Drill bit orifice size

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Nightbrew

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I need to drill out my orifices for my blichmann burners, going from high to low pressure lp. What size bit? Thanks for everyones help on this project I hope to post pics soon.
 
You can do that, but Blichmann does make an orifice specifically for NG. I have used one of them and it works well.
 
Sorry I should have been more clear, I am converting to low pressure propane. So does the 3/32 not sound like a good idea?
 
This may end up being a direction I go... I have the BG-14 High Pressure Burners as well. When changing to low pressure LP is the Orifice the only change made to the burners or does each and every port on the burner face need to be drilled out too?

Secondly, does the low pressure LP only save in fuel consumption or are there other benefits to the change over?

Thanks,

Mark
 
The orifice size is the only change you need to make to the burner.

Truly, the only reason I went low pressure was so I could use the Honeywell automated valving.

As a side benefit, it is nice and quiet. My first burner was the Bayou Classic SP-10 that sounded like a jet engine.
I can't even hear the low pressure burners over the noise my pumps make.
 
Onehoppyguy, looks like you deal alot w/ low pressure on these banjo burners which should be identical to my blichmanns. So is the size you mentioned the best for fuel, heating or combo. Just looking for a little info. Also can I pick that bit up most places or is it hard to get. Thanks again for the help
 
I ordered the valves for the Hurricane burners from Williams brewing, they work extremely well on the burners with my standard natural gas pressure. The size on those valves was .1250
 
Wouldnt the size need to be different for low pressure propane? Also Onehoppguy I would love to hear more about your tests.
 
The size I quoted was for low pressure. We haven't done efficiency tests, just flame quality. The goal was to achieve the cleanest/best flame by stepping up orifice sizes until we hit a peak performance. With that said, I believe it would be fairly safe to assume you would also get the highest efficiency.
 
And my next question, what pressure regulator are you running? 10psi as opposed to highpressure 30psi?

Also, as we have discussed before, I am placing my needle valves just before the orifice on the burner so would I just pressurize the maifold to the low pressure setting (10psi for arguments sake) and then fine tune with the needle valve all 3 burners?
 
I just posted my pics on my new shop brewery page showing my new three tier brewstand. 3 burners running at the same time on natural gas. With the low pressure regulator of only 11 water colume inches the .125 size should work fine. I lost one of my valves and had to use a brass valve that was 1/4 in pipe thread for the burner connection and 3/8 flare to adapt the hose connection. I tried the existing hole size but it didn't have a good flame. I ended up using a 1/8 pipe plug that i threaded into the 1/4 brass connection. I used a 1/8 pipe tap which worked nicely with the internal hole size of the brass 1/4 fitting. I then drilled a 1/8 hole in the plug for the proper size on the gas flow. It works as good as the valves I bought from williams.
 
mmurray--I believe that you have to be about .5psi to be low pressure, or so I think I have recently learned.
 
I think we're talking apples and oranges here.
10 psi is considered high pressure. Low pressure for LP is 11" W.C. and uses a low pressure non-adjustable regulator.
11" W.C. (water column - measurement taken with a manometer) is the pressure used for furnace gas valves if you are automating burners.

If you are trying to save fuel by reducing your regulator pressure you will experience some savings but the burner you are using isn't designed for efficiency. Rather, it's designed for high BTU output. If you truly want efficiency, go all electric.
 
Nightbrew, what size did you end up going with to run your Blichmann burner on low pressure LPG? I tried the NG orifice from Blichmann, but it's much too big. I filled it with solder and tried .063 (1/16") and 0.078 (5/64"). The former is too small, the latter too big. Are you using something in between?

To those talking about using 3/32 or even .125 (1/8"), have you tried this size on a Blichmann burner? I'm finding that .078 is too large for 11" WC LPG; I can't imagine those sizes would ever work.
 
I need to drill out my orifices for my blichmann burners, going from high to low pressure lp. What size bit? Thanks for everyones help on this project I hope to post pics soon.

Why would you want to do this? (Serious question, not trolling)
 
If you want to automate your process using a furnace valve, (E.g., a Honeywell VR8200), you must step your propane pressure down to 11" Water Column (roughly 0.5psi) for the valve to function properly. If you do so, you need to change the burner's orifice to a larger size to get the same amount of propane into the burner. If you reduce the input pressure you need to increase the input volume to get a good flame.
 
drilled one of my orifices out to 3/32 for low pressure BG-14 and it soots like crazy and the air control disc has to be wide open otherwise the flame is all orange, still has a good amount of orange flame with it open, real poor.
 
Based on Onehoppyguy's post earlier, I'd say the .076 dia would be appropiate. I used the .125 dia with a natural gas hook up and it works good. With the Low pressure regulator to run off a propane bottle the diameter is different probably because N.G. is, I think a lower pressure than even the 11" W.C. delivered from the Low pressure regulator for the LP tank. I made my one brew stand portable to use with the LP gas and did not get a good flame with the stock .125 dia. I'll need to try a orifice that'll I'll drill to the .076 dia and see how it works.
 

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