Had to pick between a new venturi or just patching the old one...

The old burner on our cupola was acting up last week, so the boss gave me a choice. I could either wait two days for the new part to ship from Toledo, or try to patch the crack with some high-temp cement we had in the back. I went with the patch job... which held for exactly one pour before it blew out and we had to shut down for the afternoon anyway. Anyone ever have a quick fix actually work, or is it always better to just wait for the right part?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_sarah5d ago

Wait, isn't a cupola for melting metal? That high-temp cement might be okay for a furnace or a forge, but a cupola burner gets way hotter. I tried patching a cracked forge tuyere with that stuff once and it just crumbled. For something that critical, the right part is always the move, even with the wait.

sean_murray5d ago

You mentioned it crumbling on a forge tuyere. That's exactly my worry. A cupola is basically a vertical blast furnace, right? So if that cement failed on a simple forge part, what chance does it have against molten iron and that intense forced air? It seems like asking for a burnout or worse, a dangerous leak.