Waste oil heater for my garage.

[dngspot]

I have ordered a piece of Mica glass for the door, I liked the idea also.

If you looked at the top of the air intake there is a washer that I use to reduce the air intake. Just yesterday I was thinking of putting a round piece of metal over the intake sort of like my smoker. It would have a swivel that allows me to move it over the hole. I still like the idea of a flue dampener. It did make more heat at a lower flame.

Thanks for the question.

 

[Kfbeal]

So the oil flows down that center pipe onto the burner plate? Does it drip in there based on the valve setting or a constant light flow?

 

[dngspot]

It drops in a drip at about half burn, full burn it flows in a thin stream. The valve controls the drip or streem. The drip line does go through the center of the center pipe.

 

[dngspot]

…A busy week end. My wife had me install a storm door. Who would have thought that Anderson could make a simple project difficult and time consuming? It took most of the afternoon on Saturday.

Sunday was mine. I gathered up the remaining stuff that I thought I needed for the chimney. Yet still make half a dozen trips to the local home centers. I could not believe the simple items I needed are not at one store I had to go to both Home Depot and Lowe’s to complete the project. But it is done and I am happy it works.

The chimney drafts incredibly well, almost too well. It is 12 feet long and is about 1 foot taller than my ridge line. I also installed a dampener in the stack. Starting is not as simple as it was in the back yard. I have to let the oil heat up with the door open for about 10 minutes. I also have to restrict the air intake longer or the fire will blow out. After every thing is heated I can control the air intake with the flue dampener. I am going to make a variable cover for the intake tomorrow.

I ran for about 45 minutes. I got it pretty hot and the paint started to smoke and smell. I tried to do this out side but could not because the weather was too cold and the oil would not flow. It heated the shop pretty quickly but the temp outside was pretty warm today, 40 degrees.

I am eager to start tweaking it for my needs now that I have it functional inside.

 

[meanmerc]

Very well done! Looks good! Hope it puts out lots of cheap btu's for ya!!

Still don't know if ya can convert an old oil heater to burn waste oil.........has anybody tried this b4??

 

[dngspot]

Thanks,

I am not finished yet. I am still waiting on a piece of glass that I ordered for the door. Last night I installed an intake damper and reconfigured my oil line. I needed another fitting and it was getting late so I did not finish. I stopped and picked up the fitting this morning and will finish tonight. Pics will follow.

 

[Donman]

When you said it took ten minutes with the door open to heat up, I was wondering if you are using kerosene for a faster heat up like Roger Sanders does?

 

[dngspot]

My start up is first a couple of ounces of kerosene then start the oil drip. I then use a small propane torch to light the kerosene and oil. The problem was the draft pulling in air too fast. I could look down the air tube and have my wife shut the door and you could see the fire from the center of the pool go dead. After the burner and oil was hot then the pool would hold the flame with the door shut.

 

[dngspot]

The new damper is in and is working great. Start up was easy. As far as running it I just open until it starts to go out then close when the center of the puddle is stabilized.
Here are the modifications.

 

[rickster]

Looks good! I got my conical machined at work and I stopped at the local
plumber and got a free water heater. It took a little bit of time to get the
foam insulation off the tank.

 

[Dead Horse]

I would like to build a version of that at about half the scale........... Man, what a nice job you did!

How bad does it smell outside the shop?

 

[dngspot]

When I passed through the exhaust from the stack the smell was slight. Coming from the chimney it is not noticed. Even if you stand right over the stack you will not get the smell as if someone has bad valve covers and oil is leaking on the exhaust manifold.

 

[Dead Horse]

When I passed through the exhaust from the stack the smell was slight. Coming from the chimney it is not noticed. Even if you stand right over the stack you will not get the smell as if someone has bad valve covers and oil is leaking on the exhaust manifold.

Nice set up. have you calculated how much oil you will use in a season?

You have some real talent there................. especially with the smoke wrench!

 

[Nat]

DNGSPOT, I have been following this thread from start. I think you have done a great job, and since you have done the job and it works I may try it myself. One question I have is on the burner. Is it shaped a specific way or would a cast iron frying pan work? It looks to me as if a frying pan would last a long time and hold heat well. Also since my shop is cement block and the rear is cut into the bank I could set a gravity tank to feed the burner but after hearing of fuel flow problems on yours I'm wondering if this would be a problem for me. Any thoughts? Thanks, Nat

 

[dngspot]

I have tried using the cast iron pan by its self and like the conical burner better. It allows me to run a varied drip. If I run the drip fast then a large puddle and more heat, slow then low heat. The cast iron pan does not allow this; the oil must fill the bottom of the pan before it can burn properly. My friend uses this process and when he opens the door you can see a ring of fire at the edge of the pan. My burner has the fire at the center. The burner is concaved at a 12 degree cone. It is made from 1/4 inch steel.

The few flow problems that I was having with my set up have been isolated. One is debris in my valve. The second is the valve it’s self, it has a very small orifice at the entry area. If this continues to be a problem then I have a new valve to replace it. As for the debris I have started to screen the oil when needed. I have also installed a 25 watt silicone heating pad, this helped with start up. So when you install your gravity feed system the higher the better and the warmer the better.

I have been burning the thing for two hours for since Sunday and started with 5 gallons of used oil, stuff that I have had in my shop for a couple of years. It is pretty thick and dirty, I will be glad when it is used up. I have about 15 gallons, a mix of 30 wt power train oil and 10 wt hydraulic oil, which is much cleaner.

 

[alltoys]

Dngspot how is your burner working? Time for a progress report.

 

[dngspot]

I have only burnt 5 gallons of 10/40 wt engine waste oil in it. It is working great. It takes about 45 minutes to heat my garage from 20 deg. to 65 deg.

I am going to raise the air intake tube. I have to keep the intake damper 3/4 closed or the flame will blow out from air velocity. When it is at full burn with the damper at 3/4 open flame suffers from lack of O2.

I also ordered a 3X3 piece of ceramic glass, and still need to install it into my door.

Just a little of tweaking needed.

 

[neon_c2]

Nice heater for me to get started before it get cold.

dngspot How did your come out? Did you get the glass in the door? Got any pics?

 

[dngspot]

By the time I finished the heater last year, winter was pretty much over. The heater did okay but I noticed when the fire was at its hottest I had to close the intake more. This was counter productive as it would lower the flame and the puddle would grow. This Christmas weekend I was working in the garage and we had a cold front move through that lowered the temps to 0. So I fired up the heater and went into the balancing act trying to keep the fire at peak and not smothering it with little air. I was becoming frustrated as I was spending more time with the heater than on the work I had to do, and the garage really never warmed up. During some of the adjustments I opened up the intake and noticed the fire would clear out from the center and turn white on the outer edges of the plate. I could also see a wall of smoke over the plate with just a inch of clear air hitting the plate.

The fix, remove the 3 inch tube and install a 4 inch tube just as Roger Sanders has in his. I finished today to just as the temps got to 50 deg, and lit it up. What a difference a perfect flame no mater how much oil is fed into the heater. It no longer overflows because the oil burns before it can. Dang should have done this last year.

 

[wawajake]

Thanks for update, this was an interesting thread.
For now I have a woodstove in my garage and to get rid of waste oil I soak a few pieces of ceiling tile ( 12 inch by 6 inch ) in a open coffee can of oil for a few days, then throw one piece of ceiling tile in with the wood in the stove every few hours, get an extra hot flame for half hour and boost to the heat (have fan on woodstove to disapate)
In a winter I can get rid of the years worth of oil changes from the tractor and truck and car.

But was always curious about a more techie method to burn the oil.

jake