building a garn,what would you change?

Heaterman

Well...I managed to stay out of the lime light. Mike Rowe was busy and I never got to see him personally. I was out of the office in PA for most that week. I hear that the program will air in Sept as a 1 hour special.

Thanks

Allan

Garnification

I'm just about ready to start welding in earnest on my tank. I have all my cut outs completed, just doing a lot of grinding. Did you stick weld the 5-inch pipe or mig weld? I was going to stick weld, but it is a lot faster to MIG weld. I was going to look up an AWS procedure, but wonder what you used. I was thinking with at least 2 passes with the mig I should not have leaks (I hope).

Thanks

Allan

Allan,

I mig welded everything. Grind and bevel every pipe joint. Grind every weld seem to expose shiny steel. I two-passed every pipe joint and the only joint that aren't welded on both sides are the pipe fittings joints.

Your better off to weld up the pipe out of the secondary to the plate then weld the plate to the secondary. Gets kinda tight in the secondary chamber especially if you got to lay in the firebox to do it.

I got to say, I didn't have one leak to fix.

And guys,

Keep the secondary chamber lower at the back of the firebox. Keeps the wood closer to the chamber as the wood burns down. Don't set it right on the bottom, keep it up about 4-5"

Oh, And the air collar around the door. The air enters the collar @ 4 o'clock position and travels around the collar counter-clockwise. There is a blocking plate @5 o'clock position that forces the air to go that route. This helps to preheat the incoming air and take some heat away from the door.

Wade,

The top is about half the size of the bottom. With wetter wood I have the top about blocked off. I made the cutouts bigger then made templates that I experimented with. I can make up any size nozzle that will fit on the template and bolt them in with the 2 allen bolts. I did alot of different nozzles and just settled on the basic setup.

Unlike a garn, I can remove two inspection plates and remove my top and bottom nozzles. You can see the plates in my pics of the boiler.I can also clean the entire intake tube as well.

The nozzles that I'm refering to are just different sizes of tubing or pipe that the air transfers from the air collar into the firebox.

Garnification

What wire did you use? and gas mixture? 75, 25?

I appreciate your input. I did make my hole for the secondary intake towards the bottom of the firebox. I did not know about the air baffle, but I can add that baffle quite easily in my design. I will look up using the tank ends for the door. I called a company regarding the ceramic insert, but I have not gotten the drawings to them yet. Do you remember the company that you used to make your ceramic insert?

Did you start on your bigger boiler system yet? I'm having fun so far, I almost set my garage on fire last Sunday. I was cutting the access hole in the top of the tank and did not notice some slag that must of rolled down the tank unto some tarps that I had laying nearby. I thought I smelled plastic burning and sure enough, a little fire was happening. Tarps hold their fire well I had to drag them out and spread snow on them to put it out completely. Oh well, burning is all done now and the tarps are all gone.

Thanks

I used 035 solid wire e70s-6 I think is the #. I have been using trimix. 90% argon 7.5 c and 2.5 o2. Seems to make nice welds. In the past I just used 75/25. And don't be afraid to turn up the gas regulator. Helps to keep the porosity out better.

RSI is the company that I dealt with.

Garnification said:

I used 035 solid wire e70s-6 I think is the #. I have been using trimix. 90% argon 7.5 c and 2.5 o2. Seems to make nice welds. In the past I just used 75/25. And don't be afraid to turn up the gas regulator. Helps to keep the porosity out better.

RSI is the company that I dealt with.

Click to expand...

you might want to try esab dual shield cored wire. ive used it on air tight/water tight projects with a lot better success than bare wire. you still need a shielding gas such as stargon or 75/25. i have always had porosity at the start and stop areas with solid wire , but not with the dual shield.

Wade said:

Do you think the two bottom flue pipe clean-outs are necessary, or would just a drain for any condensation that occurs be good enough? I,m thinking with my fan I can suck out any debris with the aid of a plumbing snake down the tube every month or so as needed.

Click to expand...

Wade I would still use the tees on the bottom. The tees form a "H" pattern which allows for the two cleanout ports and it also is a support mount for the pipes to hang/connect to.

ugenetoo said:

Garnification said:

I used 035 solid wire e70s-6 I think is the #. I have been using trimix. 90% argon 7.5 c and 2.5 o2. Seems to make nice welds. In the past I just used 75/25. And don't be afraid to turn up the gas regulator. Helps to keep the porosity out better.

RSI is the company that I dealt with.

Click to expand...

you might want to try esab dual shield cored wire. ive used it on air tight/water tight projects with a lot better success than bare wire. you still need a shielding gas such as stargon or 75/25. i have always had porosity at the start and stop areas with solid wire , but not with the dual shield.

Click to expand...

I'm not sold on flux core wire. A company I use to work for used it on real heavy steel bar. I burns hot and ruins tips and cones about twice as fast a solid wire. If you grind and bevel the joints good solid wire will work just fine.

With the start/stop problem, I just back track around the end of the bead before I proceed down the joint and finish overlapping the starting bead position. Never had a leak yet.

Thanks Garnification

We are using the same wire as you used and double passing. I ground every joint. We are using 95-5, getting a hotter burn. We tested a few joints as we made them up by filling them with water. They didn't leak then. I think that we should be ok. The person welding has welded tanks before without leaks. I should post pictures, but too busy. I will take some today as I want to have a record of the progess. I'm about tired of grind though..... I made my system so that I could build some of the pipe outside the tank and then still fit it through the firebox hole. We have most of the pipe welded up yesterday and the fire box and secondary burn chamber.