Minneapolis-Moline.com

[Joe Leising]

Has anyone used or seen a waste oil burner in action? With the miles my wife drives I am slowly collecting a small Arab nation's worth of used motor oil. I have done a little digging and I like the looks of the oil burner on Mother's website, especially the conical burner design. What I am concerned about is what kinda flue pipe I wil need and how much smoke does it produce. Living "IN TOWN" I don't think I can black stack it much without someone complaining, and I have great neighbors.

Also do you guys think I could use an old disc blade for the "conical" burner? That seems like a cheap scroungable source for a "dish" burner.

Thanks
Joe
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The Leising Family

Joe, Robin, Olin, and Sydney

Ollie's tractor 1955 BG
Syd's tractor 1937 JT
Robin's tractor 1949 UT

And the rest are all mine!!!! '53 ZB, '51 R, '63 100 L&G '47 Ugggly, '53 BF '50 ZA

[Tony Turner]

Hi Joe,
I've used a waste oil heater in my shop for years. Now what I'm going to discribe to you was my proto-type but I still use it 8 years later so it must work.

Lets start with the heater itself. I used a 15 gallon barrel and I cut a hole in the top and fitted a 4 inch flue flange (it was really a pipe flange with a short nub of pipe for the flue to fit over). About three inches from the bottom I cut a door big enough for a 10 inch cast iron skillet to fit in. I filled the bottom with sand to just below the door opening. Just to the side of the door I cut a hole and welded in a short 2 inch pipe to act as an air inlet. I welded a piece of flat stock about 1/2 inch wide across the air inlet and drilled and taped a 1/4" hole. Then I took a very large fender washer and welded a 1/4 inch bolt through it. When you screw the washer into the flat stock on the air intake it controls the air entering the heater (there are a million different ways to do that).

I drilled a hole into the side of the heater just above the skillet and welded in a peice of 3/8 stainless steel fuel line to act as a drip tube. I used a air tank off of a big truck as the oil tank. I welded a filler neck in one end (with a vent) and I plumbed a section of 3/8 copper tubing from the tank to the SS tubing on the heater and joined them with a compression fitting (I guess I could have used 3/8 fuel line instead but I didn't). In the 3.8 copper line I added a cut-off valve to control the oil flow to the heater.

To light the heater I pour a little kerosene in the skillet and light it. When I get a good hot fire with the kerosene I turn the oil on so that it slowly drips into the skillet. after the fire starts to burn nicely there is no smoke coming out of the flue on the outside of the shop. I only get a little smoke when I first light it, just like a wood fire.

Now to control the fire and get max heat out of it I added a damper in the flue about two feet above the heater. I adjust the intake air and the amount of oil to get a nice steady clean fire (you can turn the air and oil up if you need more heat, but only to a point). now to increase the heat ease the damper towards closed until you reach the happy medium between draw and heat retention. If you've ever used a wood heater you know what I'm talking about.

Depending on how long you run it you will need to clean the skillet every few days. There will be a buildup of some really hard stuff that I assume is the additives from the oil but you will have to chip it out. I use my air chisel and it takes just a couple of minutes to clean the skillet and then you're off again.

This may not make any sense to you but it really does work well. If I need to try and draw it out for you I will be happy to do that and post it. It would be easy to convert an old "pot belly" stove to run on oil.

Please keep in mind that there are no safty features on this heater so you need to keep an eye on it all the time. Once I get mine set it will run for hours with very little adjustment. I have to adjust it after the oil starts to warm up and thin out but once the room heats up it will stabilize and run with out intervention for a long while. To shut it down just turn the oil off and allow it to burn out.

You could add a control that will shut off a solenoid and kill the oil if the temp gets to high if you want to but I just watch mine. If you need help with those controls I can help you out.

My heater works great and I've run everthing from 5w oil and transmission fluid, to waste motor oil and waste veggie oil. It keeps me warm while out in the shop.

Call me if I can help you. PM me if you need my phone number.

Later,
Tony T
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Tony Turner
WebMaster www.minneapolis-moline.com

If you look for the bad in mankind expecting to find it, you surely will ---- Abraham Lincoln

[Joe Leising]

Tony,

I figured you had probably used one. Do I need to run a flue pipe out of my garage , or does it burn clean enough to not smoke me out? I have been using kerosene heaters to take the chill off, but I have bebb thinking about something better for this winter. I am familiar with the design prints posted on Mother's site. I recently read about the conical burner, and I thought that an old disc blade would work. The dished burner is supposed to help prevent the hard deposits from forming. I guess I need to try to snag one of the heavy barrels from work and give this thing a try. I have a good tank to use for my oil storage that I think I will put in the attic of the garage. I just don't want to have to cut a hole in the wall or roof to run a flue.

Joe
_________________
The Leising Family

Joe, Robin, Olin, and Sydney

Ollie's tractor 1955 BG
Syd's tractor 1937 JT
Robin's tractor 1949 UT

And the rest are all mine!!!! '53 ZB, '51 R, '63 100 L&G '47 Ugggly, '53 BF '50 ZA

[Tony Turner]

Joe you will need a 3 or 4 inch flue pipe. I have a piece of sheet metal that is cut to fit one of my windows with a 4 inch hole in the middle. I run my flue pipe out of the shop through that hole when winter comes around. No extra hole in the shop ---- it works great.

Good luck,
Tony T
_________________
Tony Turner
WebMaster www.minneapolis-moline.com

If you look for the bad in mankind expecting to find it, you surely will ---- Abraham Lincoln

[Bret Green]

I have a Shenandoah waste oil furnance that I heat my shop with.
I have a 32x40 pole barn with 6" of fiber glass in the walls and ceiling.
this heater works good. But they are high maintenance. Need to clean the fire box out twice a year. The biggest problem I had was it didn't have good filters on the oil supply when I got it. It woud plug the tip often.
I solved that by putting 2 Hyd. oil filters in line. A corse filter before the pump and a fine one after the pump. I keep it set to 65 deg. in the shop
and it uses about 400 gals a year. I have found a lot of people that give me thier waste oil. I have about 2 years worth of oil now.
I wish my shop was closer to the house that it is. I would pipe hot air into the basement and save on the house heat too.
My father in law has a Clean burn brand of waste oil burner. I think he has had more problems with his than I have.
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Bret Green
G1000 Vista Diesel, G900 Diesel
UBU, UBE, UBN, UTU, UTS, UTN, UTIL