Background: I got a free gas upright a couple years ago that was in a bit of disrepair with the burner rusted pretty bad. I cleaned it up and used it a few times with great tasting results. The top of the burner eventually disconnected from the tube and I couldn't find an exact replacement but did find one that was pretty much the same. The main difference was the length of tube, so I just lopped the end off. That meant the air inlet holes got cut off so I then just drilled a few small holes similar to what the old burner had.
It may partly just be my memory, but since then it doesn't seem like things have turned out as well, and with my last attempt I noticed a lot of soot on the bottom of the wood box and the fire had a lot of orange.
My current theory is that the air inlet holes are the problem, so I'm considering drilling a bigger hole straight through the sides of the gas tube.
Does this sound like a possible source of my soot and inefficient flame? If I do drill, is there anything I need to watch out for as to going too big or with them not being in the right place and letting gas leak out instead of going all the way through the tube to the burner?