# Ceramic Burners



## Kovacjr (Jan 2, 2008)

Does anyone have any ceramic burners lying around that they can measure the hole dis and spacing? Also what it the air hole dia and what jet are you using???


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## weaverc (Jan 2, 2008)

Jay,
Both my ceramic burners are 2-1/2" in diameter. My earler one came from the boat people, Cheddar in England, who went out of business. It was in my 7/8ths tram and went bad, so I changed it. My new one came from Forrest Classics
http://forest-classics.co.uk/bix%20001.htm

When I bought it, I also bought their #8 jet, which they recommended. Seems to work fine once you get the jet properly placed in the air tube. I am very pleased with the quality. Forest classics has other shapes and sizes. I think the one I have is their smallest round one.


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## Kovacjr (Jan 2, 2008)

What Im looking to do it build 3 of them. Are either of them accessable where you can tell me how big the holes are and the spacing on the brick?


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## steamlogger (Jan 2, 2008)

Jason do you have a source for the fine grained Ceramic material? I have a porous brick that I use for alcohol wicks but have been looking for something for use with butane.


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## weaverc (Jan 2, 2008)

Jay,
I left out some information before. The inside diameter of the air tube is 8mm. The jet size is #8, which is .25mm. I've seen all sorts of hole patterns in the ceramic. The simplest one I've seen is on the right and the squares are 1/4-inch with each hole 1/16th of an inch. The thickness of the two circles is 1/2 inch. What you see in the top photo is the smooth bottom. The tops, shown in the bottom photo, are a complicated set of little pyramids on the one on the right and pentagon shaped dimples on the left. I just purchased the material already formed and merely cut them to the shape of the holder. The ceramic in the Forrest burner, came already cut and mounted. The two circles shown are 2" in diameter. The steel holder added another 1/4" or so. The hole in the center is where the bolt went that held the ceramic to the bottom of the holder. 
Bottom of the ceramic.









Top of the ceramic


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## Chris Scott (Jan 2, 2008)

Jason: 
Buy a block of ceramic burner material rather than trying to make your own - it's way easier. 

Poly Model Engineering; Bruce Engineering Modeling Engineering Supplies 
Download their catalogue: http://www.pollymodelengineering.co.uk/sections/bruce-engineering/price-list.asp 

Page 50: 

"Ceramic Plaque for Burners 
Ceramic material easily cut to shape as used in our burners. 
5" x 7" x 7/16" £17.50" 

It will take forever to use a 5"x7" block. Cuts very easily with a razor saw. 

There is another source that sells two blocks together that I bought some time ago but I cannot remember from who. If I think of it I'll let you know. 

From my experience, it's not just the hole spacing but the porosity of the ceramic material. I found a number of sources for raw ceramic material but what porosity sounds right is way off - and the stuff is not cheap. 

If you have access to the G1MRA Yahoo Forum, in the Files section is a paper on ceramic burners that might be helpful. Whether it covers jet sizes (?)


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## Steve S. (Jan 2, 2008)

Here comes the dumb question of the day, but that is how we learn. I have always thought that ceramic burners make great sense. Could ceramic material be used in a alcohol application ?????? Sure would be nice to never have to change wicks.


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## Dan Rowe (Mar 8, 2009)

Jay,
Steve King made a burner from Charbroil Corning Hot Blocks it is a hard cermic material that has a .08" square grid pattern. They are used for gas BBQ's. He found it on ebay and I have seen the stuff there. He started with a #6 jet but went larger for more heat. I think the size of the grid he is using for the K1 is a bit more than you will be using. He used a his Dremil and an abrasive disk to cut it to size.
Dan


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## zephyra (Jan 2, 2008)

Ceramic burners work gret with Alcohol - I use them on my Aster 232U1 and am just fitting them to my AD60. These engines have rectangular burners and Aster recommend strips of the same ceramic sheet as you use to insulate the smokebox but I find this gets rather fragile after firing. So the better option is to shape a piece of ceramic block to fit. For alcohol, I've found you need to use something more porous than the ceramic used for gas burners - more like pumice and, in fact, you could use the pumice you can buy at a pharmacy for removing rough skin.... 

I've also tried rolled up ceramic sheet instead of wicks for the more usual aster burners - it works fine.


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## lotsasteam (Jan 3, 2008)

The first pic to the left from weaverc is the material you can buy from a Dentallab supply house,its used to hold the firing pegs which holds the crowns in the porclain baking process!! 

Manfred Diel


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## dwegmull (Jan 2, 2008)

Hi, 
I bought a ceramic tile meant for a space heater from Mr Heater: http://www.mrheater.com/productdeta...44&prodid= 
It has very small holes and can be cut with a fine saw. It looks like the material just above the quarter in Karl's picture above.


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## Kovacjr (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By steamlogger on 20 Sep 2009 10:02 AM 
Jason do you have a source for the fine grained Ceramic material? I have a porous brick that I use for alcohol wicks but have been looking for something for use with butane.


I bought some of the soft ceramic and the hard ceramic. The soft was online from a pottery place. and the hard from a local stone supplier, thjey offer outdoor fireplaces and carry the brick in 1" and 2" thickness. Not bad at [email protected]

The soft brick was [email protected] or so.


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## Kovacjr (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks for all the information. I will buy the ceramic instead of drilling all those holes. Its still cheaper than buying 3 burners at 225.00. I still have toget the jets, probally from Forrest Classics. anyone know the thread size or should I buy their jet holder too therefore I do not need to buy a special tap.


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## weaverc (Jan 2, 2008)

Jay,
I bought the jet holder from Forrest, which comes with a length of copper tubing and a fitting attached. That way the jet fits perfectly.


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