Foundry Customer Comments

This page will grow as I add additional comments I receive from customers about various T-Rex burners they have purchased and are using in their Foundry Furnace or Kiln. Due to the large number of customer testimonials we have split them up by application. The customer responses for blacksmith or bladesmith forge application are on the Forge Customer Comments page. If you have purchased one of my burners and have a comment you would like to see posted here, please write me. Thank you.  Rex

Saving Fuel in The Foundry

Paul Holloway got his first T-Rex Burner and has been very busy in the UK ever since. He has been kind enough to keep me updated on his foundry furnace since he received his burner. Watching his progress in building his furnace I have been very impressed. He is a man of many skills and talents. It has been a real pleasure to have gotten to know him over these last couple of months. He sent me some new images the other day along with a very nice E-mail which I would like to let everyone see. Some might not understand but just replace the word "slingshot" for his word "catapult". This has to be the best ever made. Have a look and see what Paul has been up to and what he has to say about the Hybridburner that is now his....
Thanks Paul. Respectfully.... Rex

News Flash: (3/25/08) The 47 Kg LPG bottle finally was refillied after 11 smelts! That's £4.36 per run. Paul has agreed to keep us updated on how long his next bottle will last. Will it be good for 12 smelts? Thanks again to Paul H.

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From: "Tatela" <info at tatela dot co dot uk>

Hi Rex,

Here are a couple of pics of catapults I have made, I'm selling them regular now so making some of my furnace expenses back at last, a few other things to make in the pipe line as well which are under way, will keep you up to date.

I thought I was going to have a problem using gas because of the expense but I bought a 47kg bottle (£48) & have had 8 smelts from it so far all around the 3 1/2 to 6 hour period each &still haven't emptied the bottle ! I have run the T Rex at 30 psi regular when smelting brass around 12 psi for alloy, I am very impressed to say the least with your burner Rex, now even more impressed that its not as gutty on fuel as I was lead to believe gas burners were.

I thought about making gas burner when I started but when I done my home work & found out about your burners there was no way I was going to make one when I could own one of yours.

Hope your well Rex & keeping busy, hope you like my catapults, I don't plan only making them but its a stop gap to make some needed cash back which they are doing.

Speak later, all the very best to you, kind regards Paul

PS.Thanks for the T Rex

Click on the images for a double sized view.

This comment comes from Lonnie Knechtel, and is reproduced here with his permission.

Rex --

Received burners today.

I tested both out. The rocket burner works nice.

The 1-1/4" burner looks like a howitzer. It really roars. I mounted it on my smaller (old) furnace without the nozzle, it melted 6# of aluminum in less than 10 minutes from a cold start, which I'd call impressive. My regulator only goes to 20#, so I haven't tested the upper-end capabilities yet. If I can get a slightly oxidizing flame at 40#, I should be into some serious iron melting.

I visited my propane dealer to order a bigger regulator and gauge setup. I showed the burners to the guys there, they were pretty impressed.

I'd say the burners are definitely worth the price. I may approach you sometime down the road for a 3/4" T-Rex also.

Many thanks,

Lonnie

lonnie@oneinchrr.com

Visit my 1" Scale Railroad Supply Catalog

The following e-mail came from Glenn Craig.

Hi Rex !

Well it got here at last on the afternoon of the 8th. I knew instantly what it was as soon as I saw the package. A few words about the package: I have seldom gotten anything in the mail so perfectly packaged ! What a beautiful job ! Obviously you take craftsmanship seriously. The only problem was figuring out how to open it up, which was soon solved by sawing around below one of the end-caps. The package is reuseable after flattening the wedges on the removed end-cap, and it makes a fine case for the 1" burner.

I didn't have another 1/8 to 1/4 adaptor so rather than take it off my other burner, I got a couple more at Home Depot, along with that nice pipe-strap for the bipod platform.

Hooked everything up about 30 minutes ago, and started out slow at 5 psi, per the instruction sheet. Started at the first spark of the striker, and I tried to adjust the jet to the best spot, then cranked up the regulator in stages to about 30 psi, watching the flame, and moving the choke to about 75% open at the top.

Well, I am impressed ! Not only were there no gaps, hiccups or uneven moments in this test-firing, but the characteristics of the flame were intense at even the lowest settings. I think that this burner will serve well both in my existing furnace, but also in the larger-capacity one that is finally off the drawing board.

Only one thing really took me by surprise, and that was that from the pictures on the internet, I got the impression that the blue parts were anodized aluminum. I figured that if there were aluminum parts that you turned the works on a lathe, and maybe there was a venturi-profile inside the tube. So now I know that your real design is the air and gas mixing chamber, that allows for the sliding choke, and the burner is still just a straight tube with the addition of the SS flare. You must have a milling machine to do this, which puts it way out of the reach of most people to make their own based on this design. The one I built in the photo uses common plumbing parts, and it works well enough, but not nearly so well as your 1". The air/fuel mix is more critical on the small one, but once you have it set it runs like a champ. I will probably use this one on another tank to burn-out molds, and the 1" to do the melts.

Almost ready to head out into the desert with my portable furnace(s) and do some serious work. I studied bronze foundry and got a degree in Art as a sculptor a long time ago, but I have not been able to cast for many years, which has severely cramped my style. Not any more, dude !

Thanks, Rex ! Excellent Job !

glenn craig

The following e-mail came from Kevin Spence regarding the 1-1/4" Foundry & Kiln burner.

Congratulations Rex on your burner design!
I had the opportunity to run my new burner this weekend and I was very happy and impressed with it. It was very easy to tune and the color of the burn made it obvious to me right away that combustion was complete.I wanted to run it in a heat medium boiler with a 24" firetube in place of a 500000 BTU burner but I was unable to remove the old hardware by myself so I ran it in a glycol reboiler with an 8" firetube in place of a 2 1/4" burner (I am unsure of the BTU rating) instead. Your burner design was approximatley 50% more fuel efficient than the burner that was in there ( even better than I had hoped). I was unable to rev 'er up because I was only able to give it 28 psi fuel gas pressure and the small firetube restricted nozzle adjustment.I can't wait to see the top end. I am hoping to try the burner in an application that will challenge it next weekend i.e. bigger firetube higher fuel gas pressure, then i will be able to adjust the nozzle spray to see how wide I can get it, if it can spread to 24" diameter then it could replace a 3 1/2'" burner.I will let you know how next weekends run goes. I am very optimistic after seeing how it runs. Once again Rex congratulations, that burner is impressive.
Hope this find you well

Kevin

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