Is there anything that I can add to paraffin to make it burn hotter.

[mart]

Apparently, according to the 'girl on the phone', the difference between each grade is the additives that are added to prevent it from smoking- i e indoor use.

I need to establish if these additives have any effect on how hot it burns, or if I can mix anything in myself.

I am using a weed gun. There have been times when I have had good strong fierce flame. But invariably not so.

Please Do NOT suggest adding petrol !!

 

[outofthefire]

I've just gone down a rabbit hole looking this up, the common mix is the one you don't want Jet b is 30% paraffin/kerosene and 70% petrol, but this seems to used mostly to raise the freezing point it also says it makes it extremely flammable and challenging to handle. I'd have thought really pure paraffin is what you need rather than other additives, because then you might start running into issues with your jets.

 

[Erie Fred]

Or is the mix more the other way, adding diesel for more BTU ?

 

[mart]

I can confirm that I have tried RED on it's own, but the burn is not good.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

@mart
What are you using the paraffin for?

Heaters?

Storm Lanterns?

Pressure stoves?

Pressure lamps?

Don't try to mix parrfin with any thing, it can or will go wrong.

Normal premium Parrffin is good for.
Heathers.
But make sure your wick is in good order.
EG trimmed and even.
Not rottern.
Then make sure the heater it self is in good order. extra holes will mess up the burn.


It is also good for pressure stoves.
But use a good clean Meths to preheat.
Make sure the jet is clean and not blocked.
Make sure ALL seals are good.


Lamp oil is as close to pure parrafin as posible.
It will be best in the Storm Lqmp/lanterns.
Mke sure the wick is good, the glass is good and any seals are good.


Pressure lmps, again Lamp oil.

But you need good seals, good wicks and good vaperizers.

If not they never burn right and the chances of a flame out is good.

 

[JohnH]

I am using a weed gun. There have been times when I have had good strong fierce flame. But invariably not so.

Please Do NOT suggest adding petrol !!

One assumes there is an air supply. Hows that compressed? Hows the kero supplied? Under pressure?

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

This is an example of trying to make parraffin burn hotter.

 

[mart]

View attachment 415096

This is an example of trying to make parraffin burn hotter.

What is taking place there ?

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

@mart
Weed burner fun?
Is it a pressurized one?

A few good tips.
Make sure the pre heat is good.
Never fill over 2/3.
Keep the pressure up to the range the manufacture say.

Get it right you get a flame like this.

Hot flame, but over filled.

Bad pre heat.
Wrong pressure.
Uncontrolled flame.
Cold flame.

Switch off and start again.

This is when you get everything wrong.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

What is taking place there ?

The additives eestroyied the seals.
The fuel was then leaking past the valve and burn off, even as the the main jet was roaring away.

The little flame above the main jet was cold fuel being forced past the jet seals.
A hard blast with CO2 hqrd it out.

This it now.

 

[Erie Fred]

Where is Mr Furze when you need him ?...

colin furze flamethrowers at DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.

duckduckgo.com

 

[JEZGUZ]

Make sure that the jet is not partially blocked, if it's a Sheen flamegun like the one in the Aardvarks picture you'll need to either make or obtain the spanner to remove the jet. The one on mine blocks up with rust or carbon now and again, I remove the jet and clear it out with a pricker and it's back to normal. Best done when cool.

 

[mart]

One assumes there is an air supply. Hows that compressed? Hows the kero supplied? Under pressure?

By a manually operated pumping handle direct into the fuel tank. Pumped to a specified max pressure.

A valve is opened slightly to allow a 'mist' spray of fuel under pressure. The higher the pumped pressure, the fiercer the flame. NOT exceeding safety pressure.

 

[mart]

Make sure that the jet is not partially blocked, if it's a Sheen flamegun like the one in the Aardvarks picture you'll need to either make or obtain the spanner to remove the jet. The one on mine blocks up with rust or carbon now and again, I remove the jet and clear it out with a pricker and it's back to normal. Best done when cool.

I have the same one as you. I still have the original spanner and instruction brochure.

What grade of fuel are you using Jez?

 

[JEZGUZ]

Just bog standard paraffin from the local hardware store, when its burning right I get a strong blueish flame tinged with orange, basically pretty much like a pulse jet engine without the pulsing.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Make sure that the jet is not partially blocked, if it's a Sheen flamegun like the one in the Aardvarks picture you'll need to either make or obtain the spanner to remove the jet. The one on mine blocks up with rust or carbon now and again, I remove the jet and clear it out with a pricker and it's back to normal. Best done when cool.

I have spare jets, correct pricker and spanner.

It can be done hot, but it is advised not to.

The 1960's sales docs showed it being done hot.

 

[gaz1]

if you preheat the primary holes at the sides by using looped tubes you will get a much hotter flame

or use a sleeve over the end with holes at the base ( front end ) then looped over to each air port of the gun and it will make that flame much hotter

 

[Ross365]

I gather that racing drivers used to add nitromethane to their petrol. I think the late and great Graham Hill refers to it in his autobiog. Unfortunately, it added some quite toxic substances in to the exhaust gases, so if they got held on the starting grid, things got tricky.

 

[Erie Fred]

I gather that racing drivers used to add nitromethane to their petrol. I think the late and great Graham Hill refers to it in his autobiog. Unfortunately, it added some quite toxic substances in to the exhaust gases, so if they got held on the starting grid, things got tricky.

I thought most Radio controlled model airplanes ran plenty of the stuff.

 

[julianf]

Please Do NOT suggest adding petrol !!

You don't have to add much of it...

The reality is that youre just dealing with fractions of crude. Your bitchumen wouldn't do well in your weed burner, your 35sec diesel isn't great, your 28sec kerosene is ok, but you want more...

If you add a bit of a higher fraction then you'll probably get the results you want. It would be hard to see how you could move up the fraction scale without, well, adding a higher fraction. But you don't want to do that.

Again you probably don't need to add much.


(I have some experience with biofuels - people add petrol to triglycerides all the time to change their viscosity etc - it's common place. Admittedly that's going into a compression based ICE so maybe less scary, but it's not like you'll get some sort of oil / water separation and then blow yourself up... probably ; )