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[derekwarner]

Ken....your comments sound to be mechanical [contaminate] in nature rather than the physical behavior of gas....so just a few thoughts [and assuming the actual placement height of the jet is as was 2 years ago]


1. disconnect the gas tank, take it outside & exhaust the contents to atmosphere.......leave the discharge fully open and invert the tank a few times
2. unscrew the discharge gas valve gland nut, so unscrewing the valve needle......inspect the needle for evidence of contaminate
3. unscrew the Ronson filling valve with a fork shaped tool......[shown below & available from tank suppliers]
4. if there is any contaminate, gently pour warm water with some kitchen washing up liquid to say 1/4 fill the tank
5. swill the contents around for a few minutes, drain into a glass jar and inspect for any contaminate fall out or settling
6. rinse the gas tank with warm tap water a few times & drain to waste......keeping the tank with valves trappings open to allow the tank to dry out


7. carefully reinstall both the Ronson valve & the discharge valve
8. fill the tank & check for flame characteristics as from that day or 2 years ago


9 if the flame is still retarded, remove all copper/brass tubing spools between the tank & the jet
10. with compressed air, blow through all lines with a white handkerchief on the discharge ends
11. place the tubes in a saucepan of water + a squirt of kitchen washing up liquid.....boil rapidly for 10 minutes...moving the tubes around with a fork
12 . take the tubes & rapidly cool in tap water in a glass jar and inspect for any contaminate fall out or settling
13. rinse the tubes and let dry in the sun for an hour or two
14. the burner jet should sit squarely in the jet carrier & once the tightening screw is gently tightened, eliminate any movement
15. reinstall the tubes & check for flame characteristics as from that day or 2 years ago



[an alternate to 11. & 12. would be to place the tubes in a 20kHz ultrasonic bath for 10 minutes]........


Let us know what differences occur & when    ... Derek

[Landlocked]

Derek,


I agree -- I suspected contamination after the orifice plugged.  I suspect there was some in the BIX regulator too before I disassembled it.  With the gas tank sitting on the water tank in the bow, I used a 4" piece of tube that hadn't been the circuit before so I thought I had eliminated all existing potential problem sources.  I didn't think of the tank valve though.  It does seem to let gas spray pretty well when I took it outside just now.


Air temp is 50 degree F but I just looked at vapor pressure curves so I shouldn't be into too much trouble from not flashing the liquid -- tank cooled and had some condensation during the test run but no frost.


Stay tuned.


Thanks,


Ken

[derekwarner]

Ken...I ran out of time in the previous post


When your gas tank was manufactured, the end caps & bushings were silver soldered into position......I am sure the manufacturer pickled the internals, however microscopic flux/silica like particles could have still been just hanging on to these internal joints


LNG taken from fuel beds can contain gross contamination however iit s filtered....when Butane & Propane are boiled off they are also filtered


All of that is in a perfect world.......contamination in the real world can occur......[you could also gently tap  {with a small plastic hammer} around the gas tank endcap joints

I have read of people soaking the gas jets in ....Acetone ??....[or aerosol carburetor clean] I have no experience in this, but only know these jets were never designed for mechanical cleaning

[Post cutting, cleaning, bending & soldering, I have used pump pak Iso Prop Alcohol spray {99.8%} to the tube internals....then followed by boiling the tubes in the soapy water for all of my gas, steam and water 1/8" & 5/32" OD copper & brass tube spools....on one occasion i found a few very small black flake spots in the first tip out of the soapy water]


Derek

[Landlocked]

Nothing amiss on removal of gas tank valve.  Tool for Ronson valve on order.


Ken

[Landlocked]

Weather got too cold before the Ronson tool arrived.  Snow in mid-Oct! 


The winterbreak saw me building my benches.  Photos have them arrayed on the canopy.  Gluing them in place on the upper deck directly below will be a little tricky because I don't want to lift the canopy off.  I have some ideas . . .


I also made an extra simple backless bench for the upper fore deck.  My 2010 pictures show two backed benches on the fore deck on the centerline but none of the more recent photos do.  For figurines, I figure several on the upper foredeck bench along with some along the rails will be more effective than filling the benches aft, below the canopy.


Next project is dealing with the "smile" along the upper deck seam where the deck and canopy flattened out and lost their sheer curve.  Since they're part of the lift off section, I'm getting a pretty good gap/shadow line.


Landlocked

[southsteyne2]

Hi ken have you tried to burn with the superstructure removed thinking may be not enough air circulation.
Happy new year to all
John

[Landlocked]

John,


Good question but not in this case. 


At some point, if I closed the front and rear bulkhead sliding doors and installed window, maybe, but I light it off with the upper section off and it didn’t steam up.


Landlocked

[Mark T]

Hi Ken


Happy new year - I've just picked up on your thread again.  My thoughts are that your gas regulator may be faulty or incorrectly piped in.  The Forest regulator can only be piped one way so maybe if you've had it out it may be facing the wrong way.  This will prevent proper combustion as I had the same issue with mine.  I also discovered that mine had a faulty O ring which allowed gas to escape which was repaired free of charge by the manufacturer.


Also I have had gas jets block up including a brand new one.  The hole is so small it can just be simple corrosion to the atmosphere that causes the problem at least that was my problem.  I contacted Nigel at Pendle boilers about this issue and he advised me to blow air backwards through the jet using compressed air.  I only have a small air brush compressor but this solved my combustion issues immediately.  This occurred after leaving the boiler unfired for 2 weeks as it worked absolutely fine before that. 


My other thoughts are - Is the jet correctly positioned in the holder to allow enough air through?  Also don't push anything through the gas jet as this will ruin it.


Hope this helps in some way - Mark

[Landlocked]

Mark,


Good thoughts.  I already had the thrill of piping my Forest regulator in backwards.  I jumped it out but I still suspect that it might have gotten gunked up.  I've tried a couple of different gas jets and unblocked at least one of them by the means you've described.  I think I have some system-wide contaminants that I'm going to have to wash out but I'm reluctant to fire it up inside so that will have to wait till Spring.


Happy New Year!


Ken

[Landlocked]

One step forward, two steps back -- no wait 


I was naive when I designed my removable upper deck.  I put holes for the posts to fit into in the bottom of the upper deck.  Well, that makes for a lot of fiddling around when setting the upper deck in place... After breaking another post as I finished repairing the last broken post, I decided a redesign with semi radical surgery was in order.


I'm cutting out the bottom, outer edge of my upper deck to allow me to have room to bind the posts together with a layer of wood at the top that will then fit into the now vacated space.  I'm starting the removal phase in the picture below.


Landlocked