Tips and Tricks For A Small Portable Fire Cart

Maybe you work in a tiny studio space, or perhaps you like to take your neon talents out for a drive. Or maybe you are simply wanting to set up your torches in a compact and quiet way.

This topic, or variants of it have come up multiple times in some online forums and after answering a few times I opted to create a rough outline of what I did in one such instance and share it there, as well as here. The ideas presented here are by no means the only answer, nor are they only applicable to this specific situation.

I used the Gast R1102 type of regenerative blower (“ring compressor”) This unit, and others of a similar size class are nice and quiet and more than adequate for a full set of fires. Other rough equivalents would include the Fuji VFC100, and the Rotron DR101. These, unlike their larger siblings, are far quieter, each runs in the ballpark of 27cfm free air and up to about 27-ish inches (water) of pressure. Sit next to one of these compared to one of the bigger ones and you’ll appreciate them all the more. You can actually speak on the phone while these little ones are running, the popular DR404, for example, is like sitting beside a jet aircraft at takeoff power and would need to be plumbed from outside in a more permanent installation.

Mine is used on a mobile cart that lives in my small home studio but also gets moved about for teaching…as a result, I wanted it both compact and QUIET. The R1102 meets this need. In fact, my studio exhaust fan is louder. (I will have to fix that)

The LP tank used is just a standard BBQ grill 20lb bottle, easily obtained from most places and it fits on the bottom shelf of the cart. It should go without saying that you must include a regulator to reduce the 100-ish PSI of tank pressure down to the 1/2psi typically needed by the burners. A standard gas grill regulator will work. Some have used the adjustable regulators but be careful for two reasons: 1.) they will adjust much higher than you need, and will cause trouble if set too high; and 2.) some of them do not operate in a stable way when set so far down…..your mileage may vary, as they say.

I mounted the blower to the underside of the top shelf in order to preserve more shelf space both above and below…this allows for placement of odds and ends that may need to be handy. In addition, although my torches are on stands, there is no reason that you could not mount them to the top, one at each end of the cart–I know at least one other person who I was helping layout one of these and he decided to do just that.

The air is fed from the blower into a 1-1/2” pipe “log” manifold made up of Tees. From there, pipe reducer bushings were used to get to my air hose barbs. Air hoses are latex in the following sizes: ½” for ribbon, 3/8” for crossfire, and ¼” for handtorch. The air hoses lead from here to the valves at each burner as appropriate.

Note that by placing the gas and air adjustments as close to the point of use (burner) as feasible you gain two things: 1.) less pressure drop. And 2.) less lag from moment of adjusting to change in the fire.

The mixer for the crossfires came with two needle valves….I kept the one for the gas, but replaced the air one with a gate valve. This gave me more available flow even at the lower pressures from the smaller blower while still being easily and finely adjusted.

The needle that was here was then used on the ribbon burner gas supply with a similar gate valve for the air. The handtorch mixer was supplied with small needle valves and I left them as-is.

The gas pipe “log” manifold is made up of ¾” Tees with an individual gas cock for shutting off each burner. This means I can adjust everything up and at anytime, turn one off and later turn it back on without being forced to readjust it—or if I do, at least very little adjustment will be needed as it will be in the ballpark already……this makes for a significant time savings! Laziness and efficiency are often one in the same.
The hose runs from the air and gas manifolds are about 6 to 7 feet each.
The hand torch mixer is mounted on the cart and so the lines to it are much shorter but the outlet then feeds into a nice 8 foot hose to the hand torch itself.

Very worth noting: The hand torch mixer is mounted pointing DOWN. This makes the hose take a nice gradual bend to the floor and back up again where the torch is being used…..it requires no added supports from springs or other contrivances and yet still reduces the possibility of it being kinked shut!

Important to consider, no matter what blower, gas supply, or physical arrangement you choose—keep your plumbing runs as large a diameter and as short a length as practical. And, try to make everything feed from a comparable source (ie: direct from the air/gas manifolds rather than daisy-chaining from one burner to the next in a long line.)

The above photos should be pretty much self-explanatory and as for the performance, I run the hand torch, 5 point crossfire, and a 24” ribbon burner without difficulty. There is a plenty of air and gas available and I have even worked some Pyrex over the ribbon without any oxygen enrichment.