

And since they are ferrous on the inside, the burner can be held in place with a magnet salvaged from a hard drive.

Here is the burner itself. One tube has 3 slits and the other has 4. I have found that 3 to 4 per tube is optimal. Any more and the far slits get no fuel. The wicking is nothing more than a cotton rope, doubled over so that it would fill the tubes snugly, and drawn into them with a bit of locking wire as a fish line. A fair bit of the string is folded up in the fuel tank, along with a bit of cotton waste, so that there is not a great deal of fuel freely sloshing about inside. Note the vent hole drilled in the far cap, above the filler line. The ends of the copper tubes were simply hammered flat to seal them, and bent down to form legs (which are uneccesary since the magnet holds the burner firmly erect regardless.

The scrap of blue is a bit of heavy paper towel. The other night I figured out a great way to light these burners, which are usually a pain due to the amount of preheating required. Insert a scrap of towel thus, soak it with meths (not dripping wet; just damp). Light it up and stuff the burner in the engine. Within a minute the tubes are warm and running, long before the bit of paper burns up. Works great

Video isn't up yet, so I'll post this now and link the vid later.

After I get some more end caps I am going to make this identical style of burner up for my Wilesco engines, I'm so pleased with it. I've finally got a meths burner design that works well and is not a dangerously fussy bugger that needs constant monitoring.

(edit). I did not mention. The idea of the remote fuel cell is that every now and then you pick it up and let fuel flow into the burner's tank. After a few seconds you replace it on the table and any excess fuel in the burner tank flows back into the remote tank.
The only time that I over filled it to the point where meths shot out the vent hole was during the initial fill when I was charging it for the first test run.

Les

That is very clever and I look forward to the video.

I was wondering though how would you change the wick when you need to??

Steve_S

That's very clever. I like the idea of the remote tank.

mc_mc

johnreid

Fission, where does the plutonium go?

That looks like one I could copy, I want to see more.

IndianaRog

Mr. O...great to see the creative juices flowing again from O labs. It sure looks like it is of materials any of us could find locally...love that aspect! Look forward to seeing it work.

MooseMan

Ah, excellent......more posts like this please folks.

Mister Occlusion

Ta

Yes, I'm banking on the wick lasting a long time. When it eventually decomposes I will have to desolder the tubes or the end caps to pull more in, as it was a pretty snug fit. But as I said I am counting on the wicking being protected by the small slits

The slits were cut by a dremel with a diamond wheel, by the way.

The end caps are only stuck on maybe 1/4", rather than being fully seated. This gives you more volume (or lets you use less copper pipe), and will, I expect, allow the caps to be more easily removed should they have to be.

The video explains things better. Unfortunately I shot it under weak artificial light, but there you go...

For the next version I am going to try a pair of lengthwise slits. Bowman-style, but very thin, as I do not want the wicking exposed.

I'll get some footage of it burning later. It's not pretty blue flame, but it puts out enough heat to run both engines on Frank very well, and there was no noticeale soot afterwards, so I'm happy.

My main need was to come up with something that I did not have to continually nurse, or worry about flaming fuel overflowing. My Jensen 75's chicken feed burner was almost there, but it suffered from fueling problems.
That's when I realized that reliable burners pretty much need a substantial fuel cell as part of the main unit: the 75's element only contains fuel for a minute or two, whereas this one will run for several without having to raise the tin.

Anyway, the vid explains it pretty well, in my usual stumbling ad-lib.

Here's the link. Also added it to the main post

Mister Occlusion

Here's effort #2, designed for the Wielsco D18/D22. It won't work (well) for the T90 because that engine has a much smaller base. Although, with those hard drive magnets, anything is possible

The 22 is such a big beast with such a deep firebox I figured I would need 3 tubes, if I was going to do the same type of element as I did for the Jensen.

So instead I went with a single larger tube, planning to have it be partially flooded in order to feed it properly, rather than relying on the wicking to draw fuel up and into the tube along its entire length.

The fuel tank is 1" (or maybe 1.25"...I forget) copper pipe end caps, butt joined together with solder

The element is 1/2" copper plumbing pipe with a single slit running down its top for most of its length

Here it is while on fire...

wicking is the same stuff I used in the model 65 burner: cotton clothesline cord. I needed to assemble about a dozen lengths of it to fill the tube, and even then I fed in some of this really soft mop fibre along with it. To keep the cords together I wound a hunk of copper (network) wire around them - just one of the 8 strands. The packing is not super tight, as I was able to hand feed it most of the way.

That's the same remote tank as I used for the 65.

How well does it work? Hard to say, since it was a particularly windy day. But perhaps the fact that I still managed to run 2 boilers says something.

Lighting it was a bit of a pain. The large pipe takes a lot of preheating, and because I have the burner pipe sitting so it just brushes the top lip of the firebox, it is hard to insert it with a flaming hunk of towel paper on it. Still, the flaming towel paper worked to preheat and light the thing, and it was off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6mTGuR4YF4
Link to the video. Embed is below

Despite what I say in the video you do NOT need to top up the main burner tank every "5 or so" minutes. At the end of my second run I exhausted the remote tank and decided to let the thing burn and see how long it would go for. The boiler went from being just under half full to the water vanishing from the sight glass and it was still burning strong. I figure I could probably go 10-15mins without tipping more meths into the main tank on the engine.

If anything I mounted the fueling inlet too low, and thus not much alcohol runs freely into the burner. I can try bending the tube upwards a tad, or chalk it up to experience. I could also add a second line into the tank and convert it for the chickenfeed system.

Anyway, here's the embed...

johnreid

In principle the simple tube with a slit in it is a tried and true design, I think that with all of the manufacturers out there that if a better system was easily done it would have been on many engines. I believe that the Mamod Meths burners are a less expensive approach, but the tube type ones seem to work best.
The Luton Bowman PW203 that I just got has the two tubes and is almost too much burner for the engine.
So, I think you are on the right track here.

igy569

Very intresting indeed!

An approach to remove the wich crunchies. just the preheating. I guess each design comes with one small inconvience.

Really nice work, I really love the pennies. Easier to control how much fuel you are using than mine.

Do you put those out by just blowing them out?

Hey... my family has been calling my shop O labs for years!! No fair!!

tmuir

The German burners had a small wick that was mounted below there vaporising heads that you lit first and that would preheat the big burner , maybe this is something you could think about to help light it.
Of course then you get the problem of having to replace the preheating wick which is what you are trying to get away from.

Mister Occlusion

steamyjim

Excellent MR O!!!!! Well done

I been having problems with this tye of burner all day...a Stuart one

igy569

What's the history of your O Labs?

I was thinking about O Works, but then I try not to work very much.
I don't do any trade under that name, though, so don't worry about market confusion.

Not a big deal. I have been making all kinds off odd things over the years. I used to own a hobby shop, it was called O.K. Hobbies, I have also used O.Kreations for years. So I don't think it will ever come up, it is only family and friends who call it that, and since I started going really gray, they now call me Doc Brown!!
So between the nick names and the avaters, its gettin' a bit creepy around here!!!!

This forum is awsome!!

Mister Occlusion

hehe... I've been going grey since I was 20ish

There *are* a lot of good ideas here, and good stories, and great people.

steamyman

another flamin'(literally) success from Mr O

congrats!