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Building the Reil and Mongo type Burners

A lot of pictures, so please give it time to load them all.

WARNING!!!: You got a brain... USE IT! Building and working with a foundry furnace is "NOT" child's play. It can be very dangerous and if 'you' screw-up don't come crying back to me! If you don't know what you're doing and didn't take the time to read and study all the safety procedures that are available on the net, and you get hurt that's your problem. You are responsible for yourself and your own actions and safety.
--- "NOT ME!" ---

One thing you should know is that building a furnace is 'NOT' a weekend project..... You can figure on spending at least a month putting one together, (The right way.)

Of course if you're loaded with extra bucks just burning a hole in your pocket there are shortcuts you can do.

Doing my research on the net, I've found 100's of designs. Some were just fire brick stacked into a circle on a steel rack another was nothing more than refractory jammed into nothing more than a cut in half milk jug. :-(

The same goes for LP Burners ... everyone has their own way of making them, but it boils down to two basic designs:

The Reil type burner

The Mongo type burner

There's probably dozens more out there but these are the most used types.

My designs are not new... just modified the basic concepts to my own ideas and I think improvements. I can say without a doubt I've LEARNED ALLOT!!! Of what NOT to do and things I FORGOT to do, as well as things I should have done, so if you try to do this understand right off that it's a learning process and you WILL make mistakes.


This is called a Reil type burner, (And I hope I've spelled his name correctly), this was invented by (I believe) Ron Reil and is a simple design. As you can see I used galvanized pipe -- only because that's all the local hardware store had at the time... BIG MISTAKE!!! DON'T USE IT! use "ONLY" black pipe. The galvanizing flakes off on the inside of the pipe and the only place it can 'try' to escape is thru the orifice, which plugs up your burner just at the wrong time. This mistake cost me a 20# tank of LP gas and was one of the contributing factors that wrecked the 1st. furnace."IF" galvanized pipe must be used --- It must be reamed out with at least a .010" oversized ream, to make sure you clean out all the galvanized plating.
	The parts you'll need to make this type of burner are: (and these are "about" lengths) 10" - 1" Black Pipe 1-1/2" to 1" Pipe Reducer (It can be bigger like a 2" to 1", if you can find it) 1 -- 1/8" Black pipe nipple 5" long 1 -- 1/8" Black pipe nipple 3" long 1 -- 1/8" Black 90° elbow 1 -- 1/8" to 1/4" Black Reducer 1 -- 1/8" Pipe Cap 1 -- 1/4" quarter turn "BALL" Gate valve 2 -- 1/4" Black pipe nipples 6" long 2 -- 8-32 allen cap screws A roll of Teflon tape
	High Pressure Regulator and Gage assembly. This regular goes from '0' to 60 psi. With the Mongo Burner I usually run about 25 to 35 psi. I personally use 15 foot of high pressure LP gas line from the regular to the ball gate valve.

The original design of the Reil burner tube simply calls for a #60 drill (the smallest) to #57 drill (the biggest), hole drilled in the side of the tube and you just center that hole in the reducer and point it down the main pipe. You lock it into place by drilling and tapping the reducer as you can see in the above pictures. Just in front of the reducer you drill at least 4 - 9/16 to 5/8" holes evenly spaced around the pipe, 'IF" the burner doesn't burn clean or hot enough you may have to add a second row. The reducer: It's not a requirement, but if you have access to a lathe, turnout the inside threads and smooth out the taper inside the reducer for a better flow. You could also use an air die grinder if you don't have a lathe. After the burner failed the first time. I rebuilt it using an .035 mig welding tip. Turning it down to a 1/4-28 thrd. and shortening the length so it would fit inside the reducer bell. (That's the picture above.) "BUT" What "I" failed to do was to weld a bead around the hole and spot face the surface to give me a good mating surface for the tip. As a result the tip leaked at the base where it made contact with the cross tube and caused a back burning inside the main burner tube instead of burning out on the end of the tube. YES! I could have fixed it, but I decided to go onto the Mongo type burner, (And I'm glad I did... In my opinion it's a much better burner jet system).

This is the basic parts to a Mongo Burner. The Feed tube was machined out of 3/4" Stress-Proof Rod. Like a total dummy ... (working on it at 3 to 6 am in the morning); I turned the right end down to be threaded to 1/4" pipe thread, BUT!!!! It was 3/4" stock to start with ... I could have just drilled and tapped it to 1/4" pipe and screwed it right on the main gas pipe. Now I'm hunting everywhere for a 1/4" pipe die -- found the dam tap... NO DIE!!! after much searching I found a 1/4" black pipe coupler... OK! I chucked that in the lathe and turned out the threads on one end and pressed fit that onto the end of the burner feed tube and then silver soldered it on.

Here what it looks like assembled, (Coupler's not on it yet.) The set screw at the top allows you to side the tube in and out to adjust the air/gas mixture in line with the air holes on the main pipe. This entire assembly is held in place by allen cap screws either thru the sides of the reducer or in the back rim.

The test burn.. the tapered cone on the end of the tube is called a "FLARE". These are only used when your running the burner outside of your furnace. Flares can be made out of sheet metal or even a copper pipe reducer.

Here's a shot of the completed Mongo burner. The ring or collar you see half way up the main burner tube is so I can adjust it for any furnace. It's held in place by 3 allen set screws. I've since used this to melt and pour a gallon of aluminum.