Used Oil Shop Heaters

[blackrams]

Anyone ever built one? Seriously considering doing this. Have access to a lot of used engine oil and used transmission fluid. Seems a shame for me to be out in my shop cold and let the local waste truck hall this energy/heat producer off to the recycler.

Anyone on here ever built one? Only a few caveats, 1) I'm not cutting any holes in my roof. Will fabricate some kind of stack/exhaust out one of the windows.
2), This must have some sort of fan for circulation of the warmed air. 3) I need it to be as small as possible. Shop space is valuable. I'm not sure if there is such a heater but, one that mounts on the wall up high would be great. 4) Can't cost an arm and a leg. If I could afford and expensive heater, I wouldn't be trying to build something. Thanks in advance for any ideas or suggestions.

I know this is going to need a filter prior to being pushed or pumped into a fire chamber. Kind of hoping I could do some kind of gravity feed but, that might not be feasible.

Rams

 

[Ken]

Have a friend this uses engine oil to heat shop and have same stove for several years.
uses a heavy metal container and gravity fed iron pipe to stove that has a open /closed ball valve to control flow at needed rate. check valve to stop back pressure. then small circle of pipe coil to cap with small hole drilled. so oil can be dripped into cast iron frying pan .

uses air from outside at bottom of stove . smoke pipe is used to radiate heat to room. hole in roof but no reason through window could be used.
ken

 

[blackrams]

Have a friend this uses engine oil to heat shop and have same stove for several years.
uses a heavy metal container and gravity fed iron pipe to stove that has a open /closed ball valve to control flow at needed rate. check valve to stop back pressure. then small circle of pipe coil to cap with small hole drilled. so oil can be dripped into cast iron frying pan .

uses air from outside at bottom of stove . smoke pipe is used to radiate heat to room. hole in roof but no reason through window could be used.
ken

Yeah, I know a couple of guys that have pot bellied stoves that have been modified to burn used motor oil. Would like to duplicate something like that but I don't have a pot bellied stove laying around here. Found this site, researching it now.

Waste Oil Heater Plans | Resource Guide For Building a Used Oil Heater

Thanks for the reply.
Rams

 

[tjkubota93]

There are alot of guys on u tube doing that. Just happens I watched alot of videos yesterday. One guy built one that looks like a minion from despecable me.

 

[blackrams]

There are alot of guys on u tube doing that. Just happens I watched alot of videos yesterday. One guy built one that looks like a minion from despecable me.

I already know that I don't get out much and when I do, they make me wear a helmet.

Have no idea what a minion is much less "despicable me" is but, I can recommend a good therapist if you need a little ego building.

 

[oosik]

The maintenance complex at the local Kubota dealership is heated with a waste oil heater. Its a commercial unit - about the size of a 30 cu ft chest freezer. An awful lot of their equipment/effort is spent on "preparing" the waste oil to be used in the heater/furnace. Such as - removing fluids that will not burn( anti-freeze, water etc) - filtering out everything else that can't be run thru the heater. From what I've seen - this "preparing" process is every bit as big and requires as much or more equipment as the burning process. The heat is distributed throughout the facility by a forced air system.

Last time I was there they were having a company pump the sludge out of their "sludge settling" tank. The shop foreman gave me a quick look-see and verbal explanation. A lot of equipment - they figured a 15 to 18 year pay off on the heating system.

 

[3Ts]

Quote Originally Posted by tjkubota93 View Post

There are alot of guys on u tube doing that. Just happens I watched alot of videos yesterday. One guy built one that looks like a minion from despecable me.

I already know that I don't get out much and when I do, they make me wear a helmet.
Have no idea what a minion is much less "despicable me" is but, I can recommend a good therapist if you need a little ego building.

I can relate to this! I was helping my sil build a fence. I was wearing a long sleeve yellow shirt and blue jeans with suspenders. All of a sudden he started laughing. I had no clue what was funny. He said I looked like a minion - I had no idea what that was even after he explained it. So we watched the movie "Despicable Me". It's a cartoon movie for kids where the main character has a lot of workers helping him called minions. They look like the steel bollards in front of grocery stores. They wear yellow shirts, blue jeans with suspenders, and goggles.

 

[the old grind]

I've seen quite a few home-brews, several just variations on conventional fuel oil heaters. Worst ones I've seen just added a dripper to a boxwood stove. Not cool in a house when morning backdraft is otherwise a hint of creosote. Bigger problems were the the supply canister plugging and the dripper tube coking and clogging. A big carryover from the better fuel oil conversions was the float/bowl that maintains steady pressure/flow to the dripper. ~10^ tilt of the pan was the only mod to some of them.

Best home-made one I've seen yet was online. Long dripper tube was shrouded by an air pipe of CI, with valve and air supply comfortably outside in cool air. Draft was a hair dryer or something and the 'gun' fired down into a SS cooking pot. Outer body was a cast-off water heater tank. I'll look for which link to that favorite of mine...

Chimneys can be horizontal and or exit by windows,etc with a few cautions. If you draw too much heat from the flue vs from the body you may create a cold spot that cokes-up or impairs draft. Buildup can clog or catch fire, just as would happen with a poorly stacked wood heater.

Most of the length of the chimney has to stay warm to provide draft. Insulated pipes are not wasted on such a project if annual cleaning/inspection isn't impaired. Outside venting to the firebox spares wasting heated air for combustion/draft.

Used oil handling is a bit different in a home shop. Drained fluids are more likely separate vs 'pooled' into a mess. Any imitation of a diesel storage tank can be enough if oils can be rough-screened going in and drawn from a point above the 'sludge' line.

One thing to remember. Heaters are like people and can coexist despite fundamental differences. Passive solar 'auto', NG/or propane for quick warmups, wood or waste oil for bigger prejects. Use 'em all in harmony.

 

[CincyFlyer]

We had one in our warehouse, where we assembled new motorcycles for distribution to a couple of dozen dealers (back in the 1980's, when many motorcycles were sold!) Each one had a couple of quarts of nice clean "test" oil that we drained. It went through a filtered funnel into a tank, and there was a float valve that allowed a shallow pan to get to a certain level and stay there. It took some bits of paper and luck to get it fired up if it was cold, but once going, we would run it for days on end (along Lake Erie). It was very simple, and required only scraping out the goo and carbon lumps once a year.

 

[Code54]

I already know that I don't get out much and when I do, they make me wear a helmet.

Have no idea what a minion is much less "despicable me" is but, I can recommend a good therapist if you need a little ego building.

I know nothing about waste oil heaters but having kids I know Minions!

minion:
"a follower or underling of a powerful person, especially a servile or unimportant one." AKA - the little yellow creature above. The whole thing is based on a few kids movies - sort of funny little creatures.....