Question on Spikes Oil burner???

[Curtis George]

I hope someone knows my question? I made a used oil burner from this site, a few years ago. and although it work well, I just do not get heat that I need to head up garage/workshop when the temp. is VERY cold in my shop.

If I can get the shop to 40 deg. F. then I can easily get the shop to 80+ F. with out any problems . But when the shop is cold my heater just dose not heat well.
After reading more on spikes heater, I understand he uses it inside a house. and latter put glass around the heater.
Which leads to my question, do you think the combustion air makes a difference to the burn you get?
I mean I know that air flow is important, but would worming the air give you a better burn/more heat???

Thank you.

Curtis.

 

[Raspy]

Curtis,

Do you mean a stove like this one? http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/192078-spikes-truck-drum-waste-oil.html


If so, I'd say it's either too small in diameter of too massive to let it come up to temp easily. The massive and cold walls inhibit the start-up process and can really smoke.

Is your combustion chamber hanging down below the furnace like the one shown? That may help with the problem, but it's tricky to get that kind of burner to run well in my experience. I had a diesel heater made by Dickinson that did not run very well and the reason was the combustion chamber was too small in diameter. At least in that case it was thin stainless steel and I was able to make a new vaporizer to make it run very clean. I also built another one where the main pot was too small in diameter and it never ran right until I lined the inside wall with thin sheet metal that could come up to temp and reflect heat back. The Dickinson design has the vaporizer pot up in the main part of the stove and the fire is supposed to stay up in the main chamber, not in the vaporizer pot itself. This keeps carbon buildup down and allows it to run very clean My Dickinson, after I redesigned the burner, would produce a tan soot that never clogged my 3" chimney. I also used an old iron model in a shop where I worked that was probably 28" in diameter. It worked great, but took a while to get going. Maybe half an hour before it was really putting out some serious heat. Then a long time after that before the shop was warm.

Mine fed fuel from the center bottom. It would puddle a bit and vaporize. To clean it I pulled a plug and rodded it out occasionally. The tee sat up and down and fed in from the side. Plug in the bottom, so it was easy to clean. It's easy to flood the pot and get sort of a run-away when the puddle of fuel finally vaporizes. If the fuel drips in from up high, or trickles down a trough, it will probably clog earlier. Get a good metering valve, like a 1/4" needle valve. If you use a Dickinson style metering valve it will be self limiting because they have a float controlled level. This allows you to set the highest burn rate and limit a flood.

As far as combustion air goes, cold is fine.

Use a fan to circulate heated air around the room and/or a ceiling fan to push down the hot air near the ceiling. This will make the room heat much quicker and more evenly.