Building a waste oil burning stove for my shop

[DRL]

Cliff,
Sorry to hear about your week. Hope everything ends up OK.

As far as the "cheezy door hinges" I don't consider anything cheezy unless it don't work. Looks good to me.

It really like your damper on the air intake, use it like a mixture control.

DRL

 

[Defective]

Cliff,

Sorry to hear about the rash of injuries. Looking forward to hearing of swift recoveries.

I also did not put in a peep hole so I could see how the flame is looking. If I need to look, I'll just open the door.

Do yourself a huge favor and make a peep hole. Opening the door will change the air/fuel mixture & you'll never know if you've got it running right.

For a possible idea on how to make the peephole, see if you can scrounge one from a scrap furnace. There's gotta be a heating contractor local to you that can get you one.

 

[LetsRoll]

LetsRoll, Without implying it won't work, why did you bring the air in at an angle without any downward transition? Have looked at the plans & hope to build one sometime. The author stated he has an oil supply on a hill behind his house to supply pressure for flow control. A couple of weeks ago I scored 2 -7 gallon paint pots with regulators & guages from the dumpster at work. Will incorporate into the design. Keep your progress coming. BTW, That's one beautiful stove. MikeD74T

Mike...the flame does not matter were the air supply comes from as long as it has air so the flame can continue to burn. I learned this while I was in the service. I've done three cold weather training packages while I was in the service. One time while my unit was deployed to Norway, my unit was caught in a bad snow storm. For a few days, the temp was -20 and -30 degrees. One night, it got down to -41 degrees and we were having problems with the diesel heaters we were using. The diesel just would not flow. One of the mechanics from the motor pool suggested we start burning the used motor oil they had left over from the vehicle maintenance (PM's) they were doing at HQ while we were out in the field (hills). So we rounded up some 55 gallon drums and took the exhaust pipes off the diesel heaters we were using and welded them to the 55 gallon drums. Drilled a small hole in the side of the barrel and feed some metal lines we got from the supply guys. Upon building a few of these heaters to put in the tents. One guy suggested that we would need an intake of some sort to feed the flame. So we cut a hole in the side of the barrel. After doing this, we took the metal line and braised it to a 5 gallon diesel can. We then took the 5 gallon cans and turned them upside down on some stands we made out of sticks. Remember, we were in the field at this time and used what we had at the time. The only problem we had was the oil would pressure lock inside the diesel can we were using. So, we knocked a small hole in the can to allow the oil to flow. We could not regulate the oil flow, so we use a set of vise grips and smashed the line some to slow the oil flow down. We did this for two days until the weather let up and allowed us to leave and go back to the Navy ship that was waiting to pick us up (I'm a former Marine). Remembering back, those oil burners worked rather real considering they save are lives. The flame in the barrels didn't care as long as it had a air supply. This is the reason why I chose to put the intake air supply in the side of my stove.

By the way...Thanks for the comments about my stove project.

 

[LetsRoll]

Cliff,

Sorry to hear about the rash of injuries. Looking forward to hearing of swift recoveries.



Do yourself a huge favor and make a peep hole. Opening the door will change the air/fuel mixture & you'll never know if you've got it running right.

For a possible idea on how to make the peephole, see if you can scrounge one from a scrap furnace. There's gotta be a heating contractor local to you that can get you one.

DRL and Defective....Thanks, both are back home recovering and doing well. But my mother-n-law (68 yrs old) is not out of the woods yet, but she's doing well considering what she went through. The hard part for her will be the rehab trying to get her full range of motion/movement back into her arm.

As for the motivation for the peep hole. It does have a peep hole, the air supply intake tube that is welded on the side of the stove.
~~ ~~ ~~

I can see the conical burner pretty good by looking down the tube. Plus I will be doing allot of testing outside when I start this stove for the first time.

 

[LetsRoll]

Update...

The oil tank I was planning on using, ended up being junk. The inside was rusted pretty bad. I ended up finding several small rust holes in it. The place that sells 55 gallon barrels real cheap, was closed on Saturday. So, I have to wait and get one Monday. I have all the fittings, copper lines, ball valves and needle valve, plus a fuel/water filter. My oil drain setup will go like this. Coming out of the bottom of the tank is a 1 inch pipe, then a 1 inch ball valve, then a 1 inch T. At the end of the T is a trap with a 1 inch ball valve for draining trash and water. In the middle of the T fitting, is another pipe that will go to a fuel/water filter that also has a water drain at the bottom of it as well. Coming out of the filter, is a 90 degree elbow that goes down to the 1/4 inch copper/brass line that will go into the air intake tube on the stove. Attached to the 1/4 inch copper/brass line is a 1/4 inch needle valve. Right before the 1/4 inch line reaches the conical, the line will drop down to 1/8 inch line. With this setup, I should be able to control the oil flow to the stove as well as controlling the trash and water. If I run into a oil flow problem, I might just put some fittings at the top of the tank for a air nozzle and a air pressure guage. Then I can hook up a air hose and pressurize the oil tank. I have a portable oil tank for collecting oil when I do a vehicle oil change. When this tank is full, I put the drain hose into a empty barrel and put about 5 to 10 lbs in the tank. The air pushes the oil out of my portable drain tank into the empty barrel. This setup is what all mechanic shops use and none of them have had a problem. So, this is were I stand at this time. If my old compressor tank would'nt have been rusted/junk, I would had a chance to fire it for the first time this weekend. All well, I should be able to fire it outside this coming week/weekend. I'll keep you guys updated as I go along. Sorry, no pictures this time.

