Home made propane burner designs?

Hi All

I've been brewing all grain for a little over 4 years now and during that time I've been using the burner that came with my turkey fryer. It does the job but I must spend an hour and a half on brew day waiting for the water/wort to boil. So I decided to buy a new burner. I just purchased a 23 jet burner from topfoodservices.com and it ought to be here in a day or two.
I had intended to gut my old burner and mount the new burner in the old stand until I saw a nice custom kettle stand out on the net. I did a little re-design and my buddy has agreed to weld it up for me this weekend.
Anyway, I'm also looking at making a 3 tier, 2 burner brew stand and I had originally thought I'd just get 2 more of these Jet burners until... I saw that custom kettle stand. It had a home made propane burner in it that looked like little more than a steel pipe with a propane jet in the middle. I thought "hey I could save a couple bucks and just make the burners myself!" So I started looking for info on burner design. Unfortunately the only information I can find on propane burner design is from the home forge enthusiasts and I'm thinking that a burner that can melt iron is probably a little more than I need.
So the question is where can I get information on propane burner design for home brewing?

Thanks
Griz

I don't know if I'd bother, burners aren't that expensive in the grand scheme of things. I wouldn't trust myself to make my burner just to save $20 or $30. I've worked with propane in refrigeration and such with no issues, but a burner.... i dunno.

Then again I can't work with metal to save my life.

I love DIY more than most but I agree; seems like something you could be chasing the proper mixture/burn around for a while and in the scheme of things you might only save $10 a burner.

yeah, $10 burners... spend the money custom building your nice stand!

btw, if you wrap with foil around your pot, overlapping a foil wrapped turkey fryer, you can not only heat to a boil faster, you can save a ton of propane.

Also the regulator you are using may limit the btu ouput of the burner you are connected to. And if you are co0nnecting your old reg to the new burners you may not realize any increase in heat output.

I bought a 23 jet burner and was very disappointed in it's performance.
23 jet burner link
While it brought wort or water up to a boil quickly enough it had a few problem.
1) It was hard to light, 3 or 4 of the jets would light and then you had to fan the flame around to get the rest of them lit.
2) Unburned gas tended to "pool" under the skirt of the keg and then roll up the outside of the keg and sooted up the outside of the keg.
3) When you got to a boil, if you turn the propane pressure down it sooted up the bottom of the keg/kettle. What a pain to clean!

As I mentioned in my first post I had seen a single jet burner design for home forge use.
Just for grins I decided to build one and see if I could run it low enough to brew with.
It works Great!
I used the regulator and gas hose off an old turkey fryer (10psi low flow connector) and mounted it in the custom stand we'd built for the 23 jet burner. It runs from almost no gas pressure to full out without soot and full out will take a gallon of cold water to a boil in 3 minutes!
Better yet, because it only has one .045 jet rather than 23 .033 jets it uses less gas!
Single Jet link
It's a little touchy to light, if you more than crack the gas valve it tends to blow out the lighter but if you keep the gas pressure low to light it, no problem, once it's lit, crank it up!
It burns very clean, no unburnt gas smell at all,
it doesn't cause any flame crawl up the outside of the keg
and best of all, No soot!
I'm still playing with the design, I'd like to add an air intake adjustment for a better mix at low pressure and I've ordered a 20psi regulator with a high flow connector to see if I can get more out of the upper end (not that I need it).
We've only done one brew with it but I'm very excited with the results so far!

Griz

BTW I should add the 23 jet burner was $21 + $18.50 shipping + $8 for fittings, $46.50
I built the single jet burner for about $12

Griz

I've seen many people plug up about 1/2 the jets on the 23 jet burners with good results. Do a search, you may still get some good use out of it yet!

Griz,
I've been brewing all grain for 2 years now and have grow tired of my rickity gravity set-up. I have designed a structure that is going to be welded in the next couple of weeks.
I love your single burner design and wondered if you would share it with me.
If not, I'm going to incorporate my turkey fryer burners into my system. They are slow and inefficient. Can you help a fellow brewer?
Thanks,
Toolmantoo

Here's a link to an interesting burner design. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGaUseK6ta8]YouTube - Economy Keg & Burner Conversion. Part 3 The Flame[/ame] Just saw the video this morning and think I may try it. My only concern with the design is that the copper fittings will corrode with natural gas.

Cellarbrewer,
Did you try the burner design?
The blower makes it awful loud.

I'm not impressed. The flame pattern is too loose and the fan is way too loud.
I do like the idea of using the keg top as a reflector though, I may try that on my set up, besides it looks cool