Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

 Mmm... I mixed up 75% alcohol and my Bing burner wouldn’t ignite the mushrooms. Erm...

So I poured it into my home made wadding burners inspired by Mamod and it run great. Nick, I’ll take your advice, I’ll just get 151 Everclear next time.

Right now I have cotton below a fine stainless mesh but will eventually put in wool instead as per the Mamod burners. When I fill these, after starting up can tip them on the side and even upside down and the fire stays put. Super duper easy to make as they are just copper end caps. The fine wire screen was cheap and is made for vape burners. With the mesh the cotton resists burning so its a very clean flame. But the cotton does carbonized a bit at the surface so wool would be superior.

“Wool is harder to ignite than many common textile fibres. While cotton catches alight at 255°C, the temperature must reach 570–600°C before wool will ignite.”

I actually do have a N.O.S. Fleischmann mushroom style burner on its way so I will see if it’s as troublesome.