 

[LetsRoll]

Just to let you guys know were I stand at this time. I have the oil tank finished, I have the feed line inside of the stove also. I also have a hole cut into the top of the stove. My plan was to drag the stove outside this weekend and hook up the oil line from the tank. The tank is a 10 gallon air tank that I had laying around my shop. The air compressor tank turned out to be junk, so I used an old air tank. I went to a company that has empty 55 gallon barrels, but they were out of them at this time. So, instead of waiting for more to come in, I moved on cause I wanted to get this stove project going. I might still get a 55 gallon drum this spring. Anyways, this weekend was not the time for me to get the stove outside and get it going. It has rained/stormed all weekend. As of right now, I ready to do some burn test to see how well my stove will perform during a low and hot burn and how well I can control the process. All well, I just have to wait until this coming weekend. I need a full day so I'm not pressured for time. I have a few pictures of the oil tank and stand that it is welded to. On the side of the oil tank is a clear tube. This will tell me how much oil is in the tank. I wont have to climb up to the tank and look inside to determine much much oil is in it, just look up and see the oil level in the clear line. As for the plumbing, the bottom ball valve is only for draing water and trash that collects in the drain pipe. I also have a water and trash filter to collect anything that gets past the drain pipe (drop pipe). One thing that I didn't do was add a air fitting and guage like I said I was going to do. I was going to add them incase oil flow was a problem. I have a threaded bung at the top of the tank, but I put a plug in it. If oil flow comes to be a problem, I'll remove the plug and insert a air line fitting and a guage. My tank is rated up to 150 psi. 5 to 10 pounds of air pressure wont be a problem for the tank, if oil flow is a problem. I also have a picture or two of the oil line, needle valve and the oil line to the conical. The last picture is the hole that I cut into the top barral of the the stove. This is were the flue and damper will be welded too. Since I need to drag the stove outside, I have not welded the flue pipe to the stove yet. I'm adding a damper just incase I'm not satisfied with the performance of burning waste oil, I'll just remove the air intake tube and start burning wood. But, I'll have to cut a air intake hole in the door for the firewood to burn right. Hopefully, I'll be satisfied with how the waste oil will perform.

Enjoy......

Thanks,
Cliff

 

[patrick_g]

Cliff, You do neat work. I hope that thing works at least half as good as it looks.

As far as separating out any water from the fuel, won't the water float on top of any fuel you are likely to use? Even if a little water somehow got to the burner it would probably not stop the stove.

I will be interested in seeing how this performs for you. I have been thinking of a stove that could burn scrap wood, planer chips, and such. I haven't researched it yet but I had a brainstorm the other day. I thought I could burn sawdust if it were moistened with waste oil. Loose dry dust is an explosion hazard but wet with oil it should be docile enough. I don't have all that much need for heat in the space I have in mind for such a heater so I don't need something that will run well unattended for long periods.

IF I take the chill off the space I could maintain a comfortable enough temp by borrowing heat from my current shop by tapping into the exposed ductwork (hangs below ceiling.) I would just need a good hot fire for a little whilie to get the place "thawed out."

Pat

 

[SPIKER]

there are a few places working on saw dust burners that use wet/green wood saw dust. I think that there are one or two saw mill companies (that build the mills) making them now. they use a high pressure blower to move & burn the dust inside combustion ports that are attached to the main fire box of the stove. the fire is confined below the main box where the heat is actually given up...

burning sawdust works well IF you can keep it moving around so that the chips/dust are exposed to the flames and air. if it packs down it will only smolder on top and make a huge hard hunk of carbon goo.
mark m

 

[MJPetersen]

As far as separating out any water from the fuel, won't the water float on top of any fuel you are likely to use? Even if a little water somehow got to the burner it would probably not stop the stove.

It is the other way around. Water is heavier than any fuel and therefore will fall into the bottle that he has straight down from the tank. You do do very nice work!! I am curious about the test firing!!

Mike

 

[dogbreath108]

Don't forget you need a low pressure regulator to maintain your desired air pressure on top of your oil. (Maybe you have it already and I missed it in your description). As the level drops, so does the pressure and so changes the burn. If you don't have one you can increase the ratio by adding another large buffer tank to the top side of the oil tank (connect it with an air hose). But still, for a long burn a regulator would be best.

Looks great, keep us in the loop!