Waste-oil burning stove/heater

[AZhitman]

Any why, for the love of God, in 2025, do we have a f00king swear filter? Can’t we swear like men in a car forum?

Somewhat fixed. Blame the Googly for busting my a** every time someone gets spicy.

Also, how do you type while being spitroasted?

[PapaSmurf2k3]

That paint should smell quite nice the first time you fire it up, high-temp or not…

Surprisingly this stuff wasn't bad!

Any why, for the love of God, in 2025, do we have a f00king swear filter? Can’t we swear like men in a car forum?

Also, how do you type while being spitroasted?

f*** A!

[Beancooker]

Any why, for the love of God, in 2025, do we have a f00king swear filter? Can’t we swear like men in a car forum?

Somewhat fixed. Blame the Googly for busting my a** every time someone gets spicy.

Also, how do you type while being spitroasted?

Oh s***. Grandpa broke out of the nursing home, and you unstitched your balls from the Mrs’s purse. Two for one day!

Never underestimate my typing abilities. I learned them from NicoClub.

[VStar650CL]

Oh s***. Grandpa broke out of the nursing home, and you unstitched your balls from the Mrs’s purse.

Never underestimate my typing abilities. I learned them from NicoClub.

Just as I suspected all along, proofreading is a dead art.

[Beancooker]

Just as I suspected all along, proofreading is a dead art.

Not sure what I’m missing here, but I proofread it. It’s exactly as I intended.

[Beancooker]

James, it’s starting to get cold out again. What’s the plan for this heater now?

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Well Bean0r! Funny you should ask...
I picked up a cast iron pot to improve my burner situation. Step 1 is cut a hole in the box errr.... pot.
There's gonna be a whole lot of plasma cutter and welder action.

I also had to take a little off the top just to get the thing to fit through the opening of the wood stove:

Weld in 3" pipe as air intake, making sure it sits below the top of the pot and also making sure enough sticks out the bottom to locate within a hole I'll be cutting in the stove itself.

Identify target:

Mock up the burner to ensure the oil drip (red arrow) will actually hit it:

Adorn myself with the proper PPE for plasma cutting in an enclosed space:

Execute:

Test fit:

[Beancooker]

Well, that’s quite badass. I can’t wait to hear how it works.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Ok so the hole is cut. I wanted to make a plug so I could still burn wood.

I used a small section of pipe to locate it and used the center section from the pot as the top/hat. I had to cut the top and expand it outwards to be larger than the hole, and then fill the gap. I also welded a bolt on to the top to give my hands something to grip.
Next up is the air delivery thingy. It has to be larger than the air inlet tube (which is 3").
How much larger? I don't know, but I went rummaging at the local dump and found this 5.5" fire extinguisher right next to a sign that said "NO RUMMAGING".

I drilled a hole in it outside just in case it wasn't discharged like the gauge said it was. I then cut it the rest of the way such that the top is higher than the top of the burn pot, and the inside is also higher than the top of the air inlet.

That'll do.
The next step is to make holes for the air to come out of. The internet seems to suggest some slots and fins promote circular turbulence within the burn pot, so I went ahead and tried that. Smaller ones on the bottom, larger ones on top.

At this point I test fired it and there was a lot of carbon coming out of the exhaust. In addition, the chimney seemed to get hotter and hotter the higher I went, even though traditionally it gets colder and colder. I wish I had a glass door on this stove so I could see what was going on, but I figured the flame front was extending into and up the chimney. The top portion (near the exit) got up to about 700 degrees at one point and burned off a bunch of dust and spray foam that had dripped on it. I ran outside to see if there were flames coming out the side of the building and also to make sure I wasn't catching leaves on fire. I was good on both counts.
Some of the other people that have done this have stated that they needed to use something on top of the burner, however they don't seem to say why. I'm guessing this is why haha.
So I tried a brake rotor from a recent brake job I did, but the hub offset wasn't great, so it didn't have the desired effect. I then got the original lid from the pot and plasma cut a hole in the edge to allow the oil to drip through.

Note - I also accidentally plasma cut the edge of my vise while I did that. Whoops.
Anyway, I slapped that bad boy on and things were a lot better. I only did a brief burn because at that point it was getting pretty late. Further testing is needed.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Ok so I attempted to peak through one of the air inlets that is no longer used while burning the oil in an attempt to see where it was falling in relation to the opening I cut in the lid. It was chaos in there so it was a little tough to see, but the witness marks suggest it wasn't totally falling in.

I enlarged that hole a bit an paid a little more attention to the clocking angle when I re-installed.
Another upgrade I did in the off-season was add a fuel filter I got on clearance from rock auto for about a buck. Last year, the needle valve would clog up and oil flow was inconsistent, leading to a lot of baby-sitting for the heater. This year I'm trying to pre-filter and most likely dilute the oil with diesel to get it thinner so it can pass through the filter easier. We'll see how long it lasts, but I figure I can also rotate it a few times to expose fresh filter element.

Pay no attention to the spray foam schmoo all over the floor... that's a subject for a different thread.
I fired the stove back up and went ahead and mocked up my little blower to force some air through the intake. The sound and performance were much improved.

I did a few checks after this, and the front of the stove was getting close to 800 degrees, and the wall was over 170.
I repositioned the fan on the back side to have a more aggressive angle for cooling the stove and wall area, and added another fan to the front side to blow in the opposite direction. I could never do this before because the front ports would end up catching some of that air, smoking, etc.

At this point it was 72 in the shop (outside temp 41) and I was shedding layers like a 2 dollar hooker, so I dialed back on the oil feed.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Another upgrade I did in the off-season was add a fuel filter I got on clearance from rock auto for about a buck. Last year, the needle valve would clog up and oil flow was inconsistent, leading to a lot of baby-sitting for the heater. This year I'm trying to pre-filter and most likely dilute the oil with diesel to get it thinner so it can pass through the filter easier. We'll see how long it lasts

Update - I had to replace it after what I'm guessing is 30-40 gallons of oil through it. It still dripped/fed oil well enough for a hybrid wood and oil burn, but not enough for a dedicated oil burn.

[Beancooker]

So how is this working James? Y’all have had some pretty testing weather out there.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Running on oil definitely makes more heat than burning wood, which has come in handy on some of these super cold days. It does take a while for everything to get up to temp though.
Normally I just avoid going out to the shop when its single digits and stuff, but I've had a few jobs for friends and such when the only time they could get in was on a cold day.
At that point, its nice to have the BTU Powerhouse of the waste oil burner. I wish I added another length to my chimney to recover some more heat before it goes outside. When everything is really choochin its over 350 degree air going outside.
At full boogey I go through 5 quarts in about 2 - 2.5 hours or so. I need to keep my eyes open for more sources of waste oil to re-fill my coffers - I got down pretty low this year until a guy at work gave me 15-16 5 quart jugs. I should be good for the remainder of the winter, but I'll need a bunch more for next winter. After that I should have plenty of burnable wood from the 4 big oaks I cut down. My yard is a mess... I'll get a pic soon.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

There's 1 more tree buried under snow there, and also the biggest one on the other side of the shop. I'll have my work cut out for me in trimming, splitting, and stacking this crap.

[darylzero]

I just came across this video and thought it was perfect for this thread.

[float_6969]

That'll be a fair bit of wood!