Spike's Truck Drum Waste Oil Heater

[spruce Deere]

My work in progress has lead me to re-do my lid/pot setup. The freon canister apparently has warped. This leads to poor control and smoke due to not having a good seal between the lid and the canister.

I knew from the start I was using not quite the right component but was anxious to get the stove built.

Found a 10 inch cast-iron skillet with a domed lid. Instead of using the cast iron domed lid Im going to fab up a flat lid from some 1/4'' plate I forgot I had. I like you design of fastening the lid to the liner and will do the same with my "new" lid.

 

[dngspot]

Sounds like a great plan, please keep us posted.

 

[Donman]

dngspot, I am answering your last post here even though you posted on another thread. When you said it was puffing out of the secondary again do you know how much oil was in the pan? My burner ran the best and hottest with just a very small puddle under the inlet pipe in the pan (in your case the angle iron trough) There comes a point when too much oil is vaporized in comparison to the inlet air and chimney draft suction and that rich fuel vapor is searching for oxygen the closest and easiest way which probably is your secondary inlet draft holes.

 

[dngspot]

Thanks for pointing out the post was on a old thread I did for a Roger Sanders heater.

For those who did not catch it.

I plugged half of the holes, this is not the answer. The secondary burner threw out flames very quickly after start. The pot was under 400 deg. Spike what is the diameter of the cylinder you used on you burner? Mine is just less than 6 inches I.D. Now that I have all air leaks pretty much covered I wonder if the problem could be the diameter of the cylinder. I have access to three 4 inch cylinders but this would mean making changes to the lid and lower drum plate.
This time I managed to get a couple pics of the secondary burner when it is failing.

 

[dngspot]

dngspot, I am answering your last post here even though you posted on another thread. When you said it was puffing out of the secondary again do you know how much oil was in the pan? My burner ran the best and hottest with just a very small puddle under the inlet pipe in the pan (in your case the angle iron trough) There comes a point when too much oil is vaporized in comparison to the inlet air and chimney draft suction and that rich fuel vapor is searching for oxygen the closest and easiest way which probably is your secondary inlet draft holes.

I agree that too much vapor is probably the culprit. This is why it performs better with all of the holes unplugged. After digesting the results of the day, I think I will add enough holes in the secondary burner so a wide pool of oil in my pot will not be a problem for the air intake of the secondary burner. As for the draft for the flue, I believe it has not been a restricting issue because each time I added more holes in the liner the flames required more heat and oil to happen, nothing was changed in the flue.

I was running a 1/4 inch pool of oil in the pot when the above pic was taken.

 

[Donman]

One way to guage the capacity of the burner is to measure the depth of oil in the pan before you shut off the oil supply and then measure the time and temperature until the flame goes out. In my experience the smaller amount of pooled oil burned hottest and cleanest. My flame would go out about 2 to 3 minutes after I shut the air pump off and also when the pump was on the oil would burn about as fast as it was introduced with a very small amount of pooled oil in the pan.

 

[spruce Deere]

Here is my new primary burner. I did not fasten the lid to the liner, it just sits on the pan.

Drilled two 3/8 primary intake holes that I ended up sticking bolts in because it would burn cleaner with them closed. and ran without that rumbling noise.

I told ya, a work in progress. Im trying to ease it up to a warmer temp than just start up after 20 minutes or so. But it still wants to rumble, pant and carry on when fed more oil But, the burn remains very clean most of the time.

 

[senojekips]

Just looking at your photo, i would say that the inability to generate any real heat is caused by your secondary burner holes being too small. they only appear to be 5/16" - 1/4" in diameter

Try drilling out every second hole to 3/8". Observe what happens, I think that you will find that it will warm up much faster and also get a lot hotter. Mine has 32 holes of this larger size. Alister in England has a lot less holes, but they are 3/4" in diameter and his heater warms a commercial machine shop to shirtsleeve temperatures when outside is -4degC. It uses well over a gallon an hour.

Parge holes burn more noisily that smaller holes, but 1/4"' is the smallest I have experimented with and i found that 3/8" was a happy medium, larger holes make more air noise,... roaring, not "Panting" as you are getting now. Panting is undesirable as it puffs foul smelling vapor out into your heated area, and it also loosens any soft soot buildup and sends it out the chimney as hot sparks.

Mother will be less than pleased if they get on her clean washing.

 

[spruce Deere]

Thanks for the tip senojekips, I have just been using it 'as is'. The weather has gradually been getting warmer as I finish up working on different implements and maintenance before its time to put them to work.

I will try 3/8 holes as you describe, the holes now are 1/4 inch and does seem to take a bit too warm up like you say. If I monitor the stove just right, which is kind of a bother when trying to work on other projects and not the stove, it runs good with no panting, clean with decent heat output.

You have an awesome item and glad you are willing to share it along with your knowledge of the stove, Thanks again

 

[senojekips]

You are most welcome.

I'm amazed that it runs as well as you describe with so few and such small holes. You will see a great difference in it's behaviour once you enlarge the holes.

You will then also find that it will improve again, mainly in the time it takes to warm up, if you drill six evenly spaced 1/4" dia holes in the lid about 3/4" in from the outer edge of the pan below.

Our cooler months are just beginning here, it will only be a few weeks and i'll have to get mine going again.

Cheers,
Spike.