Waste oil heater for my garage.

dngspot · Jan 17, 2009

You ever have a day when you get so close to finished then the roof falls on your head.
It started well the door latch was coming together great. The door pulls tight and locks smoothly.
The oil tank is another story. First I somehow put the thing on not quite straight. Also as I was welding I bunt a hole in it at the stand. For the love of God I could not get it leak proof. I ended cutting the dang thing off and will look into finding something different.

This is what I have now.
The success.

The failure, see nothing on the dang oil tank stand.

And still an unfinished heater.

LetsRoll · Jan 17, 2009

David...did your wife tell you what you did wrong? If not let her finish it so you can have it finished before spring gets here.~

~

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NOTE: Just picking on you....

Cliff

dngspot · Jan 17, 2009

Pick away big guy.
I bought a metal 5 gallon bucket from Sherman Williams. I have soldered all of the fittings for the drip system and level indicator. I like this thing better as it lets me remove the top for cleaning. The only draw back is I have to make a frame for it to sit on. The metal is even thiner than the R-12 tank.
I will post pics tomorrow.

LetsRoll · Jan 17, 2009

dngspot said:
Pick away big guy.
I bought a metal 5 gallon bucket from Sherman Williams. I have soldered all of the fittings for the drip system and level indicator. I like this thing better as it lets me remove the top for cleaning. The only draw back is I have to make a frame for it to sit on. The metal is even thiner than the R-12 tank.
I will post pics tomorrow.

David...at least your a good sport about it and have a good since of humor.

Thanks,
Cliff

By the way, your attention to detail really shows in your quality of work. Keep up the great work.

dngspot · Jan 17, 2009

I could not resist. The last post I made was from work. I needed to go there, I do not have soldering rod. I finished the new tank and brought it home. I had a piece of 1/4 inch plate that I was sitting on and it fits inside the lower lip of the new oil tank. So I welded it to the galvanized tube and the tank sits very stable on the plate.

The oil tank close up. The fitting with the plug in it is for the oil drip line. The plug was there for leak testing.

The complete setup less the pluming.

dngspot · Jan 17, 2009

LetsRoll said:
David...did your wife tell you what you did wrong? If not let her finish it so you can have it finished before spring gets here.~~~~

NOTE: Just picking on you....

Cliff

Heck she is freaking out because I am going to put a hole in the roof. About 3 years ago she decided she wanted a hot tub. The catch...It had to be an indoor hot tub. I took one of the unfinished rooms in the basement and paneled the walls and put in an exhaust system. When the hot tub got here it was 2 inches to wide to fit down the stair case. So I removed them. The house had a big hole in the floor where the stair case was and she did not bat an eye. I am going to put a 10 inch hole in the roof for the chimney and she is about to loose it. I see it this way if her butt is warm in her hot tub mine is going to be in my shop. Dang it, I love that woman. sometimes she gets me.

dngspot · Jan 18, 2009

I am finished and on its first run. I can put my hand on the top only for a second before the burning is too strong.
It was difficult to start only because the oil was so cool that I could not get a drip. This is out side with a strong wind. The wind is so strong that during heat up the flame would go out until I put a 2 inch reducer on the air intake. It seems burn better with it there so I will leave it.
I did not bring home the inferred thermometer but, it is hot. More testing is needed to see how it performs over the long run. I think I need to get it out of the wind so the heater keeps the bucket with the oil warm.

Here are the pics.

The stack and bucket. This shows how dark the exhaust is. Difficult to see and does not stink like burning oil.

The completed unit undergoing its first run. Look closely you can see a bit of exhaust.

dngspot · Jan 18, 2009

After running for about 6 hours, this is what I have learned. It used 1 gallon of oil at high burn. The conical burner and air make the flame form a cone that hits the walls of the heater. The draw back of the conical burner is, at top burn it can overflow and make a mess at the bottom of the heater. My solution is to add a 8 inch cast iron pan under the burner. I cut a ring from the piece that I cut from the old flue and set it in the pan and then set the burner on the ring. It worked better than I thought it would. If any oil spills over, the oil in the pan catches on fire and heats the burner from below. One thing that is a drag, the pan too will need to be cleaned.
The heater gets dang hot and is fully adjustable from a high heat to a low heat. For some reason during start up a mess of coak floats on top of the pool of oil, I used a metal rod to move it off of the burner and then no more problems. Also during start up or when ever the door is open, the flame vortexes up the air intake tube but, as soon as the door is shut draft changes from the intake to the flue. Then the fire spreads out to the sides again.
The soot level is pretty high but this was expected. Oh yea, wind plays havoc on the flame. This will change when I get it inside.

rickster · Jan 18, 2009

Looks good ! What kind of pipe are you going to run through the roof?
Double wall stainless? I really want to make one of these now after seeing you posts.