Heating with waste oils

[stnickstoys]

ealisimi
What did you use for a door latch and how tightly do you think the door should seal. I was thinking after reading your "first cut and weld on hinges idea" that that would work on the latch side as well. Is a small amount of leakage around the door ok since you said you thought this heater needed a lot of air anyway? You had mentioned gasket materials and I was wondering how tight you made yours seal. Will this help with getting a good draft?
I was thinking of the door being needed to contain any sparks etc. not necessarily being air tight. Was wondering your take on that. Smoke coming out of the woodstove prototype sounds like too much fuel not enough air. Rich mixture.
Not sure of your woodstove design but I would next try getting more air in there for combustion.
Looking forward to cutting into my water heater tonight and getting started. Thought about leaving the last of the foam scraps and just getting it good an hot outside my shop door to clean off the last of the nasty foam stuck on the tank.
Probably not the most invironmentally friendly though.
Later
Nick

 

[CTyler]

Would a pressure washer at the U-wash take the last of the foam off?

 

[djradz]

Hey Nick, don't most of these water heaters have a porcelain or enamel finish on the inside. Kind of like your clothes drier, to resist corrosion. What happens to that when cut and then heated tremendously later. Some of the pics earlier in this thread show the heater getting red hot.

 

[ealasimi]

Some water heaters do have a lining in them, I would not use them.
Here are some photos of woodstove with burner in it. As you can see the bottom pan did bend, it is useable in this condition, but that is why I am looking into other materials. The stove was a freebee from a friend after telling him of the water heater burner, it is in operating condition. That is why am trying to get the oil burner to work in it. It has a fan under it to blow air out of the large hole in the top I could use wood in it also by just removing burner and plugging up the oil feed/ intake tube.

 

[ealasimi]

more photos

 

[ealasimi]

top of woodstove

 

[ealasimi]

Nick ,
Here is what my latch looks like.

 

[stnickstoys]

Hi again,
The woodstove idea looks really cool. Nice heavy firebox and good way to move the heat. If you get it figured out I would put a 90 degree elbow on top to aim the hot air where you want it. I too would like to start with a woodstove but haven't found the free one yet. I am going to go ahead with the water heater idea, thanks for the latch photo. That's what I was going to try too. I took apart the free furnace I got and found a bad firebox. The fan however works great even has a thermostat to start it when the firebox gets hot enough. Will use that with my heater. I think the heater will fit inside the old furnace housing and then I can put a big square elbow on top of mine to direct the heat into my shop. HOPE it works, I love messing around with this stuff. Probably why I like playing, I mean teaching shop in the local High school.
Later,
Nick

 

[djradz]

Looks like it could be a better setup. Wish I could find one like that. Appears to be homemade, except for the door which seems to be the standard old 55 gal. oil drum door setup. Another question, since the stove is a lot less tall than the water tank, does the oil splash enough to thin out and burn well?

 

[ealasimi]

The stove was home made, needs some work done to it if I decide to keep it. I did cut down the stand on the burner to make it closer to the floor of stove; this gave me more intake pipe inside firebox seemed to help on the burn. I will need to install a gasket on the door and something on the draft on the door. Air going through those areas seems to be causing the incomplete burn I mentioned on previous post.
I am noticing the waste oil that I am using is causing some build up on the burner. Talked to my waste oil source, they are going to save the oil from only diesel engines for me. Suggestion was, it is thinner and some diesel fuel was already in it. Also had fewer unknowns mixed with it?
Concerning the tallness of the stove, there might be some problems with that. The oil is burning but not as hot as it was in the tank. That is why I moved the burner down, my last supply of oil seemed to have something in it, maybe antifreeze. Will keep posting.