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Experimental tube burner

(Click to enlarge photo)

On a day when things weren't going too well and I couldn't make the burner work the way I wanted, I quickly threw this little offering together just to convince myself that I could at least make something work. The tube is closed at one end and a fan is attached so that a blast of air enters at 90 degrees to the tube causing a rotating vortex of air to travel along the tube and out of the open end. Next, a handful of wood-chips is dropped into the tube and the fan is temporarily removed so that the chips can be ignited with a hot-air gun or similar. Once alight, the fan is put back and we're off. If nothing else, it's a good bit of fun and it makes the most glorious noise! Two words of warning: 1) The tube heats-up a lot quicker than you might expect. 2) Avoid using a lighter as it's very easy to drop the lighter into the tube in all the excitement to get the fan back on, with obvious consequences. I use a hot-air gun to light all of my experiments for that reason.